It’s not easy to make it big in the world of surfing, but for one Jax Beach local, surfing became a way of life at the ripe old age of eight and he has ridden a wave of success straight to the top over the past fifty years. It’s a story filled with irony considering Sean Mattison didn’t start his life in Florida, nor right next to the Atlantic Ocean, like it would be so easy to believe. Mattison moved to Florida when he was four years old after his family had come to Jacksonville a year earlier, and he fell in love with the place. His dad had a love of sailing and the thought of being able to sail year-round was all it took to pack up his life and relocate the family from Michigan to Atlantic Beach. Of course, moving to the First Coast at four years old does provide for some leeway, okay, a LOT of leeway, when it comes to whether or not you are a true Jax Beach local. In Sean’s case, especially after all his success, the local surf community wouldn’t allow him to claim anywhere else as home, even if he wanted to!
At five years old Mattison remembers being on the beach and watching surfers out in the water, totally mesmerized by the ocean, and while the surfing bug may not have chomped a bite out of him right then, it didn’t take long for Mattison to be totally bitten by the bug. Before long, the Mattisons were presented with the opportunity to purchase the old Casa Marina Hotel on First Street in Jacksonville Beach, and Sean found himself being able to walk out the front door to the beach, and able to go surfing. “I mean to me,” Sean started, “surfing was just going outside and going in the water. It wasn’t something like driving to the Poles, or to St Augustine with the boys, I mean I was like five, six, and seven so it was just something I did at home.”
In 1977, when he was eight, Mattison entered his first surfing contest, competing in the twelve and under division known as “Menehuenes,” and won his division. “Yeah, it was right down the street from our house and I got to enter and ended up winning my first surfing contest,” he told us. Keep in mind, surfing was still just something he did at home, never realizing there was this thriving surf culture out there all around him. Now Sean did have two older sisters, roughly eight and ten years his senior, so he wasn’t clueless about life in the seventies, but a whole new world was about to open up right before him and his whirlwind tour was going to begin almost right from the start.
“I went to the awards ceremony at the (then) Jacksonville Beach Flag Pavilion,” Sean began recalling, “and I was just amazed at the amount of people and of all ages, and all of a sudden it dawned on me how big this surfing community was. I mean they had a surf movie, and a rock band played and I was just like in awe of this surf …culture.” Mattison smiled and continued, “I’ll never forget, I was on the beach and this white limo pulls up to the contest and this pro surfer, David Nuuhiwa, steps out onto the sand and I was just like, WHAAAT THE ….! But it was a trip and then I was starting to see that surfing was way bigger than me just walking outside and paddling out!”
Winning that first contest led a local surf shop owner to want to sink his hooks into Mattison right away and Dave Hart wasted no time in approaching Sean with an offer of sponsorship. “It all happened so fast that I was still processing this surf culture concept and really, I don’t think I even knew what sponsorship meant yet!” Mattison said. “All I knew was that this guy had to go talk to my parents and then they could tell me what was going on. So he did, and they did, (tell me what was going on), and it was like I win my first contest, BOOM! and I get sponsored BOOM! and all of a sudden my whole goal in life was to surf contests and get qualified to go to events like the East Coast Championships and just live to surf.”
Contest surfing certainly isn’t for everyone, but to rise in the ranks of the surfing elite, it’s almost a given that kids who compete and win, get noticed, and doors automatically open easier for that group of the surfing culture. After winning his first contest and having this whole new world open up, Mattison did enter more contests and did in fact go on to qualify for, and win the East Coast Surfing Championships in his age division the following year. In 1978, both the East Coast and the United States Surfing Championships were held in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and Sean went on to place third in the US Championships as well. Not bad for a kid who just a year earlier was pretty much clueless to this incredible world that surfing entailed.
With surfing becoming the main focal point of Mattison’s life at such a young age, coupled with the success he was having as a competitor, it was no coincidence that his rise continued at a meteoric pace. In 1984, local surf shop owner Bill Hixon teamed up with the Sea Turtle Inn and promoted a professional surf contest held at the end of Atlantic Blvd in Atlantic Beach.
