Photo: Ryan Struck
Living in New Jersey for all of my life I have dealt with a lot of different people in the Surf Industry. From awful customers coming into stores to kids coming in with there clip by clip videos trying to get sponsored. The thing about Jersey is that we are a big state but a very small one. As far as the surf industry goes it's the smallest. Go to the AC trade show and you will see what I mean. Everyone knows everybody's deal. It's kinda weird but at the same time it shows that we all have interest and all for the most part hope for the best. In this state I know of just about every guy and girl that can surf. Some are extremely cocky and think that they are insane, some do not even know that they exist. Some just don't give a shit about it. The best is the people that buy the big Dragon stickers at the shops and then a week later you hear from a friend that they are riding for them. Hahaha, Wow!!!! Anyway fortunately some people surf insane and don't think that they are anything different. They surf for the fun of it and manage to get free stuff as well. It's really an inspiration to meet someone that is so humble yet will blow you out of the water. I am speaking of Pt. Pleasant New Jersey's Tommy Petriken. In two words Tommy is a "good dude". I tried to interview him a few weeks ago but he just hates to talk about himself. I think I made him nervous. But I did learn a lot about him not only from taking to him about his life itself, but I learned more about him when we went out drinking later on with some friends.
Photo: Alex Rivera
www.ariveraphoto.smugmug.com
Growing up for Tommy sounded really rad. Influenced by his parents as surfers he was practically raised on the beach. Both of his parents were competitive amateur and professional surfers back in the day. He explains Pt. Pleasant as a very small town or as a gigantic bubble. Everyone knows everyone and it's definitely disguised as a surf town. With one of the biggest surf shops besides Ron Jon's in the same town and the waves are ridiculous it's hard not to surf. He loves his hometown but really loves to travel. During our interview which was really funny we spoke of if he was going to go on any trips. He said simply that he would like to go to Cali to get out of out 38 degree water and check out his home base of his new sponsorship Atwater Collection. He just started ridding for Atwater as a clothing line. He was super excited to be a part of the "White Tigers" due to the fact that he has a lot of friends involved in the company. From Jack Laird which is Atwaters North East sales rep to Luke Ditella also being a Atwater team rider, the company is definitely making a impact in Jersey. Tommy also surfs for Reef, Freestyle, OAM, Vert Effect, and Spellbinders surf shop. Besides surfing Tommy would like to do some online schooling so he can still get an education so he can maybe not pursue surfing as a career but def a full time hobby. He figures online schooling is the best way since he can still travel and have fun instead of actually going to school. In a nut shell I don't know much about Tommy still. All I know is that he surfs way better then me and looks like he just had his first wet dream haha. But seriously he is a super talented kid and also has got a really good head on his shoulders. I definitely see a lot of potential in any field that he strives for. I look forward to keep interacting with Tommy on this blog and will be having a beer with him soon.
Photo: Jeff Smith
Tom was brought to us through jack Laird who had spoken with Tom about the possibility of riding for us after his last sponsor. I talked to Jack a bit about Tom to get an idea of what Tom was about and Jack just mentioned that he is a super hyped grom that can buy beer and then after Tom sent over his resume and I saw what the kid could do it was a no brainer.
One of the real cool things about this is the fact that from day one I was telling Tom about the importance of telling his story (ie pics) from his neck of the woods and he got super stoked to take part in a little photo project with his polaroid. He has been sending over these dope little photo's of him doing yoga, the beach where he rides and all sorts of other interesting things. So now Tom has some new clothes we have a new team rider and we both get to express ourselves through Toms photos. Pretty good deal and he and Luke are good pals so they hang out all the time in NYC which is great.
- Mike Quilliam: Atwater Collection
P.S. Check out Tommy's Polaroid madness on Atwater's website
http://atwatercollection.com/entries/2010/04/19/thomas-petrikens-poloroid-madness/
