There is an old saying, ‘the cream always rises to the top’. If this is the case then Jesse Faen is a large, baby faced, bottle of cream. I don’t mean that in a sexual way, although I’m sure I could develop a weird man crush on Jesse. What I do mean is that he always rises to the occasion when an opportunity is presented to him. Jesse has been the editor for both Waves and Surfing Magazines, worked as Media Director for the ASP World Tour and is now the President of Insight America. He owns a house in Chile, a couple places in Oz, lives in California, and has surfed in more countries around the world than most pros. Faen is also on the board of SIMA (Surf Industry Manufacturers Assoc.), and has just taken on a role with Life Rolls On Foundation (www.liferollson.org), a non-profit organisation, dedicated to assisting and inspiring young people affected by spinal cord injury through action sports. Not bad for a bloke who turns 35 this year.

So what drives a person to do all these things? Boredom? Or maybe an ambition for world domination?

“I think there are a number of factors involved.” Jesse explains, over a Skype hook up, from Insight USA headquarters. “One, I guess I am a very driven person. I was a competitive surfer as a kid and I guess I still am a very competitive person. Now I choose to channel that kind of drive and competitive nature, not into beating people, but to get more out of myself. Also I get very bored if I’m sitting around not doing something or feel I’m challenged. Definitely, I have bitten off more than I probably should have at times, but I’ve never had a negative thing come from taking on a challenge. That’s a lesson I’ve learned throughout my life; especially if you’re doing it for the right reasons, you’re only going to benefit no matter what happens if you’re learning. I want to feel inspired. I guess inspiration is the key word, and the reason I’m very happy to help out on things if I’m asked to. I love to surround myself with people who are smarter or more creative, or better than me at whatever it may be, because it brings out more of myself.” It appears Jesse may also have studied philosophy at some point in this life.

Jesse’s life began on August 21st 1974, born to a Californian mother and an Aussie father. He spent his infant years in Rockhampton, QLD, before relocating to San Francisco for 7 years. His family then moved to Sydney, eventually settling in Narrabeen, NSW. “It was a lucky thing too, as my parents wanted to move to Balmain in the City Suburbs, but thankfully they went to Narrabeen one day and found a place, so we ended up moving there instead. Who knows what I would have ended up doing if we lived in the city? I pretty much revolved my life around the beach and surfing from then on in. All through my years of school, I was competing in the junior events, trying to make a name in surfing.”

It was in Jesse’s final year of high school that a minor accident shifted his focus to broaden his horizons. “In year 12, I was trying to keep the surfing dream alive, when I broke my ankle. It forced me out of the water and provided time to think; is this really what I want to do? So when I finished school, instead of competing, I decided to go travel, on kind of a right of passage trip. I went to Hawaii for a couple months, California and around the States, Canada, and eventually to Europe for the rest of the year.”

After one, especially good surf at Mundaka in Spain, Jesse sent some postcards to mates back in Australia. Unbeknownst to him at the time, one postcard sewed the seed for a future career in surf journalism. “I sent one to Andrew Kidman, who was the editor for Waves magazine. I must have given him the impression I could write, as when I got home he approached me about getting involved.”

Instead of taking up a writing job, Jesse went to study psychology for a year at Macquarie uni. However, the wheels of fate turned once again, and a further offer dropped into Jesse’s lap. This time it was an opportunity he couldn’t refuse. “Andrew rang me again and told me he was looking at wrapping up his time at Waves. He asked would I be interested in being the editor, and lined up an interview with the publisher. I had no idea how to run a magazine at the time, but I decided to give it a go when offered the role. It was a pivotal point for me really.”

For the next 2 years, Waves was headed up by a then 20 year old, who had no experience and no formal training in media. In fact, he hadn’t even applied for the job. Seemingly his application was an inspired postcard sent over a year previous, from a surf trip in Europe. Despite a lack of hands on knowledge, Jesse took the reigns and stamped his mark as one of the most talented editors in Australia. His reputation grew quickly, so much so that by the time he was 22, the editor for Surfing Magazine in America, Steve Zeldin, rang Jesse and offered him a senior editor’s role in the USA. “It all happened pretty quickly, I was actually feeling like I needed a change of pace and was thinking about maybe going to film school, when Zeldo rang and offered me the job. I had my bags packed and was out of the country in about a week.” 

