While surfing has long been a passion for Patagonia’s founding Chouinard family, the company has only recently begun to be recognized for its advancements in surf product. Fletcher Chouinard, son of legendary founder Yvon, is pushing boundaries with his FCD surfboards, and Patagonia has been slowly building its reputation in some of the top surf shops by pushing the boundaries of technological innovations in the wetsuit world. Add in one of its best looking surf apparel lines for 2012, and next summer is looking to be a break out surf season for the brand.

At the helm of the Surf Division is Jason McCaffrey, a self described surf bum who paid his dues working up through Patagonia’s retail division, living in the parking lot of FCD’s shop, becoming best friends with Fletcher, and eventually going to Pepperdine to get his MBA, which helped him land the position of director of the surf division five years ago. These days McCaffrey has his sites set on nothing less than revolutionizing the company’s surf group by leading the charge with ground breaking wetsuits. We caught up with McCaffrey to learn more about his vision, how surf became the company’s fastest growing division, and how Patagonia’s culture makes it possible.

Dane Reynolds has just launched some new wares over at his Summer Teeth digs. A coupla towels, one of which is a Captain Fin Co. collab, a floppy cap and some signature Dane Reynolds x Captain Fin Co. fins. Are these gonna have the same following that the KS fin does (i.e. bolted into 80% of all FCS-bearing thrusters)? Probably. Look at how well the Dumpster Diver did.

Shop the new goods over at Summer Teeth.

Technology in the line up has been a rather taboo topic over the past few years. And although action sports POV cameras are now becoming more accepted and regularly seen on the boards and heads of fellow surfers, the subject of using media players and/or phones while surfing has had mixed reviews and historically more negative cementation from the peanut gallery. Personally, I hold the same distaste for headphones in the line up as most, especially at a crowed break. They can make it dangerous as the operator can be distracted and unaware of what’s going on around them. However, as I started to explore Stand Up Paddle Boarding more this year I found myself wanting tunes on flat days when we would go on longer journeys or when I was using the SUP for more circuit based training. I reached out to our friends at H20 Audio and after explaining my problem they said that they had just the solution.