Guest Bio
Chris Prewitt is the owner and operator of Chris Prewitt Surf, bringing over 25 years of experience in luxury surfing experiences across yachts, resorts, and villas in tropical destinations worldwide. Specializing in bespoke surf coaching and guiding, Chris works with busy professionals, families, and solo travelers who seek private, discreet, and tailored surfing improvement holidays. His expertise lies in creating personalized programs that help clients quickly advance their surfing skills while enjoying exclusive, high-end hospitality settings.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Chris about the unique world of luxury surf travel. Chris shares insights into how his company crafts custom surfing experiences that blend skill development with comfort and exclusivity in some of the world’s best tropical locations.
They discuss the challenges and rewards of working with a diverse clientele, from families to solo adventurers, all seeking meaningful progress in their surfing abilities. Chris also highlights the importance of privacy and personalized attention in creating memorable and effective surf holidays.
The conversation sheds light on the balance between high-end hospitality and authentic surfing culture, illustrating how these tailored experiences cater to those who want to improve on the waves while enjoying the finest accommodations and services.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Bespoke surf coaching can accelerate skill improvement in a focused and supportive environment.
- ✓ Luxury surf experiences often combine private villas, yachts, or resorts with personalized instruction.
- ✓ Tailoring surf holidays to individual needs enhances both learning and overall enjoyment.
- ✓ Privacy and discretion are key elements for many clients seeking exclusive surf travel.
- ✓ Working with a range of clients requires adaptability in coaching style and trip design.
- ✓ Tropical destinations offer consistent waves that are ideal for surf progression.
- ✓ Combining surf coaching with luxury hospitality creates a unique travel experience.
- ✓ Family and solo travelers can equally benefit from bespoke surf improvement programs.
- ✓ Expertise gained over decades supports safe and effective surf coaching worldwide.
- ✓ A personalized approach helps busy professionals maximize limited vacation time.
What You’ll Find on Chris Prewitt Surf
- ✓ Custom luxury surfing holidays designed for all skill levels and traveler types.
- ✓ Private, discreet coaching and guiding services in tropical surf destinations.
- ✓ Surf experiences hosted from yachts, high-end resorts, and private villas.
- ✓ Focused skill development tailored to busy professionals, families, and solo travelers.
- ✓ A combination of expert coaching with exceptional hospitality standards.
- ✓ Personalized surf journeys that prioritize privacy and client comfort.
Learn more about Chris Prewitt Surf and connect with Chris at:
https://chrisprewittsurf.com
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.103)
Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back today and also very excited to have our guest. We’ve got Chris Pruitt. Chris is the owner and operator of Chris Pruitt Surf. Chris, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.
Chris Prewitt (00:18.978)
Thanks, Jason. Great to catch up and really looking forward to the next little bit of time with you.
Jason Elkins (00:24.421)
Yeah, what you do is is a a bit different than a lot of the guests I’ve had on the show. And I just found that it was really super cool, fascinating. sometimes I ask people like how did they come up with the name of their business? We won’t spend too much time on that, but obviously you’ve got the word surf in there. So let’s let’s give our listeners kind of before we dig into your background and figure out how you got from where you were to where you are now, let’s give our listeners just kind of an idea of
Chris Prewitt (00:36.174)
It’s pretty easy.
Jason Elkins (00:51.685)
What exactly it is that you do at Chris Pruitt Surf?
Chris Prewitt (00:56.056)
Great. I tailor and curate luxury surfing holidays for individuals, families, people that want to get to tropical locations, go surfing, and improve along the way. I’ve got locations all around the world, all based around the tropics, nice warm water, clear water, coral reefs, that sort of thing. So there’s there’s always a lot of other opportunities for adventure on these holidays also.
Jason Elkins (01:22.723)
Is it typically do your clients or potential guests typically come to you with a destination already kind of in mind and say, Chris, we want to go here? Can you can you set it up and go with us? Or do they or is it more they approach you and say, We wanna go somewhere where we can do some surfing, get better at surfing? what do you suggest? Or is it a mix of I I suspect it’s a mix of the two.
Chris Prewitt (01:44.259)
A hundred percent, definitely a a bit of both. it really comes down to what their needs and wants are and also what their abilities are. I’m not gonna take beginner surfers to some big gnarly reef break somewhere. So once I ascertain their goals and and what they’re trying to get out of a a surfing holiday, I can then tailor it to that. so places all around the world for beginners, you know, intermediate surfers, surfers that have been
serving for over twenty five years. and also the the dynamic of the group. If it’s just a solo, maybe a family, making sure that, you know, I’ve got the location for them that not only will the surfers enjoy, but the non-surfers in the group too. I think that’s really important to to cater to them. Yeah, well, you know, a lot of the times they’re the ones that might be making the big decisions. So it’s important to you know, cater to everyone.
Jason Elkins (02:30.085)
That’s important. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (02:40.785)
I used work in the fly fishing industry and as you can imagine, it’s kind of the same scenario where maybe she or he, I’m not there’s there’s no it’s not a male female thing, but someone in the group is I wanna go somewhere cool where I can do a bunch of stuff and my husband or my partner’s only gonna be happy if he or she can go fishing. So yes, it’s it it’s a huge part of that. do you also I suspect sometimes cause you said I’m not gonna take some to a big gnarly break, I think I’m
Chris Prewitt (02:50.616)
Hundred percent.
Jason Elkins (03:09.425)
This is gonna be new for me to get the the lingo straight. But Okay, cool. You said I’m not gonna take someone to a big gnarly break if they’re they’re beginners or or maybe not ready for that, but I suspect sometimes you get people say, I wanna go here. I saw it on YouTube and I wanna learn to surf and that place looks really cool. So do you spend some time kind of kinda talking people out of places?
Chris Prewitt (03:10.168)
Hmm. Yeah you you’ve got the ling up.
Chris Prewitt (03:32.69)
not s not so much talking people out of places. you know, I I’ve had many instances that I might be in a location in the world and like Fiji for for example. There’s where I go in Fiji there’s probably five or six quality breaks all within a very close proximity. and one of them is is Cloudbreak, which is a world renowned, really big wave. and I get people that say, you know, I want to serve Cloudbreak and you know, I said, do you? So
Jason Elkins (04:00.345)
huh.
Chris Prewitt (04:02.358)
Well we’ll we’ll we’ll go have a look. and you know, sometimes we’ll sometimes we’ll jump in the water, just so they can feel the energy and be in amongst it and see it. and you know, it’s it’s kind of a desensitizing exercise also to to get people in that environment and just feel the power of the ocean. you know, at the end of the day the ocean doesn’t care how much money you have, it doesn’t
Jason Elkins (04:08.912)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (04:32.053)
you know, discriminate. it it’s it’s a wild entity and to be able to share it with people’s quite amazing, you know, and I I definitely like to peop get people out of their comfort zone a little bit so they really feel alive in a safe environment obviously. so yeah, there there’s there’s times where people say, I wanna do this and yeah, that’s great. Let’s let’s go have a look and let’s desensitize a bit and you know, at the end of the day, I my number one job is to keep them safe.
having fun and learning. So
Jason Elkins (05:02.871)
Is is is desensitize a euphemism for reality check? Okay. I I I thought it might be.
Chris Prewitt (05:08.91)
Yeah, pretty pr pretty much. You know. You know s you know, I have pulled up to a place and say, Do you want to jump in the water and, you know, just paddle out? And I kinda go, Well, my shoulder’s a bit sore today, you know, that sort of thing. So Yeah.
Jason Elkins (05:26.543)
I I I can imagine it’s kind of maybe like people that wanna climb things.
You know, they’re like, I think I’d like to climb that. And then it’s like, Okay, well let’s just do a little hike around the the base of the mountain before we make any big decisions. And it’s like, yeah, it looked looked looked much smaller in the videos or whatever. So yeah, yeah. All right, that makes sense. And are you able to put together the whole trip? So I mean, are you doing a c accommodations, transfers, other activities as well?
Chris Prewitt (05:39.022)
Totally. Totally.
Chris Prewitt (05:44.698)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (05:57.506)
Definitely. I have a really good partnership with a a few five star resorts, some beautiful yachts that I’m in contact with all the time. So I I can handle all the booking, the monies, that sort of thing. In regards to transfers, that’s all pretty straightforward with most of the places. There’s kind of usually one route to get there. you know, I won’t handle flights, but we’ll handle the accommodation and and transfers and
making sure everything goes as smoothly as possible.
Jason Elkins (06:29.979)
Very cool. Do you have a f I don’t know, favorite what would you call a non surfing activity? What do you what do you call the the other activities that people want to participate in? Is it okay to say non surfing or do you have a better way to say that?
Chris Prewitt (06:44.299)
a hundred no, a hundred percent, you know. Most of these places that we go to from Indonesia, Fiji, the Maldives, those sorts of places, there’s a there’s a really big culture also, you know. So between engaging with the local culture, you know, there might be some sort of a a local charity that the resort or the yacht works with that you can get involved with and really see where the the monies go.
Jason Elkins (07:10.854)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (07:11.413)
you know, there’s a place in Sumba that I spend a lot of time in Indonesia. and over thirty years they’ve been running a a local program that has saved hundreds, not thousands of lives over the last thirty years due to malaria. you know, so get to go into the community with their foundation and and go to the schools and meet the children and they’ve got big nutrition programs. So being able to get involved with that and feed kids at the school and it’s really rewarding, you know.
Jason Elkins (07:26.253)
okay.
Chris Prewitt (07:40.758)
You know, th that’s the land sort of based stuff. You know, some places you you can go horseback riding, you can go scuba diving, you can, you know, release a brand new set of turtles that have just been born. you know, really just trying to engage with what’s happening locally, I think I think’s really important. And and people walk away with a sense of wow, it’s a surf trip, but
Geez, the the depth of the relationship of of the place they visit, I think, is is key.
Jason Elkins (08:13.529)
Now, if you’ve got a mixed group, you’ve got maybe one person in the group is all about the surfing and maybe their partner or is not so much about the or like nodded into the surfing at all. Will the surf I know this is I’m asking to kind of generalize. I’m also asking you to generalize about people that are your clients, but my question my question is are surfers that travel
Chris Prewitt (08:25.621)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (08:33.845)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (08:40.635)
Are they typically kind of hardcore like the surfers like, I wanna surf from sunup to sundown, or are they more likely to just go out for a few hours and then go to other activities? Or what what is it typically like? What what can you say about your clients that won’t get us both in trouble?
Chris Prewitt (08:52.606)
Y yeah. Well you you get a bit of both. Yeah, you get a bit of both. and the reality is is a lot of my clients are kind of the high net worth sort of clientele, because of the yachts and the resorts and s so forth. you know, so they’re not hardcore surfers, meaning they have jobs. So they spend a lot of time in the office. and this is a ch
Jason Elkins (09:11.993)
Yeah.
We’re gonna we’re gonna get to we’re gonna get to your background. And not everybody has the the the time, focus and energy to become a surf pro. But yes, I got that. So yep.
