It seems like yesterday no one gave a shit about surfing. In the big picture, that is. But all that has changed. Perhaps Mick Fanning is to blame, or maybe it’s the myriad of Hollywood’s painfully inaccurate portrayals of surfing. But love it or hate it, surfing’s on the map, and it’s not going anywhere. It’s only getting worse, so to speak. Truth is, surfers everywhere are doing awesome things, and the world is taking note.
Recently, GoPro CEO Nick Woodman was invited on the Late Show, where he and Stephen Colbert talked a bit of philosophy, the inception of GoPro, and how many digits are in Nick’s stupidly deep pockets. But what’s particularly fascinating about Nick’s story is that he owes his rolling success to his humble beginnings as a passionate surfer.
“I believe that when you’re looking for inspiration, you follow your passions,” Nick preached. “I believe that’s when humans are most turned on, and most attuned to new ideas.”
Don’t take this the wrong way, non-surfers. He isn’t saying you should start surfing and become a billionaire. Nick’s simply reaffirming the popular belief that by following your passions, success (however you want to measure it) will follow. Nick’s story, of course, is an extraordinarily rare one, and should serve as nothing more than inspiration to follow your passion. And you can’t help but love the dude. He represents a rare breed of surfer who successfully blended a fiery passion for surfing and created one of most successful companies in the world. Good on ya, Woodman. Good on ya.
We didn’t see the entire episode, but we’d venture to say Nick went Oprah on the audience and gave everyone in the crowd a free GoPro.
