Collaborates
Brad Gerlach
Country: USA
URL: Waveki.com
Brief Bio: I have been surfing for 40 years. I have surfed all over the world and have lot’s of great friends. I have ridden small waves in the weirdest places like Italy and I have ridden giant waves in the middle of the ocean! I have won several major pro events and have produced surfing events for Xgames and Red Bull. I have also appeared in many surf films blah blah blah… I love to surf and have great passion for life, travel, friendship and innovation. I am a teacher and find it very rewarding passing on my knowledge and helping other surfers reach their potential no matter what their age or ability. I love my wetsuits and recently learned to tailor people for a bespoke wetsuit. Axxe wetsuits are the best in the world and I want everyone to have the experience of surfing in one!
Personal Philosophy: Live life to the fullest, have fun, be loyal to your friends, learn to love everyone.
Comments About The Wetsuits: They are the best in the world hands down!
Chris Del Moro
Country: California / Australia
Brief Bio: 33 year old surfer, artist, nature lover
Personal Philosophy: Finding balance between family, fun, work and love seems to be the receipt for a life worth living.
Comments About The Wetsuits: From warm layers to 5mm and booties, the Axxes custom fit buttery suits have kept me warm and happy to surf in any conditions. Can’t think of a better fit than a custom tailored suit.
Chris Christenson
Country: USA
URL: christensonsurfboards.com.com
Brief Bio: Jack of all trades master of nothing. Wanderer of both the palm trees and the pine trees. Building surfboards for 24 years with over 21,000 surfboards shaped.
Personal Philosophy: Work hard play harder
Comments About The Wetsuits: I’ve been wearing Axxe wetsuits for over 12 years now and I don’t ever want to wear any other wetsuits out there. Simply the best quality, comfort and warmth out there. Axxe wetsuits have everything you need in a wetsuit and nothing that you don’t need!
Anna Erghott
Country: California, US
URL: annaehrgott.com
Brief Bio: I’m 25 year old surfer, environmentalist, photographer and small business owner. For the last few years I’ve been dedicating my time to traveling and finding ways to be able to spend more and more time on the road, surfing and running my board bag business Sagebrush Bags. I love the adventure that comes with a surf trip; camping, cold water and culture all draw me in.
Personal Philosophy: Taking care of others and our environment will be what most effectively takes care of ourselves.
Comments About The Wetsuits: Axxe wetsuits have made my cold-water trips more comfortable. They are the most flexible wetsuits, from the summer 2mm neoprene to my 6mm suit I feel my range of motion isn’t limited nor sessions cut short due to cold.
Mark CJ Nelson
Country: USA / Mexico
URL: cjnelsondesigns.com
Brief Bio: I was born and raised in the SF bay area eventually settling in Santa Cruz. My father taught me how to surf when i was a kid and it has been the best gift he could have given me. Nothing brigs me more joy that riding waves with friends and spending time in the ocean.
Personal Philosophy: Live Simply
Comments About The Wetsuits: These are without a doubt the best wetsuits I have ever worn in my life. Ultra comfortable and warm.
Mele Saili
Country: USA
URL: Weekend
Brief Bio: A third generation San Diego surfer/ artist who grew up amongst a family of surfers and shapers-the granddaughter of the legendary Larry Gordon of Gordon and Smith Surfboards. She travels and competes in traditional longboard contests all around the world. When home from travels she works and surfs locally with family and friends. Her spare time is spent on a visual diary of works; painting and drawing images that inspire her.
Personal Philosophy: Be thankful
Comments About The Wetsuits: The flexibility and warmth is incomparable to any other suit I’ve ever owned.
Cyrus Sutton
Country: USA
URL: korduroy.tv
Brief Bio: Filmmaker and surfer.
Personal Philosophy: Seeking truth through humility and love.
Comments About The Wetsuits: Axxe wetsuits are the best I’ve worn. They are light, comfortable and warm.
Daniel Thomson
Country: Australia
URL: tomosurfboards.com
Brief Bio: 34 years, amateur in Astrophysics and philosophy, hydrodynamic watercraft expert.
Personal Philosophy: Evolve, stay present and have appreciation of the primordial Om.
Comments About The Wetsuits: The term best wetsuit is used lightly in the surfing industry, but anyone who has tried an Axxe classic knows they are simply the highest quality perfomance wetsuits on the planet.
Julie Goldstein
Country: USA
URL: juliegoldstein1.com // swm.la
Brief Bio: Julie’s art practice draws inspiration from the natural environment, the sea, urban culture, and experiences from her travels. In multimedia works on paper and fabric, she mixes lithographic and woodcut printmaking techniques with sewing, embroidery, and other traditional “women’s arts”—the result is a hybrid, contemporary style with urban motifs and lively depictions of friends and family. She has exhibited widely nationally and internationally since 1998. She collaborated with Beams, Axxe wetsuits, Roxy, Alternative Apparel, Reef, Patagonia and Seea, creating everything from textile designs for apparel and wetsuits to skateboard decks and surfboards. She recently launched her product line SWMwithme, a collection of 100% organic, hand-dyed and printed apparel and accessories made in Southern California. Julie currently resides in Encinitas, California.