Chris Prewitt (09:20.095)
Yeah.
You know, s so yes, mentally they’re hardcore surfers, you know, they they love surfing and that and that’s why they’re with me. but there’s a couple of different things that affect how much you surf in a day. Number one’s tides. You know, some places you can only surf at high tide or low tide, there’s currents involved, that sort of thing. And also the body, you know, most of my clients are kind of forty plus, professional business people, you know, so
Jason Elkins (09:46.481)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (09:52.522)
After two hours, you know, they’re kind of gone, okay, that that was good. You know, we’ll go in and have a break and then hopefully get out again later in the day. And I usually I find usually about day three, day four of a trip, people have gone really hard those first three or four days and they hit the wall. I see it all the time. And I try to tell people those day one, day two, let’s just slide into it, you know, take your time. we’ve got ten days, seven days, whatever it is, and people hit a wall. But, you know, the places we’re at.
You’re gonna go get a nice massage. You’re gonna go to the spa. You’re gonna get a sauna. A hundred percent. Hundred percent.
Jason Elkins (10:23.995)
good place to hit the wall. All right. What’s as someone that really knows nothing about surfing and but I’ve done other activities that can kind of beat up the body. You know, like if you’re doing a three or four pay four day horsebacking trip or something like that. You quickly realize there are certain muscles that you haven’t used in a long time and you realize, yeah, this is the part that hurts. So my I guess my question is
Chris Prewitt (10:40.397)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (10:49.445)
When a surfer hits the wall, i are there a particular set of muscles? Is it the whole body? What what is a what is a sore surfer look like and feel like?
Chris Prewitt (10:52.749)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (10:59.687)
Usually the neck, the shoulders, the back, that’s probably and the arms. Because paddling you know, paddling is not ninety percent of surfing. You know, if you go surfing for two hours, you probably actually do the sport of surfing out of two hours for probably on a good day, seven, eight minutes. You know, if you add up all your waves of actual surfing time. The rest of the time is being in that prone position with the with the neck back, chin up, you know, so
Jason Elkins (11:02.993)
Jason Elkins (11:06.459)
Paddling. Okay.
Chris Prewitt (11:28.597)
Unless people are training that constantly, it’s probably one of the most fatiguing parts of surfing.
Jason Elkins (11:35.619)
Okay. It makes sense and it’s I it’s makes so much sense and I just I would I wouldn’t have guessed. I was actually yeah, okay. All right. So do do you encourage like the people that have been on trips with you before, they kinda know you kinda know them, you kind of have you know, the expectations are maybe a little bit more realistic, but people that are going the first time, do you
Chris Prewitt (11:40.46)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (12:00.205)
Encourage them to go train, to go to the gym, to do all that stuff, and and if you do, do they typically do it?
Chris Prewitt (12:07.058)
Yeah, well it’s finding the time it’s finding the time for a lot a lot of my clients, you know. Yeah, they’re busy people, you know, so but I find that most people that that enjoy surfing that want to go on these sort of trips are pretty active anyways. you know, but surfing is a very specific skill in regards to body movement and so forth. So if people are doing yoga and swimming and you know, just staying relatively fit, it’s
Jason Elkins (12:10.833)
‘Cause these are busy people. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (12:35.104)
They’re a step ahead of a lot of others. Someone that’s come straight from a couch that hasn’t done anything. You know, as soon as someone lies down on a surfboard and starts a paddle, I know what I’m in for. I can just tell, you know, after doing it for so long, then I think, okay, well, let’s get them on something a little bit bigger with some more volume, which is gonna make paddling easier, which is gonna extend their session, which they’re gonna catch more waves, they’re gonna have more fun. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (12:46.041)
yeah.
Jason Elkins (13:00.453)
Why does why does bigger water make it easier?
Chris Prewitt (13:04.256)
bigger bigger volume in a surfboard. yeah, b yeah, it f it floats more, so you’re you’re sitting on the surface more, so when you’re paddling the board glides. and if you’re riding a board that’s too thin or too short, you sink. So then you’re pushing more of your own self through the water. You know, you’re not as dynamic.
Jason Elkins (13:06.277)
Bigger volume. this on the surfboard. Okay. Okay.
Jason Elkins (13:23.717)
Got it. I heard I heard I heard volume and I thought water. So I was I I was thinking, bigger bigger water is easier? I I wasn’t sure. Okay. All right. I’m happy I’m happy I asked. I’m not afraid to ask. You’ve probably noticed. I think we should discuss real quick about what somebody who’s never been surfing, they’re in decent shape. I’m not necessarily suggesting that a whole group that’s never been surf I don’t know. You tell me.
Chris Prewitt (13:27.813)
right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, good. That’s all right. It’s great.
Chris Prewitt (13:43.724)
Mm-hmm. Yep.
Chris Prewitt (13:50.506)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (13:50.723)
A whole a group that wants to go surfing, they’ve never been surfing. I I’m sure you could accommodate them. But what I really am curious about is what should somebody expect? Some probably not someone like me. I said someone in reasonably good shape. I’m not sure. But they’ve never been on a surfboard. Is it realistic for them to expect that they’re gonna be able to get up the first day, the first trip? What is what what do you tell them to expect?
Chris Prewitt (13:56.289)
Totally.
Chris Prewitt (14:14.378)
Hundred percent. Hundred percent. You know, the the the most important thing with surfing is is having fun. And if you’re set up in the right conditions, not only meaning the conditions of the serve, but with the equipment, the instruction. I like I said, I’ve been doing this a really long time and if I’ve got the right waves and the right surfboard for a beginner server, they’ll be getting up.
maybe not pretty on the first day, but they will stand up and feel that glide. and that’s the most addicting part of surfing, is once you feel that glide, I think you’re hooked for life.
Jason Elkins (14:47.065)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (14:55.121)
Do you the in general terms? Because there’s a lot of places you can go and take a surf lesson. You know, I could go to Hawaii, I could go to Indonesia, and I could sign up for surf lessons pr presumably one-on-one or group. do you encourage people to go try and do that somehow before they book a big surf vacation? I mean, I know there’s a lot of variables, but do you think like you’re you’re a pro, you’ve been doing this a while.
Chris Prewitt (15:01.003)
Yes.
Chris Prewitt (15:10.475)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (15:23.545)
And I suspect there’s a lot more kind of one on one and more flexible schedule. ‘Cause if I go book a surf lesson, I’m probably gonna do it right in front of wherever they do the surf lessons. Right in front of their shop and whatever the weather is, it is and there’s probably not a lot of flexibility to hop on the yacht and go over to the other side of the island.
Chris Prewitt (15:36.118)
Correct.
Chris Prewitt (15:44.269)
True, true. yeah, I mean, the more time anyone spends on a board from an absolute beginner to years involved with the sport, you know, it it’s a good thing. private tuition, you know, or very small group is obviously so important. And if you’re able to do that, the results show a lot quicker. you know, I’ve sometimes I’ll go down to the beach here and there’s a surf school and they’ve got eight people.
with one instructor and they’re in conditions that are very subpar, but that’s the time of day that they do their lessons. So, you know, there’s no no way around it. So, you know, giving someone an experience and expectations of people, you know, if if you’re from the middle of a landlocked country and you get to the beach and you’ve got a surfboard and you’re getting bounced around by the waves and even if you just catch them on your belly and feel it, it’s exhilarating, you know, so
The more people are exposed to it, I I think the better results in the end, no matter how much you’ve had.
Jason Elkins (16:50.481)
It makes a lot of sense. And I’m also imagining a scenario where and we’re not disparaging any of the surf shops that do lessons or anything like that, but I’m saying I I imagine a scenario where you think, I’d kinda like to try it, and then maybe subpark conditions, a large you know, high ratio of students to instructors, and I might think, yeah, I don’t I don’t know about that. That wasn’t quite what I thought.
Chris Prewitt (16:58.196)
Hm. Not at all.
Jason Elkins (17:18.735)
So I guess that’s where I’m going with the question when I say should they go try it first, or is there a risk, a real risk, of just having a subpar experience and and deciding to write it off before you’ve had a chance to really see what it’s like? I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.
Chris Prewitt (17:33.108)
Yeah, that’s a hard one, Jason, because you know, it depends on what sort of expectations they have going in. If they don’t have any expectations and they and they go for a lesson and you know, if they stand up once for a half a second, they they’re winning, you know, because an hour before they had never done that before. So I I think, yeah, go to your local surf school, get a lesson, get out there, have fun, you know. Everyone
Jason Elkins (17:38.596)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (17:49.168)
Yeah, okay.
Chris Prewitt (18:00.627)
Everyone that gets involved with surfing has to start somewhere. You know, when I started, there was no such thing as lessons. So it was just trial and error.
Jason Elkins (18:09.169)
Think you hit it, I think you hit it right on the nose or on the dot or whatever. It’s that expectations thing. Because if is all your exposure to surfing is watching pro surfers on ESPN back in the day or whatever, and you think, I’m gonna go learn how to surf and I booked an hour and a half long surf class or lesson, and you’re expecting to to stand up and be, you know, riding the wave or whatever. so what I heard you say was just
Chris Prewitt (18:21.299)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (18:34.442)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (18:37.947)
Try not to have expectations or just just enjoy it. Just try and, you know, right? It’s it’s like that with everything in life, isn’t it?
Chris Prewitt (18:43.093)
Just enjoy it. You know, surf surfing Yeah, surfing’s the most difficult sport in the world to to master because you never really master it. And the learning curve with surfing is like no other sport. There’s no constant. You know, I mean I guess with the innovation of wave pools now, that the wave is pretty much the same every single time. But in the ocean, you know, you go yesterday
And you went at ten o’clock in the morning and the tide was this and the waves were this and the wind was this and you had the best session of your life. You go back the next day at ten o’clock and everyt everything’s changed. Yeah. It’s such a roller coaster ride. The you know, the sport of serving. But that’s what I think is one of the best parts about it. It’s similar to golf. I don’t play much golf because I kind of refuse to spend that money to get that frustrated. but
Jason Elkins (19:17.787)
Feel like you’ve never been in the water.
Jason Elkins (19:29.838)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (19:35.735)
huh.
Chris Prewitt (19:36.389)
It’s very similar in the fact that, you know, surfing, you get that wave and you get that feeling, that bliss moment of, my God. And then it takes you a week, two weeks, two months to feel that again. Same with golf. You have that beautiful swing, everything is perfect, and you think, I’ve got this figured out. And then you know what happens.
Jason Elkins (19:50.875)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (19:56.153)
I I I bet that you have enough experience in this now, I’m I’m sure, to where when you get a group of guests and you know, you’re like, my gosh, everything is perfect today. They have no idea how lucky they are today, especially if it’s the first day of a trip. And then you’re like, Okay, all everything’s coming together, and you know that the chances of everything coming together the rest of the week are probably slim.
