Throwing a party sucks, yet attending one is quite awesome. Which is why I don’t know how I became so prolific on the throwing side of things. And since I’m in the throes of planning the fourth annual Factory by the Sea event (July 31 and August 1!) I got to pondering why in the hell I do this to myself.

Let me tell you a quick story that may help answer this.

Many years ago, we put Andy Irons on what would sadly become his last surf magazine cover that wasn’t in memoriam. It was about a year before we lost him. But the back story was that Andy had showed up in Bali after some time out of the water and was ripping again.

Photographer Pete Frieden was on hand and immediately sent us the turn that would become the cover. It was pure-form Andy Irons. Easiest cover debate I’ve ever been a part of. Done.

At the magazine, we had recently decided that getting a cover was a massive deal and we needed to throw the surfer who got it a party. We were trying to rile up the industry who were probably already starting to feel the aches and pains of what is now a chronic injury and their enthusiasm for magazine covers wasn’t what it should have been. So we said, in true Tony Perez fashion (our publisher at the time): If you get a cover, we’re throwing you a party. Every month.

I think Andy was the third or fourth surfer we featured and the first we wondered: hmmm, can we convince a superstar like Andy to attend? The answer was yes.

Each month the plan was this: We took over the A Restaurant in Newport Beach and hosted a party for whoever got the cover. I would stand on the bar and give a fumbled speech about why it mattered, we’d all drink fancier cocktails than we were used to and well, the night usually continued on after that.

When it was time for Andy to arrive at his party, he wasn’t quite sure what he was attending. I think the Billabong crew convinced him it was just a little meet and greet.

I still didn’t know how Andy would react to all this — I mean the dude has been on a million covers and at this stage he was a multi-time World Champ and already an immortal figure in surfing — and here we were just throwing a little mid-week shindig to celebrate him.

When he saw the cover mock up he sorta welled up a bit. People cheered and my clumsy ass stood haphazardly on the bar wondering what he was gonna do. Usually that was it: the surfers took a bow and the party raged on. But Andy did something different.

He said, “Can I get on the bar, I want to say something.”

He went into a truly heartfelt speech about getting the cover of a surf magazine and the importance it held to him, referencing his first Surfing Magazine cover and expressed genuine gratitude to everyone involved in the process. I stood next to him on the bar watching a surfing icon show genuine appreciation for what everyone in that room did. He knew that a lot of work went into a cover shot. And that they were an important part of the surf ecosystem that got us all there and obviously played a significant role in his early surf life.

I often look at the photo above when I need a boost in party planning — usually when I'm buying event insurance or trying to negotiate with a brand to pay a little more so we can pay the bands more. A reminder that it’s worth it.

I see his genuine, welled-up eyes truly stoked to be getting the cover of a surf magazine and appreciative of the party we threw. He would later tell me how stoked he was that we did that, “No one ever threw a party for getting a cover. That was sick.”

In two weeks the event we’re throwing will be The Factory by the Sea — our attempt at gathering our community and surrounding it with good music, creative surf films and a bunch of wild art and weirdness that would not make sense in any other “sport.” The industry needs jump starts like this and I am happy to apply the paddles.

So I have my answer and new motivation to get this next party over the line: We throw parties because they fuel this whole strange culture. We’re all in it together, sink or swim. Let’s make up more reasons to get together.

Let’s thank the bands, surf films and creatives who design, film, edit and think about and do everything in their power to make sure that no matter how large surfing grows and how synthetic and chlorinated it gets, that it always looks weird and distinctly “us.” That is why we party. Because we’re surfers not athletes. See ya in two weeks I hope. —Travis Ferré