Hi there. Yep, back. Nothing like a nice couple of “Happy Hours” with Mitch Coleborn and Yago Dora to ignite the spirit. Yesterday, both popped in for the afternoon to kick off the completely unofficial and totally unregulated or sponsored “What Youth Happy Hours.” If you don’t know, we have a little store front at our HQ now, so you can come shop, say hello, tell us about the wave you got this morning and you can generally assume we’ll have a coffee or a beer to offer you. Maybe. The other perk of this situation is the dudes who roll through. Yesterday we got Yago and Mitch. Yago popped in for a hug and hello. Love that kid. He gushed about how fun the waves in Huntington have been, and we learned that he’s currently ranked 3rd on the WQS. That is great news to us. But he also discussed how excited he is to continue free surfing, and how if he does qualify, that it will just lead to more trip opportunities. Good chance he’s going to join us in Portugal this fall. Can’t wait.

Then there’s “Spawn.” Coleborn. We spent much of our time skimming through old SURFING Mags and laughing about how funny it was that the first article on him was called: “Who The Fuck is Mitch Coleborn?” It consisted of a variety of surfers — ranging from Pottz and Tom Carroll, to Dane, Dion and other peers talking about what they knew of him — There were even a few contest legends like Al Hunt who said if he can’t win a contest he’ll never amount to much. He was surrounded by Bintangs in the photo, and we’re pretty sure he’s still one of our favorites and that he’s entertained us plenty the past few years.

Between skate sessions and Coors full-strengths we got on to the topic of surf gimmicks and how they’ve become the new normal. We’re all supposed to trade in our quivers for foam boards with no fins and hydro-foils or cleavage to get clicks and engagement. Mitch did have a funny story about the discussion he had with Ryan Burch and Noa Deane during a recent photo shoot for Volcom about hydro foils though. After way too many chuckles from Noa and Mitch about Laird and Kai Lenny’s enthusiasm for the damn things, Burch chimed in: “You guys suck…don’t you wanna fly like a pelican above the water!?” To which, we simply decided: no…not really. But that’s OK. Here we are, now entertain us. Please don’t chop someone in half to do it though. —Travis