Chris Prewitt (20:13.365)
Totally.
Jason Elkins (20:25.571)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (20:26.613)
Yeah, I’m at the mercy of the of the of Mother Nature, you know, between the winds and the tides and you know, go on a surf trip and it’s always a gamble because you’re outside, you know, you’re you’re in the elements. So, you know, there’s massive amounts of surf c forecasting that I can look at for tomorrow, today, for a week out. But it’s mother nature, things change and you know, you you have to be able to pivot and make
Jason Elkins (20:39.525)
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (20:45.979)
Mm-hmm.
It changes. It changes.
Chris Prewitt (20:54.367)
make decisions on the go to try to get your guests in the best conditions for their ability at the time and you know, it’s a challenge.
Jason Elkins (21:03.065)
I do you have you figured out a few tricks for managing expectations? Cause here’s where I’m going. If if you if the first day is like that, do you sometimes is it helpful to kind of rein them in a little bit and say, Wow, this was exceptionally good conditions today? So then the next day when it’s not so great, they don’t feel they they’re not like, Chris, why did why don’t we go back to where we were yesterday? It was so much better. ‘Cause and there’s such it’s such
Chris Prewitt (21:26.389)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (21:32.657)
parallel to fly fishing because I that’s why I’m asking is it because in fishing, you sometimes you get a group of clients, you know, a couple of clients and they’ve got three or four days with you. And the first day you go out and it’s like, man, they cannot do anything wrong. Every fish in the river wants to eat and it’s just and you and you know that well we have a plan to go to a different stretch of the river the next day and you know what’s going to happen is
Chris Prewitt (21:34.816)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (21:45.983)
Yeah. Hungry.
Jason Elkins (21:55.109)
Well, why did we go here? Why didn’t we go back to the same place? So I’m just curious if you’ve had that come up and if you’ve learned some tricks to manage those kinds of expectations.
Chris Prewitt (22:02.059)
I’ve learned to guarantee nothing. You know, as soon as you guarantee something, it’s gonna bite you, you know where. So, you know, I’ll I’ll usually have a pretty good plan for 24 to 48 hours and sit down and explain what I’m thinking, why I’m thinking that. but also throw in the disclaimer of we’ll see what happens. This is what things are saying.
Jason Elkins (22:07.255)
Here you go. Smart.
Jason Elkins (22:18.533)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (22:30.601)
I never say definitely, you know, it I I I’m mother nature, you know, so it’s you know, you can’t guarantee anything. Things change so quickly. forecasts are only as good as forecasts are. The best forecast is right then and there, with my eyes, to see the ocean, to understand what’s going on, and to make decisions from there.
Jason Elkins (22:32.474)
Uh-huh.
Jason Elkins (22:44.849)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (22:51.759)
Yeah. It it makes so much sense. I can I can resonate with that. I I have a lot of respect for that. It’s which keeps you on your toes too. It’s I can tell the way you’re saying this, it’s not like, yeah, I just show up on some beach with my wealthy, c you know, high net worth clients and and just, you know, sit on a beach chair and and tell what they’re doing wrong, videotape them so they can see what they can do better. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (22:55.669)
Yeah, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (23:01.566)
Chris Prewitt (23:16.189)
Yeah. It it’s it’s hard at times to be you know, depending on Mother Nature so much because you think you got it figured out and then here comes the curveball. there’s this very small island in Fiji, a little resort called Namoto that I spend a lot of time on and it’s tiny. You can walk around it in twelve minutes, fifteen minutes maximum. It’s tiny. And the staff they’re always laugh at me because when we’re not surfing and everyone’s back on land having lunch or whatever it is.
Jason Elkins (23:36.323)
Hey wow.
Chris Prewitt (23:44.765)
I’m just doing lats around the island from one side to the other to see what the wind’s doing, what the swell’s doing. I know the tide’s not good for surfing, but I’m just always on it and they just look at me and go, What are you doing? I said, Well I’m just trying to keep my finger on the pulse, you know, because you know, I want to get people in the right conditions at the right time.
Jason Elkins (23:53.892)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (24:05.499)
I remember I had a a fishing client now. She was pretty new to it. And I was trying to decide what flies to put on her line. And she looked at me and she’s like, How do you decide what flies to put on there? And I I just looked at her, I said, It’s the voices in my head. And I imagine people ask you, like, Chris, how do you how do you know what the ocean is doing? Like, just by looking at it. And it’s like, Well, it takes a lot of time and time and experience. So speaking of
Chris Prewitt (24:15.986)
Yeah.
Exactly.
Chris Prewitt (24:26.718)
Mm.
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (24:31.749)
Time and experience. This is the point in the conversation where we figure out how the heck did you get to this place? you clearly well, I don’t know if it’s clear to everybody. It’s clear to me that you have a a a US accent, says someone that maybe grew up in North America. And I I just happen to know that you live in Australia. So let’s start with let’s start with where did you grow up? And what
Chris Prewitt (24:35.428)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (24:45.748)
Yes.
Chris Prewitt (24:55.314)
Okay. I grew up in central east coast of Florida, a little town called Vero Beach. which is about an hour and a half north of Palm Beach, about an hour south of Cocoa Beach. so on that east coast on the Atlantic.
Jason Elkins (25:01.201)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (25:09.775)
And that’s presumably a place where people go to surf. I don’t know. N no? Okay.
Chris Prewitt (25:13.53)
Not so much where I not so much my town, but just to the north is a place called Sebastian Inlet, which is on the east coast of America, probably one of the most consistent high performance waves. Kelly Slater, eleven time world champion, grew up there. you know, so we were serving the same breaks growing up together. we did have waves in
Jason Elkins (25:29.896)
okay.
Chris Prewitt (25:40.477)
my town of Vero Beach, but you know, Florida is quite inconsistent. When it’s good, it’s good. But, you know, summertime from May till August until the hurricane season really ramps up, it’s pretty flat. so but that’s one reason I became why I fell in love with the ocean so much is because I was surfing, but when I wasn’t surfing, I was fishing, I was diving, I was spear fishing. I was always in the ocean, you know, so
Jason Elkins (25:45.873)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (26:07.373)
Okay. That’s what I was that’s what I was curious about is kinda how did you make the connection with the ocean? And I guess the c I guess the question is, what was it like growing up there? W were your parents into spending time on the water as well? I mean, let’s just talk a little bit about kind of what it was like growing up.
Chris Prewitt (26:24.894)
Yeah, my parents they didn’t surf. they loved the beach. they were th they are. They were big sailors. so I spent a lot of time on on sailboats, even around the water, go down to the Florida Keys, that sort of thing, the Bahamas. But at a very early age, we used to go to the beach a lot in the summertime after dinner because of the sunset time. So we’d have dinner and we’d walk
Jason Elkins (26:35.537)
Okay. Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (26:53.13)
Two or three blocks away from the beach. And we’d spend time there. And one of the earliest memories I have is body surfing on my mother’s back. I think I was maybe three or four years old, you know, and we were always at the beach, you know, and you know, we at low tide when there’s a big flat sandy beach, we used to draw sailboats with sticks in the sand and pretend we were in them. And and then once it started to get older, I was starting to ride, you know.
The blow up red rafts that used to take all the skin off the front of your chest, because of the rashes were so bad.
Jason Elkins (27:29.051)
Well, t okay, you gotta tell me a little bit more about that ’cause I’m not you’re saying the blow up red rafts. So like this was a body surfing type thing, you’d go get in the waves, or what was that all about?
Chris Prewitt (27:35.773)
Yeah, so this is yeah, just yeah, to yeah, just a this is kind of before the boogie board actually even started. So I’m talking mid seventies, mid seventies, I guess. So you you blow these rafts up and you know, they were probably about three feet long and about, I don’t know, two and a half feet wide and you just ride waves on your belly. you know, and from a from a young age, my parents used to literally have to drag me out of the water because I would spend
the whole time in the waves, riding on my belly, just enjoying it. And you know, my sister and I would have races and and and that sort of thing. And then it wasn’t until later that I think I was about nine when I got my first boogie board. I mowed lawns for for the parents and they said, you know, if you if you mow the lawns, we’ll get you a boogie board. And I had that for about I think a month and left it on the
front porch of the house and it got stolen overnight. I was devastated, but at the end of the day it was the best thing that ever happened because the next move was a surfboard. So Yeah. Yeah. No. Yeah, that’s right. So yeah, I got got the first surfboard and then that was it.
Jason Elkins (28:46.747)
So so you were forced to go pretty quickly because yeah, who wants to buy a second boogie board? There there’s a natural progression here. Yeah. Well and prob and probably a good li probably a good life lesson as well for not leaving your I’m sure your parents reminded you that often. Yeah. Well teach serves you right. you know, you learn not to leave your stuff laying around. Yeah. So it was you and your sister, you mentioned her. So it was just the two of you for for the kids in the family, or yeah.
Chris Prewitt (28:59.899)
Yes.
Chris Prewitt (29:03.826)
Mm. Definitely so. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (29:12.446)
Hm. Yeah, just just yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. Just the two of us. She’s about four years older than me. she’s based in the States still. She’s now back in North Carolina. which she loves and she runs leadership programs and yeah, it’s it’s great to great to see them when I get a chance to. It’s it’s pretty far, obviously. but yeah.
Jason Elkins (29:33.819)
Did you did you ever have an experience with your sister with your sister where you felt like maybe she was trying to kill you? Because sometimes when you have an older sibling and you’re out in the water doing things like that, I remember, you know, some some situations with my sibling. but was there ever a moment where you she dri took you a little bit past your limits and you you remember that?
Chris Prewitt (29:54.186)
I think was probably the other way around. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (29:56.357)
really? Well, my sibling is younger too. So actually it was he was into mountain climbing for a while and he took me to some places that were way above my skill level. So but all right. That’s that’s very cool. What were you what were you interested in in school? Did you have plans to have a a normal life? I mean, if I went if we had a time machine and I went back to when you were twelve or thirteen and I said, Jeez Chris, what do you want to do when you grow up? Do you remember what you would have said?
Chris Prewitt (30:06.085)
Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (30:21.065)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (30:26.385)
You know, it pr at that age probably not so much, but when I was starting to get toward the end of high school, early years of college, I was I really had this vision of doing like some sort of a bed and breakfast sort of thing. ‘Cause at that time s surf camps really weren’t even happening, but just I had an idea of having somewhere that people could come and go surfing and
you know, the accommodation and food and stuff would be sorted for them. And then, you know, ironically, over the years, it kind of molded into something similar. but yeah, when I when I was at college at the University of South Florida in Tampa, I I studied communications, which is a very broad, very broad subject. but I
Jason Elkins (30:58.255)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (31:05.732)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (31:14.993)
Okay. Yep.
K kinda like psych kinda like psychology. A lot of people take psychology just to get that broad. Yeah, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (31:22.172)
Yeah, but I you know I
You know, I think what I really gained out of was the interpersonal communication skills. and you know, I had a lot of friends that I went to school with that, you know, were studying business and accounting, but they couldn’t talk to people, you know, and and that really blew my mind. I’m like, How are you gonna run a business if you can’t actually talk to people and you’re so socially awkward?
