Patagonia's Cardiff store is throwing open its doors for four straight days of surf culture starting Thursday, September 10, with a film premiere, wetsuit repair sessions, professional-athlete workshops, and a two-day ocean safety certification course that is an eligibility requirement to purchase the company's big-wave inflation vest. The retail location at 2185 San Elijo Avenue in Encinitas will host the run of events through Sunday, September 13, according to the itinerary.
Thursday night's centerpiece is the premiere of Out the Back, a film Patagonia produced with Stab Magazine, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. with a Q&A featuring professional surfers, Patagonia designers, and Stab filmmakers, according to FOX 5 San Diego. The evening also includes a food truck, drinks, a happy hour before the screening, live music from Austin Burns, and screen printings from Sean Tully. Patagonia will also hold a gear raffle that night. The event is part of a broader tour that will carry the same lineup of events to Ventura, Santa Monica, New Jersey, and Vancouver, per the outlet, with Patagonia's own social media accounts describing an even wider five-city version of the tour that also includes Hawaii's Haleiwa on Oahu's North Shore.
Wetsuit Repairs And A Pre-Surf Workout With A Big-Wave Champion
Friday morning brings a pre-surf workout led by Paige Alms, running from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. at the Cardiff store. Alms is a big-wave surfer and foiler who became the sport's first WSL Women's Big Wave World Champion in 2016 and went on to win Maui's Pe'ahi, or Jaws, Challenge three times, in 2016, 2017 and 2019, according to SurfGirl Magazine. Friday afternoon, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Patagonia will offer free wetsuit repairs and dry-ons at the store, part of the same day's schedule reported by FOX 5.
Friday evening shifts to gear talk: from 5 to 6 p.m., Alms co-hosts a happy hour conversation about foiling tips and equipment alongside Annie Reickert, a surfer and foiler in her own right. Reickert made her big-wave competition debut at Pe'ahi in December 2019 at age 18, placing third overall in the women's division behind event winner Alms, per SurfGirl Magazine's account of that competition. The pairing puts a three-time Jaws champion next to the young foiler who shared a start line with her.
Ocean Safety Training Moves To Mission Bay
Saturday shifts the action toward more technical territory. The Big Wave Risk Assessment Group, known as BWRAG, will host a breathwork course from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at the Cardiff store, followed by a ding repair workshop with Alms from 11 a.m. to noon and another round of wetsuit repairs and dry-ons from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. That same day, BWRAG's ocean safety and surf responder training begins at Mission Bay, a two-day program that requires registration in advance.
BWRAG instructors for the training include Greg Long, Jon Hoover and Kaipo Kelley, according to the event schedule reported by FOX 5. Long's authority on the subject traces back to a near-fatal four-wave hold-down he survived at Cortes Bank in December 2012, an ordeal in which he lost consciousness underwater before being rescued, an experience that Session Magazine reports shaped his commitment to teaching underwater breathwork and emergency response to other surfers.
BWRAG itself was founded in 2011 by surfers Kohl Christensen and Danilo Couto after the fatal drowning of Hawaiian big-wave surfer Sion Milosky at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay, a death that renewed discussion of safety and rescue rules, according to Surfline. That history is why the training carries real stakes beyond a certificate: participants who complete both training days receive a BWRAG Surf Responder certificate of completion and CPR/AED certification, and the safety certificate fulfills the eligibility requirement to purchase Patagonia's Personal Surf Inflation vest, per FOX 5's reporting. Those interested in registering can reach BWRAG directly at [email protected].
The Vest Behind The Requirement
Surfers need to complete BWRAG's two-day ocean safety training to be eligible to buy the inflation vest. Patagonia's Personal Surf Inflation vest project began in 2011, was tested with hundreds of surfers, and launched publicly in 2017, according to FOX 5's account of the vest's development. The vest was designed with multiple rapid inflations and the ability to quickly deflate in the water.
Patagonia is introducing what it calls the next generation of that safety equipment at this year's events. The 2026 PSI Vest 2.0 offers improved mobility, a less bulky design, and a smaller size intended to better fit more female athletes, per the outlet's reporting. The vest technology itself grew out of a patent Patagonia earned in 2014, and in 2017 the company opted to license the design to other manufacturers, donating all licensing proceeds toward protecting Chilean coastal ecosystems at Punta de Lobos.
Board Demos And A Final Round Of Wetsuit Care
The four-day run wraps up Sunday with FCD surfboard demos from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and a final window of wetsuit dry-ons from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. FCD, which is associated with Fletcher Chouinard, adds a board-focused element to the weekend's programming.
Sunday also marks the continuation of the BWRAG Surf Responder & Ocean Safety Summit at Mission Bay, closing out the weekend's two-track structure of retail-side workshops in Cardiff and hands-on water training across town. The wetsuits getting repaired throughout the week are part of the event's surf-focused programming.
The Cardiff location is hosting this year's events, with the tour also headed to Ventura, Santa Monica, New Jersey, Vancouver and Haleiwa.
