Ellis Ericson Is The Winner Of EAST With Mikey February

“I made the blank,” chuckled Ellis Ericson. “So, I didn’t have anyone to blame when the board broke first surf. I was kinda just like, ‘fuckkkk.’ It was a bit rattling.”

The board in question was snapped at a Northern New South Wales pointbreak, during one of Mikey February’s first sessions while filming for EAST.

Mikey was equally as rattled.

“As soon as I stood up on that board, I had the this feeling of acceleration that I’d never had before,” he said. “Right away I knew it was a special board, and I couldn’t believe I snapped it.”

Because of time constraints, Ellis was one of the only shapers to submit just a single board for the experiment. When he learned about the malfunction, he scrambled to make another for Mikey’s return to California.

“The second board he made me still went sick,” said Mikey. “But it didn’t quite have the same magic feeling as that first one.”

While Mikey was testing the second board, Ellis was scrambling to repair the first.

“It’s a lot of work on my behalf to make a board, and a lot of work for the glasser,” says Ellis. “You put a lot of energy into a board like that, so we just wanted to get it back in the water. I guess that’s the reality of surfboards. Sometimes they break, sometimes they get put back together, and sometimes they’re better.”

At EAST Fest in Palm Springs, Ellis returned the repaired first board to Mikey — just in time for the filming of the fourth episode in Santa Cruz.

It was the first board Mikey grabbed for his first ever session at Steamer Lane.

The verdict?

“This is the best snapped-repaired board I’ve ever ridden,” said Mikey, shortly after. “I’ve never had a board that still has so much life after being snapped completely in half. You can’t even see where he fixed it.”

At the end of the Santa Cruz episode, Mikey chose the repaired Lite Kite for his final quiver — narrowly edging out Tomo’s Mindcraft.

In the North Shore finale, a pair of sessions saw the Lite Kite face-off with Tom Morat’s Fender Two at the end of the episode.

“I’m really excited about Ellis as a surfer, shaper, and just craftsman in general,” said Mikey, as he decided between the two. “There’s a lot going on with this board. The outline, the bottom, the fins, they all blend well together to create a really unique feeling. And I haven’t had any surfboards that were fixed and still went well after.

“This test has been based on feeling, what I’ve been excited about, and what’s new. I was looking for a surfboard that really encompasses past, present, and future. Saying all of that, the winner of the 2025 EAST is Ellis Ericson.”

As the announcement flashed onscreen at our Malibu finale, Ellis claimed his win gracefully, as hundreds of cheers erupted from the crowd.

“I felt like a kid at an NSSA comp watching that final,” he laughed. “My heart was beating out of my chest. Huge thank you to everyone involved in creating this series.”

Congratulations Ellis. And good luck fielding all those orders.