For another year, Jesse worked at the top of the food chain at Surfing Magazine. Never feeling settled in sleepy Southern California though, his wanderlust returned. “I was very restless. Most weekends I either went down to Mexico surfing or up to LA and San Fran to see mates. I just wasn’t happy or content there. So I approached Graham Stapelberg (now the VP of Marketing for Billabong USA), who was the head of ASP at the time, and asked if there was anything there for me on tour.”

This was the first, and only time, Jesse Faen had actually asked someone for a job. His timing was perfect. “At that stage, the tour was divided. The ASP wanted a surfer’s representative to help unite things, from the surfers, media, and sponsors. This was the end of 1997, so I took on that role. Then a couple years later the Media Director left, who I’d already been assisting, so given my experience there, stepped straight into that.”

It wasn’t all perfect tubes and tropical locations though. “When I started with the ASP, the tour wasn’t really the ‘Dream Tour’. A lot of people questioned why I was going to quit working for Surfing Magazine and join the ASP, because it was kind of frowned upon. The industry wasn’t totally backing it, the surfers weren’t that stoked, and the media were always making a joke of it. I guess for a lot of selfish reasons I was just saying hey, I want to travel the world, go surfing more and see these places. Fortunately, right after I started, Peter Whittaker, Wayne Bartholomew and a number of key people became involved and the tour really started to change. Sponsors like Quiksilver, Billabong, and Rip Curl stepped up and proved they were all about good waves and promoting the best surfing. The events started to reflect this philosophy, and everyone won.”

I asked Jesse if he had a favourite place to go to around the world when he was working for the ASP. His answer surprised me. “At the beginning it would have been easier to cherry pick places and go, ‘man it was so awesome to be able to go there.’ But honestly by the end of the 7 years I was on tour, there wasn’t a single place I didn’t look forward to going back to. Every place had a different thing I loved. Somewhere like Jefferies Bay… I salivated over the waves and thought of getting up early and being able to surf perfect J-Bay. Then you’re waking up in Tavarua, in Fiji, or going to Teahupoo, and being able to surf Teahupoo with only a couple of guys out. I loved Brazil for different reasons, for the energy of the people and the parties. Japan for the foreign culture… Europe for the history and diversity… The tour really did become the Dream Tour.”

Barely taking a breath, Jesse continued on. It’s obvious that the ASP World Tour was a very fond time in his life. “Keep in mind that when you’re on tour, from the outside, it looks like these people are just going from great place to great place, which you are, but when you’re on the inside you’re really going back to a place you haven’t been for a year. You’re really looking forward to seeing the people that you know, whether it’s the local surfers or the people that worked on the event or just the friends that you’d made, and it’s been a year since you’ve seen them. Every month you’re catching up with really close friends that you haven’t seen, in a place that you miss. It becomes very addictive; the longer you’re on it, the harder it is to imagine not doing it, because those people become family. Everyone is travelling together and sharing similar experiences, whether it’s getting food poisoning, or losing boards and bags on airlines, similar stresses and shared good times. The one thing about the tour that’s really special, is that every place you’re in, the whole town really puts on a its best show for you. Different opportunities get opened up for the tour. The people that live at each spot, the locals, really want to show you their world. They take you to the cool things that are close to their area and there are all these special aspects of the tour life, you get to experience all these different cultures. I think some of the surfers maybe miss out on that, because they’re in their competitive mindset and have to focus, so they can’t necessarily embrace some aspects of what’s on offer. For the ASP staff though, and surfers who appreciate the cultural differences, really get to benefit. Nowadays I still watch the webcasts of events and feel an intimate understanding of the waves they’re surfing and the people around those places.”

