The Surfer's Journal Article About Christian Fletcher & The Body Glove Surf Bout II. Get your copy now!

The year was 1989. A time when the PSAA was the reigning US tour for American surfers, and when volleyball ads took up a lot of ad space in surf magazines. When people rolled up their Gotcha t-shirt sleeves to go along with their tight corduroy Op shorts. Ah, what an era. It was also during the end of this decade when an 18-year-old kid by the name of Christian Fletcher was dropping jaws and taking down some big names. Out with the old, in with the new? Christian was at the forefront, if not the pioneer, of a movement that still has many people trying to catch up and understand. Check out the latest issue of The Surfer’s Journal. Writer Ben Marcus picks some brains and gets some interesting commentary on some of the people who were there to witness Christian’s aerial assault. Did these guys realize that history was being made?

Wave Warriors (Photo by Tom Servais)

To put it succinctly, perhaps Kelly Slater summed it up best when he recently wrote on his Instagram:

“#herbiefletcher pulled together another sick #wavewarriors group shot the other day. Hope he does it for another 20+ years. Good seeing the old guard and the new crew together in one place. Not many people could pull this shot off. Herbie sponsored my brother and I when I was 10yrs old. #legend”

Kelly Slater's Instagram of the Wave Warriors 2012

Nathan was invited to surf in this season’s Eddie Aikau Invitational. Not everyone can just register their name and expect to participate in this contest. To be included in the Eddie is like some rite of passage for big wave riders. It is no easy feat, and is actually quite a big deal. So we’re more than proud and stoked to announce Nathan’s invite, and want to congratulate him as well as the other elite invitees who have the honor to surf and compete in such a prestigious event. Go guys, go! Eddie would have wanted it that way!

Nathan Fletcher Invited to the Quiksilver Eddie

So if you haven’t heard about it by now, you will be soon enough. Yesterday Herbie gathered together some of surfing’s brightest surfers to start production on his new and upcoming Wave Warriors film that will be released in late 2012.

This happened once before with the original Wave Warriors photo shoot back in the mid-80s, but since then nowhere in the history of surfing will you ever see these cast of characters together for a group pic. Everyone from Rob Machado, Danny Fuller, John John Florence, Bruce Irons, Christian Fletcher, Nathan Fletcher, Julian Wilson, Kolohe Andino, Buttons, Rory Russell, Makua Rothman, Alex Knoxt, the Gudauskas Brothers, and a slew of others got in on the act. Oh, yeah, and some guy named Kelly Slater - whoever he is, he was there, too, as was reknowned artist Julian Schnabel.

If you couldn’t tell by the elite list, this was an invite-only shoot of the best surfers on the planet, with loving acknowledgement and memory going out to Marvin Foster, Andy Irons, and Sion Milosky as well.

Past, present, future… we are the Wave Warriors!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=se-kjVywe4I

December 12, 2011: Off-The-Wall, Oahu, Hawaii. Photo by Jim Russi

Nathan among the elite - men who ride mountains. Check out the invite-only list and Nathan’s profile for this year’s Quiksilver Eddie contest. (Speaking of Nathan’s profile, what’s up Quiksilver peeps? Nathan was born in June, not October. Don’t mess with the Gemini!)

If you can’t click the link, copy and paste.

http://quiksilverlive.com/eddieaikau/2012/profiles,224,Invitees.en.html

The Quiksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau: Nathan Fletcher on the invite list.

Oh, you know you keep coming back here for more Nathan coverage. So, don’t worry; We won’t judge, and we’re not ones to disappoint, so here ya go…

Nathan, in his own words, about the wave that they’re all talking about.

Copy and paste if you can’t clickity-click.

http://www.smelive.com/News/Article/Bruce-says-NO-Koby-says-GO-Nathans-Chopoo-bomb

And, like we posted in an earlier blog, expect to see even more Nathan as a result of his gargantuan-sized testicles and sheer bravado.

Looks like Australia’s “Surfing World” magazine is the first to put him on the cover with that infamous Chopes ride. Check it out.

So by now everyone’s seen all the grotesquely epic waves that Teahupo’o produced this last weekend of August. I mean, for the average person such as yourself and I, even going out there on a boat would be some kind of kamikaze suicide mission… Never mind getting towed-in and trying to surf that unflinching rogue.

But when has Nathan ever been considered average? Nathan is (g)narly by nature. As a Fletcher should be.

We’re stoked to see that Nathan, once again, pretty much stole the show. There have been massive amounts of attention and coverage going his way, with some even claiming that Nathan’s wave at Teahupo’o might very well be the biggest ever ridden out there. ESPN is calling it the “wave of the year”.

And who are we to argue with such a declaration?

http://espn.go.com/action/surfing/story/_/id/6903518/teahupoo-pumps-epic-tow-day

Nathan trying to tame the beast. 08-27-11/Teahupo'o. Photo: Joli

Fiji has been going off and everyone from Kelly Slater to Bruce Irons is there. In fact, Nathan is there with Bruce now and they’re having a blast. Apparently Nathan even caught one of the bigger waves of the day yesterday. Just wanted to share this link with you that Transworld Surf posted. Some great pics of Nathan on it, so check ‘em out!

http://surf.transworld.net/1000134192/photos/cloudbreak-goes-xxl/?pid=55554#ngtop

Herbie Fletcher's "Wrecktangle" at the Waikiki Edition Hotel

Herbie will be in Oahu this week to promote his “Wrecktangle” board sculpture that’s being featured in the lobby of The Waikiki Edition.

Coming from the mastermind of Ian Schrager, The Waikiki Edition is a new type of hotel - kind of like an entity of its own - that’s being introduced by the Marriott International. In collaboration with interior designers George Yabu and Glenn Pushelberg and landscape designer Deborah Nevins, the Waikiki Edition resides as its own sanctuary on the sand; smack dab near the beaches and Marina shopping districts in a coastal urban sprawl. Truly, a visiting surfer’s paradise.

When you walk into the lobby, the first thing that captures your eye is the wall-to-wall “Wrecktangle” pieced together by Surfer/Artist Herbie Fletcher. Emphasizing the impact of just how powerful Hawaii’s Pipeline is, Herbie collected over 100 surfboards that have been ridden (and broken) at this notorious spot by some of the surfing world’s mighty elite: Kelly Slater, Bruce Irons, Mick Fanning, Joel Parkinson, Christian Fletcher, Nathan Fletcher, and the late Andy Irons to name just a few.

Many never think to realize the impact and sheer bravado it takes to ride waves such as the Banzai Pipeline, and for those visitors to the North Shore who are lucky enough to stay at The Waikiki Edition, the “Wrecktangle” will perhaps give them a small idea of how intense that ride was.

Seems like we’ve been losing a lot of friends lately. Sucks. Take it easy, Dennis.

Boys Will Be Boys: Kelly Slater, Dennis Hopper, Herbie Fletcher, Julian Schnabel