Lat34 Profile: Pro Surfer Omar Etcheverry
Apr 25 2007 / Lower Trestles, CA
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If you know surfing, you know Omar Etcheverry. As a skateboarder in his early grom days, Omar picked up a surfboard when he was 11 years old and never looked back. And right from the get-go, Omar was a formidable competitor on the pro circuit.
In 1996, Etcheverry was named to the U.S. Surf team (coached by the greatest surfer and Omar's favorite rider of all-time Kelly Slater) and helped them clinch a long-awaited World Championship title. Also in 1996, at the Billabong Pro Junior at Huntington Beach, Omar was runner-up to future world champion Andy Irons.
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Since then, he's been a regular at numerous WQS events. Etcheverry made the finals at the three-star WQS Portugal and the WQS Huntington Beach, and made the semis at the O'Neill Cold Water Classic at Steamer's Lane in Santa Cruz.
Omar is also a regular in surf magazines, which truly makes the mark of a great surfer. Etcheverry even cracked the cover of Trip Surf magazine. And sure enough, you can find Omar pulling crazy tricks in the pages of the upcoming issue of Surfer Magazine.
Yet it's outside the water where Omar is making as big of a name for himself as riding waves. Omar and his brother, better known together as The Etch Bros., are blowing up the Northern California and global night scene, producing and spinning club music and promoting shows.
The Etch Bros. are actually releasing two new records. This coming off two previous records that are playing at the hottest nightclubs everywhere. One of the records even made numero uno in countless DJ charts around the world. And nearly every week, Omar (known as Omar Etch when spinning solo) is blowing up the biggest clubs in Northern California. His name as a DJ is almost as big as his reputation as a surfer.
When Omar isn't reaching new marks on a surf board or pulling all-nighters DJ'ing the hottest clubs, O-Dog (as many of his friends like to call him) is slowly making a name for himself as a media broadcaster. Etcheverry was the color commentator alongside Sal Masekela for the team surfing competition at last year's Summer X Games, and plans on coming back. He was also the webcast commentator for the first leg of last winter's prestigious Triple Crown of Surfing at Haleiwa, Oahu.
Yet it's his role as host of the nation's first and only action-sports radio talk show, The Extreme Scene, that perhaps brings the most joy in the media side of Omar's career. Alongside two of his close friends, Omar gets to interview some of the biggest names in extreme sports and joke around on the air in-between. It's no secret that taping the show is one big party for Omar and his co-hosts.
One time, when taping an early-morning interview with Kelly Slater, the surfer Omar's looked up to all his life, Slater joked with Omar, asking him if he was still up from the night before. O-Dog considers this one of the brightest moments of his career, mainly because of the recognition Slater gave him both as a surfer and as a DJ.
It isn't hard to miss Omar Etcheverry. Whether it's at surf competitions, DJ'ing the hottest night clubs, talking smack on radio, television and online, or providing blogs as a correspondent for Lat34, you can be sure Omar will be there. O-Dog will always be catching the sickest shots on the waves, providing the hippest beats to groove to, and giving you the biggest laughs outside the water.
