SHANNON BROWN

PLACE OF ORIGIN:

Dubbo, Australia

CURRENT RESIDENCE:

Tofino, B.C.

UPDATES:

hey guys, just been hangin out surfin a whole bunch. The summers over and things are starting to quiet down here in tofino, a chance to settle back down and catch our breaths. the surfs been fairly consistent and fun although the last week has been a little small, feels the like the calm before the winter storms, there's a definite buzz in the air around town as we approach swell season.

There's a six star WQS(world qualifying series) surf event coming to Canada from the 25th-31st of october which is probably the biggest thing to ever happen in Canadian surfing. 150 odd world class entrants are all listed through the aspworldtour website and there's some huge names coming up to tofino for the event, all of them battling it out for valuable points towards an entry to the prestigious ASP WCT Dream Tour. I put my entry in last week and I'm excited to have an opportunity to compete against some of the best surfers in the world.

ill be putting in the hard work over the next few weeks to prepare myself and my equipment for the event and I'll have my fingers crossed that we keep getting good waves over fall and for the cold water classic. And when the competition's all said and done ill be planning to go for a few trips to warmer waters with some friends to rip it up and drink some cool ales. Stay thirsty my friends!

its been a big year. lots of surfing and travelling and its been a super busy summer working at home in Tofino BC. I started my year off with an epic trip down to mexico with brother sister combination, raph an cath bruhwiler. we scored some really cheap tickets down to puerto vallarta for one week return and we decided to tear up to the top of the mainland and slowly make our way down to pascuales, we scored super good and uncrowded waves everywhere we went and were lucky enough to have two great photographers in dean azim and doug ludwig with us to capture the adventure. i did manage to tear my ankle to shreds on a big one at pascuales tho, which put me out of the water for a few weeks. small price to pay for good waves...

after rehab for my ankle i took a trip to australia for some more warm water action and a chance to visit my family and friends from my hometown. i travelled up an down the east coast for 3 months and had an awsome time surfing with all the crew i grew up learning from and with, plus i got to check out the next generation of rippers coming into there own. the future is bright!

after getting back to tofino from aus and breaking all my boards i started working with my surfboard shaper, stefan aftanis, on making a new wonderstick. we put together a few ideas we'd taken from other pro's and shapers and came up with something special, just in time for our ripzone team trip to nicaragua. i didnt hav time to try it at home before we flew out so i was reluctant to try it in the powerful breaks down south. luckily i broke my other board midway through the trip and was forced into riding the new one. i could tell from the first wave it was magic and halfway through the first session our photographer, Scott Surfas, snapped a shot which was run as the cover of SBC Surf Spring 09, a big honour and a proud accomplishment.

The summer has been a mix of filming sessions for westsidesurfschool youtube vids (check them out if you get a chance), teaching surfing lessons and delivering pizza, i decided to take a second job, making sure i can save up enough coin to travel as much as i can through the winter. ive got plans to check out some northern USA territory as well as some south american heaven, hopefully make it to Aus to spend christmas with my family and make it back for some winter/spring swell in beautiful Tofino BC.

SCARIEST MOMENT OF THE SEASON?

I tore a big chunk out of my shoulder at a reef in Bali on a Ripzone team trip earlier in the year. The waves we scored were definitely worth the injury. I would suffer a lot more to get more opportunities to surf those waves again.

FAVORITE PLACE TO BE:

France, near Les Bordainnes. My fabourite place to surf regulary is Wik Beach on Van Island

OTHER SPONSORS?

West wetsuits, cratures of leisure, aftanis surf boards and Westside surf school