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Throughout the past decade, this time of year normally sees 31-year-old Conner Coffin traveling between contest venues for the Australian leg of the Championship Tour, focused intensely on boards, heat strategy, and the accumulation of points. But when we called the Santa Barbara native this week—now a couple of years into CT retirement—he was feeding his 10-month-old breakfast at home and mentally preparing for a different type of trip Down Under, one that begins with a 14-hour flight with a restless infant and no jerseys in sight.
“I’m just trying to think through all the things for a long flight with the little one,” laughed Coffin, equal parts stoked and slightly daunted. “The first couple of times we flew with him, it was really easy because he just slept, but now he’s so active and wants to play and move that it’s more like an hours-long wrestling match.”
These days, Coffin’s more busy wrangling his son, hosting a podcast, rebuilding boats (yes, you read that right), and kicking off his relationship with Costa Sunglasses than chasing contest results – but since stepping away from the Tour, he’s remained deeply connected to the water, continuing to build his life around the space that’s given him so much. Which makes his recent signing with ocean-minded eyewear brand Costa the perfect fit.
We caught up with Coffin just a few hours before his flight to Australia to talk sponsorships, fatherhood, restoring an old Anderson boat from the hull up, and how life beyond the ‘CT has allowed him to rediscover the joy of surfing and discover new creative outlets along the way:
Let’s start with some news, you just signed with eyewear brand Costa. What’s got you excited about that new relationship?
Yes, I’m super excited to work with the crew at Costa! They make such great glasses and support people that I look up to, from Mark Healey to Kimi Werner. I’m excited about the opportunity because it extends beyond just surfing into all of the activities that I love on the ocean. They also support some great causes and sustainability initiatives.
How important is it for you, whether you’re on the beach or on your boat, to have the right eye protection?
Eyes are super important. Being on the water so much of my life, mine have definitely taken a beating so when I can wear glasses, it is important to have ones that are great quality. At this point, it’s super important to wear great glasses to keep doing the things that I love for as long as possible! Costa’s glasses are some of the best that I’ve ever worn and the lenses are really epic for seeing fish, cutting glare, and protecting the eyeballs on long beach days.
What’s dad surf life looking likefor you these days?
I became a dad while also starting to build a boat, so I’ve had my hands full. That combination of both has cut my surf time down a bit because when I’m not down there working on that thing, I wanna be hanging with my family, so I’m really excited to finish and replace that with the surf time and beach time with the family. But, being a dad has been so fun. It just gets better every day, and it’s so fun just seeing all the little progressions – the laughs, the smiles, the crawls – and seeing his personality come out. Sitting at home all day doing nothing is a blast. Even when people are like, ‘The waves are good,’ I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, whatever, I’m staying with Archie all day.’ I think I’m enjoying it even more than I thought I would.
Okay tell me about the boat you’re rebuilding.
It’s an old Anderson, built in Santa Barbara in 1988. In our area, these boats have so much history; a lot of super good, underground surfers were urchin divers or lobster fishermen. But it needed a new life. As I started getting into it, I realized the whole boat needed work. It grew and grew as projects do, and it turned into redoing the whole boat [laughs]. It’s been super cool because I was able to connect with Jeff Hull, who was a shaper and did a lot of glassing for all the board companies around. I went to him, told him about the project and he told me to come down to his work yard and he would teach me– he’s building boats full time now and restoring old Andersens. I knew how to do ding repair on a surfboard, so I had the basics of working with resin, and I’ve been around building my whole life and been around boats a lot, but I was very green. I got in over my head for sure but I’ve gotten really great help from him.
Related: Watch: Conner Coffin and the Queen of the Coast Are a Match Made in (Surfing) Heaven
What made you want to do it in the first place?
I’ve wanted to have a boat my whole life, but I was so busy with the tour. I love being on the water, I love fishing, driving, surfing and our coast is so great for all those things. I was so focused with surfing for so long that I didn’t have the time to do this – boats take a lot of TLC. Towards the end of being on tour, I bought the boat with a friend and we were using it a bunch, but the boat was pretty torched. Nothing had really been done to it since the 80s, and the motors were on their last leg.
I feel like there’s been a few top-notch pros who have gotten really into repairing boats or sailing to places around the world, a la Torren Martyn or John John Florence. It’s cool that there’s this overlap with surfing and wanting to be on a boat.
It’s been a cool intersection for me. My family’s been in building my whole life, and when I was a kid, I wanted to be a builder and have helped my dad with some framing over the years. And of course I grew up surfing, being around boards, fiberglass and studying the flow of water over stuff. I think a lot of us just love to be on the water and I think for me, the ocean’s always been that place of solitude, where I go to just kind of get away and be really connected with nature. So for me, the boat’s just another pathway to being out there and experiencing something that I love – and sharing it with family and friends. It’s almost like a little rite of passage around here, to fix up one of these old boats, and a handful of people I know have done it. I think it’ll make being out there even more special and hopefully something like I’m sharing with Archie for the next 30 years.
