Speak To Our Manager, Zach The Dog

There’s two things no one decides: their parents and the environment they were raised in. Which is why you can’t blame poor kids for being poor or rich kids for being so fucking rich. 

A story that made global headlines last year was when Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, gave away the entirety of his multi-billion-dollar brand with the hope that it will yield the highest possible returns to the only shareholder that matters in his eyes: Mother Earth.  

Radical. 

Yvon’s son, Fletcher Chouinard was endowed with next to zero dollars but obviously copped a truckload of his father’s integrity. The following is the story of FCD Surfboards, Fletcher’s 25-year long project to craft performance surfboards that inflict the least possible amount of harm to the environment. 

In recent years, consumer demand for greener surf products has gained traction with growing concerns about cooking the planet. What separates Patagonia and FCD is how long they’ve been working on this problem without making noise about it.

Why haven’t you heard of Fletch?

“I like to build stuff and hide,” he says. Adding, “I’ve never been great at marketing or any of that stuff.”

Fascinating stuff, which his reluctant storytelling makes more magnetic. Notable is just how similar his experience was to so many foam mowers attempting to grow a business, his relationship with underground-cum-widely-respected-big-wave-maniac Cole Richardson Kohl Christenson, the brand’s departure from Patagonia Surfboards, their constant innovation with materials (particularly epoxy), and the colorful and devoted cast of characters in their orbit from MIT scientists to salt of the earth surf nomads.

However, my favorite part of ‘Foam Dust’ is how they made Labrador, Zach, their chief accountant when the landlord came to chase payment. 

Such a good boy. 

Sus FCD Surfboards here.