It’s hard to imagine a down side to the tour when Jesse’s eyes light up, talking about all the good times. Being a jealous human, I probe him for any dirt, or any real down sides to the tour. What about relationships between all of the travellers? Surely some of them don’t get along, right?

“It’s pretty good for the most part,” he says. “But of course it’s a competitive environment so things spark up on a daily basis, whether it be two competitors in a heat, or people in the media trying to get an interview and there’s fifty people trying to grab one guy. In my role, dealing with the media and the surfers, I was in the middle of those heated moments a lot. When a surfer loses a world title race heat, for instance, obviously there’s disappointment that comes with that. There are plenty of heated moments, but if kept in the context of a competition and people are trying to beat each other, it’s understandable. You can’t go to a boxing match and not expect someone to get an ego hurt, or physically, in one-way or another. In surfing, those guys are mates and have mutual respect for each other, but they’re trying to beat each other too. If they didn’t have that drive and intensity, they wouldn’t have gotten so far in the first place. You’ve got to take it with a grain of salt. I don’t think there’s many people on the WCT, especially, that aren’t completely grateful to be there. The WQS might be a different story because there hundreds, if not thousands of people, trying to make it in a cut-throat environment with very limited financial support and opportunities, so that’s even more of a hot bed. On WCT, for the most part those surfers have great support, they’ve already achieved a major goal set for themselves, and the tour is set up to make them feel special in what they do.”

After seven long years being on tour, it was time for Jesse to move on. As he puts it, “I felt like I was treading water, not really learning anything new.” It seems that luck lives with Jesse Faen, because another serendipitous opportunity popped up for him, right on cue. While attending the ASR trade show in San Diego during lay days from the nearby Trestles WCT event, he went to visit some mates from Insight. They had set up a booth at the tradeshow, even though they weren’t distributing to the USA just yet. Jesse hung out with his mates and enjoyed the creativity that oozed from the company, and did his part to introduce them to anyone he thought might help. Dialogue of a future role at Insight commenced, and a few months later, creative visionary George Gorrow called to ask if Jesse would head up operations in America

I wondered at this point if maybe Jesse had sold his soul to Satan, to have led such a seemingly blessed life. According to him however, a positive outlook has been the real driving force behind his dream run. “I’ve been fortunate to have lived a life with plenty of amazing opportunities, but I also haven’t said no to many. I’m optimistic and always look for the benefit in things. I think this attitude has served me well, and I’m confident I’ll keep this outlook towards the future and whatever comes. I’ve tried my best to make opportunities work to my advantage, and for the people who gave me the chance. With or without a job, I want to be living the fullest life I can. The other day I heard a quote from Donavan Frankenreiter, along the lines of ‘keep on travelling. The experiences you have, and the people you meet, end up part of your life’s journey and opens up things you never would have thought about’. That’s always been key to me; just have an open mind and be willing to go down any path that comes your way, to at least have firsthand knowledge of what it has to offer. If it makes you happy and you want do more of it, then hopefully you get the chance to. You can’t predict your future, but you can try your best with the opportunities that come your way. If you do something well it usually leads to another opportunity. It’s only the things that you don’t try that don’t really lead to anything.”

Wise words…..

For now, Jesse is busy building the Insight Empire in one of the biggest markets in the world. Something he is enjoying. “It’s a special thing to feel a part of a brand that continues to keep people entertained and reminds us not take everything so serious. I mean this is not rocket science, we’re just trying to have fun and a good time, and thankfully the message we have projected over the years has resonated really well. Most people are stoked on the creative mentality of the brand, and this inspires the people within to keep doing more of it. The support allows you to keep pushing the envelope.”

As far as plans for the future, Jesse remains philosophical about his prospects. “I guess more important than any job title or company, is to just stay inspired. I want to be surrounded by people, or be in places, that make me want to keep learning and doing more. I wouldn’t want to put a title or a location on that.”

With an open mind to whatever comes his way and the luck of the gods on his side, it will be interesting to see what Jesse Faen does next. John M. Richardson once said: “When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” I think maybe Jesse is a mix of the first too.

Which are you?