Larry Jr. (IV) was 14 years old when he founded Surf Trip Supply, his  clothing brand.

COVID

In the idleness of COVID, Surf Trip was born. With mandatory shut downs of all beaches in California, Larry imagined what he would take on a surf trip. He started sketching T-Shirts; he did this for four months. With all the sketches he looked for a screen printing company to produce his T-Shirts. Using $150 of his own money after many attempts Larry found a company that would work with him.

Surf Trip was written on his first sketch, and that is how the name of his company came about. His first order consisted of ten T-Shirts. At $30 a piece they were quickly sold to friends and family. For two years the business was stagnant, but he continued to make products. The discovery of Tik Tok catapulted Surf Trip and gave his product a larger platform.

Tik Tok

Larry quickly mastered the use of Tik Tok to promote his product line. Posting seven Tik Tok’s daily finally got him the recognition he was waiting for. He went viral. In 2023 he understood what “viral product” meant. People would instantly purchase a product that had not been made or seen before, so his first drop of 50 pink corduroy baseball caps sold out in 45 seconds! This gave the young entrepreneur more incentive to do everything bigger at a higher scale. He repeated the process in a larger volume.   http://Surftripsupply.com

With the growth of Surf Trip Larry hired four persons to help run ads on Instagram and FaceBook. Almost all of his drops have sold out. His father Larry helps with the packaging of orders and the logistics of customer service, while his mother Chantal answers all the direct messaging for Surf Trip. His father also runs a family-owned business as well.

His Birth

Our families have been friends for more than 30 years. When  Chantal, Larry Jr.’s mom, was expecting her first child I had a vivid dream about her pregnancy. In the dream I had a vision of a light-skinned, blond haired, blue-eyed boy. When the baby was born she was totally opposite from my dream. Larry (his father) and Chantal’s daughter Sophia was born with dark brown eyes with  hair to match. Though I shared the dream with Chantal before the birth of Sophia, it never left her mind. Two years later their son Larry Jr. was born exactly as I envisioned in my dream, light-skinned, blond hair with blue eyes. His genes are from both his maternal and paternal grandparents.

Family

Larry Jr. comes from a large extended family with a colorful bloodline. His maternal grandmother, Pamela, was born in Ireland and his grandfather Mustafa was born in Egypt, while his father’s family are Mexican-American. I know for a fact how his parents and grandparents pray for him and how he has brought them great joy.

I have known Larry his entire life. There is something unique about his family; they are surrounded by love. When you have the love element in your life, it builds confidence. But what I have witnessed in this young man more than anything else is the love he has for Christ. Prioritizing Christ in your life makes all the difference because when you master this at such a young age. Wisdom is bestowed upon you. Truly it is a gift from God.

Faith Based

Though his family is Catholic, Larry’s education was Protestant-based. He attended a Christian elementary school and graduated from Orange Lutheran High School.

Larry pitched the Surf Trip product  line to the surf coaches at his high school alma mater, Orange Lutheran, and got the bid to supply the team with jackets, shirts and hoodies.

Larry is now a freshman at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. On Sundays he attends Vintage Church Malibu and on Wednesdays he is worshiping God with his fellow Pepperdine students at the “Well” held on campus grounds.

Prayer is an intricate part of Larry’s  business. He prays before he designs, posts and drops new merchandise. Prayer has helped him develop into a social influencer. He witnesses his love for Christ by including John 16:33 on all his clothing tags. On the label of the product description you will find the inscription: “Jesus loves you.”

I have mentioned in several of my Blogs how the Lord allowed me to take different paths to find my way back into the Catholic Church. Always having  the desire to grow and to understand God at a deeper level, I learned to love the Word of God through my journey as a Protestant. The fifteen years away from my true calling as a Catholic have brought me to respect others on their journey. The Lord had such loving patience with me in my immature plight to convert the world into whatever I was believing in at that period of my life. Now looking back on this journey, I can see the fruit of my wayward adventure because it was a sincere effort as a babe in Christ. I say “babe” because I rarely attended Catholic Mass. As much as I wanted my two closest friends to convert, they were the ones who gently pulled me back into the Catholic Church. One of them, Helen, is Larry Jr.’s grandmother. My husband Mike and I are Larry (his grandfather) and Helen’s  dear friends. I mention this because we are connected in this vast family of God.

My Prayer

Dear Lord, I pray for Larry Jr. and his company Surf Trip Supply that You would continue to give him wisdom in every area of his life. May all of our youth be drawn to serve You. Bless the future generations with Godly boldness. Allow them to become Your gentle voice in a world filled with perversion. Lead them, Lord, to speak truth and to walk humbly in the path You have provided for them. Amen.