Personal Philosophy: I believe life is full of adventure, creativity and exploration. Take the time to play in the sea, run in the mountains, observe the world around you and spend quality time with the ones you love the most. Record your life and share your story, it is meaningful and important!
Comments About The Wetsuits: I love designing for Axxe, their wetsuits are high quality and each item is custom designed for the client. In my studio, I share the same aesthetic and feel that custom designed and hand crafted products are meaningful, timeless and personal. Each wetsuit that I design tell as story and reflects the work and research that I do in my studio. Enjoy!
Tyler Hatzikian
Country: USA
URL: tylersurfboards.com
Brief Bio:A common starting point among shapers, Tyler’s introduction to board building began in his father’s garage. Tyler, then in 3rd grade, observed his father craft from start to finish his first surfboard, a six-foot, diamond-tail single fin. Tyler’s experience of witnessing his father single-handily create a surfboard would eventually influence his ideology behind surf manufacturing in the years to come.
Aside from his passion for surfing, Tyler’s family history of hot rodding inspired him to utilize his knack for working with his hands and focus his intense attention to detail into rebuilding and restoring kustoms, hot rods, and classic cars. It was not until his passions began to meld, his quest of building traditional surfboards started to materialize. Being consumed by classic cars and inspired by the culture around it, led Tyler to wonder, what surfing was like back in the era when his car projects were contemporary?
As he began to research and study the history of surfing, his interests geared him towards heavy-glassed single fins while the contemporary surf industry was stuck on the redundant beat of lightly-laminated thrusters and the limited variations spawned from it. Tyler’s self-galvanized project eventually brought him to the late ‘60s: the beginning of the popularity of the shortboard and its boom into mass surf culture. Instead of seeing the industry’s shift towards the shortboard as a linear progression in the history of surfboard manufacturing, Tyler saw a fork in the road. His new mindset: advancing the traditional equipment from Surfing’s Golden Era that had been left behind and deemed “so-called” obsolete.
Coincidentally, Tyler, a native of El Segundo, an industrial beach town located in the middle of Los Angeles County on the tailing end of the South Bay, plays the perfect environment for Tyler’s surfboard endeavors. The South Bay, with Hermosa Beach deemed the first true, ”Surf City,” was the epicenter of ‘60s surf culture by being the central ground and birthplace for surfboard manufacturing. In the Southern left corner of the Santa Monica Bay, the South Bay housed five of the world’s biggest companies, Velzy, Jacob’s, Bing, Greg Noll, Dewey Weber, and Rick. The heyday of these manufacturers culminated in ‘50s and ‘60s before most of them “went fishing” as a response to the aftermath of the “so-called” shortboard revolution by the ‘70s. This is the era Tyler identifies as the starting point in his own progression of classic surfboard designs.
After over 25-years of commitment to improving his skills as both a shaper and glasser, Tyler’s surfboards are not only far from replica, they are developing a reputation of being iconic on their own. He is proud to carry on the planer after following the footsteps of the legendary craftsmen of his local surf community with many of them he is on a first name basis.
Tyler’s Surfboards are of a completely unique evolution of design built of the highest standards of quality with impeccable craftsmanship put to test personally by Tyler and his team of test pilots in local Southern California breakers and waves abroad. Each surfboard is crafted with a simple, yet innovative, purpose: to empower the surfer to ride a wave in such a way he or she never thought possible. His commitment to his vision and his perpetual learning is fueled by the belief…you never truly “arrive.”
Tyler continues to reside with his wife and four-year-old daughter in the place he has spent his whole life, El Segundo. On the other side of town, the Tyler Surfboard’s factory is a cultural mecca. The shop is part surfboard manufacturer/ surf museum/auto museum and houses all his future projects in the adjacent yard, most notably a ’41 ford with a kustom chop from the ‘50s.
Personal Philosophy: Build Something with your hands. Challenge yourself, learn a new skill. Feed your creative side.
Comments About The Wetsuits: Best suits I’ve ever worn! Performance second to none!
Takuji Masuda
Country: Switzerland
URL: Bunker77.com
Brief Bio: Filmmaker, Publisher and Curator. 2001 Japanese Longboard Champion (JPSA), currently serving the WSL’s Board of directors.
Personal Philosophy: Be original
Comments About The Wetsuits: happily warmed over a decade by AXXE suits.
Margaux Arramon-Tucoo
Country: France
URL: Behance
Brief Bio: 24 years old, grew up in biarritz in the basque country. Artist of many subjects and surfer since the age of 10 , making living a journey with a limitless perspective. Traveler of the world since the age of 18 in search for long waves and art subjects finding a perfect balance to each interest.
Personal Philosophy: Everything happens for a reason.
Comments About The Wetsuits: Axxe custom wetsuits keep getting better and better every year I see how much they improve into making it the most comfortable, suitable, timeless and designed wetsuit I’ve used so far.
