Podcast: Will The Surf Industry Survive The COVID Crisis?

Quarantine got you down? Cheer up, buttercup. 

Because news flash: it could be a hell of a lot worse than drinking shitty beer in your semi-coastal apartment while collecting unemployment checks from the government. For instance, your grandparents went to war and your parents had to deal with you.

Do we have your attention now? Good! It’s time for another episode of our terribly irregular podcast, the Stab CUSP. 

Because surf comps are officially on hold till mid-2024, hosts Stace Galbraith and Mike Ciaramella had to modify the angle of their (aptly-named) Currently Untitled Surf Podcast. This week they’ll be discussing the surf industry at large and whether or not it will survive our current recession.

Because neither Stace nor Mike knows anything the surf industry besides the location of its arid teat, they enlisted the expertise of Sam McIntosh (Stab‘s founder and noted media tycoon) and Mitch Crews (professional surfer) to walk them through surfing’s current commercial status and its outlook for the future.

Here’s a brief rundown of events for those who still hold a job:

0:01 intro
2:00 Gold Coast update
4:50 Costa Rica update
6:40 surf industry update
11:30 Sam McIntosh intro
12:45 Sam on the surf industry
31:30 Sam end, Stace analyzes
33:50 Mitch intro
36:55 Mitch on the realities of being a “pro surfer” in 2020.
55:58 Mitch end, boys analyze