Jamie O’Brien Doesn’t Believe Pro Surfers Are Core | StabMic Ep. 25

Who is JOB, really?

One of the greatest surfers of his generation, for one. At Pipe, he’s right there in the best-ever conversation, on any respectable list.

In terms of pure comfort at one of the deadliest waves on the planet, he’s the prize mattress in the showroom. Five stars, perfect lumbar support. He toys with Pipe like the reef beneath him is a foam pit rather than a death trap, riding colourful pool toys and soft tops through a place that has humbled generations of very serious adults.

Naturally, he’s now selling his own soft-top brand, Fun Days Surf. If you’re going to spend your life doing something ridiculous, you may as well own the factory. Build a business around your bad habits.

The venture marks a clean break from Catch Surf, the brand he helped build. Jamie gets into the split in this episode, and he has plenty to say about how it all unfolded.

“Sometimes people forget about the value you bring to the brand,” he says. “When they forget about that, it’s time to forget about them.”

And though it seems perfectly ordinary now, a grown man wandering down the beach, board under one arm, phone held high in the other, live-commentating one’s own existence, it wasn’t always this way.

Jamie essentially invented surf vlogging. At one of the most intimidating, tradition-bound waves in the world, no less. Imagine the abuse he copped, paddling out with a camera pointed at his own face. Then again, it helps when you’re one of the best to ever surf the place. Genius affords a certain social licence.

Jamie is also a vocal advocate for saying exactly what he thinks, and he’s refreshingly punchy here. He names his greatest Pipe surfers of all time, unpacks what really happened with Catch Surf, and argues that most people claiming to be “core” are still cashing cheques from surf brands, which by his definition at least, means they’re not core at all.

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