How to build a career from novelty wave riding with Ben Gravy

Ben Gravy has built a career as a professional surfer but without any of the traditional contest wins or sponsorships that usually fuel one.

“I’m actually baffled every single day when I wake up. I can’t believe I’ve pulled this off. It doesn’t make sense,” says Ben Gravy, humbly. He’s arguably the biggest name in novelty surfing, a trailblazer that has helped to carve out a new genre of professional surfing, and an all-around good human. “It just proves that through hard work and dedication and just applying yourself, you can get anywhere.”

Up until recently, if you wanted to build a professional surfing career, you had to compete for a spot on the WSL Championship tour. Ultimately, surf media had control over the surfing spotlight, as the only way to keep up with professional surfing was through magazines and on TV. But the rise of social media has changed the game completely. Now more than ever it’s easier to film, edit and produce content of surfers from anywhere in the world. Once remote secret surf spots are now easier to find, and surfers the world over have accumulated a global bucket list of breaks to conquer.

Enter the novelty wave. These are unique waves that either break infrequently or are located in unusual locations, and not thought of as traditional breaks. Documenting his adventures on Youtube, Ben has set out to track down the most unique, far-fetched and unheard-of novelty waves around, which has led him to achieve the ultimate dream of becoming a professional surfer at the age of 30. He’s sponsored by Catch Surf, a brand that doubled down on Gravy by collaborating on a collection of Ben Gravy signature boards, and has amassed a following, known as the NUB nation.

NUB stands for “Nobody Unlikes Buddy,” the concept of accepting everyone regardless of their status in life, a common theme of inclusivity that Gravy promotes throughout his videos. “I think it’s just sharing surfing a little differently,” says Ben. “Because surfing can seem like an exclusive sport, but I want to make it fun and open, so everyone can do it. If I’m surfing dinky knee-high waves, then so can you.”

Make no mistake, Ben Gravy’s success has nothing to do with luck. Surfing novelty waves was a big part of Ben’s life growing up. “I’ve been doing it my whole life,” says Gravy. “When I was a kid, I used to surf in the Bay in New Jersey all the time. We have the ocean on the East Coast, and then for like a mile around the back is the Bay right around the island. It’s really hard for waves to get in there. Nobody would do it. And my friends and I would always do it when we were kids.”

But the novelty wave surfer’s life hasn’t always been perfect. Before he started his vlog, Gravy found himself in a dark place after suffering a knee injury. “I had a lot of stuff build up at the same time in my life, both emotionally and physically,” says Ben. “I was actually in rehabilitation for my injury. So I hadn’t surfed in like nine months, and my life had really gone in a very terrible direction. I was getting drunk all the time, wasting my time. I had this passion for making videos that I wasn’t really taking advantage of, and I wasn’t surfing at all.”

Ben Gravy’s approach to surfing is all about inclusivity and finding the fun

On Christmas Day in 2015, he made the life-changing decision to give up alcohol. “When I got sober, I started making the videos, and the vlog came about as something to keep me distracted,” says Ben. “It was like, if I wake up every day, keep myself accountable for my sobriety, then this is the way that I can follow and see how much I’ve changed throughout this process. And then the surfing just came along. Because I finally was allowed to surf after that knee injury. And then I fell in love with surfing again. Because I wasn’t drinking, I wasn’t partying, I wasn’t wasting my time. I was like, wow, I have tons of hours in the day, I’m going to surf every morning and then be productive the rest of the day.”

“There was this rainstorm in New Jersey, and my brothers went out and found this beater board (a soft-foam, finless board that can be used for skimboarding, bodyboarding and even sometimes surfing in small waves) behind a truck. They had all this cool footage, and I somehow found the dude from Catch Surf’s email address, and I sent it to him. And he thought it was really cool, so they shared it on their Instagram and sent us a beater board.

“Then a couple years later,” said Gravy, “my younger brother actually found a broken, buckled Catch Surf 8-foot board in the trash. And I used it to ride all of my novelty waves. But I eventually buckled it all the way. But if you go back and look at the wave I called Skeleton Bay about six or seven years ago, riding the board, and it’s a gray Catch Surf board, it’s wobbling in the middle as I ride. But I broke it. And I remembered that I had the guy’s email. So I sent him a message and I was like, hey, is there any way I could bum another 8-foot board off you or get some type of code or whatever. And I sent him a couple links of me surfing rivers and some novelty waves to kind of entice him to give me a free board. And he was like, oh, yeah, we actually just started this line, it’s called Wave Bandit. I’ll send you a couple of boards, and he sent me three boards. That was way more than I ever imagined. So I started riding those and then all this stuff happened. All these waves started getting really popular.”

