Surf Expo Show Director Roy Turner and Bob Hurley of Florence. Photo by SES.
Sasha Hartloff of Roxy with Kim Ball of Hi-Tech Surf Sports on Maui. Photo by SES.
Rhythm was super busy all day Thursday - the brand walked into the show with 85 appointments. (L to R): Jake Smith, Kady Sparks, Sean Fleuriau, Christine Warren, Natalie Fonseca, and Ally Nordlie. Photo by SES.
Watching the WSL Finals in the Florence booth. Florence President Pat O'Connell went from very anxious to ecstatic after John Florence's victory. Photo by SES.
Dustin Odbert, Dylan Odbert, and Sam Lovell of Make Scents, which had one of the best booths at the show. Photo by SES.
A Make Scents rack. Photo by SES.
Rip Curl's PJ Connell and Somer Harris, Bobby Abdel of Jack's, Kiki Prince of Rip Curl. Photo by SES.
It's Now Cool is popular with the fashion crowd. Photo by SES.
Cynthia Rogel and Lee Crouch of It's Now Cool in front row, with model they brought to showcase It's Now Cool styles. Photo by SES.
An It's Now Cool bikini and cover up. Photo by SES.
Bob Irizarry and Cayla Wisotzkey of 17th Street Surf Shop and Ronnie Baker and Don Dyer of I-SEA. Photo by SES.
La Jolla Group Chief Commercial Officer Jeremy Hale, O'Neill Head of Marketing for Men's and Women's Carrie Piccolini, and VP of Sales Paul Harvey. Photo by SES.
Brian White, Kevin Casillo, and Seth Ellison of Brixton. Photo by SES.
Model Camryn Walsh with Dippin Daisys owner Elaine Tran. The brand is looking for a new sales manager. Photo by SES.
Maui Nix owner George Karamitos with Brent Lantz and Ryan Immegart of Liberated brands. Photo by SES.
T&C President Ryan Sugihara with Vissla CEO Paul Naude. Photo by SES.
Jaci Schroeder and Eric Thomas of Quiet Storm Ft. Lauderdale. Photo by SES.
Greg Marre, Leslie-Ann Ramos, and Ryan Mangan of Quiksilver Apparel. Photo by SES.
A new Quiksilver licensee for water bottles. Photo by SES.
Roark's Drew Dolkas being a hands-on VP of Sales while showing the line to Quiet Storm. Photo by SES.
Roark's Ryan Sirianni, Dayna Cottee, Mike Wallace, Ryan Hitzel, Jason Steris, and Drew Dolkas. Photo by SES.
Melissa Smith and Alise Carroll of Maui Nix and Paula Millar of Sun Bum. Photo by SES.
Cory Hansen, Lindsay Henkels, and Joe Brown of Party Pants. Photo by SES.
Sammy Duvall of Curl, Austin Duvall of Duvin, Susan Duvall of Curl - and Louis the dog. Photo by SES.
Millie Okada Miura of Deja Vu in Kauai, Matt Davis and Mylie Aiu of Aloha Collection, and Eric Miura of Deja Vu. Thanks for the chocolates, Eric! Photo by SES.
An Aloha Collection display. Photo by SES.
Simone Stoll and Tom Brown of 17th Street Surf Shop. Tom's son, Tyler, who now runs the business, is at home awaiting the birth of his first child. Congrats Tyler! Photo by SES.
A Critical Slide Society showing, Photo by SES.
Shaun Tomson, who relaunched his brand Instinct at the show. Photo by SES.
O'Neill meeting with important industry retailer T&C of Hawaii. Photo by SES.
Matt Keenan holding down the BN3TH booth. Photo by SES.
Cory Higgins of Jetty and Sean Smith of Outdoor Retailer. Photo by SES.
Emma White-Pryor of Ron Jon Surf Shop checking out Howler Bros. Photo by SES.
Chase Heard of Howler Bros. Photo by SES.
Roxy Swim under new licensee The Levy Group. Photo by SES.
A reversible Roxy swim style. Photo by SES.
Nick Lhotsky and Chris Broders of Dark Seas. Photo by SES.
Dale Rhodes and Mac Beu of Katin. Photo by SES.
