Surfing’s Most Innovative Entrepreneurs

It was George Bush Jr. who was quoted as saying to British Prime Minister Tony Blair that, “the trouble with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.”

In reality, the term comes from the French word entreprendre, which means “to undertake.” In English, we’ve mangled it to generally mean those who develop and invest in new business ideas. Now, we’ve had plenty of those types in surfing, and many not always successful. I give you exhibit A, the Wavejet.

On the flip side, there have been a minority of surfers who have managed to balance a healthy surfing passion and talent, with the innate ability to back and invest in successful, money-making businesses. We’ve collected some of the best surftrepreneurs (you knew it was coming) to see where and how they did it.

Mick Fanning

The 3X World Champion had plenty of seed capital post-retirement, courtesy of being one of the most successful, professional and best-paid surfers on the planet. Oh, and he received 25 cents for every signature, beer-opening, Mick Fanning Reef Sandal sold. By 2018, they’d wracked up $600 million in sales. Yet since hanging up the singlet, he’s had a remarkable hit rate in investing in successful start-ups.

His strategy is simple. “I only invest in things I’d use myself and don’t get bogged down in the nitty gritty or study the numbers,” he said. “I look at the people involved and whether I gel with them.” That has worked for beer brand Balter, which Carlton & United Breweries purchased for around $100 million, leaving Mick with an estimated $2 million profit. He partnered with good mate Mark Mathews in the successful MF Softboards, which won Australia’s peak industry design award and has sold millions. Elsewhere he’s involved in the biotech firm Sea Forest which makes seaweed supplements for cattle feed and Scratch, a sustainable dog food brand. The Australian Business Review estimated his net worth at $A14 million and rising. He still surfs okay, too.

Koa Rothman

The Hawaiian freesurfer built his growing empire with This is Livin’, a vlog that has 200K subscribers on YouTube and a considerable merch arm. He also has a successful podcast with Nate Florence and was a founder, along with Koa, Travis and Alex Smith of the coffee-based Sunrise Shacks. Eight years from the first shack, they have retail outlets all over Oahu, with predicted revenues set to hit $5 million this year and a mainland expansion planned. He has just signed a new partnership with the MMA brand Darc Sport and has a vested interest in Magic Mind, labeled the first mental performance shot. “With entrepreneurship have your priorities straight with what you want to accomplish,” he said in a recent Insta post to his 320K fans, “and don’t half-ass anything!”

David Trewern

In 1996, at the age of 23, Australian David Trewern founded DT, a global digital innovation agency, now known as AKQA. Over 20 years it would grow to an annual turnover of $50m+, and employ 250 people across Melbourne, Sydney, Singapore and Auckland. In 2015, the keen surfer and former kite-surfing world record-holder moved his family to Byron Bay, burned out and ready to retire after growing two successful businesses. However, he discovered foilboarding, and the next year would go on to conceive and create Fliteboard, an award-winning electric hydrofoiling surfboard. Eight years later it has offices in Australia, Europe and the USA, and was described by Shopify founder Tobias Lutke as “the most magical gadget on the planet”. In 2022, he sold over 9,000 boards, mainly in the superyacht sector, and in 2023 revenue was expected to top $80 million. So much for the retirement plans.

Coco Ho

“Coco Ho is an absolute hustler,” Stephane Gilmore told SURFER. “She’s one of the hardest workers in surfing. She’s always got an angle and that angle is always one worth listening to.” Coco Ho has said that if she had put as much energy and effort into her competitive career as he does her businesses, she may have won a World Title. We recently covered how the Hawaiian has launched her surfboard brand for women XO Coco, in partnership with Album shaper Matt Parker. That comes after her successful design range with Volcom, called the Coco Ho collection and her involvement with the start-up fragrance brand Pirette Beach. Add partnerships with Sambazon, Reef and Swatch and the 33-year-old has pivoted to being one of surfing’s key influencers, in and out of the water.

Nicholas Woodman

A mainstay on these types of lists, it’s almost impossible not to include Nicholas Woodman. The GoPro founder and CEO went from founding and failing with two start-ups to having a company with a current market cap or net worth of $202.97 million. The numbers are impressive enough, but it is the influence of his technology on surfing and culture that is perhaps more important. While the genius of the technology was the platform, his use of influencer marketing to build their brand on social media was groundbreaking. Many of surfing’s current crop of surfing stars, and some on this list, have GoPro to thank for their careers. It hasn’t always been easy (at one stage the company was once valued at $1 billion and would lose up to 94% of its value) but through constant evolution, it has stayed relevant and revolutionized the way we capture and consume action sports. And all from Woodman, who just wanted to take photos of his mates surfing. 

Kelly Slater

As an intrepid and relentless brand owner over three decades, Kelly has also managed to have quite a good competitive career on the side. It was back in 2002 that bought in on the successful console video game “Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer” with Activision. In the early stages of his career, he had shares and ownership of retail stores through Quiksilver but went into entrepreneur overdrive once he split with his long-term sponsor in 2014. He launched Outerknown with creative director John Moore soon after, followed quickly by the Kelly Slater Wave Company and his groundbreaking Surf Ranch wave-making tech. He retained a 70 per cent stake in Firewire Surfboards when it was sold in 2016, and then folded his own Slater Designs into the hardware business. In the last few years, he has launched Endorfins, an innovative, fin company and KLLY, a sustainable footwear brand. Add in consultancy and director roles with Rythmia, a Costa Rican wellness retreat and Purps, the organic energy drink created by PM Tenore, and you get a sense of the scope and drive of Kelly’s business interests.