The start of 2026 has been a major high point for our Wholesale sales team. In the last quarter of 2025, Cory Higgins (Co-founder/Partner/Chief Commercial Officer) brought on Paul Harvey as Senior Director of Wholesale Sales. The momentum has continued and equated to a wave of consistent traveling, onboarding new retailers, hosting our new European Distributor during a blizzard, the East Coast swell of the decade, and another year of leading the movement of emerging brands.
Right out of the gate, 2026 has been action packed with no end in sight and
the S27 sell in season looming. As we approached Spring, the workload
lightened up just enough for Dustin Henry and I to formulate a strike
mission, keeping our eyes on the Surfline forecasts, said Higgins. A South
swell started showing up right in our opportunity window so it became pretty
obvious that this was our chance to score some El Salvador points before locking in and sprinting into the Summer sales months.
Showing up may have been an understatement. Rumblings deep in the
Southern Hemisphere began sending a massive pulse of swell toward Central
America and the US West Coast, the biggest March south swell in perhaps
decades. El Salvador was the call. Tickets were booked. Meetings were moved. Summer '26 boardies and Striker tees were packed. Higgins and Henry arrived on March 8th and met up with Jetty Ambassador Chris Mansor as the swell arrived. Meanwhile, Paul Harvey drew his own line to Costa Rica in time for the swell to blast the Guanacaste Peninsula.
It was perfect and peeling with 50 of our closest strangers, said Henry. The wind got on it, but it was still so fun and rippable. The wave itself isn't top-to-bottom – it’s more of a crumbly, slopey wave - more like snowboarding, doing big carves on the face rather than really hitting it. But the boys knew this was just an appetizer, the antojitos before the papusa grande! The swell would only get bigger.
Tuesday picked up to 6-8 foot. Wednesday and Thursday were the biggest, about
10-12 foot with a half mile paddle out. Everyone claimed this was the biggest South
swell in March that they've seen in over a decade, reported Henry, who took six
bombs on the head just getting out into the lineup.
Thankfully, the water is bathtub warm, he laughed, A 5'7" wasn't really cutting it, chattering down the face. Our last morning at Sunzal dropped, offering super playful 4-6 foot waves and an absolute perfect right hander.
But the swell train was about to roll back into town and the call was made to
extend the trip and jump up to K59.
Within ten minutes of our arrival and meeting everyone, someone actually had
to be saved from the rocks at the base of the cliff. That was pretty sketchy. Later
that day, we were told about a boat trip scheduled for the next morning because
K59 was going to be maxed out. Drawing Your Own Line means always getting on that boat. We took a little panga out of a marina behind a huge oil refinery to a left that
breaks along a reef into a channel. K59 was easily double overhead, while this
wave was a few feet overhead on set and more playful, said Henry of the
adventure. The last days of the swell brought more consistency, less size, and a ton of confidence which made the trip - another perfect right point break bending
towards the cobblestones creating a perfect bowl to tee off on. Definitely an epic strike mission with no lack of waves ...or sunburn.
The boys are gearing up to hit the ground running - Three Palms in Florida, a mid-Atlantic road trip, GOA in Reno, The Dog & Pony Show here in our backyard, a ton of events, and the general madness of Summer in coastal towns everywhere.
This is who we are, said Harvey, this is ideal for our brand - work hard and play hard while chasing solid Pacific swell before diving into the launch of Spring '27!
