Some people really embody where they’re from and Patrick “Tupat” Eichstaedt is one of those guys. He literally is Florida surf culture. Hailing from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, Tupat has been documenting and participating in the surf scene there for decades now. He’s surfed, traveled, photographed and hung and hosted most of the big names of surf — even taking Bruce, Andy and Freddie P under his wing when the Hawaiians came to Florida for comps as groms. Every phone call you have with Tupat makes you appreciate his passion for all the things he loves. From fishing and surfing to poke and oyster farming, Tupat is your guy.

His latest and (highly successful) new endeavor is Tupat’s Hawaiian Authentic Poke Sauce. An exclusive and secret recipe he developed over the years visiting the islands with the Irons bros in Kauai and the North Shore. It’s now a go-to and we highly recommend it for those of you looking for the real deal poke no matter where you’re from. Just add fresh fish and go.

When we decided to devote this issue to the South, we couldn’t get enough of Tupat, his photos, stories and enthusiasm. Below is a bit from our catch ups that you will love.

Inherent Bummer: Your contributions to the Lost videos were kind of our only window into the East Coast surf scene growing up in CA. A lot of videos didn't do that and you kind of put all those guys together and elevated the scene with the Lopez bros and Aaron Cormican surfing with Bruce and Andy, etc.

Tupat: [Mike] Reola and [Matt] Biolos gave us that canvas to showcase what we had here. But in our younger years our crew was core man even before the …Lost days. We had a lot of really good surfers. Unfortunately, Sebastian [Inlet] took all the credit. And that lit a fire in my ass to showcase what we had going on here in Smyrna.

When did you first see surfing in print?

When I was a grom my mom would bring home surf mags because she was a traveling flight attendant. So I was seeing the mags before anybody else saw 'em over here and I would rip out these pages and I'd put 'em perfectly on my wall. I would look at 'em and be like, man, ‘I wanna be one of those guys in the mags!’ — not knowing that I'd be the guy shooting the photos.

Is that how it all started for you then?

Well, my brother [Shannon “Hopper” Eichstaedt] left the house early — he was 10 years old flying on a plane by himself to go surf with Bruce and Andy [Irons] in Kauai. And he'd come back, he'd be like, “Dude, you gotta see the way these guys surf!” And I was like, “You need a camera over there man.” So, he ended up getting a handy-cam from somebody over here and started filming it all. This was back before those guys weren’t anybody yet…and we were just gallivanting around, out on the North Shore, South Shore, just surfing and ripping around surfing and shooting stuff.

Andy Irons packs one at The Eddie in the Waimea shorebreak..

Do you, do you remember the first time those guys came over to Florida?

It was ‘91 or ‘92. Their mom had called my parents and said,” Hey, the boys have a contest at Sebastian” — which my brother Hopper was in too. They were all psyched up because Hopper would always tell 'em about our big seafood fest that we would have at our house. So they came out with Dayton Segundo and little Fred Patacchia.

What’s it like showing Hawaiians around in Florida?

I took them to this spot down the street from my house called the Poles. I hadn't ever seen these kids surf live yet. And I thought, at the time, like, “oh man, I rip.” And then I saw Andy take off on a wave, it was like a six-foot wave, he comes off the bottom and I'm looking over the top, looking back at him, he blows his tail, goes into a rock ‘n’ roll roll floater, and then blows his tail again. And I was like, “Whoa, this is like Slater….like this is beyond Slater. Like, what is this?

That’s so sick.

I remember I took them fishing one night too. We catch all kinds of fish off this dock at night because the fish are all attracted to the light on it. Anyway, Bruce is a little punk, you know — he's always competing and fucking around, just ragging on Andy or Hop or whatever. He ends up catching a catfish, not knowing how dangerous a catfish is and he goes to kick it off the dock barefoot and the fucking fin of the catfish sticks under his toenail and shoots the poison in his toe.

Heavy!

Well, he goes on to win the US Champs, then goes home and gets put in the hospital for a couple days because the poison had fucked him up so bad.

When did you start heading over to Hawaii more to visit them?

After high school, my buddy went to the Coast Guard. He was stationed in Kauai. We went out there and they would take us all over the place to surf all these waves. That was my really first introduction to poke…Andy turned me on to it.

Andy introduced you to poke?

Yeah, and years later — we’re hanging on the North Shore and Andy takes me to the famous Kahuku Superette down there on the East Side and I'm eating that thinking,” Okay, I’m making this at home because cause people catch fucking and fish all the time here.” I just kept making it, you know, always making stuff for it, for the guys then in 2013, one of my childhood friends was going on that show Shark Tank to do this balance board and exercise facility. I was like, “I’m not gonna stand inside an exercise facility on the beach.” Long story short, we get some old friends together, we design a logo, we get some distribution and we went out and sold our story — us as surfers discovering the keys to tuna poke sauce from our travels around the world to all these restaurant people. Next thing you know we got it showing up on restaurants across Florida, people using it for sushi rolls and all kinds of stuff. It’s worked out great.