Ashley White of Rhythm, Karly Cottrell of IWS, Jenna Noland and Jessica Podloski of Aqua East. Photo by SES.
The Salty Crew crew. Photo by SES.
Chad Van Valkenburg, Eddie Miyoshi, Dane Reynolds, and Jake Kelley of Former. Photo by SES.
Earthpack's Andrew Laidlaw, Colby Bock, Josh Cornett, and Dave Bock. Check out the new Earthpack ad in the SES newsletter. Many well-known brands and retailers use their environmentally-friendly bags. Photo by SES.
Sandy Schwarzenbach of Havaianas and Bruce Cromartie of important account B.C. Surf & Sport. Photo by SES.
James Giordano, Seth McKinney, Erik Ingersoll, Mark Simpson and Jason Roberson of IPD. Photo by SES.
Roark had retailers contribute their names to its "Safe Camp" wall. Photo by SES.
Michelle Devine of Jolyn. Photo by SES.
Anita Hopkins and Monica Louise Bossard of Maaji. Photo by SES.
Lisle Garcia, Xaymara Alvarez, and Anne Kelly of PQ Swim. Photo by SES.
Mini KISS performing. Photo by SES.
Fashion show on the show floor. Photo by SES.
Olivia Veliz and Leah Thompson of Legacy The Label. Photo by SES.
Almma Ichak of The Tropical Society. Photo by SES.
Tom Brown of 17th Street Surf Shop, left, with Russell Felber of Burnside. Photo by SES.
Tom Ruiz and Danny Moore of Seager, Garrett Turk of Uncle Bill, and Brian Cook of Seager. Photo by SES.
A popular new tote bag from Thread Wallets. Photo by SES.
Editor’s note: Updated Sept. 9 with more photos from the show floor.
Surf Expo got off to a busy start Thursday with nearly every industry brand in attendance, from the up-and-coming brands looking to gain more real estate in stores to a plethora of new licensees for the former Boardriders brands.
Even brands who had not exhibited at the show in a while, such as Catch Surf, said they were glad to be back meeting with accounts in person.
“Right at 9 am, retailers were here, lined up and ready to get in the show,” said Joel Manalastas of Catch Surf. “It was almost like the old days. It’s good to see everyone supporting Surf Expo and coming to the dance. It’s time to come back and reconnect with everyone in person and do these face-to-face talks and show new products.”
Ricky Miller, Mike Morton, Joel Manalastas, and Shea Porter of Catch Surf. Photo by SES.
We saw several really busy booths, with Rhythm especially swamped during the day.
“It’s been our best show so far,” said Sean Fleuriau of Rhythm. “We walked in with 85 appointments. Last January, which had been our best show until this one, we walked in with 65.”
Rhythm is showing its Summer ’25 line at Surf Expo in addition to a capsule collection that drops in November of this year.
AVVA’s Kekoa Cazimero and Josh Lopez show the brand’s new collaboration that incorporates rare photos of legendary surfer and waterman Duke Kahanamoku. Retailers were showing lots of interest in it at the show. Photo by SES.
Retailers were also on the hunt for new product, and were happy with what they were finding so far.
Mark Moffett, the owner of Rooster Bus in Arizona, who also just opened a new hat store concept called TOPIT, was meeting with existing vendors such as Jetty, Roark, Katin, Rhythm, and Vissla, while shopping for new brands as well. Moffett had five firm appointments, and then a list of 25 brands he and his team wanted to check out.
“You can stay at home and think you can find everything you want on your phone or that brands are going to reach out to you, but you see things at shows that you would miss if you didn’t come,” he said. “We just saw Kelly Slater’s new sandals. It was not on our radar, we didn’t know anything about it – but it was interesting.
“You have to keep up on stuff that is happening out there,” he said. “Plus the relationships we have with our vendors – we can’t say enough about them. We love that they take care of us, and we take care of them. We’re in it together.”
Emma Birlea of Goorin hats and Mark Moffett of Rooster Bus. Photo by SES.
The day ended with a performance from Mini KISS, a KISS tribute brand that drew a big crowd to the Surf Expo Industry Party.
Mini KISS posing for photos before they performed at the Surf Expo Industry Party. Photo by SES.
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