Rip Curl
With its humble beginning down under the Aussie sun, Rip Curl established itself as a surfing company not long after the 'short board revolution' took hold in 1967. Instead of jumping on the experimental surfboard bandwagon, founders Doug "Claw" Warbrick and Brian "Sing Ding" Singer decided to focus their energy on a highly overlooked and crucial element of surfing at the time — the wetsuit. In pioneering wetsuit prototypes, Rip Curl continued to evolve and find success beyond the border of Torquay. Today, you can find the Rip Curl Classic 4/3 Streamer Wetsuit at retailers from Europe to United States, Peru
to Israel, and South Africa to New Zealand.
To say that Rip Curl simply makes surfing gear would be an understatement. Besides offering wetsuits, watches, board shorts, tanks, tees, shirts, knits, backpacks and an assortment of accessories; Rip Curl is also known for The Rip Curl Pro surfing competition dubbed by the Victorian Government as one of the state’s six “Hallmark International Sporting Events.” Since its inception during the 1970s, The Rip Curl Pro offers an outlet for surfers to ring the bell of glory and take a piece of it home with them. Initially taking place at Bells Beach and now world-wide, The Rip Curl Pro's latest champions include first-time winner, Adriano de Souza and twenty year old Carissa Moore, champion of the Women's Pro.
More still, one of the company's revolutionary initiatives, Rip Curl Planet, is currently spearheading environmental projects to preserve the surf and other sensitive ecosystems for which surfers around the world inherently enjoy the splendors of. With projects ranging from sustainable management programs for the Rangiroa lagoons in French Polynesia to donations for Project New Caledonia and the installation of Eco-mooring anchors; Rip Curl continues to prove its dedication to preserving the surf for future generations to come. Along with that determination and environmentally responsible encouragement, Rip Curl Planet offers a wide-variety of Eco-products from reclaimed and reused materials. The Rip Curl Planet initiative also includes a variety Carbon Reduction programs like the Rip Curl Pro Portugal carbon neutral event as well as the first-ever hydrogen powered surf competition.
All that aside, to get an idea of what made Rip Curl a lasting legacy to begin
with, simply take a minute to inspect their innovative wetsuit designs. Take
for example, the Flash Bomb Zip 4/3 full body wetsuit. As a SIMA award-winner,
the Flash Bomb Chest Zip 4/3 fits right in and expands upon foundational designs
like that of the Rip Curl Classic 4/3 Streamer Wetsuit. In utilizing a Flash
Lining weave, E3+ Tape seams, 4-Way Stretch Panels, as well as a Drainage System;
the Flash Bomb Chest Zip 4/3 makes a fine case for having an award actually
named after it. Now, if you add the Rip Curl 5 Fingers 2mm Wetsuit Gloves, Flash
Bomb 3mm Hood and Dawn Patrol 5mm Round toe to the mix; you might find yourself
as one of the unstoppable forces those waves you are shredding aspires to be.
