ERIC SIMONS

STORY

A life-long surfer, Eric has always been intrinsically connected to nature. His passion is the ocean. As a pre-teen growing up in Bethany Beach, Delaware, he first honed his skills on boogie, skim and paddle boards because his local waves broke too close to the beach for a surfboard. But as soon as he got his driver's license, his road was wide open. Then it was trips up and down the coast from North Carolina to Maine chasing waves on a surfboard all year long.

To pay for his coastal treks, he took an assistant manager job in 2003 at Ocean City, Maryland's K-Coast Surf Shop until 2006 when he moved to Southern California. There, he continued chasing waves and a career in the surf industry as a manager/buyer for Killer Dana Surf Shop, jack-of-all-trades at O'fishl Fins and customer service rep for Nixon Watches. 

Though he’s surfed all over California, El Salvador and Punta Mango, his favorite break has always been the Indian River Inlet in his hometown of Bethany Beach – where he recently returned. He’s back at K-Coast, too. And he’s taken all of his experiences, combined it with his connection to nature and started NeoGreen, a wetsuit upcycling brand that turns retired wetsuits into functional accessories like laptop sleeves, koozies and croakies.

But creating a solution for surfers is only half the story. Eric also plans to expand NeoGreen to include manufacturers, providing them an inexpensive and positive way to reduce their waste. To Eric, authenticity is taking your own road. Something he’s been doing since he got that driver’s license. And he’s been blazing his own trail ever since.