Greetings, Shredderz! For this evening’s Sagas of Shred entry we’ve got yet another Gotcha ad. I’ve featured more than a few Gotcha spots here on the blog, and for my money, Michael Tomson’s brand ran some of the best marketing campaigns in the history of surfing.

Gotcha certainly owes part of its success to its incredibly deep roster of team riders over the years. This ad, which originally appeared on the back cover of the January 1990 issue of Surfer Magazine (Vol 31, No 1), features Martin Potter, Derek Ho, Nick Wood, Cheyne Horan and Dino Andino (or his name, at least.) I love seeing Pottz in these ads — he’s in absolutely peak form and you can practically feel the confidence and swagger leaping off the page. As a teenager, I loved the Volcom ads of the late 90s and early 2000s, and they definitely seem to have taken some inspiration from Gotcha’s legendary campaigns, especially with the collages. With Tomson’s recent passing, and stories about his prolonged struggles with substance abuse, the Gotcha story is certainly not all colorful campaigns and good times, but Tomson’s legacy as a talented businessman and storyteller certainly lives on.