Jason Elkins (31:48.389)
Well, fortunately I don’t run into those people because everybody I run into on this show is pretty good at it. So it’s like yourself. But but you’re you’re sp you’re spot on right because there are people that yeah. but when you when you chose communications, were you ’cause you mentioned you were kind of thinking maybe a B and B surfing type of operation, something, but when you chose communications, was it a conscious decision like, okay, I can use this to then build that business or did you
Chris Prewitt (31:54.665)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (32:00.721)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (32:08.766)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (32:18.447)
Was there was there a moment of you thinking you might have to do a regular job for a while?
Chris Prewitt (32:22.473)
Probably two levels with that. Number number one is that my older sister did it. She went to Wake Forest. and you know, I when I was graduating from high school going into college, I was so gung-ho on surfing and just so it was everything of my existence. and the reason I went to Tampa was it’s on the Gulf of Mexico. And I was fortunate that my parents were gonna help me out with college.
I knew that if I went anywhere on the east coast where there was a chance of getting waves, that it yeah, I just I I had to make the first adult responsibility decision in my life and go as far away from the surf as possible so I could so I could get it done.
Jason Elkins (32:53.905)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (33:03.331)
Okay, okay. Let’s let’s let’s dig a little deeper because I hear you, I hear what you’re saying. Was that was that hard? Did you have anybody else encouraging you that way? Or did you actually have the the wherewithal at eighteen or nineteen to to be that self-aware that you’re like, man, if I if there’s any waves around I’m gonna be a twelve year bachelor degree student.
Chris Prewitt (33:28.945)
A hundred percent. I you know, I think I had the the idea that I’ve got one opportunity at this and I and I need to take it and run with it. you know, so it y yeah, for that age. but saying that, my summers, as soon as in between each each year, I’d come home, work hard for a month, save as much money and disappear to Costa Rica for a month or six weeks.
Jason Elkins (33:38.511)
Wow. Wow. Very very mature.
Chris Prewitt (33:58.306)
with some friends and we just travel and surf and explore and you know, adventure and it was yeah, and back then there wasn’t any tourism. Yeah, there wasn’t any tourism in Costa Rica really then, you know? Not much. It was main mainly mainly surf tourism at that point.
Jason Elkins (34:05.381)
That you r so you rewarded your you rewarded your y Okay, yeah, you re A little different, huh? Yeah.
Jason Elkins (34:16.293)
What did your parents think about you taking off and going to Central America for your summers as they’re supporting you? I mean, I guess you were working hard and you weren’t you know, you weren’t blowing off school to go surfing, but in the summers I can’t you know, what it were they supportive of that at the time?
Chris Prewitt (34:28.968)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (34:32.605)
A hundred percent and and I’m so fortunate that they were so supportive. because you know, when I graduated from college, my parents got me a triple board bag, which means I could put three surfboards in a bag and put it on a plane and then that was the world. And my best friend got a briefcase with his initials on it. So I that was the my parents knew from a young age
Jason Elkins (34:53.521)
Okay.
Chris Prewitt (34:58.451)
That that was kind of my trajectory and my dad still today kind of looks at me and shakes his head and he goes, How have you done this? You know, how have you been able to take a passion and turn it into a career?
Jason Elkins (35:10.033)
‘Cause I can imagine a few a few parents out there that back in the seventies, eighties, when their kid says, I just want to go surfing. I want to go travel the world surfing and like, well, how are you gonna make money at that? Well, why did we spend so much money for you to go get a degree? And and all that. So that begs the question, what the heck was going on with your parents that they were that open minded? And like I think we need to dig it I think we need to dig into that a little bit.
Chris Prewitt (35:10.963)
And it’s
Chris Prewitt (35:19.335)
Yes.
Chris Prewitt (35:34.633)
You know, I I don’t know. They’ve just always been very down to earth supportive. they you know, sailing was their thing, you know, so they I think understood the being outside, being in the elements, and you know, they they just wanted us, you know, kids to be happy. And they knew what made me happy and as long as that I was still on that
Jason Elkins (35:48.273)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Chris Prewitt (36:03.889)
road of chasing surfing somehow to make it into career without having to come back and say, you know, I need money. You know, I I was able to prove myself along the way and you know, and and to make it happen from straight out of college and moving to Costa Rica for eight months and then moving to the North Shore of Hawaii to Oahu and then Australia.
Jason Elkins (36:29.777)
Right. We’re gonna we’re gonna dig into that, but if you don’t mind, I I do wanna ask you, are your parents ’cause obviously they were into sailing, were are they also from Florida? Is was there I just kinda I I wanna know a little bit about their background. Okay.
Chris Prewitt (36:42.127)
No, my my parents are from Michigan. Yeah, they’re from they’re from Michigan. they ended up in Florida because of my dad’s work. He used to be with GM and Ford back in the day. So he was based in Sarasota for a while. I was actually born in Miami. and then we moved up to to Vera Beach about three hours north. my sister was born in Iowa. So
Jason Elkins (37:10.842)
Okay.
Chris Prewitt (37:10.919)
I’m very happy that nothing against Iowa. Not at all. Yes. I I I still kinda think now and again what would have happened, where would I be now if you know, I might be a fly fishing guy because I love fly fishing too, so you know
Jason Elkins (37:13.561)
You done no, not nothing against Iowa. But but for a surfer
Jason Elkins (37:29.061)
Not not much of not much of that in Iowa, I don’t think. And someone someone’s gonna tell me, Jason, you clearly don’t know anything. There’s great fly fishing in Iowa. But okay, yeah, that that’s that’s interesting. And was your dad kinda with his job, it’s you mentioned GM for like an engineer type, just like that type of person.
Chris Prewitt (37:32.978)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (37:48.201)
Yes. So he is probably one of the most amazing engineers, slash mechanics, entrepreneurs that I know. if any you know, most people if their blender stops working, they throw it out and buy a new one, and he takes it out from and takes it apart and somehow goes into his yellow book, finds the part that he needs, gets it, fixes it. All of our cars, you know, his kids growing up. he
He spent a lot of time once he left the motor industry and did his own thing. he was a local mechanic for foreign cars, Mercedes, BMWs. and where I grew up in Florida, there’s a lot of gated communities, a lot of people with Mercedes and BMWs and that sort of thing. So Yeah, and he’s an entrepreneur, you know, in in the late seventies he he started solar hot wheel.
Jason Elkins (38:35.771)
So it was good it was good business, good enough business to to get a sailboat. Yeah, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (38:44.912)
solar hot water heating systems for houses, which was way before its time in the late seventies around that energy crisis that they had. you know, he yeah, just always, always kind of a step ahead with being an entrepreneur.
Jason Elkins (38:59.377)
Do you do you know the I don’t know if they started this before you came along? It sounds like maybe they did, but do you know how they got involved in sailing? Do you know the story behind that?
Chris Prewitt (39:10.822)
I mean, I I think it was from a young age and, you know, growing up near lakes, like Lake Lake Saint Clair, just outside of Detroit. and then also once they moved to Florida, I think that was their real grasp at that lifestyle. being in Sarasota on the Gulf and then being in in Miami. some really good friends down there that had a house that was out on stilts out in Key Biscayne, so
Jason Elkins (39:38.193)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (39:38.256)
As kids, you know, I spent a lot of time out there at Stiltsville and that whole Jimmy Buffett lifestyle was happening, which was a lot of fun. And yeah, just the freedom of being on a boat and turning the engine off and you know, winding the sails and off you go.
Jason Elkins (39:44.08)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (39:54.927)
Yeah. Okay. That’s very cool. I appreciate you sharing that with us. so let’s jump into how you managed to turn this I don’t know what word you use, obsession, passion, whatever, in into money. Like when was what was the first cause you said you moved to Costa Rica for eight months and then ended up in Hawaii, I think you said. So where where did it start to make money? What kind of opportunities were there for someone like you that just wanted to surf and travel the world but
Chris Prewitt (39:58.089)
Yeah, of course.
Chris Prewitt (40:06.895)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (40:16.135)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (40:24.529)
Parents insisted you better make a little bit of money while you do it.
Chris Prewitt (40:26.586)
Yeah. It it happened once I came to Australia. yeah. Yeah, that’s
Jason Elkins (40:31.405)
okay. Well, we better I don’t wanna leave out I don’t wanna leave out from graduation to Australia, so forget my question for just a moment. Let’s talk about Costa Rica and other things that led up to that.
Chris Prewitt (40:41.191)
Yes.
Chris Prewitt (40:45.308)
Yeah, so Costa Rica was was amazing. I’d been there probably three or four times from end of high school through college until we spent a lot of time there. And my friend Dave and I, his mother was dating a gentleman that had a restaurant bar hotel in Tamarindo. And we went down there in well, this would have been nineteen ninety three, nineteen ninety four, I guess, and kind of stayed there and helped out.
surfed and you know got by and that was pretty much just on savings because at the time I I couldn’t work in Costa Rica I didn’t have a a work permit so we just kinda helped out here and there. and then he decided that he was going to move to Hawaii because his girlfriend was going there. So I followed him because I’d had enough of Costa Rica and we went to the north shore of Oahu which is the probably the most famous surfing area in the world.
And as for a you know, a small little blonde haired Floridian going to the Mount Everest of surfing was pretty interesting. But I ended up working there as a tour guide. So once again, in the business of speaking with people and and sharing. so I worked in a it was amazing, you know, it it was in a cultural it was in a it was a cultural center, yet a botanical garden.
Jason Elkins (41:58.657)
Okay. So what was what was that like? Yeah, tell me what what that was ’cause it sounds it.
Chris Prewitt (42:12.252)
So I had to learn a lot about the culture and a lot about the botanical garden. and it was the most beautiful, it’s called Waimea Valley, which is at Waimea Bay on the north shore of Oahu. and it’s a really special place for the Hawaiian culture. there’s a lot of heyao’s, which are burial sites and so forth. So I had some amazing mentors that I worked with there that
true Hawaiian people and they put me on you know, brought me under their wings a little bit and shared not only what I was learning on paper, but what the true Hawaiian culture was about. And that really resonated with me in the connection to nature and the ocean and everything else. That that really was amazing.
Jason Elkins (42:57.883)
I sus I suspect quite a few people listening to this have been to Oahu, but my and I have been as well. I’ve driven around Oahu once but and as I recall the north shore is not Waikiki. Is that right? Or not not Honolulu. It’s it’s okay. And I just want to point that out. So you weren’t like spending this time in on Waikiki Beach, which would probably be an interesting place to be as well, I guess. I don’t know. But it sounds like you were much more connected with the the culture and the people.