It’s almost like when people handshape their boards – they don’t really care if their creation performs super great, but sessions feel so much more special when you’re riding something you made. Although I guess it’s pretty important that your boat works….
[Laughs] Yeah, hopefully my boat isn’t like a bad handshape, but Jeff wouldn’t let me do that. He held me to pretty high standards. In some places, I’d be like, ‘eh this is fine’ and he’d be like ‘nope, you gotta keep sanding!’ It’s been a crazy learning experience.
Ryan Craig
Has this project made you more interested in making your own boards?
It’s funny, doing all the work on the boat, I feel like I’ve glassed and shaped like 200 different boats. It’s different, obviously, but at the same time, I’m shaping all these edges, glassing and grinding and thinking about how it’s gonna move through the water. So making boards is definitely on the docket when there’s some more free time. When I was younger, I really wanted to shape and my dad and I did a couple of boards together. I think when I was competing, it felt kind of silly to make really rough boards, but now it’s like I could have a whole other life in surfing, making my own boards. I think when you do this thing for long enough, you look for different feelings and creative outlets.
Who have you all interviewed?
We’re on the second season now. Last season I talked to Chris Shiflett [the lead guitarist of Foo Fighters], my brother, White Buffalo, Lakey [Peterson] , Sage [Erickson], Chris Malloy, Jakob Nowell [on of Sublime’s Bradley Nowell], Eithan Osborne, Strider and I just chatted with Dane Gudauskas, which was honestly probably my favorite episode. I wanna branch out to have more surfers who are more on the fringe or even people who don’t surf, but the common thread being a love for the ocean and surfing, whether it’s what you do for a profession or just a hobby, and how it transcends into other areas of life.
You just spent some time on the North Shore during a solid swell. How does being there and charging Pipe on a big day feel now that you’re a dad – and not on the ‘CT?
It’s funny, I was just talking to Dane Gudauskas yesterday about this on my podcast. He’s gotten into surfing big waves over the last 10 years and when people are like ‘Hey, let’s go surf Maverick’s,’ he’s starting to like, ‘ehhh, I’m sort of pumping the brakes now that I have a little one.’ I have never worn a helmet at places like Pipe, but this time I was finally like, ‘OK there’s a big swell here, Archie and Sierra are here, I’m gonna go grab that thing and wear it’ just because it felt more responsible. But it’s what I love to do; I love surfing those waves, so it’s just about being smart and more calculated about my wave choice. Now if it’s crowded and a little funky, I just don’t go out, whereas when I was younger, I was out there no matter what. I think as you get older, you feel like you have less to prove.
Ryan Craig
Do you think that like mindset also frees up your surfing and the way you ride waves?
Totally. I feel like it definitely reflects in my approach to surfing and feeling freer. It’s probably coupled with not competing anymore. You get so in that mindset of like, how you need to get a score. Whereas now I can just ride a wave however I want. I’m just enjoying all those different aspects of surfing that I didn’t have much time for the last 10 years.
What parts of surfing have changed since you stepped away from the CT grind?
I’ve definitely been busting out the twin fins way more. I don’t need to worry anymore about trying to dial in my next contest groveler; I can just go ride something that’s fun for that day. I’ve been surfing a lot of little days at Rincon, riding my longboard or my twinny on days I normally wouldn’t be down there. Now with a kid too, when I do go surf, I’m just so stoked to be in the water. It’s a bit of a perspective shift; I don’t really paddle out with expectations of being out all day and needing to rip to get clips. I don’t get frustrated anymore if I’m not having a good session, because I’m just stoked to be in the water for an hour. Without the boat thing, though I think we’d have a little more time [to go to the beach], so I think as a family we’re all excited too get over that hump [laughs].
It looks like you’ve also been stacking some clips for Snapt5. Tell me a little bit about how that’s been going.
Yes! It was a bit to bite off with the boat project, filming for Snapt, and having Archie [Laughs]! Parker has worked with Logan the last two Snapt films but I was always so busy with the tour, I just got to be a cheerleader for the film and his parts. For this film, I wasn’t competing and Logan nicely offered to have me be a part of it if I bagged some clips. It started with a few in Hawaii, but then we chased that crazy Cloudbreak swell in March and that was when I started to get some stuff I was stoked on. I was hoping to get on a few more trips, but this year just got so busy. I am really fired up to be a part of the film, and it’s been rad to have something to work towards from a free surf standpoint.
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