When worlds collide: a (former) pro surfer, and (former) president Donald Trump.
Ex pro surfer, and Momentum Generation alumni, Conan Hayes, has been tied to election fraud conspiracies, and potential crimes, perpetuated by Donald Trump.
The news comes as a bit of a shock, partly because it’s so random, but also that a once influential surfer would become wrapped up in such a non-surf related scheme.
Photo: Grant Ellis
Per a recent report from The Washington Post, in which, “The wide-ranging indictment of former president Donald Trump in Georgia accuses four of his supporters of conspiring to copy and distribute date from elections equipment in rural Coffee County, and it leaves unnamed seven ‘unindicted co-conspirators’ who the grand jury said participated in that effort.”
The article goes on to list the co-conspirators; about Hayes, they write:
“According to the indictment, ‘Individual 27’ downloaded copies of Coffee County election data on Jan. 10, 12 and 13 and Feb. 25 and 26. The access logs show that an account in the name ‘Conan H,’ which was registered to an email address used by Conan Hayes, was the only one to download data on all those days.
“Hayes, a 48-year-old former pro surfer from Hawaii who now describes himself as a data expert, was involved in the broader effort by Trump allies to access elections equipment in multiple states, records show. Three officials in Mesa County, Colo., have been indicted after allegedly allowing Hayes into their offices to copy sensitive data in May 2021.”
In a 2012 interview with SURFER, Conan talked about his departure from the surf world and RVCA, the uber-popular surf brand he co-founded with Pat Tenore:
“No one knows what I’m doing now [speaking about his foray into selling children’s toys],” he said. “I’ve always had a busy mind, and I just kind of fell into this. Going outside of surf was cool. It was starting from scratch. It wasn’t like, ‘I’m a pro surfer, I did this or that.’ I didn’t leverage any relationships, and I like that.”
As for now, it looks like he’s focusing his busy mind way, way outside of the surf world.
SURFER has reached out to Hayes for comment; no response as of yet.
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