At the time, Sean was a 14 year old amateur surfer living in his parent’s hotel on the oceanfront in Jacksonville Beach and got wind of the pro contest a few miles north and wanted to go see the pro surfers who were entered in the contest. At the time, the number one surfer in the pro ranks was Joey Buran, who was in town to compete in the pro event. “I wanted to see these guys surf,” Mattison remembered, “and the only way I had to get there was to start walking! So I actually ran down the beach most of the way to the contest, and when I got there Joey Buran was out in the water so I just sat on the beach and watched him catch three or four waves. When he came in I went up to him and introduced myself and struck up a conversation. Well, Joey asked me where was a good place to go eat and when I suggested Mr. Gattis Pizza, he invited me to come to have lunch with him and, you know, as it turned out, we have become very close friends over the years and I look back to that gutsy move when I approached him on the beach.”
When you’re destined for greatness it’s no secret that many things happen along the way to put you in the positions that later in life you look back on and credit as part of your journey. But make no mistake about it, whatever field you’re in, or whatever sport you are in, your performance is ultimately what is going to dictate how far you rise or how hard you crash. In Sean Mattison’s case, his performance as a surfer did most of the talking, but even though he seemed brash in instances like walking up to the best surfer in the pro ranks and striking up a conversation, those are the memories that make up the entire journey that Mattison looks back on and smiles.
Sean left North Florida in 1987 to move to California and pursue his dream of becoming a professional surfer. In 1987 although the biggest pro surf contests were events like the Pipeline Masters and the Sunset Pro in Hawaii, there really was no world surfing association tour like there is now, but the Bud Pro Tour was the biggest organized surfing entity and Mattison was a shoe-in to take his place in the ranks of the elite. Local surfing legend Mitch Kaufmann said of Mattison, “I consider Sean Mattison to be the most successful Surfer to ever come out of Jacksonville. We’ve had many world-class surfers emerge from North Florida, but Sean was unbeatable as a kid and then moved to California as soon as he graduated high school and has made a global impact in the Surf industry, as a competitor, a coach, a collector, and a board designer. Now in his mid-50s, he still surfs as well as ever. Not as good as Slater, but in that same category. And still as relevant as ever, if not more so.”
Local restaurateur Chris Wooten and lifelong friend of Mattison, had a similar start to his surfing career, winning his first surf contest and experiencing success at a young age. Wooten recalled those early days, “My first time meeting/surfing with Sean was at JB Pier around 1977, 78. I was around 10 yrs old. Jerome Morris lived at the pier and I would ride my bike down there and spend the night so we could surf. Sean is one year younger than me. He was riding a Carson Salick surfboard, with a glassed on single fin (way oversized, we all rode bigger boards back then). After seeing his first wave I knew this kid was the future of surfing on the East Coast for my age group. He was tiny but surfed off the tail. Getting really good turns by utilizing the ‘sweet spot’. I was hooked and knew if I wanted to improve, I needed more water time with him.”
Rising to a high of number two on the Bud Pro Tour, and being a top seed in every event, led to sponsor money as well as prize money and Mattison continued his successful rise in the world of surfing, albeit on a new level. This went on for almost ten years, but as progress dictates, things change and in due time a new world surfing tour was being formed and Mattison had to weigh the pros and cons of settling down or continuing to compete in every event he could. Having gotten married in 1990 and having a child at twenty-three, things took on a whole new perspective when it came to either dragging a family around the world, or worse, paying expenses both to maintain a home and sustain himself and his travels and Sean decided to accept an offer to manage a retail operation in Southern California. The shift from full on competition to working inside a retail atmosphere also brought a new learning phase to his life and Mattison found himself paddling out on different boards several times a week to gain more understanding of how different shapes performed in different conditions. And not only surfboard design, but fin design as well. With this new understanding of design concepts came a desire to actually try his hand at shaping a board and a meeting with Brian Frederickson led to Mattison shaping his first surfboard. “It was never with the intention of it leading to where I am today,” Mattison said. “I mean, it was just something fun to do that first day, but it eventually led to me now having my own line, my own brand of surfboards, Von Sol, and I wouldn’t change it for anything!”
Von Sol didn’t happen overnight though. Almost ten years of working with legendary surfboard maker Mike Hynson gave Mattison bits and pieces of knowledge that would be paramount to the success of the Von Sol line. And surfboard design and manufacturer had changed one hundred and eighty degrees in the years from Sean’s beginnings in the surfing world to where he was now. Fin design, shaping concepts, knowing what kind of wave a board was going to ridden in all played a major role in providing a product that would not only stand the test of time, but become one of the most desired tools for surfers all over the world. And Mattison drew on a vast wealth of knowledge that he had acquired over the years, sometimes not even realizing he was learning. “I was literally paddling out on a different board everyday for months,” Mattison recalled. “I mean some days I’d ride a couple of different boards, but that’s pretty much where the term ‘Lord Of The Boards’ came from. I might not even have known what I was looking for every time I rode a new shape, I just knew that from a board’s performance I could tell what worked and what didn’t. And I think that’s why my shapes are so functional now because I design boards made for certain types of surfers in certain types of waves.”
