Gossip Girl: T-Knox’s new sticker, Dane Reynolds’ baby, and more!

Words by Lucas Townsend

The surf industry was planted along a seven mile strip of street vendors and Tundra trucks on the North Shore in December and surf chatter was a constant hum. Here’s the latest intel…

There’s something about those Momentum-era surfers. Their market value never wanes. From Shane Dorian to Rob Machado to Kelly Slater, even Ross Williams and now Taylor Knox, these surfers never lose their share price, or relevance, despite heading into numbers starting with four. T-Knox, 43, has inked a head-to-toe deal with Reef (who’ve owned his feet since ’98), which begins this month. It ends a seven-year partnership with Rip Curl. Reef’s Just Passing Through vibe will fit perfectly with what Taylor is all about: wetting rail in various locales around the world. Even since retiring in 2012 after 22 years on tour his powerful carves have retained their timeless flavour, as per his cameo in the Coffin brothers’ Highline. His rail game is his career insurance here, particularly with a renaissance of traditional surfing sweeping competition right now. Sure, the biggest named Momentum surfer is without a sponsor but we’re told Mr. Slater will have visible OuterKnown stickers for the Quik Pro on the Gold Coast, February 28. But… Dorian and Knox… on the same surf team… better than cash and free time, people.

Big E, with the Big V.

In other wet ink news, brothers Evan and Eric Geiselman have new adhesives on their noses. Evan will pull up alongside Mitch Crews, Luke Davis and Nick Rozsa to complete the Reef boyband. Ev was pinned as the East Coast wunderkind by Hurley for years, then Nike sipped on surfing, only to depart soon after, and Ev was forced to compete with Julian Wilson, Kolohe Andino and John John Florence for stretched marketing dollars.
Reunited with pal and ex-Hurley team rider Crewsy, Ev will have freedom and air miles to figure out his own image and cut those )( ties, and it wraps up an injection of youth into the Reef vein we’re very much vibing. It’s high-fives all around the Geiselman dinner table right now with Vissla signing older bro, Eric to their list of creatovators. Eric’s all drums and guitars and pianos and fishing and skating and so, so Vissla. If you’ve seen any of this man’s edits in the last 12 months, you’ll know he’s well-deserving of the frequent ‘most-underrated’ labelling he scoops.

There’s gonna be a new Reynolds in town round the 805. Dane Reynolds, 29, and Napkin Apocalypse (Courtney Jaedtke), 28, are having a baby. A little man, in fact. Due in May. The couple have been together for as long as anyone can remember and the hot million pro surfer from Carpinteria never cashed in his chips and swirled his way round the world as a single man (sigh). And, goddamn has Dane been loyal. If their dogs are anything to go by this small child will be an Instagram star. Courtney creates settings and outfits for her three pooches, Pam, Boogie and Truffle. “I dress them up strictly because I like attributing human characteristics to animals,” she told Stab. Imagine the family portraits. No, no, imagine the name! We’re most excited to see what gets cooked up. Current frontrunner for baby names the past few years has been Nathan Fletcher, who named his son Lazer Zapp Fletcher. Followed closely by Yadin Nicol’s son, Corona. Yep.

Well then, moving on!

The next crop of talent is always a big focus for the major surf co’s. Now that Matt Banting is on the world tour after topping the QS, Quiksilver’s focus shifts to young-uns Leo Fioravanti, Mikey Wright and Kanoa Igarashi. Leo’s big goal is qualifying for the world tour and he’s attacking the qualifying series next year with a new trainer/coach… and it’s former Pipe Master Jake Paterson. But, the freakishly-competitive Snake has decided that he’s not gonna just sit around and watch – he may as well enter the events as well. You must remember that the QS judges have wound back their love of new school tricks and now score traditional surfing quite well. He’s not the first to do this, either. Former CT surfer, Tom Whitaker who fronts as Oakley team manager, made over $13k in winnings last year on the QS, finishing 69th. We predict at least two quarterfinal finishes and three viral post-heat interviews from Mr Paterson next year, as well as Leo improving on his 28th position.

Leo Fioravanti will fly under Snake’s wing in 2015. Here, he flies under a North Shore lip. Photo: Trevor Moran/ Red Bull Content Pool

Travis Logie surfed his final world tour heat at Pipe and has already nailed himself a new job. He’s now 2IC to Kieren Perrow with the WSL and while he said, “I’m not ready to go back on the Qualifying Series” (to compete), his new role will be absorbed into the restructure and rebranding of the series. He made the call on his retirement after an injury at the Billabong Pro, Tahiti this year and admitted he’d lost his competitive fire. But, like KP, Trav isn’t short of smarts and understands the value of re-skilling, and this new role will keep giving for a lot longer than any retiree sponsorship contract.