Dylan Graves’ the man behind ‘Weird Waves’
Vans is always finding creative ways to show off their sponsored surfers and skaters but weird waves is a showcase of its own. Van has been putting on a series since 2019 called ‘Weird Waves” hosted by pro-surfer Dylan Graves.
The premise of the show is having talented surfer Dylan Graves surf the strangest breaks with the weirdest waves all across the world! In fact, he even came down here to San Diego not too long ago to surf some of the backwash at Turnarounds in Carlsbad
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8u4K02iVMo&t=193s
Dylan has found a way to highlight some of the most core spots in the US, while (hopefully) not pissing off too many eggy locals. He’s managed to surf the great lakes with epic conditions, Lake Tahoe in northern California, and even some stranger breaks in Europe (Germany).
Video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5d3nD0c1IE
Dylan Graves’ career competing was almost 17 years ago now, but he’s come to make a name for himself in the free surf, surf vlogging space. A little background on Dylan; originally from Isabel, Puerto Rico, and was surfing competitively in the early 2000s. When he didn’t have much luck in the WQS he settled into that all-too-familiar free surfing zone. For a while, there before being picked up by Vans Derek Reilly over at Beachgrit had a very comedic interview where they portrayed Dylan as a washed-up salty local.
In the interview with Derek, he asks Dylan what is his most regular hateful thought? And Dylan mentions his hatred for crowds and mentions “Surfing crowded waves I fucking get pissed. When I’m most frustrated is when someone gets in my way.” (Rielly 2014) Vans must’ve stemmed their series ‘weird waves’ from here considering how much more in-depth he goes about missed barrels, and regret in sessions, and wanting to scream every cuss word in the book when a crowd ruins his session.
Dylan Graves has truly come out to the peak of his career there with his collaboration with Vans on “Weird Waves”. This show has reached an audience much farther outside of the surf niche. Could Dylan’s highlight on the core lifestyle of searching for spots around the globe be bringing more kooks? Possibly, but he took advantage of a great situation and has seemingly come back into the spotlight since that Beachgrit interview back in 2014.
To sum it all up, Dylan Graves a young gun with 3 sponsors and a lot of promise, to a salty local, all the way to one of the spotlight riders for one of the biggest surf/skate apparel companies in the world. Keep killing it, Dylan!