Herbie Fletcher is an absolute legend. For decades, he’s been blasting himself out to the masses. He is one of surfing’s original rock stars–as the patriarch of what Esquire Magazine called “surfing’s first family”, Fletcher charges through life a surfing juggernaut. And now RVCA partnered with him to bring his life to the screen in a series of personal edits, including archival footage that you’ve probably never seen.
Herbie began surfing early. Before he turned ten years old, he started his life on a surfboard. By the time he turned 18, he’d made a very serious mark, winning the Juniors division at Redondo Beach and placing seventh in the world.
Then, in the ’70s, Fletcher embarked on a journey that would soon become one of surfing’s largest business ventures. He bought Astrodeck and, using his powerful persona and industry connections, turned it into “the sport’s best known accessory”, as Matt Warshaw called it in the Encyclopedia of Surfing.
But it wasn’t just his business sense that put him in Surfing’s Hall of Fame. Fletcher and his boys, Christian and Nathan, made a habit of doing things well before they became the norm. In 1985, he rode 20 footers at Waimea on a jet ski, and just a few years later he got the ball rolling for tow surfing when he towed a few legends into Pipeline.
For the next year, RVCA’s going to be releasing a series of edits like the one you see above chronicling Herbie’s life… and they’re all going to be worth the watch.
