Good old Mikey was our second major pro acquisition.  Shortly after George Bryan joined Exile Skimboards, Aaron Peluso planned a skim trip to Chile with friends.  Even though Mike and Paulo both rode for another company at the time, he gave them the invite anyway.  As fate would have it, on the first day of the nine day trip, Mike Stanaland broke his board.  There was one unused board on the beach and it was Peluso's spare.  Mike gave it a shot.  Over the course of the trip Mike fell in love with that board, and a contract was signed on the plane ride home.   

Mike was fresh off a win at the 2002 World Championships which was probably one of the biggest upsets in skimboarding history, so this was big news in skimboarding. What we didn't know at the time was that this would then open the door to get Paulo on the team, which as everyone knows, worked out pretty well. Mike phased out of competitive skimboarding a few years later but we still miss hanging out with him on the beach, and look forward to sharing some sessions together again soon.