Devon Howard WSL Tour Director - Insights #1

We catch up with Devon Howard PRE WORLD SHUT DOWN for the first of our ‘Insights’ off the back of a successful WSL Noosa, Queensland 2020. Interview by Paul Charlton. Photography with thanks - Sean Wolflick - Before it all kicked off.

We have long been fans of Devon Howard.. A second-generation surfer from San Diego, Devon rides with style, documents surf culture and after years in the industry is serving commissioner of the revamped WSL (World Surf League) Longboard tour, and what a dramatic & positive change that has seen.

Making notable appearances in Thomas Campbell’s influential films The Seedling and Sprout; and Jason Baffa’s classics Single Fin Yellow and One California Day, many of us have grown up with Devon as a constant in Longboard surfing..

We are stoked on the New tour & recent event in Noosa; with the re-emergence of traditional logging, Joel and the Hawaiian charge! How did this WSL call up come to fruition? and, how did you go about getting all the guys and girls you wanted, into it?

The owners of the WSL longboard (surf) on a regular basis and love it. Wingnut is their surf coach and they expressed to him their interest in expanding the once a year world event that had been going on for many years. Wingnut suggested I might be someone that could make it happen so he rang me up and away we went. I messaged a bunch of the surfers personally and asked if they’d give it a crack. A lot responded and a lot didn’t, I’m thinking maybe they just wanted to see how this was going to all pan out before jumping in.

It was such a successful tour last year, which saw a changing of the guard in terms of what the judges were looking for. How hard was it to keep some of the athletes that were used to 2+1 performance boards on the tour this year?

The criteria we are using had already been in place for a few years before I started, and in that criteria it doesn’t say anything about the board you ride - that’s up the surfer. What changed is that we are now applying it correctly, and we also have more surfers to apply it too. If everyone that enters rides in a high performance style then you will still have scores, and a champion. So I worked closely with the judges to have a better understanding of the criteria and how it applies to the surfing we are seeing. The first event or two was confusing for some surfers but by the end of the year you saw many of them making equipment changes on their own as well as totally revamping their approach so they could surf to the criteria. Some surfers just hung up the jersey entirely but most have adapted.

And what about Joel, how did you manage to get him back on to the world competitive stage after so many years, aside from the change in judging?

It didn’t take any convincing, he was excited about doing this on his own. Nat Young won his later titles in his early to mid 40’s so I’m guessing Joel feels quite confident he can nab another one. He never wanted to stop competing, but he did when he parted ways with WSL many years ago due to not agreeing with the direction long boarding was heading under the leadership of WSL at the time. So that’s why he started his Duct Tapes , to showcase what he thought was the best type of longboarding was in competition.

How many confirmed stops are there on both the men and women’s tour this year?

We are in the middle of finalizing two major events in California, then we have New York. So four events total when including Noosa. Keep eye peeled for news soon.

What’s next for you outside of planning for the next WSL event? Any exciting projects on the horizon?

I have been working on a midlength design with Channel Islands Surfboards that just came out, called the CI Mid. Will be focusing on rolling that out and working on a follow up design to compliment it in the near future. I also have a marketing consulting business that will continue to tend to.

Single Fin Yellow is on a lot of peoples favourite surf film lists and introduced you to some of us whom were young (ish) at the time that film came out in 2003. Can you give us a brief insight into how you got to know Jason Baffa, working with him on other projects (One California Day) and that board itself from Tyler Hatzikian?

I’ve got a lot of nice feedback from Single Fin Yellow and One California Day. I met Jason during some travels and just really liked his vibe and his vision. He teamed up with Mark Jeremias for One California Day and it was quite a project to undertake. The Tyler board in Single Fin was inspired by a Mike Doyle model, and it was a little tricky to nose ride but overall i loved the flow of the board. Year later I got several boards from Tyler that were total game changers. The Double Step Deck and Throttle model were mental and allowed me to get better at surfing quite late in life.

And finally will we see the commissioner make an appearance competing on any of the events in the near future?

I’m afraid not, I was happy winning the Deus 9 ft and Single in 2014 and can’t imagine I will top that. Plus no one wants to see old guys still trying to compete against the kids… unless you are Joel Tudor or Kelly Slater.

Devon in full trim | Photo by Sean Wolfick.

Thank you Devon Howard - March 2020

To learn more about Devon’s marketing agency visit his website Blue Sky Agency or follow him on Instagram.

To see more photography by Sean follow him on Instagram.