The man can certainly ride a soft-top, and a traditional surfboard if the conditions call for it. Photo: Brayden Rudert
Ben Gravy is the sultan of stoke. The man known as the “semi-pro novelty wave guy” took YouTube and the surfing world by storm with his infectious positivity, wanderlust, and love of surfing literally everything. From outer reef breaks in the Pacific Northwest to scoring a historic tanker wave in Texas, Ben rides it all with a smear of joy wiped across his face.
His story is real — one we can all relate to. Success didn’t come overnight. “I started my daily vlog on Christmas Day, 2015,” says Gravy. “I got sober that day and I needed something to fill my free time and hold me accountable to my sobriety.” At the time he was also hustling and working remotely as a freelance video editor.
So what did he do?
“Just surf,” says Gravy. “It doesn’t matter the board, the wave, the conditions or who’s watching. Do it for your soul and your spirit.” His surf philosophy speaks to his sobriety and his passion for chasing the feeling we all love — keeping the surfing dream alive.
But sometimes we all struggle with it, especially when the waves suck, or work gets in the way. “Get out of your head and into the moment. Stop imagining a perfect scenario of waves or performance,” says Gravy. “Nothing is ever as we imagine it to be. Just go do it and I bet you’ll have a good time. Get off instagram and embrace what’s in front of you.”
That’s why people tune into his channel. His dedicated followers, known as NUB Nation, go to Ben because he spreads stoke to everyone. “I started NUB (Nobody’s Unliked Buddy) when I was 12 years old with my best friend Mike Nesspor,” says Gravy. “We wanted to create a skateboarding magazine and a brand that highlighted underdogs in action sports. Mike died in a motorcycle accident, when we were 23 years old and ever since then I’ve kept NUB Nation around in his honor.”
Everything has come naturally for Ben, but all earned from the ground up. “People want to support my blue collar, semi-pro surf effort,” says Gravy. “I made the pineapple logo and viewers wanted to see it on tee shirts, then sweatshirts, etc. I was riding Wave Bandit soft-tops on all the novelty waves I was surfing so it only made sense to put a pineapple on the board.”
Ben also has a penchant for novelty waves. “They’re the final frontier of surfing,” says Gravy. “They’re kind of popular now, but when I started doing it, not only was no one looking at novelty waves, but they also didn’t want anything to do with them.” If you get it, you get it. If you don’t, you don’t. “For me it’s about extracting stoke out of nothing. Some people need 3-4-foot waves with offshore wind to find their stoke. I don’t need a perfect scenario, just an opportunity to cruise.”
And cruise he does, often on a foamie. “I like foamies, because they’re flat and buoyant. I started riding them because it was almost like they were created for novelty waves,” says Gravy. “Since then I’ve pushed the limits with them, but honestly if you’re a capable surfer it doesn’t really matter what you’re riding. A softie is going to be a lot less precise than a traditional surfboard, but sometimes that’s the point.” Just because you’re not teeing off the lip doesn’t mean you can’t have a blast.
Other surfers noticed that and wanted in on the fun. Prime example, Jamie O’Brien. “Jamie dm’d me at some point in 2017 when I was still daily vlogging. He wanted to get into running his own YouTube channel,” says Gravy. “We met up in Texas at the Waco pool before they had opened and I shared everything I knew. We’ve been friends ever since.”
Ben certainly knows what he’s doing on YouTube… NUB Nation has grown to over 200,000 followers. His most ambitious project was surfing a wave in all 50 of the United States. “It took a lot of planning, preparation and patience at a time when I was learning a lot about myself,” says Gravy. “The journey was life changing.”
He’s trying to surf every country in the world now.
Whenever you tune into his channel, you will find Gravy living life with purpose. For the dream: “The life that you’re living is yours. Do whatever you want without allowing other people’s perceptions to get in your way.”
