Morgan Bernard is a writer, surfer, and entrepreneur based in Seattle, Washington. Morgan has worked with the top publications in the surf, travel, and outdoor spaces, like Stab Mag, the Inertia, Matador Network, Tracks Magazine, and many more. In addition to his work as an adventure journalist, Morgan operates a digital marketing and creative agency with a broad clientele in the adventure world and beyond.
When did surfing come into your life?
My dad taught me how to surf when I was ten years old. He grew up surfing in Texas in the Gulf of Mexico, and that’s where I first really caught the bug. The day I surfed my first wave, I got stung by a sting ray, but I still wanted to keep surfing. In college, when I moved away from the coast, I began to miss surfing and took surf trips to Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, and Nicaragua. That’s when I started to take surfing seriously and when it became a vital part of my life.
How did you find Oleu and what do you love about the brand?
I came across Oleu while shopping online for gear before a surf trip. On surf trips, I live in boardshorts, and the idea of a boardshirt that I could wear in and out of the water seemed too good to be true. After a decade of surf travel, I’ve started to take sun protection seriously, and after finding Oleu, I knew I had to get involved.
Tell us a bit about your unique career path.
After college, my buddy Keaton and I wanted to incorporate travel into our daily lives, so we started a guided travel company focused on educational and experiential travel for students. We spent a few years building it and guided trips all over Europe and Central America, then Covid hit. The whole time we were guiding trips, I was freelance writing to pay bills. When I found myself in more museums than lineups of iconic surf breaks, I started simultaneously pursuing freelance journalism and travel writing. After Covid, I began writing full-time. Now, I run the creative side of a marketing agency that works with brands in the adventure space.
How do you use Oleu products on your adventures?
Oleu’s Boardshit isn’t just a great surf shirt; it’s perfect for long travel days. The breathable fabric makes these shirts ideal for travel in the tropics. I’ve also loved paddling out and keeping spare wax in the zipper storage compartment.
What Have Been Your Favorite Stories to tell?
My writing has taken me to some of my favorite places. I wrote a piece for Stab Magazine about fake Covid tests facilitating surf travel in 2020. It was a lot of fun to research and involved a lot of time on the ground in places with good waves. Recently, I wrote an article for Trails Magazine about a human-powered surf trip on the Washington coast, where Keaton and I backpacked to an isolated wave on the Olympic Peninsula. Unfortunately, print and adventure journalism is not the career path it used to be, but there are still a lot of stories to be told in the adventure space. In the last decade, outdoor brands have led the charge when it comes to narrative-driven adventure storytelling.
What’s your got to Oleu colorway?
I’ve been wearing the Rainforest Jet lately. I love the classic Aloha shirt design.
Travel seems like a vital part of your life. Tell us about a destination that’s special to you.
Nicaragua was the first place I surfed anything of notoriety. Keaton and I went there for the first time when we were twenty years old, and I have gone back nearly every year since. My first trip to Nicaragua sparked a passion for travel and chasing waves that’s stayed with me. Over the years, I’ve met a lot of great people in that corner of the world who have helped me get to where I am today.
What’s Next?
Surf and Snow Collective is my latest project with my buddies Keaton Day and Jack Gerstenmaier. It’s part creative agency, part advertising consultancy. We’re combining the technical side of performance marketing with creative branding and narrative-driven storytelling and working with brands in the surf, travel, and snow worlds. Launching Surf and Snow has taken up most of my year, but I’ve still managed to get away and chase a few waves.