Andrew Kidman
URL: andrewkidman.com
Brief Bio: I make music and surfing films. I shape surfboards listening to music watching the films in my mind.
Personal Philosophy: Pay attention. Dream.
Comments About The Wetsuits: Axxe wetsuits have kept me warm and kept me from getting sunburnt for over ten years. Their craftsmanship is first class. When I first started working with Axxe I visited their factory in Japan and was blown away by the wetsuit makers and their attention to detail, skill and end product. Each year Axxe makes custom wetsuits for me and my family, I have young kids so they are constantly growing. We have to measure them, noting all the key points Axxe requires. When the suits arrive they always fit them perfectly. I love Axxe wetsuits.
Neal William Purchase Jr
Country: Australia
Brief Bio: Husband and father to my gorgeous wife and 3 teenage daughters, I surf most days, and live by the sea now, I have a connection with the mountains, rivers and earth too, but the sea is my life, I tried to live inland for a while as a farmers hand but could not do it. Everyone has a calling and destiny and I try not to persuade anyone in any direction… Live and let Live. I am so lucky to know a great surfing family from Japan. My father made surf boards with the Sumitomo’s (Burleigh Heads) all through the 90’s , and have spent a lot of amazing times in Japan with Shun and Yu Sumitomo…I am really keen to come back again…
Personal Philosophy: stay inspired…
Comments About The Wetsuits: The wetsuits are amazing,THE!!!! softest, warmest rubber, you can tell when its a family business that are passionate, so comfortable, and durable, I still use my original suits from 2004 … thanks so much guys !!!
Daize Shayne-Goodwin
Country: Kauai Hawaii USA
Brief Bio:two time world longboard surfing champion, mother of two, wife, entrepreneur, musician, and friend.
Personal Philosophy: The journey of 1000 miles begins with one single step. Slow yourself down and you’ll see so much more
Comments About The Wetsuits: These wetsuits fit like a glove. They are like wearing a second skin which is vitally important when you want to preform at your best in the water.
Luke Egan
Country: Australia
Brief Bio: If pro surfers chose the world champion themselves, Luke Egan would have won several times over. Possibly the most underrated pro surfer of all-time, his powerful approach and oversize frame was a rare advantage in a sport made up of predominantly munchkins. A classic Australian in every sense, he stands as a living legend without ever having reached his ultimate goal.
Born to Sam Egan and his wife Margaret, Luke John Egan is a fourth generation Australian of mainly Irish descent. Sam, a Merewether, Newcastle lifesaver and one of the area’s first shapers (he still shapes Luke’s big boards), owned a surf shop where Margaret ran the books and Luke found inspiration in local hero Mark Richards.
After peewee cricket and rugby, Luke took up surfing by age seven. As a member of the Merewether Boardriders, he rose under the shadow of the prodigal Nicky Wood while developing his powerful approach based on heroes Tom Carroll and Mark Occhilupo. Despite his stature (5’11” and 185 pounds at his professional peak), Egan was highly successful as an amateur, winning the Australian Under-17 Australian Schoolboys’ Championship. While his early record was marred by annual family trips to Indonesia causing him to miss key events, the experience in critical reef surfing would later serve him well.
After a couple of fruitless seasons as an ASP trialist, his pro career lurched forward with a finals berth at the 1988 Billabong Pro in flawless Pipe, narrowly losing to World Champion Barton Lynch. At just 18, Egan was already regarded among the best on the North Shore.
Highly respected by his peers for an uncompromising smooth and powerful style, he struggled several years as a middle-rung seed on the WCT before breaking out in 1996 to finish fourth. Regardless of rankings, his stock soared, garnering solid backing from Billabong and others as well as considerable popularity internationally.
Egan finally won his first WCT event in 1997, using his Indonesian experience to capture the Quiksilver G-Land Pro in perfect conditions. In 2000, he earned his second win, this time at another ideal left-hand reef, Tavarua’s Cloudbreak. From there, he spent the rest of the season tailingSunny Garcia in the world title race, never meeting the Hawaiian in a heat and unable to close the ratings gap. “I don’t feel like I lost a world title because I never had it,” explains Egan of his near miss.
That was the closest he would come. In 2005 — though still ranked 17th — Egan left the tour to become Marketing Manager for Billabong where he became even more involved in the crowning of champions. Besides running contests at spots like Tahiti and Mundaka (the site of his fourth and final WCT victory), he also began coaching title-hungry team riders such as Joel Parkinson, who led the ratings for most of 2009 under Luke’s guidance — only to lose to Mick Fanning in Hawaii. As usual, Egan took the year in stride, telling Stab Magazine in a pre-Triple Crown interview: “For me, to be the best surfer when the waves are good is something to be proud of.”
Personal Philosophy: Feel lucky and privileged to be a surfer, we are the luckiest humans on the planet.
Comments About The Wetsuits: AXXE wetsuits are the best wetsuits Ive ever had the pleasure to wear. The warmth and flexibility by having made to measure suit is second to none. Im not sure I will ever be able to go back to stock sized suits.