Watch: Julian Wilson, Mateus Herdy & Ryan Callinan Star In Rivvia’s First Team Film

It’s been four years since Julian Wilson set his sights on entrepreneurship and established Rivvia Projects. 

And, it’s been four years since Premium commenter Derryn Williams wrote;

“Good on him for having a go, but I don’t see who’s gonna buy it. Kelly has his sustainability over 40’s niche with Outerknown, Former targets the scummy black and white surf/skate crew, Florence goes for people who think they’re a waterman. Rivvia? Guys who surf and play golf is probably not a good target.”

Now, you’ll catch glimpses of the stylized V logo in nearly every surf shop, surf club, and indie show from Noosa to Ulladulla. Plus, Jules and co. now have a slew of remarkable talents repping Rivvia stickers, including Ryan Callinan, Caden Francis, and freshly minted CT rookie Mateus Herdy.

Suck it, Derryn. 

Above, they’ve released their first of what will hopefully be many team edits starring the aforementioned names. And, much like Dane with Former, CEO Jules is in there blowing tail — a heartwarming reminder that the era of surfer-founded brands is beginning to blossom. 

We used the edit (above) as an excuse to call Rivvia’s newest team-rider Mateus Herdy, who was packing his bags for Raglan after the best result of his rookie CT season. 

“I’m going to Raglan the day after tomorrow,” he tells me. “Before the comp it looks fun, but probably tiny for the comp. I love going left. I think all the natural footers don’t mind going left to be honest.

“All the goofy footers rip, don’t get me wrong, but I think there’s only a few guys like Cole, Yago, and Miggy that can actually surf on rail going left. All of the other goofs, for me, they’re better going right. Like, Connor O’Leary has the best backhand on tour right now.”

After a 17th and a 33rd at Bells and Margs, the third event of the season saw Mateus finally begin the fulfillment of his prophetic ability. Atop the finely placed Queensland sand, he bested Reef Heazlewood, Griffin Colapinto, and Jake Marshall — eventually faltering to local boy Liam O’Brien in the Quarterfinals.

“Of course I’m stoked, but I really wanted more,” he tells me. “I had way more to show. I feel like I didn’t even get to do any big airs. So I’m stoked, but I’m not satisfied at all with my surfing. I still want to get way better and I think I’m learning a lot and I’m believing in myself. Griffin is obviously one of the best surfers in the world, same with Jake, and to be able to win a heat against them, it gives me the confidence to get as good as them.” 

“I’ve been looking up to Griffin for so long. Beating him in that heat doesn’t mean that I am as good as him, but it just gives me the feeling that I can beat those guys. They’re the best in the world, but I can surf against them and things can go my way.”

With 4,745 points collected, the quarterfinal finish jumps Mateus 11 spots forward in the rankings to 21st in the world. More importantly, however, it lifts him out of the seeding for the treacherous opening elimination round. 

“It’s hard to be in those first heats of the event, that first elimination round,” he chuckles. “If you lose, it’s 500 points. Even just starting in the round ahead you get double the points automatically. 

“Personally, I think it’s unfair for the guys in that lower seed,” he continues. “I feel so bad for Oscar Berry. He’s been ripping so hard and just can’t get out of that round. It’s hard, you’re the first heat of the day always and you don’t know how the judges are going to score. And anyways, no one’s watching that first round because it’s just the lower seeds against the local wildcards. Who’s going to watch that? I think the WSL is doing a great job, but I think that’s a silly round of heats.”

Though Mateus didn’t get a result in the first two events, he says the shadows of self-doubt never crept in.

“To be honest, I was never questioning my surfing. At Bells, I lost the heat against Yago and it was just a bad heat for me. At Margs, I actually had a good heat, but the local guy just had one of the highest heat scores of the event. I think I would’ve made it through in every other heat. So I was still feeling good. I didn’t let it bother me. When I came to Snapper, I figured I’d just keep doing what I’m doing. I was just my same mentality, same vibe, stoked.

“The only thing that I actually changed was my board.”

Many of you would have noticed that Mateus was riding a black carbon JS quad for all of his heats at Snapper. 