Ben Gravy had caught Catch Surf’s attention and his audience began to grow as he continued to vlog his adventures in search of novelty waves. Then came the video that went viral: Ben Gravy surfed the wave behind a Ferryboat as it passed a shallow section. “I think that’s a really important part of my success,” says Gravy. “When I did that ferryboat wave, I did it because I wanted to. I’m not going somewhere to prove myself to anyone else. I’m not surfing a wave to show off. I wanted to do everything that I do because I wanted to and that ferryboat. At that time, I wasn’t getting any views so I didn’t think it was going to be anything special. I thought I just wanted to accomplish it.” Like most things made with pure passion, this particular vlog spread like wildfire, growing both Gravy’s audience and career.

“At that point, we had started the merch and everything and my fans were saying that they wanted a Ben Gravy soft top, and all this stuff. So then I was like, Alright, let’s see if I can pull this off. And then they made it and it ended up being really really popular. And then it’s just been crazy.”

Since making this life-changing decision, everything has changed for the better. The novelty wave-riding icon has a reputation for both his infectiously positive attitude towards surfing and his punk rock pineapple logo. He met his now wife, Jordan, who features in his vlogs and is very much a part of the Ben Gravy brand.

“When I first started dating Ben, he would film everything, every day,” remembers Jordan. “From the moment we woke up to the second we went to sleep. So I think that there was no chance for us to be anything but ourselves. Everyone who meets us tells us that we’re relatable and it’s because we’re just normal people from New Jersey. It’s not some flashy, crazy place. We’re just like everybody else, we just happen to have a vlog.”

The NUB nation has grown to encompass 153k YouTube subscribers, 160k Instagram followers – a testament to both Ben and Jordan’s dedication to inclusivity. “I think we need to break down that wall in surfing,” adds Ben. “People need to just embrace what it is and let everyone who wants to, just join us.”

Highlights of Gravy’s career include challenging himself to surf in all 50 states. His vlogs laid bare the highs and lows of Gravy persevering through land-locked states to find the best bodies of water to ride waves in. It took him three years to accomplish, but once complete, he’d set a new world record. A subsequent documentary about Ben’s accomplishments entitled For The Dream will premiere at the New Smyrna Film Festival in Florida on Feb. 5.

Last year, he trained with ultimate heavy water hellman, Will Skudin to ride big waves, and it was recently announced that he’s been invited to compete at this year’s Nelscott Reef Pro in Oregon. When asked about transitioning to big wave surfing, Gravy remains as humble as ever. “To be honest, I’m mostly just dabbling. I won’t put myself in harms way or do anything stupid just for the views. So, I feel confident about my intentions going into this.”

When asked what the secret to his success is, he adds, “it’s about doing something a little different. When I started making my videos, surfing was very focused on a certain avenue. And it has been a natural progression with social media and everything. I think I started showing what I am into at a good time. It’s not luck, but the timing was right. And I think I just did it a little bit differently. Because it’s not just about surfing in Montana or going to the Great Lakes or whatever, but it’s also about the presentation. It’s partially sharing that reality, and also showing, oh, look, we just found a wave in Nebraska. But I think connecting people to the way that I found the wave in Nebraska. How hard it was and how much I went through. That’s what people kind of get into. But I think it’s just sharing surfing a little differently because it is a very elite, exclusive sport, but I think I made it very fun and open. If you see me riding small waves, then maybe you can do it, too. I try to share everything in a real, honest way. I could make a video of me surfing the best waves around, but I just like experimenting and having fun with surfing because I think that people really relate to it.”

Ben Gravy’s plans for the future are as pure as his intentions for the inclusive NUB nation. “My goal in life is honestly to make people happy. Because the life that I lived before I did any of this. I was so shielded off from the world, I protected myself so much, and I was miserable. And through letting myself go and be out there and stuff, I created happiness within myself. The best part about surfing is enjoying it, and I like to share that with people.”