One of the best things about surfing is that it’s not defined. It’s a sport but not a sport. It’s artistic, yet competitive. It can be whatever you want it to be — if you’re into pro surfing, that’s fine. If you’re more interested in free surfing, that’s fine too. If you’re into both, well, guess what? That too is completely okay. Some of the best surfers in the world don’t enjoy competing, and the beauty of the surf world is that there’s an avenue for a career as a free surfer. What other activity/sport allows that? There are entire brands in surf that revolve around the creativity that’s inherent in surfing, and one of those brands in Vissla.
They’ve got their stickers and tees on many a surfer/shaper/Jack of all trades who could be considered on the fringe. People like Derrick Disney, Thomas Campbell, Jack Coleman, and Donald Brink, to name a few. People who think outside the box. People who aren’t so much focussed on scoring points as they are simply creating new things that let the user have more fun. And each year, a bunch of those people gather together for Vissla’s Creators Gathering.
“This year, we brought our Creators & Innovators together at Sage Mountain in San Simeon, California for another rendition of our annual Creators Gathering,” the Vissla team wrote. “Tucked away in a lush, wet, canyon just off the Central California coast, Sage Mountain provided for a quiet, removed setting for creative collaboration, board building, artwork, and good times. For a few days in the canyon, the craftsman came together to riff on board design theories, bringing creative concepts to life and of course surfing.”
Sharing ideas almost always makes ideas better. Something that’s just a vague scheme floating around can be honed into something possible with the simple act of talking it over. This year, the Creators Gathering included Alex Lopez, Alex ‘Superwolf’ Villalobos, Chad Jackson, Danny Hess, Derrick Disney, Donald Brink, Jack Coleman, Jason Woodside, Jeff, McCallum, Jeremiah Klein, John Simon, Brian Elliott, Nick Melanson, Travis Reynolds, and Thomas Campbell, a powerhouse of surfing innovation. They spent the week building and refining things, and it’s almost a sure bet that something wonderfully fun came out of it.
