12/7 Feel The Change? Monday upon “the closure” it was sad faces, tears, disbelief and a sense of futile humility. An atomic bomb had gone off right in the middle of our community. No one could have expected or predicted that the forty year rein of one of the most influential surfers of all time would come to such a poignant end. And with such finality. Shock overcame an entire industry as news traveled with unparalleled speed around the world. By the end of the day it seemed all was lost. Day two broke with fear, anger and hostility as people felt the security of a life, long known, begin to slip away. A lifestyle had been lost. A sport we all cared deeply about would now become the property of mall sports mega marts. The soul was being ripped out before our very eyes. Damn it, how could this be? … But at the very end of day two something began to change. Slowly some began snapping out of their pessimism and actually began looking forward … towards a future. Day three broke with an almost calm acceptance that the life we knew would forever be changed. That the security we all knew would never again be. That we would have to do the best we now could in the lee of a now ended era. Early afternoon came and heads began to look up and focus on what was confronting all of us. And as if by some magic stroke, some divine grace, there appeared an awakening. Suddenly it seemed all who had seen the end, suddenly realized a beginning. An industry asleep for twenty-five years suddenly woke up with a whole new vision of the future. With the firm knowledge of the gripping reality that no lifeboats are coming to save us something inside began to change. The fact that we are ON OUR OWN is the wake up call to the direction to our future. We all now get the chance to reinvent ourselves. The challenge is HUGE. But suddenly there is this unbelievable energy and almost a giddy excitement is in the air. The realization that we are all on the same side, the same page, and all willing to help each other and support the surfboard industry community is leading us towards a future. Suddenly more and more are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Perhaps we do have a future after all. I’ve experienced this in the aftermath of hurricanes. Everyone sees the community as their own. Everyone is working for a common goal. The energy is unreal!!! Can you feel it building? This one happening will transform and unite the US surfing community like nothing has before. We are going to see this incredible change transform our equipment and the American surfer. All over the country everyone entered this afternoons warmth with a new optimism. Are you guys feeling this? Everyone I talk to from coast to coast to coast is seeing the challenge to be met. That surf stoked kid inside of every one of us, wide eyed at the prospect of building his first surfboard is again our common affliction. I can’t believe how proud I am right now to be a part of this and to see this coming together in every coastal town in the country. It’s absolutely inspirational! Now everyone is important, everyone is a contributor. I’ve spoken to so many people from every corner of the country and today everyone is pulling together. There aren’t any west coast, east coast, Hawaiian, gulf coast or great lakes surfers anymore. We are all AMERICAN surfers and boardbuilders common in the challenge that confronts us. We are all one and we are the greatest surfing nation on earth. Our demise has been prematurely predicted and rejected. We won’t give up, we won’t be beaten by this, we won’t go quietly into the night.