“I usually ride PU Golden Child thrusters, and I never ride swallow tails,” he tells me. “I went to Jason to get some new boards and he had this quiver of only epoxies and carbon. He wanted me to try them. As soon as I picked them up, I was tripping, like, ‘Why would you do something so different, like a quad?’ 

“I was tripping at first, but I figured I’d just put my Golden Child on ice for the comp and just give these a try before. I had a session two days before the contest with the epoxy and really didn’t like it, and then I grabbed the carbon board for a couple waves before dark. 

“Leandro [Dora] was on the beach when I got my first wave on it. I did a cutback and then as soon as I did the roundhouse, it gave me speed that I’d never had before. It was almost overwhelming, almost going too fast. I went in to the beach and Leandro’s was like, ‘What was that? That was different. We need to try that for another session before the contest.’ So I tried it the next day, which was the day before the contest. I had probably one of the best sessions I’ve had at Snapper and was just like ‘yep, this is the board.’”

Mateus went on to explain that this was the first time he’d ever ridden a quad that wasn’t for tube-riding. 

“I’m bringing the quad for Raglan, but I’m not superstitious,” he says. “I’m not overthinking too much about whether or not this is my magic board. If I ride it over there and it feels good, then maybe I’ll ride it in the contest. I don’t mind changing boards during the event as well if I feel comfortable.”

Mateus has been working with Leandro Dora as his coach for the duration of the season, and when I ask him about it, he smiles.

“We’ve been working together for so long, it’s just easy,” he says. “He gives his 200% for all of us and his whole team has good energy. Luana, Lakey, and Italo, we all did well in Australia. Italo had a good result in WA, I had a good result at Snapper, Lakey won WA, and Luana made two finals. We’re all on a good vibe.”

When I ask about Leandro’s coaching style, Mateus explains that for him, it’s all about removing doubt and uncertainty.

“Leandro was the one that supported my decision to go with that board. I was feeling unsure, because it’s a black carbon board and I didn’t know if the judges were going to love it, and he just said, ‘No, fuck it. It looks fast. Let’s go.’ He took all the questions out of my head. He gives me a lot of advice and I try to listen to him a lot. I’m trying to work on little things, especially trying to work on sleeping better. He does things that usually coaches don’t do. He cooks for us, he makes sure we eat healthy, he gets the groceries, cleans. Sometimes we feel bad because we’re not doing anything,” laughs Mateus.

Mateus also tapped Julian Wilson for his thoughts on competing at Snapper, seeing as the Rivvia CEO won on the Gold Coast in 2018. 

“Jules gives me surfer’s advice, like how to approach the wave and what the judges like to see at Snapper,” says Mateus. “He told me instead of going for eight turns, make sure to do four really good ones. He also gives me a lot of advice on just living on tour, there’s a lot of stuff other than just competing.”

A few years ago, I interviewed Joao Chianca and he told me that him, Sammy Pupo, and Mateus all have matching tattoos from when they were teenagers. Now, after years of waiting, they’re all on tour together. Mateus laughs when I bring it up.

“Oh yeah, we did that when we were 16,” he grins. “It’s like a lyric from a Drake song from before he was huge. I think we even got a word wrong. We were kids back then just cruising and we had this dream to qualify and now we all live in that dream.

“We were at karaoke the other night for Lulu’s birthday party and I was with Joao, Sammy and Yago and I was just looking at them like, ‘Fuck, this is so cool.’ I’m really grateful for that because I can imagine how many kids would dream to be on tour with their best buddies. It just feels comfortable, makes me not miss home as much and makes me feel like I belong even more. It just feels like I belong here.”

To finish, he offers a closing statement of gratitude.

“This is a dream tour. A lot of people complain about it. Everything in life, you get used to it, but because it took me so long to get there, I’m just so grateful for the little things. There’s a fucking hot tub at each event. There’s a fucking jet ski all the time for you, you don’t even have to paddle. You get a locker and there’s clean towels every day and the people just give you free stuff all the time. 

“It’s a fucking good life, man. Of course, there’s traveling, there’s pressure, there’s all the stuff that comes with it, but I think it’s worth telling little kids that it is the dream.”

Click above to watch Mateus and the Rivvia crew dismantle some Australian beachbreaks, and tap into the Raglan CT this week to see how Mateus fares in the first left of the season.

And yes, we wish R-Cal was there.