I first reached out to Yamamoto back in 2015 and had some samples sent over from Japan. At the time, I was already working with other manufacturers and had everything I needed, so I tucked the samples away and kept doing what I was doing.

Fast forward to 2022, and I found myself searching for something different. I'd been hearing about Yamamoto for years, so I reached back out and placed my first order. The process was a little different for me. I was used to sitting in boardrooms looking through endless books of colors, textures, jerseys, and rubbers with sales reps. After spending most of my life around neoprene, I had developed a pretty good understanding of what worked and what didn't.

Part of that understanding came from spending fifteen years doing wetsuit repairs. After seeing thousands of blown seams, torn jerseys, and failed materials come across my table, you start to recognize patterns. I learned what held up and what didn't. Later on, while making wetsuits for Navy SEAL applications, I carried that same mindset into everything I built. I don't build wetsuits expecting them to fail. I build them trying to prevent failure in the first place.

From the first order, I knew there was something special about Yamamoto. Warm, buoyant, strong, and incredibly soft. More than anything, I liked the fact that they were a smaller company. In a lot of ways, we shared the same approach. Both of us cared about craftsmanship and were always trying to make things better.

Whenever the Yamamoto team comes to California, they always stop by the shop. I'll invite them into the back, and before long we're surrounded by stacks of rubber and hundreds of sheets of material talking jerseys, textures, laminations, and whatever new things they're working on. They'll bring samples from Japan, I'll show them what I've been experimenting with, and pretty soon we're both geeking out and blowing each other's minds with ideas and information. Those are some of my favorite conversations because there aren't many people who speak that language.

Most recently, I designed what I believe is the best material I've ever put my hands on. It's the product of a lifetime in the water and years of feedback from world champions, professional surfers, team riders, and plenty of sessions of my own. It was originally developed for some of the VANS team riders I was building suits for.

I still remember handing one to my friend Grant Noble. After surfing it, he looked at me and said, "Dude, this is the warmest, softest suit I've ever worn. The fit is insane."

Not long after, I built one for Barrett Miller.

Same reaction.

That's what I like to hear.

After a lifetime in the water, fifteen years of repairs, decades around neoprene, and thousands of suits later, I'm still learning and still trying to make the best material and wetsuits I know how.