Chris Prewitt (43:02.994)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (43:10.168)
No, no not, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (43:26.15)
Yes, yes. The the North Shore of Oahu, it’s like I said, it’s a Mount Everest of serving, you know, some of the biggest, heaviest waves in the world. and being from Florida and yes, I traveled to Costa Rica and had thought I’d caught some big waves before in my life, but to to put myself in that situation and have some very close Hawaiian friends that helped me learn the ropes you know, so to say, out there. yeah, it was it was amazing and you know, they’d they’d take us to
Jason Elkins (43:50.555)
Uh-huh.
Chris Prewitt (43:55.91)
their barbecues on the weekends and at night we’d go walk the reef flats and catch lobsters with torches, you know, with flashlights and just the real the real Hawaiian way of life and I was so fortunate to be able to be taken into that.
Jason Elkins (44:03.332)
Uh-huh. Uh-huh.
Jason Elkins (44:09.798)
Yeah.
That it that was a special time, I imagine, for you, but I I can even imagine ’cause I grew up, you know, you and I are probably fairly close in age, you might be a little younger. But to yeah, to be on Oahu as somebody that was really into surfing during those years, I can imagine like I don’t know, it just seems like ha you can’t replace I don’t is there any place in the world that still has that? I mean, that was just a special time, right?
Chris Prewitt (44:17.158)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (44:37.425)
No.
Chris Prewitt (44:42.265)
And you know, like everywhere else in the world over the last ten years, even so, you know, populations have exploded and things are just different, you know. And yeah, it was it was busyish then, but nowhere near like it is now. So to be able to feel the real country of the north shore of Oahu with the with the people was I mean, I I still look back and pinch myself with, you know, everything from Costa Rica to Hawaii and how I
Jason Elkins (44:51.537)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (45:09.329)
got to where I am, you know. It was it was a very special time, very fortunate.
Jason Elkins (45:13.261)
So cool. Were there a lot of other people from either around the world or from mainland US that were kind of similar to you in the sense that I’m I’m I just I’m on my pilgrimage, my migration to Mecca on the north shore of Oahu, and probably most of you are underemployed, but there’s a lot of beer and a lot of sand and a lot of water, right? It’s just kind of how I picture that.
Chris Prewitt (45:35.13)
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, and and the surfing season on the north shore of Oahu is, you know, winter, so the North American winter, so call it November till about March. So you get a huge influx of tourists that come for that over those months ’cause that’s when the prime surfing time is. But then the summertime when there’s no waves and that’s when it’s all down in the Waikiki Honolulu area on the opposite end of the island.
Jason Elkins (46:03.899)
Okay.
Chris Prewitt (46:06.367)
I think that’s where I really made the real connections. You know, not so much because of the surf, but what was happening when there wasn’t surf and spending time with the families and, you know, really integrating into the culture. yeah, it was really special.
Jason Elkins (46:09.871)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (46:22.961)
That’s yeah, that’s that’s very cool. I just kind of trying to imagine it in my head. And of course I my my imaginings are based on things I saw on TV and some of the the 70s, 80s, kind of the surf what I what some I grew up in Wy I grew up in Wyoming, so I’m kind of like the guy from Iowa, right? You know, which probably why I ended up in fly fishing and mountain stuff. But all right, that’s that’s cool. And
Chris Prewitt (46:36.391)
Mm.
Yeah, right. Beautiful.
Chris Prewitt (46:46.577)
But it it’s it’s funny you say Wyoming and and what it drew you to the mountain climbing and fly fishing. I go to the mountains and I’m a fish out of water. But I’m so blown away by that environment, you know. I get a sore neck ’cause I’m just doing this the whole time, you know, just looking up and the st the streams and I’m yeah, I’m I’m really drawn to the mountains also. I don’t spend nearly enough time in them ’cause, you know, that’s not what I do, but when I get the chance it’s
Jason Elkins (47:04.005)
Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (47:12.003)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (47:15.386)
It’s very similar, I think.
Jason Elkins (47:17.231)
Yeah. The the world is a fascinating place and and I feel like when I you know, I I lived on an island thirty miles off the coast of of Belize and managed a fly f a fly fishing and scuba diving resort there. And it you know, as someone from Wyoming, I had traveled around a bit before that. not a whole lot, but a bit. And to I just remember when I got there, you know, there’s a coral reef right there and the scuba diving and the water, it was just like this is so
Chris Prewitt (47:27.591)
Wow.
Jason Elkins (47:46.979)
cool and so different. And I I I remember my boss there, the guy that owned the place. I think I’d been there two weeks and he had me driving the forty-eight foot dive boat and taking the guests back to Belize City. I had I’d I’d never I’d rid I’d rode a drift boat, which is basically a rowboat before. But you know, here Jason from Wyoming. Yeah. It was it was so much fun. yeah. It w
Chris Prewitt (47:57.223)
Ha ha ha.
Chris Prewitt (48:05.425)
Yeah.
Trial by far. Yeah. Captain Jason Captain Jason.
Jason Elkins (48:12.801)
It was yeah, it was crazy. I remember I was going back, we were taking guests back to Belize City to get to the airport. We’d had like twenty guests. There probably eight or nine staff on the boat. I’m driving the boat and the seas are really high for me. And for my for my wife at the time, you know, she grew up in Montana. And I turned around at one point and looked at her and she’s
Chris Prewitt (48:28.326)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (48:35.939)
sitting there with the life jacket on, like re ready to bail out. Nobody else has the life jacket on. And I’m like, my gosh, Tanya, you’re making me look bad. But she’s the only she was the only one on the boat that really knew that I had no business driving the boat. So I don’t blame her. She she was smart. But anyway, so yes, I have a lot of I have some fun memories around the water as well. So I j I just yeah, that’s that’s very cool. So and you were a guide at the at the cultural center and you said it was
Chris Prewitt (48:38.085)
Chris Prewitt (48:45.446)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (48:50.037)
gosh. It’s funny.
Chris Prewitt (49:01.616)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (49:05.464)
Not an arbor arboretum, but botanical garden, right. So tell me a little bit about Yeah, yeah, tell me about that. What was that like?
Chris Prewitt (49:07.201)
A botanical garden. Yeah, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (49:16.571)
So so I’d take people on walking tours or there was a tram that was two cars, so probably held sixty people, I’m saying, and you drive up through the valley up until the very top where the waterfall was where they’d have the diving show off the cliffs a couple of times a day. so, you know, I had to learn a really long script about driving up into the valley and talking about different plants or
Jason Elkins (49:27.963)
No.
Jason Elkins (49:37.06)
Okay.
Chris Prewitt (49:46.183)
the the hayos, which were the the burial places, and just Hawaiian history and and that sort of thing, which was fun. But the walking tours I I found really good because, you know, they’d come and meet me at the sign at 2 p.m. that said meet here for this tour. And you know, usually small groups, you know, two people, six people, and and really be able to just have a chat with people and and walk around and and show them different things, from the different plants and
Jason Elkins (50:02.15)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (50:15.45)
freshwater prawns that were in the streams. and w one of the most amazing experiences I had, I was at one of the heyows, which just looks like you know, kind of a rock structure, which had been there for hundreds of years. And I’m doing a speech about what the heyow is and what it means. And like I’m talking to you right now, all of a sudden it felt like someone just knocked the wind out of me. Like I just I
Gone. And I’m usually not short for words, you know, I can I can talk. And I’m look I’m I I’m looking at my I’m looking at my guests and they’re looking at me and I’m just I literally nothing came out. And then it came good and I was kind of like really freaked out about it and went and spoke to my my Hawaiian friend slash colleague Darylin and I told her, you know, I said, What? you know and she said, y you felt it I’m like
Jason Elkins (50:49.553)
I’ve noticed that.
Chris Prewitt (51:13.306)
Felt something, you know, I’m not too sure. And she said, You j you just felt the mana, you know, that that spirit just just got into you. And I said, Well, whatever it was, what it was a real wake up moment, you know. I mean, I I think that I’m a pretty well connected with my emotions and all that sort of stuff in in kind of a spiritual world. But yeah, it really you know, hit me for six, as they say here in Australia. Like it it it was it was shocking. But I I think
Jason Elkins (51:39.985)
You t
Chris Prewitt (51:43.332)
Because I had put myself into that culture with the people and maybe that gave me an opportunity to feel that, but it was really special.
Jason Elkins (51:50.821)
Well, I I I’m happy said that ’cause I wanted to ask, did you get the impression the clients that were with you or the guests that were with you didn’t feel anything? It was just you, it sounds like. So yeah, you earned it. That was an earned what was it? Earned mana. Ma hoo hop, what do you call it? Mana moment. That’s that’s pretty cool. You actually said I was I felt some shares go up my spine just listening to you share the story. So I I guess I got it too. So wow, that’s cool.
Chris Prewitt (52:01.2)
Yeah, yeah. Y yeah. Yeah, Mana. Mana Mana. Yes, yeah. Yeah.
Mm. Yeah, it was it was yeah. And you know, I I think about that feeling and my not not my goal, but a lot of my clients when I take them to special places and they have that connection and that that feeling or that emotional overdrive that they have internally, you know, to me that’s that’s really what is why I do what I do is is to
Give people those bliss moments.
Jason Elkins (52:48.795)
Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Did you was that a job you were actively pursuing when you were there? Or did was it just I need money and that was you saw it. Well you’re
Chris Prewitt (52:58.222)
I need money. I need money. I was I was living on a couch it at Sunset Beach, surfing the best ways of my life, watching my bank account drop, drop well I wasn’t watching it ’cause I was pre internet, so it was my checkbook watching it and I was terrible at balancing a checkbook.
Jason Elkins (53:13.785)
You And and you played an act you played an active role in it too. You weren’t just passively
Chris Prewitt (53:21.112)
Yeah. So I did a lot Yeah, I did work in a surf shop for a little bit in Hawaii, and then I but it was very part time and then I got the job at the Waimea Valley. and then two nights a week I’d wash dishes, excuse me, at a at a pizza restaurant at the end of my road just to, you know, get an extra thirty bucks a week.
Jason Elkins (53:41.381)
Yeah. How did you get the job as the guide? tell us a little bit a about that.
Chris Prewitt (53:46.307)
It was advertised and I went in and at that time I had long blonde hair to about here. And you know, they said if you get the job you’re gonna have to cut your hair and I think that’s fair enough, I need the money. so yeah, they gave me a script that was about four pages long that I had to memorize and in two weeks time I came back in and sat down in the room with my boss and she said, Dinah.
Jason Elkins (54:00.025)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (54:16.41)
Pretend like you’re in the tram and give me the spiel. And I th I did did well enough to to pass, but I think I studied harder for that than I did for all my years in college. ‘Cause there’s there was a time frame, two weeks, get it done, and y and you need a job.
Jason Elkins (54:20.069)
Wow.
Jason Elkins (54:31.877)
Yeah. Why do you think if you were to guess or maybe you were completely aware of it, but I’m imagining if I own a business like that and I am looking for a guide, I’m gonna hire a Hawaiian. How do you think you got the job? What was the did you have some sort of did you give that any thought? I’m just curious how that happened.
