This Is What It Takes To Get Sponsored In 2025

Hardly a week has passed since a solid beast of a swell rolled onto the reef that shelters the picturesque village at the end of the road on Tahiti Iti — the smaller of two eroded volcanic cones linked by the Isthmus of Taravao to form French Polynesia’s main island.

It was the first notable swell of the season. The kind that makes some adults quietly reconsider their life choices, while their mothers, near and far, light candles. For others, it was Wednesday.

Both paddlers and towers were greeted with a thunderous salute from the South Pacific. And, as usual, when the swell lingers in that grey area — too big to paddle, too small to tow — the arm-powered efforts tend to echo longer and louder, while the pestilent buzz of diesel-fed jet skis fades as quickly as their wake travels up the face of a Chopes set, just before it free-falls and detonates on the reef below.

Among the pack were Andrew Jacobson, Balaram Stack, and a local crew who wouldn’t miss it for the world: Aelan Vaast — the younger sibling of gold medalist Kauli Vaast — along with Kevin Bourez, Mateia Hiquily, Gilbert Teave, Matahi Drollet, and Eimeo Czermak.

It’s hardly newsworthy to say the aforementioned got the best waves of the day and did on them what few can. But it would be obscene not to single out Eimeo Czermak, who wasn’t just scooping the paddle bombs, but doing it with a bravado and candor that would have Teahupo‘o luminaries like AI, JJF, and KS tipping their hats to the Raiatea-born natural foot.

And he was doing it after breaking his back, no less. Twice. First during the 2024 Vans Pipe Masters. Then again, less than three months ago, at Pipeline.

Hit play above on Surfline’s recent Swell Story, and if your attention span is fried, skip to 4:12 for what might just be the ride of the year (so far).

PS: if you’re wondering what it takes to get a sponsorship deal in surfing today — this is pretty much it. Eimeo made his first post with Tenore following the swell. 38 Million views and counting.