Back in January, I got an email from a buyer at Magnolia asking us to send samples of Ranger Bison Jerky for consideration for placement in Magnolia Market.
For those of you who don't know, my wife and I have another small business, in addition to Almond, making pasture-raised bison jerky. If you're interested in that origin story, you can read it HERE.
For everyone else, I promise there's a surf connection coming.
Fortunately, we passed the sample test, and our jerky was selected for Chip Gaines' men's shop at Magnolia Market, alongside some friends and familiar faces like Seager, Modern Huntsman, and Ranger Station candles.
Then another fortuitous meeting happened.
Almond-customer-turned-friend Brandon Dickerson stopped by the shop while he was in town. Brandon works part-time at Waco Surf and has a few R-Series boards in his personal quiver. He was the first person to say, "You've gotta get out there."
Through continued conversations with Brandon, a budding business relationship with Magnolia, and my longtime fascination with man-made surfing waves, I suddenly had several reasons to get to Waco.
It's rare that a surf trip and a bison jerky trip overlap. Those circles on the Venn diagram don't always touch.
So dates were picked, flights were booked, and I felt like a kid going to Disneyland.
Side note: If you don't already have the kind of friend who immediately starts looking at flights when you announce your trip, become that kind of friend to someone else. (Shout out to Scott Andrews.)
Magnolia Market
The dates that worked for me, Waco Surf, and Magnolia happened to fall during Silobration, Magnolia's big annual bash with vendors, live music, and tens of thousands of out-of-town visitors.
We landed in Dallas, picked up our rental car, and headed straight for our introduction to central Texas: Terry Black's BBQ in Waco.
The next morning, our friend Daniel Hagemann gave us a behind-the-scenes tour of Magnolia.
I started Almond when I was 22 years old, so seeing how other businesses run is of immense interest to me. I've only toured a handful of brands' offices at the peak of their powers: Quiksilver, Nike, Hurley, Stance, and now Magnolia.
(Holler if you've got another field trip I need to come take.)
The advantage of having a strong brand with an attractive point of view is that you attract top-notch talent. I was thoroughly impressed with the Magnolia team, their offices, and the Silo grounds.
We found our jerky inside No. 16, the Chip Gaines-approved men's shop, took some photos, made some friends, and then departed for an afternoon and evening full of surfing.
Waco Surf
Because this trip was short, we were packing it in. We only had 36 hours to fit in all the fun we could, and we'd been graciously invited to join Waco Surf owner Dave Taylor for a private session from 8–10 pm. That meant I'd be surfing three of the four evening hours, and Scotty, being the "when in Rome" guy that he is, was going to surf all four, including three in a row.
The whole grounds and vibe of Waco Surf are really cool. They've got a six-room hotel, several cabins, a coffee shop, snack shop, and a little bar. You can watch the waves from pretty much anywhere around the lagoon.
The way it worked out, I was able to sample the beginner, intermediate, and advanced waves, in that order.
The Beginner Wave
The beginner wave is "soft tops only," but I came prepared with an 8'0 R-Series Joy, which worked out very nicely. Several of the other surfers in that session were envious of my Joy, being limited to the selection of rental soft tops available on the beach.
It's a fun wave with plenty of push for a longboard or bigger mid-length. There were moments when I was wishing I was riding a noserider, but it’s hard to shake those feelings from many years of riding a log.
The Intermediate Wave
To the surprise of few, the intermediate wave was my personal favorite.
The longer period meant more time between waves to get set up, and the wave had plenty of juice to surf my beloved 6'6 Pleasant Pheasant.
It had a fairly open face where you could get ahead of the wave and do a cutback, or hang back in the pocket if you preferred.
The Advanced Wave
I don’t know if I can give a fair assessment of the Advanced Wave because my arms had started to resemble cooked spaghetti by the time this session started. It was 9:00 pm and I had been paddling for 120 minutes already.
I will say, the shorter period takes a little getting used to. Waves come in four-wave sets, and when the guy before you goes, you've got to line up with the proper number indicated on the wall and get ready to paddle toward the floodlights with all the gusto you can muster.
The wave itself is bigger and has a bit more power than the intermediate wave, which is ideal for doing turns in the pocket.
Unlike the first two wave settings, the advanced wave really pops up out of nowhere so my “early & often” mantra is reduced primarily to “often”.
We surfed late into the night, under the lights, until our arms gave out.
Somehow Scotty still managed to do three turns on his final wave, after 180 straight minutes in the pool.
We were properly exhausted by the end of a day that had begun 14 hours earlier with a tour of Magnolia.
The Waco Surf team was exceedingly kind, and I can see why this would make a great annual family trip. (Shout out to the Swansons for the inside scoop on what to expect.)
Next time I do Waco:
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I'll certainly stay longer
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bring my family
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eat at Terry Black's at least twice
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go fishing at the bass pond at Waco Surf
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and I really want to try the 6'0 R-Series Survey on the intermediate wave.
It was an incredibly memorable trip.
Huge thank you to Brandon Dickerson and Daniel Hagemann for hosting us, Scotty for booking flights and jumping into the fun, and the kind folks at Waco Surf and Magnolia for the generous treatment of some enthusiastic overgrown groms who were excited to see all that Waco had to offer.