Chris Prewitt (54:46.342)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (54:50.894)
I think it might have happened.
No, that’s a very fair point. I would say that eighty percent of the employees there were local Hawaiian. I’m ho I’d like to say that it was my charisma and my interpersonal communication. I’m not too sure otherwise though, Jason. you know, and I think the ability just to talk to people.
Jason Elkins (55:09.745)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (55:14.327)
Let’s just go with let’s just go with that. That sounds like a good answer. I I I like it. All right.
Jason Elkins (55:22.853)
Communicate. So you had mentioned, because yeah, you mentioned earlier something about going to school for communications and we we discussed that a bit. And I wanted to ask you, was there ever a moment when you thought, you know what, I wasted my time in school? I could have been in Hawaii four years earlier and things would have still worked out fine? Or do you like what what advice would you give your younger self if you’re nineteen and you’re like, well, I could go to Costa Rica now or I could go to school for the next four years? What
Chris Prewitt (55:24.186)
Yeah, okay.
Jason Elkins (55:52.549)
Would you have given yourself the same advice? Okay.
Chris Prewitt (55:53.434)
I I would do it the exactly the same way that I did it. I th I you know, I I think you know, college isn’t for everyone, I guess, but I didn’t have a trade, meaning, you know, I wasn’t gonna become a builder or a plumber or something like that, where you especially here in Australia out of high school you get an internship and then you know, but I I didn’t have that. So for what I wanted to do and the life experience and to learn a bit of discipline, through through college and
Jason Elkins (56:05.009)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (56:23.09)
to meet so many you know, there’s forty seven thousand people at my school at that point, you know. So I came up from a very small town in Veer Beach, Florida to you know, the world is my oyster now and and just to be able to meet so many people and talk to so many different cultures and I think I think I w I wouldn’t change a thing. I d I think it’s important to you know.
Jason Elkins (56:41.489)
Okay. Yeah, no. Fair enough. Yeah. Did okay, so back to Hawaii. How long were you there and what was your next step?
Chris Prewitt (56:51.226)
I was there for about two years. and then it wasn’t that long. And then I moved back to Florida because I needed to save some money. And at that point I went to Australia.
Jason Elkins (57:00.901)
Does that does that mean you move back to mom and dad’s?
Chris Prewitt (57:04.292)
I did. I did move back to Mom and Dad’s. Yeah. I think I was there for I I was with them for about a month, then I did get an apartment and I worked at a friend’s surf shop. I managed his surf shop for him and in the evenings worked as a bartender at a local restaurant, which was so much fun. Like everyone surfed and it was a really good great group of people. So I saved money for I think it was
Jason Elkins (57:05.273)
Yeah. No, I there’s no no I’ve I’ve d I’ve done it.
Jason Elkins (57:30.065)
yeah, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (57:33.808)
About eight months. and
Jason Elkins (57:35.409)
Okay. Hey, before we go any f before I forget to ask this, I I’m aware of this kind of I don’t remember what they call it, but this kind of sense of isolation some people get living in Hawaii. Did you did you get that? And when you went back to Fl yeah, island fever, that’s what I thought it was. And I was curious if you got that and if going back to Florida I just what would you what was your experience around island fever, I guess.
Chris Prewitt (57:47.17)
Mm-hmm. Highland fever.
Chris Prewitt (58:00.845)
Yeah, you know, I mean it’s it’s definitely a thing. I mean, that island is Oahu is a lot bigger than a lot of the islands I’ve spent time on in the in the last fifteen to twenty years. but the funny thing is, is you leave it and you go to Florida and then you’re missing it. You’re missing you’re missing the island fever, you know, just the just how simple life was, you know. not
Jason Elkins (58:12.507)
Since that. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (58:21.883)
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (58:28.739)
Okay. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (58:29.657)
Not getting caught up in the rat race and you know, so yeah, it’s I think being able to acknowledge and appreciate both sides of it is the key because if you if you dwell too much on either one of them, you’re just gonna be stuck, you know. So take the good from each, take the bad from each, and mission together and there’s life.
Jason Elkins (58:54.927)
Yeah, I g I g yes. And I get a feeling a lot of people, especially, you know, if if if you’re living on in the continental US or North America and you think, I have an opportunity to move to Hawaii, they get a job offer or whatever. And it’s like that’s great. And they go there and and they don’t necessarily stick around a long time. But it’s kind of the same thing if you move to Arizona sometimes ’cause it gets really hot there in the summers, or if you move to New England and so yeah, it’s just kind of there’s there’s trade offs to everything.
Chris Prewitt (59:12.101)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (59:18.126)
Yes.
Chris Prewitt (59:22.669)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (59:24.421)
All right. So you’re in Florida. You said you worked at a a buddy’s surf shop, bartending. did you feel like bartending ’cause bartending has come up in several conversations I’ve had as a as like just kind of a usually it comes up I ask somebody, I say, Well, if you were gonna hire somebody to be a guide or a trip leader, what industry would you wanna pull them from? And oftentimes they say either bartenders or teachers.
Chris Prewitt (59:48.063)
Mm. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (59:48.431)
You know, to come in and be guides and stuff like that. Did you see some kind of correlations between bartending and and spending time with your clients and making, you know, managing expectations, keeping everybody happy or I’m just curious. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:00:00.879)
Yeah, definitely. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s you know the to be able to break the ice with a total stranger, and and to be able to get a conversation rolling, you know, I think it’s a it’s a skill not not that everyone has, you know, so to be able just to be comfortable talking to anyone at any time. it’s you know, like you said, the the bartenders, the teachers, they they have to be a little bit extroverted.
to be able to, you know, communicate with people at all times, with you know, at all different levels of society. you know, i it can be quite daunting to, you know, talk to someone that is very famous, well known, you know, whatever it may be. But at the end of the day, we’re all human, you know, we’ve all got a story to tell. So, you know, to to be able to integrate with
everyone and chat to everyone and learn from everyone is incredible.
Jason Elkins (01:01:01.135)
Yeah, it’s a it’s a great opportunity ’cause most people don’t probably have conversations with more than a three two or three people a day. You know, I mean I’m just I’m even thinking myself sometimes. I mean I have these conversations which and there’s a reason I do these is because probably it it allows me to have interesting conversations. But but other than that it’s like, you know, you might talk to a couple people, but boy, a bartender, you know, eight hour shift.
Chris Prewitt (01:01:10.028)
Hm. No, I agree.
Chris Prewitt (01:01:20.001)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:01:28.773)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:01:29.999)
You’ve engaged with, you know, probably a hundred, two hundred people, not all at the same level, of course, but you’re also dealing with a variety of personalities and expectations and sometimes even managing people that are rude or that need to be cut off or or asked to leave or whatever. And yeah, it’s I think it would be good training to be a anybody working in tourism probably. But
Chris Prewitt (01:01:39.333)
Mm.
Chris Prewitt (01:01:44.975)
Yes.
Chris Prewitt (01:01:54.917)
Sure is.
Jason Elkins (01:01:56.433)
All right, cool. So what w where’d you go from there? I’m I’m I don’t wanna jump right to Australia, but I wanna make sure we get there.
Chris Prewitt (01:02:03.405)
Yeah, well after Florida, I while I was in Florida for that eight months, ten months, I was also got back into competitive surfing, which I’d done since I was about fourteen. when I was in college I didn’t obviously. so I got back into it and the day before I left to go to Australia was the East Coast Championships in Sebastian Inlet. I had nothing to lose and ended up winning for my age group. I think that was I think it was twenty five.
Jason Elkins (01:02:29.489)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (01:02:31.661)
and under something like that at that point. so I left and left Florida on an absolute high, you know, and off I went. And the next day got dropped off at Orlando Airport and with entirely too much baggage and got I think I ended up paying for the surfboards about four times with the excess luggage they charged me. And and back then you could argue at an airport. You can’t argue at airports anymore, obviously.
Jason Elkins (01:02:37.904)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:02:59.893)
And yeah, came to came to Australia.
Jason Elkins (01:03:01.563)
So what was your intention when you got on the plane to go to Australia? What were you going f I n I know you’re gonna say surfing. But but other th I mean, a little bit more than that. What were you going to Australia for?
Chris Prewitt (01:03:08.077)
No. Well th there’s there’s a little bit more to this. There there’s an ex wife involved that was Austr that was Australian. So that’s how I ended up in Australia. In Hawaii.
Jason Elkins (01:03:15.665)
Okay. And and you met her and you met her ten tending bar. okay. In Hawaii. Yeah, yeah. Bartenders, yeah. That’s a yep. All right. So okay, so you met her in Hawaii. She ended up in Florida, which is why you only stayed a month at your mom’s and dad’s house.
Chris Prewitt (01:03:25.357)
No, no, no. Keep things professional. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:03:38.691)
Yes. Got an apartment. Yep. Now you’re doing well. You’re doing well.
Jason Elkins (01:03:39.237)
Before you got your own apartment. I’m c I’m I’m connecting the dots here. I’m pretty good at connecting dots. So all right. And then it was like she you know, so you went to Australia because she said the surfing was great and you’re like, Okay, cool, let’s go. All right.
Chris Prewitt (01:03:49.495)
Hm. Yeah. Yeah. So so a flew into Brisbane, drove about an hour and a half north to a place called Noosa Heads, which is one of the most beautiful places that I’d ever seen at that point, and I’m still here. And that was nineteen ninety eight when we when we arrived.
Jason Elkins (01:04:11.161)
And Noosa Head is so let’s for our geographic geographically challenged listeners, including I’ve been to Australia and I still am gonna ask this question. Okay, so you said Brisbane. So Brisbane is south of Sydney or north of Sydney. North of Sydney, I I knew that, but I was afraid to yeah, whatever. Okay. North of Sydney. And then Noose Ahead is further north from there.
Chris Prewitt (01:04:18.232)
Yes.
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:04:24.6)
Yes.
North of Sydney. Yeah.
No.
Chris Prewitt (01:04:36.004)
Correct. About an hour and a half drive.
Jason Elkins (01:04:38.105)
Okay, and some people have heard of Surfers Paradise, so I gotta ask you that question. Surfers Paradise is the other direction from Brisbane?
Chris Prewitt (01:04:41.988)
Correct.
Yes, about an hour and a half south. And it’s it it still blows my mind that they called it surfer’s paradise because it’s a bunch of high rises on the beach and the waves aren’t great. Saying that, the Gold Coast, which is the whole area, has some of the best surf in Australia, just a little bit further south. but I would say Noosa nah but Noosa Heads is a surfer’s paradise. I mean we’ve got
Jason Elkins (01:04:57.873)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:05:03.579)
Just not but not at surfers not at surfers paradise.
Chris Prewitt (01:05:10.06)
miles of open beaches, we’ve got big headlands that have bays with point breaks and you know, it’s it it’s very special, very crowded when the surf gets good because everyone wants to come here. but, you know, you deal with that.
