Teahupo’o can be fickle. Teahupo’o can be angry. Teahupo’o can be out of your scope of mental and physical stability. But one thing it’s not; Teahupo’o is never without a dull moment.

The basic consensus from most people was that Koa Rothman took top honors this year for riding this crazy bitch out and making the impossible seem possible. But never one to hold back and always pushing his own endless boundaries, Nathan Fletcher was the guy who PADDLED, that’s right folks, PADDLED and not towed, into the biggest wave on May 14th. Dammit Nathan, you sure do up the ante all the time…

The following pics of Astrodeck Team Rider Nathan Fletcher were taken from various sources on the Internet.

Well, by now you’ve all heard that Nathan killed it during the Billabong XXL Awards. The event took place at the Grove in Anaheim this past May 4th, and all eyes were on shy, unassuming Nathan.

Nathan was nominated for three categories: “Ride of the Year”,  ”Men’s Performance” and “Monster Tube Champion”, and true to Nathan’s fashion, when Dave Grohl and his fellow bandmates (of Chevy Metal fame) announced the “Monster Tube Champion” as none other than Nathan Fletcher, homeboy was nowhere to be found.

Heads were turning, eyes straining, the attending spectators both hooting and whispering in hushed tones; everyone wondering where the (unofficial) Surfer of the Year was. For a second there, we at Astrodeck even thought that maybe Nathan ducked out of the whole scene and just decided to go back home to hang with his dogs Mr. Buzz and Boopers. Sometimes it seems like surfing death-defying beastly waves comes easier for Nate rather than being publically acknowledged by his friends, peers and fans.

As Chevy Metal heckled Nathan for missing out on receiving the award - funny and awkward - and Herbie got up on stage as a last-ditch effort to buy some time (”Where are you, Nathan?”), the audience erupted into cheers as Nathan finally made his way through the congratulatory crowd and all their pats on the back.

Up on deck, in front of the masses, as he hugged his proud pops, Nathan was at a loss for words, but still in his typical humble mode as he rattled off his genuine gratefulness to those who mattered.

And thus kicked-off the Billabong XXL Awards…

A big round of applause to everyone who was nominated and to everyone who won. And, of course, we’re especially proud of Nathan. Way to go, Nate!!!

SONY XPERIA “RIDE OF THE YEAR”

WINNER: NATHAN FLETCHER/$50,000 (San Juan Capistrano, CA, USA) at Teahupoo, Tahiti on August 27, 2011. Video by Simon Saffigna/$5,000)

SECOND PLACE: RYAN HIPWOOD/$5,000 (Gold Coast, Australia) at Cloudbreak, Fiji on July 12, 2011.

THIRD PLACE: GREG LONG/$1,500 (San Clemente, CA, USA) at Puerto Escondido, Mexico on May 19, 2011.

FOURTH PLACE: JEFF ROWLEY/$1,500 (Torquay, Victoria, Australia) at Jaws, Maui, Hawaii on January 30, 2012.

FIFTH PLACE: GARRETT MCNAMARA/$1,500 (Haleiwa, Hawaii, USA) at Praia do Norte, Nazaré, Portugal on November 1, 2011.

Billabong XXL 2012: The start of the night.

Sunny Garcia

Makua Rothman and Mickey Nielsen

Nathan on the big screen.

Chevy Metal (or Foo Fighters. Kinda.)

Greg "Da Bull" Noll and a couple of Playboy Playmates.

The always charming Greg Long.

Not sure who the lady is. But that's Tony Hawk... as if you didn't know.

Bruce Irons, Keala Kennelly, and Christian Fletcher

And the winner is...

All these guys had a spectacular year!

Father and son: A proud moment.

Nathan Fletcher keeps going and going and...

Doesn’t look like the Nathan spotlight is going to fade any time soon. From international to national to local coverage, and even buzz around the water cooler, Nathan’s been the talk out of everyone’s mouth.

So why should Men’s Health be excluded?

The following is a link to a recent interview Nathan did with the mag. Read and enjoy.

http://news.menshealth.com/reach-new-heights/2012/01/04/?cm_mmc=Twitter-_-MensHealth-_-Content-MHNews-_-BiggestWaveEver

Hello all you Happy People.

Check out this interview that Nathan recently did with “Men’s Journal”.

http://www.mensjournal.com/nathan-fletcher

You know, with all this recent coverage and adulation that Nathan’s been getting (and deservedly so), it’s just gonna be a matter of time when Nathan’s in the hot seat with Larry King.

We'll let you know when this happens!

An outside source recently pointed out that with Nathan’s current (and record-setting) 8 magazine covers in one month, as well as past cover shots of Christian and Herbie, there may be no other family in surf history with more combinations of front journal pieces. Those of us here at Astrodeck got a chuckle out of it and never really thought of it along those lines. But it is an accomplished feat of publication. So, yeah, we think it’s pretty bad ass, too.

Check out just a FEW of the covers that the Fletcher’s have graced over the years.

Herbie Fletcher: "Surfing Magazine", 1968

Herbie Fletcher: "Surfer Magazine", 1976

Herbie Fletcher: "Pacific Longboarder", 2005

Christian Fletcher: "Surfer Magazine", 1988

Christian Fletcher: "Breakout Magazine", 1990

Christian Fletcher: "Thrasher Magazine", 1991. (Christian was the only surfer to have ever been featured on the cover of this skate mag.)

