Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Labor and Agents

Octagon catches surfing wave with addition

Octagon has acquired the surfing division of Mosaic Sports Management, adding veteran agent Greg Fernandez and his four clients.

Fernandez takes the title of global director of surf and will lead Octagon’s efforts to bring the beach sport into the marketing mainstream ahead of its probable inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Agent Greg Fernandez brings Keanu Asing (below), three other surfers to Octagon.
Photo: COURTESY OF OCTAGON
“Greg is somebody we’ve long identified as somebody who gets athlete representation, marketing and brand building, and he’s got an incredible relationship with every single surf brand in the industry,” said Amen Teter, Octagon’s global director of action sports. “It’s been a long time that we’ve wanted to have Greg in place and we’re pretty excited he’s finally in.”

In the deal, Octagon gets four athletes now repped by Fernandez: Josh Kerr, Dusty Payne and Keanu Asing, each among the top 36 surfers in the 2015 World Surf League championship standings, and free surfer Chippa Wilson, who does not compete but is a leading content producer in the sport and is sponsored by Monster Energy, New Era and others.

Fernandez said he’s eager to use Octagon’s international footprint to find new deals and clients, and Octagon brass considers surfing a key part of its strategy in Australia and other foreign markets. Fernandez will work from his

Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
office in Encinitas, Calif.

“I’m really excited about emerging markets, like Latin America and Brazil,” Fernandez said, “and I’m able to say now we have support systems in place should those athletes be seeking management.”

After the Sochi Olympics, Mosaic founder Susan Izzo wanted to focus more on the growing business of her longtime personal client, snowboarder Danny Davis, she said. That led to talks with Octagon about divesting surfing. “It just made a ton of sense and I felt Greg would be in great hands,” Izzo said.

In 2015, the International Olympic Committee put surfing on a short list for inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, with a final decision coming in August. Octagon’s enthusiasm, though, doesn’t depend on IOC approval, executives said.

“Being aligned with Octagon at this time just puts us in complete readiness for that announcement should it happen,” Fernandez said. “We’ll have athletes that will specifically benefit from that type of attention, but regardless, the sport is growing on a lot of levels.”

Surfing is a bigger business than the scope of its actual competition circuit suggests. Professional surfing is limited to warm coastal regions, but participation is growing and major brands see the sport as a platform to market warm-weather clothing and casual lifestyle products around the world. In 2011, Global Industry Analysts Inc. predicted the worldwide surfing market would grow to $13.2 billion by 2017.

Octagon wants to grow surfing in part to offset weaknesses in other action sports, said Peter Carlisle, Octagon’s managing director of Olympic and action sports.

Surfing’s fan base is more geographically diverse than U.S.-centric skateboarding and snowboarding, he said. Also, surfers are less exposed to rapidly changing media consumption habits and unpredictable contracts that determine how often they and their sponsors are on TV.

“As the TV coverage of those action sports fluctuates, so too does the value the athletes can command,” Carlisle said. “I don’t think that value has really been baked into the surf industry as yet, and I think there’s a lot that can be done in that way.”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/01/11/Labor-and-Agents/Octagon-Mosaic.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/01/11/Labor-and-Agents/Octagon-Mosaic.aspx

CLOSE