Jason Elkins (01:05:26.929)
Imagine a scenario where shortly after you got there, for some weird reason you just woke up one morning and said, I’m not interested in surfing anymore. Would you have stayed in that area?
Chris Prewitt (01:05:39.044)
Possibly.
Jason Elkins (01:05:40.207)
I guess that’s my way of saying is there anything else there you like? Other than your wife your wife
Chris Prewitt (01:05:43.905)
Yeah. I mean Yeah. That that was an ex-wife. Correct. Yes, yes. you know I Yeah, thank you. No, yeah. Cheers. Yeah, I I mean it’s it’s a beautiful spot and just to the south of us we
Jason Elkins (01:05:50.211)
Well, but but you’ve got but you’ve but but you do have a wife that’s there now, right? So I’m I’m d I skipped I moved on to her. You d you should too. Just kidding. All right.
Chris Prewitt (01:06:12.376)
We’ve got a big harbor that has sailing and and that s so yeah, I think I’d still find myself in in this area. yeah, it’s it’s just stunningly beautiful. And I mean if I wasn’t in the server, I probably wouldn’t have ended up here anyway. So Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:06:28.443)
Well, that’s why I had to say if you were there and then all of a sudden you’re like, I kinda like air. maybe I’ll stick around ’cause you mentioned sailing. Have you n have you continued with sailing? Is that something you’ve continued to be interested in?
Chris Prewitt (01:06:33.987)
Hm.
Chris Prewitt (01:06:39.26)
A little bit, yeah. I yeah, for sure. I mean well about ten years ago now I got my captain’s license to be able to to sail boats through the RYA, the Royal Yachting Association, so up to two hundred res tons. So I did a lot of training with that and my wife and I and another couple just spent a week up in the Wit Sunday Islands up near the barrier reef.
Jason Elkins (01:07:04.205)
yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:07:04.206)
Where we charter chartered a forty four foot lagoon catamaran and went and disappeared out into the islands for a week. And yeah, I love sailing. I mean, it’s it’s it’s very similar to surfing, I think. Just you know, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:07:12.336)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:07:15.761)
Yeah, I would I would think so. Yeah. So tell me about the kind of the business and career path. So you got to like did you know what you were gonna do when you got to Australia or is it just we’re we’re going to Australia?
Chris Prewitt (01:07:22.222)
Mm.
No, once again I was I I was in surf shops. I was at a restaurant bartending and being a waiter and that sort of thing. and then we lived with a couple at the time and she was moving back to Victoria, which where Melbourne is down in the south of the country, and she was working for a local surf school and she said, I need to introduce you
Jason Elkins (01:07:34.448)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (01:07:52.751)
To my boss because I think you guys would get on and I think you’d be great at doing this job. So that’s kind of where it started. So I got the introduction and I went and met his name’s Ross Phillips from he he still owns Tropic Surf, which is probably the premier luxury surfing company in the world up until this point. and he said to me, at the time he only had a local surf school on the beach here. and he said to me, I’ve got a a
a dream that I want to take people on surfing and pro improvement holidays in the Maldives on boats. Would you be interested? And I went surfing, boats, Maldives, yes. Let’s do this. Yeah. So yeah. That’s exactly how that panned out. So worked at his surf school here on the beach for probably three or four years, but then
Jason Elkins (01:08:32.527)
Yeah, I think I could make that work. I’m gonna have to give notice I’m gonna have to give notice down at the bar, but yeah, I’ll be ready.
Chris Prewitt (01:08:50.208)
once or twice a year would go on these trips to the Maldives on boats and do seven, ten day surfing improvement holidays all around the islands and come back and work at the surf school. And then it got to a point where the overseas stuff was really starting to take off with the business. and I became kind of his right hand man in leading those expeditions through the Maldives and
Yeah, so we went from one trip a year to three trips a year to thirteen trips a year, you know, and it got busy.
Jason Elkins (01:09:22.737)
Chris, was that a was that a brand new concept? I mean ’cause honestly until I until I met you, I never honestly it never really even occurred to me. Surfing improvement holidays. It’s really cool. But I was just curious Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:09:27.916)
It wasn’t
Chris Prewitt (01:09:34.698)
It was pretty brand new. It was pretty brand new at that point. You know, there was a lot of people offering surf trips by boat, but there wasn’t really curated trips for different levels of surfers wanting different things. so there was definitely an opportunity in the market at the time.
Jason Elkins (01:09:42.545)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Jason Elkins (01:09:56.785)
I’m gonna ask the the question that’s in my head. It might be in somebody else’s head, because w before this conversation, before I met you a couple weeks ago, I would have thought that maybe surfing was not a high net worth individual type of sport. I’ve and I can s as somebody who spent a lot of time as a fly fishing guide, I feel like I can say this bec
Chris Prewitt (01:10:11.243)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (01:10:23.653)
Being a fly fishing guy to working in the fly fishing industry is not a great way to make a bunch of money. So it’s kinda like, surfers and maybe ski bums. And I I hope you’re okay with I’m gonna say ski bums. I did I did not say surf bums, but there’s this kind of this idea that you don’t really make much money doing that. Fly fishing, I think people do spend a lot of money to go fly fishing. I know that. But the people that work in fly fishing don’t necessarily make a lot of money. But I guess where I’m going with that is
Chris Prewitt (01:10:32.023)
Yep. No, no, a hundred percent.
Not
Jason Elkins (01:10:53.455)
Was there a moment in time where surfing became a high end expensive thing to go do, or has it been like that the whole time and maybe people like me just never noticed?
Chris Prewitt (01:11:05.603)
That’s a great question, Jason. I I think a lot of people that surfed when they were kids, so I’m talking 70s, 70s, and 80s, you know. Yes, yeah, in the 70s and the eighties. and then they went off and you know, became very successful businessmen and women around the world, got to a certain lifestyle, and then
Jason Elkins (01:11:28.699)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (01:11:34.916)
kinda went, I used to really like to serve. But it’s been a while. And traditionally a lot of the offers that were out there were, you know, pretty rough. You know, but you know, the these individuals are used to a certain level of lifestyle that they don’t want to go on a boat trip that every hour it’s your turn on the bucket to get the water out of the hole, you know. So they were looking for more
Jason Elkins (01:11:38.481)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:11:47.707)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:12:02.383)
Or s or sleeping or sleeping in a hammock on on the coast of Peru or something. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:12:05.385)
Hundred percent. You know, so you know, to be able to offer and and it’s still expanding the the quality of boats and locations and and that sort of thing. So it’s a funny story because we use with the company Tropic Surf that I was with for twenty five years, we would approach resorts and say, Hey, we’d love to offer surfing service at your resort. And
Early days, one of the biggest answers we’d always get was
Jason Elkins (01:12:41.275)
want backpackers here, right? Something like that, along those lines.
Chris Prewitt (01:12:42.743)
Well yeah, that and surfer s surfer well, number one, there’s no waves in the Maldives. Number two is surfers don’t stay here. Because exactly what you said, they had a concept of spicoli, you know, as the surfer that didn’t have the money and blah blah blah. but how they were wrong, because you know, for instance at that four seasons resort in the Maldives, probably s sell now over a thousand room nights per year to that resort through
Jason Elkins (01:12:56.441)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (01:13:12.823)
the company Tropic Surf I was working with you know. and then that model got copied to about seventeen different high end resorts around the world through through Tropic Surf. So
Jason Elkins (01:13:17.209)
Makes sense.
Jason Elkins (01:13:27.119)
I I’m just guessing, I suspect ’cause you ma what you said makes sense. They were younger surfing in the summers between school, whatever. Maybe maybe they even spent a year in a place like Costa Rica, but then they went and you know, built a business or I don’t want to say be responsible in life. It sounds like a fishing bum saying that. But life happens. But I also suspect so when they’re like, you know what, I used to really like surfing and I’d like to kind of g I
Chris Prewitt (01:13:35.031)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:13:44.907)
Yeah. yeah. Life happens. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:13:56.955)
Guess where I’m going to this is I can imagine that. I want my kids to be exposed to it as well. Right? ‘Cause that was such an important part of their childhood. So I can see people taking their their high school kids that are getting ready to graduate in high school and they’re like, This is our last opportunity to go do something together, father, son, mother, daughter, whatever type of trip. Is that I I suspect you saw quite a bit of that. Yeah. Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:14:00.801)
Yes, yes, yep.
Chris Prewitt (01:14:17.517)
Yeah. One hundred one hundred percent. And there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing a family in the water together, you know, supporting each other, cheering each other on. because at the end of the day there’s really no control in the water in regards to, you know, mom or dad being the alpha. ‘Cause at the end of the day does not discriminate, you know. And and you know, I’ve I’ve had families that I’ve been working with for
Jason Elkins (01:14:24.998)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:14:36.283)
Well, like you said, the the water the ocean doesn’t discriminate. It’s just we’re all in the same same place, yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:14:47.747)
close to 14 years now. And to see them go from, you know, the kids were young and now they’re adults and they’ve got jobs. And to see that family dynamic together, sharing surfing, and not just the surfing part of it, but actually sharing the time together is so special to watch, you know, because at home, like we said, life gets busy and life happens and it’s
Jason Elkins (01:14:53.7)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Prewitt (01:15:14.955)
It’s all go go go, catch up on a weekend here or there, but to be on a boat or a resort or a tiny little island for seven, ten days together, have every meal together, share a surfing session together, watch the sunset together, you know, it’s it’s really special to to watch. and to to watch people reconnect.
Jason Elkins (01:15:33.509)
Yeah, yeah. I remember something you just said remind me somebody had told me, something along the lines of I like trout fishing because trout live in beautiful places. You know, and it’s like there’s you know, fishing is one of those things. Golf can be one of those things. You mentioned that earlier. surfing seems like it would be. Even skiing is it’s not always about I I’m not gonna say I’m not putting these words in your mouth, but
Chris Prewitt (01:15:44.875)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:16:02.627)
I suspect sometimes it’s like it’s not always about the surfing. I had a hot air balloon and I had a crew of people. We go out ballooning almost every weekend. I was at a business and my crew, there was this guy in my crew that every once in a while he’d just turn around and look at me when we’re having one of those connection moments with everybody and we’re toast toasting the end of a flight. And he would just look at me and say, It’s not about the balloon. You know, it’s about it’s about those connections. So I guess you’d say it’s not about the board. It’s about it brings people together, right? Yeah, it’s pretty cool.
Chris Prewitt (01:16:19.871)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:16:25.728)
Yeah, amazing. Yep.
Yeah. You know, that part is guaranteed, bringing people together and you know, and reconnecting and resetting. the surfing is is a bonus. you know, because again, to be able to say July twenty twenty-seven, we’re gonna go for a week to this location, you know, yes, traditionally that time of year is really good for surfing, but you just never know until what happens, you know. but
Jason Elkins (01:16:35.599)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:16:41.734)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:16:56.561)
You never know.