Nathan Fletcher: "Surfer Magazine", 1999

Nathan Fletcher: "Surfing Magazine", 2008

Nathan Fletcher: "Transworld Surf", 2011

We’re running out of fingers to count off of. Nathan is now currently on the cover of eight different magazines.

We don’t know which front mag piece is our favorite: Surfing World? Transworld Surf? Surfer? On and on. To pick one over another would be too much of a “Sophie’s Choice” moment for us, and we just ain’t gonna do that.

But check out this cover from our friends over at Beach Brother Magazine. The French sure do know how to pick ‘em, don’t they? Oui, oui!

Nathan Fletcher on the cover of Beach Brother Magazine.

Well, well, well… it’s been awhile, stranger.  What’s new with you? Yeah? Really? You don’t say! That’s great. Anyway, back to me…

As is always the case, Astrodeck’s been on another trek of progression and everyone has been going at it nonstop. It’s hard to catch one’s breath and be able to just sit back when the revolving door of projects and cast of characters come passing through here on a daily basis. There’s never a dull moment. I swear, one of these days I’ll come into the office and find Oprah Winfrey sitting on a box of traction pads, fingers entwined over each other, begging Greyson to show her how to do a mean ole stalefish over at the San Clemente skate park. Don’t scoff. Seriously, these kinds of casual encounters happen here at the ‘deck.

Anyway, it’s been kinda like that lately. So excuse us if you feel like you’ve been neglected lately. It wasn’t intentional. It was life.

But we’re making it up to you now. We’re not ones to leave you in the dark when it comes to all the latest happenings. We appreciate the fact that you guys come back to check up on us, and we dig it even more when you write and verbally abuse us to post up more content. Ah, you volatile gluttons. You’re lucky we aim to please.

So where did we last leave off? Or better question, where do we even start?

Oh, I know. How about with Nathan?

Don’t play dumb. You’ve all seen and heard about Nathan’s two waves at Teahupo’o by now. In fact, the words “Nathan”, “Teahupo’o”, “insane”, “gnarliest barrel” and “balls the size of an abnormally large elephant with even bigger hints of gigantism” are now part of every day American lexicon. Five, count ‘em, FIVE covers (so far) of that Teahupo’o she-devil with Nathan trying to tame the bitch. Nathan is also being recognized for his remarkable feat with multiple nominations (for the “Monster Tube” and “Ride of the Year”) for the Billabong XXL Awards. Every time I see yet another photo of Nathan’s ride, I scream, pull out tufts of my hair, and run out of the room. It’s so intense. So surreal. Damn, Nathan, thanks for making the rest of us feel so human, and thanks for making me have bald spots on my head now.

(Nathan Fletcher covers. All photos were taken at Teahupo’o except for the bottom right Wavelength Cover - that front shot was taken at Cloudbreak, Fiji this past summer.)

In other Fletcher news, look for an upcoming pictorial blog by Herbie. Herb, Christian and Greyson spent a good portion of their Summer in France and Spain, traveling with Julian Schnabel, checking out the art scene, soaking in some Basque culture, skating the local parks. Christian and Greyson even scored some near-perfect days surfing Hossegor. Christian reported that the weather was warm and the swell was up. Even Julian found himself paddling out. More of this to follow at www.herbiefletcher.com

Dibi Fletcher is back with The D-Side. Back by popular demand! Her D-Side collection of interviews has taken us into the candid, poignant minds of people such as surf industry pioneers Grubby Clark and Walter Hoffman to Andy Irons (in one of his last interviews). There have also been anecdotes with the quirky, wild, vivid characters such as NFL great Kyle Turley, John John Florence, Bruce Irons, Eddie Rothman and a slew of others. So it’s only proper that Dibi include Jason Jessee into this mix of people. Jason is a complete classic. Check out his D-Side interview that’ll be posted up on Christian’s website within the next few days. www.christianfletchersurf.com

(The D-Side with Jason Jessee)

Kolohe Andino recently won the 2011 ASP SuperSurf International in Brazil. This was a coveted 6-Star event and Kolohe just killed it! He beat out fellow San Clementian Tanner Gudauskas. Looks like the SC boys were dominating the field. Kolohe pocketed $20,000 and jumped with 3,500 points in ranking. The kid is only 17! If he were in school, taking the SAT test, his score would be, like… well, we don’t know what the actual high score would be for the SAT, but you get the idea. He’d be valedictorian and nerd clinger for life! We’re so stoked that Kolohe is on the Astrodeck honor society.

Keep checking back here, within the next few weeks, Astrodeck will have a whole new inventory; with more stocked products and more NEW products. Traction pads, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. Just in time for Christmas! We’ve got some new Wave Warriors t-shirts featuring Nathan, and those will surely sell-out as soon as we get ‘em in. You guys can be so demanding! And we’re gonna also have a new line of Christian Fletcher t-shirts. Just wait ’til you guys see these new designs and graphics. You’re gonna go nutballs. We’ll keep you posted on when we have all our new stuff online.

Winter Season on the North Shore is coming up. We can’t wait. We’re looking forward to seeing the rest of the Astrodeck team dominating the scene. Just like they always do. Danny Fuller, Makua Rothman, Reef Macintosh, Archy, Kalani Chapman, Jamie Sterling, Gavin and Shane Beschen, Timmy Reyes, Nathan, and Christian, etc. The boys are gonna represent. Oh, it’s gonna be such an epic winter. I can feel it. Can you?

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

Nathan stopped by for quick little interview with the people over at SME Live.

Click (or cut/paste) the link to see what it’s about:

http://smelive.com/News/Article/Nathan-Fletcher