Surf Expo got underway Wednesday in Orlando with a wide range of brands and a full slate of events.
We saw several key retailers on the floor during the day, and most said the holiday season turned out well, which is good news for brands as well as store owners.
We had lots of great conversations with brand leaders and will have many stories about those talks in coming days.
In the meantime, here are photos from Day 1 at the show.
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Duvin's Shaun O'Meara and Austin Duvall
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Team South Africa: Alex Munro of new brand RYD, Paul Naude of Vissla/Stokehouse, Barend Buys of Ryd and Brad Bricknell of the Business of Surf
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The famous Matt Biolos of Lost
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Mike Jensen and Mike Matey of Reef
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CEO Gregg Ribatt and CFO Michael Smith of the Rockport Group, which now owns Reef. Gregg is a very well known footwear executive.
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Team Billabong: Mark Weber, Mike Wallace, Shannan North, Evan Slater, Megan Onstott, Jason Shelton
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Peter Grimm President Peter Niedermeyer
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A Peter Grimm hat
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Daniel Kasidi of Rastaclat
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Writing positive messages on lunch bags at Rastaclat
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Roark's Ryan Hitzel and Austin Duvall of Duvin
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John Nakajima and Tasha Jahrmarkt of Hi Tech
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Gary Valentine, John Sherwood, and Renata Pardo of Globe
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Globe's new electric skateboard
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Clockwise from bottom left: O'Neill's Josh Wellington, Lindsay Henkels, Mark Tinkess, Snowy Lonsway, and Dave Nash and Patrick Whinnery of Sun Diego
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A showing at the busy O'Neill booth
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Salty Crew: Sean Fleuriau, Jack Morrissey, Tom Ruiz, CJ Hobgood, Marion Beacham
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Happy Hour at the Salty Crew booth
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Lyndon Cabellon of Outerknown
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Cory Higgins of Jetty working hard
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Always a good time at Sector 9
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Kristin Wallace and Jeff Stillwell of Salt Life
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A Salt Life T-shirt
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Otis: Charlie Anderson, Chad Crites, Eddie Doyle, Tom Ihnken and Stephen Gerard
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Vince De La Pena of Vissla and Clive Ripley of Boardsport Source
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Chris Broders and Nick Lhotsky of Dark Seas
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Richard Sanders of Vissla, Bruce Cromartie of BC, and Paul Naude of Vissla
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Bobby and Ron Abdel of Jack's at the Absolute Board Booth
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Todd Stanley and Chico Bukovansky of Dakine and Charlie Anderson of Otis
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Mark Zabelski and Rob McCarty of Vissla, Kevin Morris and Andrew Traa of Heritage
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Billy Kemper and Shane Dorian with moderator Scott Bass at the Reef booth
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The skate ramp
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Brian Farias of Farias and Mike Reola of Lost
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Damien Hobgood receiving his award for the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame from President Gary Germain
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The Avid Booth
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Coco Tihanyi of Surf Diva and Tom Brown of 17th Street
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Doug Works of BRA
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The Learning Lounge offered educational seminars
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The Vissla shaping bay
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The busy 4ocean booth
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The fashion show