Life’s pretty good for this guy. Photo: Cold Beer Surf Club
Don’t get it twisted, Conner Coffin is not retired. He’s just living as a pro surfer after the tour.
“I felt more drawn towards being a freesurfer and having time to do more than just compete at that point in my life,” says Coffin. “I have always loved surfing and being in and around the ocean through fishing, diving, and traveling. I also have a lot of passions outside of surfing so I was excited to be able to embrace those more. I was also getting married and my wife and I wanted to start having kids. As much as doing the tour with a kid seemed like it could be awesome, I really wanted to be able to be fully present for my son’s birth and the first years of his life.”
As far as surfing goes, it’s more Conner time and less jersey time now. “I feel free to go out and surf more creatively all of the time, ride what I want to ride, and not have to be focused on preparing for the next event. I think I love surfing more than ever now,” says Coffin, who also goes on surf trips with his wife and son.
Still, the transition from competing at the highest level is a steep drop for some. “It’s definitely a trip,” says Coffin. But his mindset is what helped him stay stoked for the future, “Transitioning from that life wasn’t too hard because I had so much to look forward to outside of competing. The hardest part for me was just feeling like I was walking away from something that I was good at and that I thought I could still succeed at. I think we get a bit attached to the rush, the adrenaline, and the chase of living that lifestyle as well. I know sometimes coming home in between events I would just feel down and bored. The fans, the parties, and all of the stuff that goes along with being on the tour is super fun. Shit you dream of as a kid. But I am lucky to have a rad wife, family, friends, and passions outside of the tour that made it easy to move on.”
For other professional athletes, the game ends when it ends. But surfing is one of the most unique sports because it’s also a lifestyle. “Surfing for me and I think a lot of people is a life-long endeavor,” says Coffin. “I hope I’m surfing until the wheels fall off and whether I’m able to make a living doing it or not, it’s always something I will do and enjoy. I don’t know if there’s too many people that can say that about football or other sports? Surfing is much more of a lifestyle and I think it’s so cool how it can transcend and connect generations. It’s really an amazing culture and community.”
Coffin stays busy with other projects. “I am working on making a film about the boat that I restored. Telling its story since its inception in 1988 — including the bad-ass local family who worked it for years.” Coffin, with help from Jeff Hull, Eddie Anderson, and Clint Malone, rebuilt and re-powered a 26-foot boat that’s a local piece of Santa Barbara, California history. It’s been in the harbor since Bill Anderson built it for the Pettersen family in 1988 to dive abalone and sea urchin. “They taught me so much and I was able to work with them on the whole project,” Conner said. “I got the boat finished in July and since then have been fishing quite a bit and doing some rod and reel commercial trips catching seabass and halibut for a few local buyers in Santa Barbara that provide fish to local restaurants.”
He’s also doing a podcast called the Cold Beer Surf Club with 805 and the WSL. “It’s ended up being a super-fun project,” says Coffin. “It’s great hanging and talking to people about their stories in that format because there’s no rules or guidelines, we can really just go wherever we want to take the conversation.” And having access to tasty cold beer is definitely a great perk.
All things considered, life is good for Coffin. But that’s not to say he doesn’t miss the tour. “I miss paddling out to surf against the best surfers in the world in good waves… that to me was the dream and I got to live that. Going back and forth at firing J-bay with Joel Parkinson and heats like that were what I dreamed of,” says Coffin.
He tries to stay involved by mentoring, “I feel so fortunate to have learned and lived a ton through my experience as a pro surfer and I think it would be really cool to find a way to share some of the knowledge with younger kids who are interested in chasing a similar dream.”
His advice for aspiring young professionals? “Treat it like your own little business and work hard at it,” he says. “My parents instilled a great work ethic in me and I think it went a long way for my career and is part of the reason why I’m still able to be a pro surfer today and work with brands. I would always try to communicate with my sponsors and be professional about showing up for signings, photo shoots, etc. I think the more involved you can be in creating your own business and brand, the more lessons you can learn through surfing that are easily applied to the rest of life and other opportunities outside of surfing.”
That, and maybe pick up an instrument along the way. Coffin was known to travel on tour with a little three-quarter size Martin guitar. “Music is so similar to surfing but it’s nice because you can always do it! The feeling of getting locked into a good jam with friends is so similar to riding a wave but I love that the guitar is always there to pick up and noodle on.”
