Annual Return is our little reflection section. We’ll publish one every year, just before corks are popped on NYE. It’ll be our positive, constructive, as-transparent-as-possible look back at the past 365 days at AW.

So, here goes. Annual Return 01.

2016. What a year. Didn’t it all get a bit weird? For us, it’s been a big year of firsts.

Firstly, we’re still here. The first 365 days of any new organisation can be the most brutal, and we’re absolutely frothing that we’re still around.

We came into 2016 having already hit some big firsts. We'd experienced our first brand exhibition at BUCS Surf Championships, we’d launched our first full website and launched our first portfolio of surfboard templates.

In Spring, we had our first design session with the Surf Science crew at Plymouth University, where students threw their final year project ideas at us. Being designers, we were super keen to bounce ideas back. In November, we returned, not only throwing around project ideas, but speaking about design culture at AW, the creative process and the art of design communication through sketching.

We spent our first full season in Cornwall and we were well and truly spoilt - as summers go, this one was firing. Dawnies, sunset surfs and 4 sessions a day became a regular thing and we couldn’t get enough of the outrageous awesomeness of living by the sea and being able to surf whenever we could.

Halfway into August, we launched our first online store, allowing you guys to order an Airwave Surfboard from anywhere in the world. Alongside AW Store, we published our first AW Colour Palette, a curated set of resin colourways, exclusively for AW boards. Shortly afterwards, we introduced LUXE, our signature colourway of black-on-black, gloss on matte resinwork, which featured in our first board installation at Box and Barber Cafe, Newquay.

Here’s a biggie - we went international. We sent our first set of boards to mainland Europe and California, USA. For a brand that started in a garage in the North of England, this was a pretty big deal. We can’t wait to release some clips of an AW One on a fun-sized day at Malibu.

We also had our first surfboard featured in international surf media. Check out Wavelength magazine, issue 248 (spot the Libertine and you might win some stickers).

In December, we attended the first Mackie Studio Instameet, where we connected with a diverse group of creative minds over mince pies, mulled wine and a little wander around Pentire Head in Newquay. Here’s to the first of many - we’ll definitely be back.

Throughout the year, we’ve continued to work with an awesome group of suppliers, manufacturers, surfers and creative individuals and connected with some inspiring people, both in and out of the surf industry. To those who we’ve met, emailed, texted, worked with, shaped for and surfed with, huge thanks for an epic year.

But let’s bring it back to why Airwave Surfboards is here in the first place; to help us all surf more, for longer and with bigger grins on our faces; 2016 saw our crew ride some of the fastest, longest and most fun waves we’ve ever surfed, in some of the most fun sessions we’ve ever had. Riding AWs, of course.

Top that, 2017.

AW