Is The Surf Industry Having A Crisis Of Imagination? | StabMic Ep. 37 | Pat Towersey

“If you go into a surf shop blindfolded, and taste test every product, it’s all the exact same. So many of the brands have become versions of one another.”

This week on StabMic: a dose of nostalgia, a trip through surfing’s recent history, and a fairly comprehensive indictment of the modern industry, courtesy of Pat Towersey.

A former pro surfer, longtime industry hand and now the founder and creative force behind concept brand Western Hydrodynamic Research, Pat has spent decades in the surf industry’s sausage factory. He’s got a few things to say about the meat.

Sam McIntosh and Dooma are on hand to give him a decent squeeze, and find out what’s been fermenting all these years.

Expect a few well-aimed shots at the surfing’s creative stagnation, its wardrobe of near-identical brands, the little shorts creeping down your shins, and the depressing state of surf marketing.

Pat somehow manages to deliver all this with the demeanour of a man who wouldn’t step on a cockroach. He’d cradle it in his hands, give it a little stroke, escort it outside and send it on its way with a kiss and a wish of good luck. Soft-spoken, affable, almost apologetic, all while taking a blowtorch to the business he’s spent much of his life in. 

For all the industry’s commercial contortions, there’s still something worth preserving, Pat reckons: the people, and the human connections that surfing has a habit of producing.

If you ever find yourself alone, drink in hand, fire crackling, thinking fondly of the ’90s, Momentum Generation, Bruce Irons and Matt Archbold, and the time when professional surfers seemed to be carrying a few more unresolved personal matters, you’ll probably enjoy this.

Thanks to our partners at Red Bull, Patagonia, Dome Dust, TurtleBox, Visit Dominican Republic, Devium, Yucca Fins, Roark, and Vaer for making StabMic possible.