Tell us a bit about surfing there in Florida. I feel like it’s having a resurgence. A lot of people moving back, falling back in love with it.

I think it’s a cowboy state. It’s gnarly. Growing up we had gnarly rednecks in school who just wanted to drink beer and get in fights. Luckily the surfers, the “Spicolli” crew we just kinda were able to stay on the level with a lot of different guys being surfers. I mean, it’s kind of like the Wolfpack in a way, you gotta be cool with em. And that teaches us respect. I think surfers do a good job of smoothly navigating all that. Florida had it’s own scene back then for sure.

So what’s New Smyrna Beach like?

Yeah, it’s so fun. It's a former tourist town and used to be seasonal and now its year round. There’s fun sandbars up and down the beach, shark bite capital of the world…but no ones ever died.

Well you’ve done a good job of giving us an authentic window into Floridian surfing over the years with your work.

I feel like I did my job. I feel like I was one of the chosen ones to come in and be like, “Check us out. Check these guys out. Sending Eric [Geiselman] photos to Oakley. Sending Evan [Geiselman] photos Hurley. I used to shove photos of our guys down Marcus at Surfline’s throat. I wanted them to get seen. It was huge that the Lost guys had us down there filming all those years and bringing Andy and Bruce and that whole crew through when they hung with Cory and Shea [Lopez].

When did Gorkin come into the picture?

This is classic. The way Gorkin [Aaron Cormican] got on the Lost team was he did three chop hops on one wave and John Perkins filmed it. I remember talking to Reola about it [a few weeks later], and he was like, “Who’s the kid that did the three chop hops on one wave?” And I was like, “Oh he’s sitting on my couch right now, that’s Gorkin. And the rest is history.

Aaron “Gorkin” Cormican flying over NSB.

Tell me a bit about the fishing there. Everyone seems so fired up on it.

Well, I actually get paid to fish now. Which is cool. I’ve fished my whole life, growing up behind my house is a river, and I’m in the driveway now and across the street, 15 second walk and I’m on the beach. My daughter is 5 and she’s learning to boogie board. My sons 15 and he likes to surf and fish. My daughter was 12 inches when she was born, 1 pound 6 ounces, spent 4 months in NICU fighting for her life. Now she’s thriving and she loves the ocean. Every moment I see her I just reflect and I constantly tell myself how grateful I am. To come from this tiny spec on the beach south of the NSB Inlet to have a passion for surfing that took us to the big stage and showcase our talent all over the globe and create a brand based on my nickname that the Lost guys gave me. It’s comical. It’s great.

Tell me a classic Florida day, what’s that like?

Ideal day would be timing the tide. Going in the morning and fishing near the house early, get a good bite on. Grab some breakfast, head down to the Inlet, hopefully yo’ure able to drive in, but sometimes with the higher tides you gotta park at the park, which can be hot. If you can drive in though it’s epic. Got your car, your cooler, hopefully both incoming and outgoing tides, you still got swell. Hopefully no thunderstorms. That day when Kolohe and Griffin and those boys were here during the Reckless Isolation Tour [see below] they got a thunderstorm but it actually glassed it off. Then maybe an afternoon glass off, come home and go get some local grinds at one of the Mexican or sushi spots.

What’s the food scene like over there?

Well, there’s a plethora of fresh seafood. I catch my own crabs behind the house. I get my own clams, oysters, and you can shrimp behind the house too. I paddle traps out with my paddleboard and go get ‘em the next day, boil ‘em right there at the house. You can live off my backyard.

That’s so huge these days to just be able to rely on your own home to live and eat.

This is the red fish capital of the world too. There’s red fish in North and South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana…but it’s a tasty fish, I prefer it blackened and the Indian River Lagoon is where people come and sight fish these things. You’ll be on the boat, you got a guy behind you poling and you’re looking ahead and you see red tails. All of a sudden you’ll see the red fish swimming down and you watch these fish eat your bait. It’s not like throwing it over board and waiting, you see them eat your bait. It’s awesome.

Are they that frenzied that time of year?

It’s year round and its weather-based. In the winter you can run into a school, throw your bait into a school. Summer there are 1 or 2 together and you can site cast ‘em. It’s a sick experience.

Anyone you want to shout out?

Definitely Shane Beschen. He’s done so much for our families and hosting us out on the North Shore. Definitely have to mention Shane and the crew. So psyched to watch Noah[Beschen] coming up and shredding. And have to make sure I mention Rasta Robb too! He’s the most radical surfer around right now and he’s laidback, humble and can catch some fish as well! He reminds me of a mix of Wardo and A.I.