RVCA HQ

One of the first things I had planned on our agenda the day after we flew in from Hawaii was to pay a visit to our friend Pat Tenore and Eric Thomas over at RVCA. Unfortunately both were in Europe on business and weren't scheduled to be back until later that day. Fortunately Chili was kind enough to take some time to show us around. RVCA was currently in the middle of moving their warehouse out the HQ and major renovations were under way. From the sounds of it the plan was to have this place be a major inspirational facility for everyone who works in the building as well as visitors who regularly walk through RVCA's doors.

RVCA x Cinelli seriously who doesn't Pat know?

A piece of Tim Hendrick's custom tattoo gun on display.

The legendary Herbie Fletcher's artwork on display. It's pretty amazing to think of what a big impact Herbie has left on surfing let alone how much his entire family has impacted surfing / skateboarding / watermen / art. 

This is what I wanted to see! I'd been here a couple years back when RVCA first moved into this space. The set up is a lot different from what I can remember. This is Pat Tenore's personal gym that is reserved for him and his friends. It's like having your own skatepark (which they do)! The RVCA Gym has become pretty popular place with it's signature white color theme and RETNA artwork gracing the background of the ring. As far as I know, Pat and RVCA were the first and probably the only company in the surf / skate / art industry to have such a venue. Not so surprising when coming from the mind of Pat Tenore!

 While we were checking out the RVCA Gym I noticed that Michael Bisping was rolling! I'd seen a bunch of his fights as well as some photos of him working out at RVCA but to see him in person was pretty cool. I'm not sure if this is what Pat envisioned when he built this gym but with the amount of world class athletes that come thru here, he's definitely done something pretty special. I'm sure that BJ Penn also has something to do with the popularity the RVCA Gym has gained thru the years.

Got to meet BJ Penn's boxing coach the one and only Jason Parillo. During our visit Parillo was busy giving a one on one with one of his clients but was kind enough to take the time out to snap a photo. He even offered a little training session if I came back later that day. Unfortunately we were on a tight schedule and I wasn't able to take him up on his kind offer. What an honor and privilege to meet Jason in person!

Mr Cartoon's 1939 Chevy Master Deluxe

Big Mahalo to Chili for the tour of the RVCA HQ and for all the aloha!

Blue Hawaii Surf Beijing

     Goodmorning smoggy Beijing! This was the view our first morning. If this were a sign of things to come it was gonna be a a shitty trip. I'd seen in the news back home in Hawaii how the smog levels in Beijing were at dangerous levels. It was so bad that they were closing down schools and businesses and telling people to stay home. Regardless of how bad the smog looked here it wasn't as bad as it had been.

Dyson's ride of the day! Chinese flatbed!

Chinese lunch truck! Lunch trucks in the U.S. are overly done. Over here all that matters is how good the food is and believe me it's good!

This is our Blue Hawaii Surf Beijing Shop. It's located in San Li Tun at the most exclusive shopping center in Beijing. This shop was the first ever U.S. owned and operated multi branded shop to ever open doors in mainland China. We're an authorized dealer for every brand we carry and there's not one knockoff item carried here. This shopping center host international brands and shops like Beams, CPU, Porter, Finger Cross, Double Park, Doc Martin, Nike, Converse, Adidas, Vans, and Apple. San Li Tun North which is their other property a block up houses I.T. which owns WTAPS, A.P.C. and A Bathing Ape. As you can see they laid these shopping centers out for the well to do. The world embassy's surround the shopping center so there's an international customer looking for the best and most exclusive product available. Happy to say that Blue Hawaii Surf represents the best of surf, skate, and street wear gear here in Beijing.

We can't even get SB's to open us up in Hawaii because we're not a cool guy shop. Obviously Nike feels differently about our sister shop in Beijing.

Vans til death! Gotta rep the world's #1 skateboard shoe company otherwise what kind of skate shop would we be?

Syndicates! Wade Speyer represented out here in Beijing!

Blue Hawaii Surf is the only legal HUF account in all of China. Terry told me that the HUF shoes cost twice the price of Nike SB because we receive them from HUF in L.A, directly. Nike SB and Vans have distributors in China that we deal with so the cost is cheaper for those brands since they don't have to be shipped from the U.S.! The HUF brand seems to be the choice of all hardcore skaters in China and they're also the most knocked off. Buy the real shit right here at Blue Hawaii Surf!

The Hundreds is Huge in China! Scotty and B Mo hit up the shop a couple months ago. According to them they were stoked on what they saw!

Koston and Malto were kind enough to pay our shop a visit on a recent trip to Beijing for the grandopening of the Nike SB skatepark.

NHS goods only for this shop.

Stereo cruisers

This is what the shop looked like from the outside. This is also were the skate demo and band would play later for the one year anniversary party.

Blue Hawaii Surf #1 Sanya, China

After our "special breakfast" we made our way over to check out our first Blue Hawaii Surf shop in Sanya that opened last year. On the way there I took some random shots of the views.

Surf's up in Sanya!

Carpool equipped with sun shade! I wonder what happens if he hits a pothole!

They're everywhere in China.

This shop is located in the top shopping center in the island for wealthy tourist (mainly Russian). This location is pretty small but laid out nicely. Volcom and Hurley seems to do the best because of their boardies and slimmer lighter tees. 

However we do carry LRG, Diamond, HUF, The Hundreds, Vans, and Nike SB as well as skate hard goods in this location.

In this particular location Vans Surf Shoes tend to be a favorite amongst the staff and visitors. Great selection for both men's and women's.

Ryu Bay

Before dinner at the Ryu Surf Club we took a hike out to the point and up the mountain side to check out this abandoned military installation.

Michael and Dyson leading the way through the jungle.

There were a lot of entry ways that looked like they were leading to houses but all of them lead to nothing.

This is the military at the tip of the point. It can be seen from both stretches of beach on either side if the point. Supposedly this place was haunted.

A view from inside the installation. Looked like this place was from the WW1 / WW2 era. There was about 4-6 floors, 3 up and maybe 3 down. The place was reduced to rubble inside with the exception of the staircases and the exterior structure and walls. Kinda creepy!

                 View of Ryu Bay

We had to climb this sketchy ladder to get to the roof top.

This is where the ladder lead to. The roof of the installation provided the best view of the bay as well as the beaches on the other side of the point.

The other side of the point.

That's where we want to be!

Thirsty Dyson?

Tsuyong, Vince, and Dunzi stoked to be on the island! Especially coming from Beijing where it's cold!

Gettin' up in the most critical of spots. One bad move and you can say bye bye! I forgot braddahs name but he's an O.G. graffiti artist from Beijing. He painted the mural in our new Sanya shop with the mini ramp as well the new shop going up in the MGM Grand Yalong Bay. This dude is also the artist for The People's Skateboard Company who Vince and a number of the best skaters in China rides for.