Editor’s Note: Have a question for Dibi Fletcher? She’s definitely got answers. Or at least a perspective. Don’t hold back, shoot her a DM on Instagram and ask away. Here’s this week’s dispatch from the Matriarch of Radical…
Hey Dibi…. I’m in Cali with my wife and two kids on vacation from Florida. Been a surf fan forever. Decided to take a drive to check out the bronzes you posted recently about your dad and his brother. They looked really cool, but we wondered if there was some story about the shell the one brother was holding or if it was just a nod to beach culture in general… – Florida Family Vacation Guy
Hey Florida Family Vacation Guy… You’re right there is a story about Walter’s brother “Flippy” holding the abalone. He was an abalone diver in his youth when the California coast was a sea garden with an abundance of abalone and lobster. His goal was to get a 12” and he never quit got there. He was laid to rest in 2010 in his wetsuit with a few of his favorite ab shells. All that was missing was the coveted 12”… and now here he stands with it cast in bronze…
Hey Dibi… I’m a single mom with three kids, a boy 15 and girls 13 and 10. My son was so sweet and really helpful, kinda like the man of the family. Lately I hardly recognize him, he’s surly and seems completely pissed off. I don’t know what happened, you’ve got sons, what do you think? – Mom Of Three
Hey Mom of Three… You kinda answered your own question in your first sentence “like the man of the family” he is a 15-year-old kid, not your husband, not his siblings’ father. Surly and pissed off sounds like a normal teenager… think back, what were you like a 15? He’s angry and add to the fact he feels like he has to fill the roll of the absent “Dad”… Call in your dad, your brother’s if you have any, uncles, male adult figures, who can let him relax and let go of the felling of being the caretaker of the family, so he can just be the idiot teenager that’s more than enough for him to handle..
Hey Dibi… Do you think you could start a company like Astrodeck now in the current environment? – Intrepid Entrepreneur
Hey Intrepid Entrepreneur… No! When Herb invented Astrodeck in the mid-70s’ surf was still in its infancy, a new frontier, with a few magazines and an estimated 20,000 surfers globally. It was a different world then and entrepreneurs like Herb who were willing to take risks and do all the different jobs that it took to bring a product to market were able to get a small share of shelf space in the few open doors who were in existence at the time. With a current estimate of 20 to 35 million surfers globally the risk/reward is as different presently as the huge financial hurdles of starting your own business in today’s tough business climate for small privately owned companies.
Astrodeck
Hey Dibi… I miss the days of characters in surfing- when rude, aloof and semi-feral seemed to describe surfers. Now they all seem pretty interchangeable. Do you think surfers will ever resume a roll as outsiders? – Hard Core Surf Enthusiast
Hey Hard Core Surf Enthusiast…The days of characters were happening when companies had slogans like “If you can’t rock and roll don’t fuk$ing Come” and “Youth Against Establishment” when the companies were able to cash in on the kind of anti-parental, anti-adult environment that had been the sole domain of musicians before. Now you had an irreverent bunch on tanned, surf crazed, go for it kinda guys who would have been completely ostracized for their partying antics in any formal sport, grabbing media attention and the companies took off along with the publics interest in surfing. Like all parties, they don’t last forever, with the company’s growth came a new chapter in the world of surf. It was now “Big” business and surfers were signing significant contracts with a host of new clauses that were put into control “subversive” behavior. Now as long as they owe their livelihood to publicly traded behemoths they will be behave as “athletes”.
Hey Dibi… Every other surf company ad now has someone sitting cross- legged on a board, eyes closed, like they’re floating in enlightenment. With the current crowded conditions, the lineup is anything but Zen. Do you think the surf companies get this or are they just trying to package a fantasy? – Mediated to Death
Hey Mediated to Death…Advertising has always been about selling fantasy; I don’t think surf companies are any different. They’re out in the market competing for eyeballs and credit cards with a million different brands selling pretty much the same thing. It must be working to some extent; they got enough of your attention to get you to spend some of your time thinking about it.