Paul Naude and the History of Vissla

Who Is Paul Naude?

Paul Naude is the South African surfer and businessman who founded Vissla. He was born in Durban in 1955 and started surfing as a kid, in the center of South Africa's surf scene. He came up alongside the Shaun Tomson generation — the wave of South African surfers who would go on to shape competitive surfing in the 1970s.

He was good. Good enough to follow Tomson and the others to Hawaii and hold his own on the North Shore, the most crowded and competitive stretch of water in the sport. But what set Naude apart was not just his surfing. It was that he understood the business behind it, and he understood it from every angle — because he had worked every angle.

From a Durban Shaping Bay to the North Shore

Naude's parents wanted him to go to college. He went to work in a shaping bay instead. He started at the bottom — taking orders and doing ding repair — and worked his way up to laminating, sanding, and shaping boards himself. He learned how a surfboard is actually made before he learned anything else about the industry. That order matters, and it shows up later in how he built Vissla.

While he was learning to build boards, he was also becoming a real surfer. He followed Shaun Tomson and the other South Africans to the North Shore, crashed with contest organizer Randy Rarick, and built a career. He won the 1975 Smirnoff event at Sunset Beach and placed third at the 1976 Pipeline Masters, behind Rory Russell and Gerry Lopez. For a goofyfooter from Durban, that was serious company to be keeping.

Building the Business Side of Surfing

Naude did not stop at surfing. He moved into the business of surfing, and he kept moving up. He picked up the basics of media and publishing and, in 1976, co-founded ZigZag — the magazine that is still South Africa's main surf publication today. He held the regional license for Gotcha in South Africa. Then, in 1998, he was hired as president of Billabong's U.S. business.

Billabong was the big one. By the early 2000s it had gone public, and the surf industry hit a downturn that hollowed out a lot of brands. Naude had a front-row seat to what happens when a surf company answers to shareholders instead of surfers. He did not love what he saw. That experience — running a major brand through its public, corporate era — is exactly what pushed him back toward the roots.

Why He Started Vissla

After Billabong, Naude wanted to get back to what drew him to surfing in the first place. He started a company called Stoke House, and Vissla grew out of it. The brief he gave himself was narrow on purpose: a brand that was about surf, and only surf. Not street culture. Not skate. Not snow. Just surfing and the people around it.

Vissla launched in 2013. Naude built it around a group he calls Creators and Innovators — not just contest surfers, but the shapers, filmmakers, and artists who make the culture. That list has included shaper Danny Hess, filmmaker and shaper and artist Thomas Campbell, scientist and environmentalist and Native Hawaiian surfer Cliff Kapono, and younger surfers like Cam Richards and Honolulu's own Noa Mizuno. Nearly fifty years after he first picked up a board, Naude had come full circle — running a company that gives young surfers the same kind of start he once got.

What Makes Vissla Different

Vissla is built to stay surf-owned. That is the whole point of it. Naude had watched too many surf brands run the same play: build a following, flood the market with cheap product, go public, and sell out to a larger corporation. He calls those pump-and-dump brands, and he started Vissla to be the opposite — a company in it for the long haul, not the quick exit.

You can see the difference in two places. First, ownership: Vissla stayed independent instead of getting absorbed by an umbrella company. Second, the product itself. The team riders are chosen for character and style as much as raw contest results, and the gear is designed to be things you actually need and that actually last — not one-season clothing that ends up in a landfill by the time winter is over.

Quality, Sustainability, and the Cocotex Boardshort

Vissla puts its sustainability focus into the actual product, not just the marketing. The clearest example is the cocotex boardshort. The fabric is made in part from recycled coconut husks, and it resists odor — which matters more than it sounds like it should. Anyone who has left a wet pair of boardshorts in a board bag for the drive home knows the problem. Cocotex was built to solve it.

The brand also works with a long list of artists, in Hawaii and in California, which leads to designs and product lines you will not find anywhere else. It is the same idea running through everything Naude built: bring in creative people, make good things, and do it in a way that stays true to surfing.

Why We Carry Vissla at Hawaiian South Shore

Naude wants Vissla to be a modern throwback — back to the days when surf brands were owned, repped, and worn by real surfers with real surf needs. That is exactly why we carry it. As a boutique shop in the heart of Honolulu, we would rather stand behind a company that makes cutting-edge gear while staying true to the soul of surfing than one chasing the next quick sale.

When you pull on a pair of Vissla boardshorts, there are fifty years of surfing behind them — a Durban shaping bay, a North Shore career, a major brand run and then left behind, and a decision to start over and do it right. That history is the reason the brand feels different. It is different.

Want to learn more about the people behind it? Read What's Vissla? and our profile of Vissla team rider Cliff Kapono.

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