To Mattison, his experiences in gaining knowledge that would change concepts in surfboard design was never intentionally driven to make a name for himself. It was to hopefully provide products that would make surfing better for everyone from the beginner surfers to the rising amateurs to the seasoned professionals, and ultimately that was exactly what happened. In Sean’s words, “One of the pinnacles of my career was seeing Kelly Slater pull off a win riding a fin I designed in a contest that featured the highest purse ever offered in a pro contest.” The event was the Quicksilver Pro New York in September 2011. “I had been working on a fin design, and being in California I would watch the live stream of the surf tour as much as I could and so I was following Kelly’s progress and I texted him one night and told him I had this new fin and that I’d like to send him one to try out. Well, he got back to me immediately asking me to overnight him one. I was like, uh, okay! but I got him two of the fins the next day and what was so crazy was that I turned my computer on and logged into the contest stream just in time to see Kelly’s semi-final against Taj Burrow. With thirty seconds left in the semifinal Kelly was down needing something like a 9.6 to win and and this set comes in and Taj had priority but it was going to close out so he let Kelly take it. And Kelly pulls off the most insane air I’ve ever seen him pull off! I mean, he scored a ten and won the heat and I was just like dumbfounded watching this ride with Kelly so high in the air watching my fin rotate around right in front of my eyes!” Slater did go on to surf the final heat against Owen Wright and come up short, placing second, but that last wave in the semifinal is a wave Sean Mattison will never forget! “I don’t need credit for anything I’ve ever done, “ Mattison offered, “but on a personal note I will admit that I felt a rush of excitement, or satisfaction or pride or something that day. And between Kelly and me, we’re friends who go way back, but when an eleven time World Champion mentions you in his acknowledgements it is pretty heartwarming!”
These days Sean has even ventured into having Von Sol Surfboards made in North Florida. Local shaper Mike Whisnant carries the weight of overseeing that the quality and functionality that Mattison demands is held to the highest standards. “We have a rigid process from start to finish,” Whisnant told First Coast Life. “It’s a collaboration between Derek at Useless Toys, myself and Sean where we all work together to make sure these boards come out with the same quality Sean expects. Aqua East and Driftwood Surf Shop in Fernandina Beach are our biggest buyers of Von Sol over here and they are super stoked, not only with the quality, but being able to get the boards way faster than when they were ordering from California.”
At this point in Mattison’s life it’s pretty much a given that Southern California is now his home, and will remain so, but bringing his Von Sol brand back to the First Coast provides him with the opportunity to keep his roots in Jacksonville Beach something that will never go away. One thing that is really cool though is that Sean Mattison has made a bigger global impact in the surfing culture, that world that he first learned existed after winning his first contest at eight years old, than anyone else to call North Florida home. No one knows, not even Mattison, what the future holds, but for Sean Mattison, if history really does repeat itself, his rise in the world of international surfing culture is far from over. For his friends and family here in Jacksonville, as well as his friends in the surfing world all over the globe, we can all only wait and see what surprises he has in store next.
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Mike is a native First Coaster and was a leading figure in surfing and skateboarding for most of his life. After promoting music for many years on the local music scene, Mike now brings a unique perspective to FirstCoast.Life as a contributing writer.
3 Responses
Story says Sean got 3rd in US in Hatteras, Slaters text says 2nd to Eggers? What’s the truth? Who was in final?
Slater was referring to the 1982 final. The story referred to to ’78 final.
Loved reading this feature on Sean. He has remained true to his roots and humble and kind. I got to see him a few years back at Aqua East. He was just as easy to talk to then as he was when we were kids. We grew up attending Seabreeze Elementary as well as the other Beaches schools and Sean is in my graduating class. I remember being so excited when his parents let him come to my childhood birthday party at the original Beach Bowl. At that time he was a classmate and we were friends. It is sweet to know he has experienced great success in life with Surfing and branding his Boards but I smiled most to see him participating with his kids in their recitals. Sean has always been cool like that.