Chris Prewitt (01:17:00.086)
To have everything in place to facilitate other activities or just facilitate that place and that space for people to come together, families, you know, it’s it’s really nice.
Jason Elkins (01:17:12.069)
I don’t and what I’m thinking is there’s probably there’s a lot of different types of people, but there’s probably you could break travelers into maybe the type of travelers that would plan a family vacation and it’s like, well, what are we gonna do? What are we going to do? And it might be sit on a beach or on a cruise ship and drink and eat. And then there’s the other type of people maybe that need to have
Chris Prewitt (01:17:32.972)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:17:39.195)
We’re going surfing, we’re going skiing, we’re going fishing, we’re going something. And even if they even if they get there and the fishing’s bad or this or the weather’s tough or whatever, it’s almost like we gotta have an excuse to go. So it’s gonna be surfing and it’s gonna bring the whole family together and hopefully you get some good surfing in, but they’re not they’re not the types that are just gonna go sit at an all-inclusive beach resort and do nothing. Maybe. I don’t know. What do think?
Chris Prewitt (01:17:42.049)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:18:03.552)
Not not really. No, I I agree with you and Jason on that is you know, if people wanna surf, they they’ve got some sort of sense of adventure. You know, that they wanna be they wanna be active, they wanna be physical, they you know I do go to some of these resorts where you see both sides of that spectrum where you’ve got the active people and you get the other people at seven AM that have gone out and put their towel on the on the you know, sunbed next to the pool, ’cause that’s where they’re gonna be all day for the rest of the day.
Jason Elkins (01:18:07.761)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:18:12.965)
I think so, yeah. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:18:22.117)
I’m sure, yeah, yeah, I’m sure.
Chris Prewitt (01:18:33.518)
but that’s what makes the world go round, you know? And and and I I find that those people that do that are my biggest personal challenge to get them involved in surfing. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:18:33.615)
Ha ha.
Jason Elkins (01:18:45.317)
Get them get them involved. Yeah, yeah, that’s cool. I remember actually back back to fishing, I remember I’d go out fishing and whether I was guiding clients or whatever I was doing that day, I was out fishing and I used to drive back into my neighborhood at the end of the day and I’d see people just hanging out and I was like, Man, what you know, like these poor people, they don’t have anything to do. They do, whatever. It was that was a little bit of ego, but it was just like, Man, I’m s
Chris Prewitt (01:19:06.05)
Yeah. Yeah. That’s all yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:19:11.279)
I’m so lucky that I have this thing that I’m passionate about going and doing. And I just couldn’t imagine if I didn’t, you know, I had a drift boat. So if I w what do people do if they don’t have a drift boat? Or later in life, what do people do if they don’t have a hot air balloon? It was just you know, I was hard it was hard for me to get my head around it. but yeah, so anyway. so before we go, I wanna touch on
Chris Prewitt (01:19:18.092)
Hm.
Jason Elkins (01:19:31.801)
Like what are you doing with your business now? Do you have anything exciting on the horizon? what should we know about kind of where the state of things are in the in the surf improvement vacation industry now?
Chris Prewitt (01:19:43.733)
Yeah, well, you know, I’m hoping this Middle East co continues to quiet down. because, you know, over the last couple of months the the uncertainty of the world has been, you know, pretty tricky. not only flight routes but oil prices and and everything else. and i and and it looks like things are stabilizing. At least that’s what I read this morning. That could change tomorrow. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:20:00.858)
Everything, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:20:07.471)
Yeah. Well I should mention we’re recording this ju June seventeenth, twenty twenty six. Yeah. Okay.
Chris Prewitt (01:20:13.394)
hey, you know, I I’ve got a couple of busy months coming up, July and August. I’ll be spending a lot of time in Fiji and also in Indonesia on a boat in the up in the Telo Islands, which is off the west coast of Sumatra. I’ve also got a few trips lined up that I haven’t booked yet, but boat trip through Sumba, which is off the map in Indonesia. and my
Best destination that I really like to share with people is the West Papua Raja Ampad area in eastern Indonesia. And that season runs from December till about March. and there’s a couple of different options there for that’s all boat-based on yachts. and it’s one of those special places that I I always walk away from it thinking that I’ve just like filmed a National Geographic documentary.
just because of the natural beauty. The waves are fun. There’s nothing scary. It’s just for any level of surfer they can have a great time. you know, to the underwater world is some of the top you know, you don’t have to be a scuba diver, you can snorkel. and yeah, just the the the culture and it’s one of those places that you just walk away from going, Wow, there’s still hope. There’s still hope.
You know, it’s it’s it’s a magical location. yeah, so just you know, just just trying to build the business and continuing to, you know, make new partnerships with new boats and resorts around the world and just making sure that these locations, you know, will fall into the wheelhouse of my clientele and and what they’re after.
Jason Elkins (01:21:41.082)
That’s very cool.
Jason Elkins (01:21:56.454)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:22:05.265)
Very cool. I it it’s occurred to me that there’s two questions that I have yet to ask that I definitely want to ask. first one is do you do mixed groups at all? Do because I hear you saying I’ve got I’ve got this set up or we’re gonna be in this area. Will you set up something and then let people mix in in groups or is it all like kind of
Chris Prewitt (01:22:12.182)
Yes.
Chris Prewitt (01:22:26.547)
A a little bit. It’s it mainly private bespoke trips. you know. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:22:30.743)
Okay. That’s what I thought, but I didn’t wanna I didn’t wanna miss that if that was something that that was important to you. And even more importantly, especially when you talk about all these places you’re going at your wife, is is she a surfer? Does she is she supportive of this or is she she’s she’s on board? Does she go with you on these trips?
Chris Prewitt (01:22:35.968)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:22:44.043)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah, sometimes she’s a professional photographer. So she does ocean lifestyle photography. so it’s kind of a yeah, it’s it’s pretty photo ops but then for the coaching side of things, you know, to be able to at the end of the day look through the photos and to be able to work on technique. and then more importantly, at the end of the trip, people walk away with usually a you know
Jason Elkins (01:22:56.421)
So it seems like she should go with you. A lot of photo ops.
Jason Elkins (01:23:07.17)
Chris Prewitt (01:23:13.109)
five to seven minute slideshow, maybe even a video production that she put together, plus the the USB stake over, you know, full of all their photos from the trip. yeah, no, she’s she’s my rock, you know. She she she’s really, really inspirational. She’s self taught with her photography. we met in the Maldives actually. she was a marine biologist and at a resort and I was the surf coach and you know, at that point she hadn’t surfed. So
Jason Elkins (01:23:15.833)
That’s cool. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:23:27.003)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:23:35.299)
Jason Elkins (01:23:40.539)
Does Yeah. Does she offer like if you get a a group of people, you know presumably as we discussed, kind of a private group, will she will she do like photography lessons and workshops with people if they’re interested in that type of thing? Or is that just cu yeah, it seems like a natural fit.
Chris Prewitt (01:23:42.507)
Taught her how to start.
Chris Prewitt (01:23:57.39)
a hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Well she Yeah, you know, and you know, the locations that we go. I mean, the photography opportunity is just amazing. clear water, palm trees, sunsets, sunrises. yeah, no, we’re really fortunate to you know, we both work, we’re based out of home, you know, and you know, we actually on Monday went for a surf at about nine o’clock, got home at about noon and just kinda looked at each other and went
Jason Elkins (01:24:05.595)
Yeah. That’s yeah.
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:24:26.665)
That was pretty good way to spend a Monday, you know. So so the office is at home, which is which is, you know, nice. has its challenges at at times, you know, working from home. but you know, where we’re headed is a is a really positive direction. We’ve got some some really good info out there and you know, some really good feedback on the programs that I’m offering and yeah, can
Jason Elkins (01:24:28.517)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I love that. That’s
Jason Elkins (01:24:38.097)
Yeah, I get that.
Chris Prewitt (01:24:53.887)
hope to continue s strong in the back half of t twenty twenty six.
Jason Elkins (01:24:57.891)
All right, very cool. Chris, we discussed a bunch of things. and it was fascinating. This is very, very fun. And I’m curious, before we wrap up, what did I forget to ask you or what do you wish that I would have asked you that we can get out there before we wrap up?
Chris Prewitt (01:25:14.205)
I I think we covered a lot there, Jason. I mean I I I think
business I’m in is very niche. you know, not there’s not many people doing it. And and I and I think what really sets it apart from a lot of other surf trip experiences is being tailored, being bespoke, being discreet. A lot of my clients, you know, are are pretty high net worth and don’t want everything out there on social media about
their trip and their kids and and that sort of thing. you know, so to to be able to offer
Chris Prewitt (01:25:56.99)
lifetime changing surf experiences, you know, in and to really see people, families come together, reconnect, reset, and you know, change that rhythm of when life happens. I think it’s important. We gotta really get people to, you know, enjoy things a little bit more at times.
Jason Elkins (01:26:02.278)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:26:24.651)
To keep the balance. Balance is is so important. Not only in surfing, but in life. Yeah. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:26:25.041)
Yeah.
Yeah. I’m happy you said that ’cause I was gonna follow up with a a balance joke, but you you’re you’re way ahead of me. You’ve you’ve thought about this a little bit more than I have. no, no, just absolutely well said and I I hope and trust that somebody’s listening to this that’s like, you know, I used to I used to surf. I I hear exactly what’s Chris is saying and
Chris Prewitt (01:26:48.235)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (01:26:54.159)
That would be pretty cool to get my kids, you know, somebody like you described that it hasn’t occurred to them yet until they’ve heard this conversation. obviously we’re gonna have your link to your website right in the show notes so people can connect with you there. for those people listening. yeah, his link’s gonna be right in the show notes. for those people listening, for everybody. the link’s gonna be right in the show notes.
Chris Prewitt (01:26:59.744)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (01:27:16.751)
And there’s also a quick contact thing if you wanna, you know, learn a little bit more about Chris and reach out directly to him. when you when you do reach out to him, tell him you heard his conversation on the show. That would be great. And ’cause then he’ll say, Hey Jason, we’ve got a lot of good feedback and that makes me feel good. So Chris, thank you so much. This was a fascinating conversation and look forward to continuing to find ways to collaborate and and
Maybe I even need to go learn how to surf. I’ve got I’m working on that I’m working on getting to that high net worth point though. So it might be a well. Chris thank
Chris Prewitt (01:27:42.112)
Yeah.
Chris Prewitt (01:27:46.293)
No, no, no.
He he thank you so much, Jason. It was wonderful and just really enjoyed how just everything flowed, you know, and unscripted and let just go off the cuff and it was perfect. So I appreciate your time. Yeah. Wonderful.
Jason Elkins (01:28:02.287)
Yeah, I I won’t have to edit anything out of this. We did good. So Chris, thank you thank you so thank you so much. I look forward to seeing you again soon. Have a great day. All right, bye bye.
Chris Prewitt (01:28:09.429)
Thank you so much. Look, I get too. Bye.
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