Marie Pascale DELANNE, Communications Manager Rip Curl Europe

The surfing world is like a big family and for Marie-Pascale Delanne, it’s truer than for most. The Delanne siblings wrote some of the first pages in the history of surfing in France, partly right here on the Côte des Basques and Marie-Pascale was no exception.

While traveling in California at 16 years-old, she met Tom Curren, who would become both a two-time Surfing World Champion as well as the father of her two children, Lee Ann and Nathan.

She spent some time with us at Eurosima to tell us about her first steps in surfing and how meeting Tom would lead them both to travel all over the world, following the world tour for several years.

Such experience and her unique perspective would then lead her to write some articles in Surf Session magazine as early as the first issue. Years later, she would become the Editor in chief of Trip Surf Magazine and eventually Girl Power, the very first French surfing magazine just for girls.

In 2005, she decided to hop over to the “commercial” side by joining the team at Rip Curl Europe as Communications Manager, a position she still holds today.

From managing the press to the rise of social media, from the evolution of media in general to the brand’s take-over by Khatmandu, Marie-Pascale will tell us all about the evolutions of her trade and key moments in the Rip Curl story. She will also discuss iconic figures like Alana Blanchard or Gabriel Medina and give us her perspective on how the industry is developing, the challenges it will have to face in the future and in particular, the place of women in this environment.

Surfing is a family, in every sense of the word.

Enjoy the ride.