As Jamie O'Brien puts it, he’s cracked the code. While huge corporate entities have built brands around the Banzai Pipeline, Jamie, who grew up on the sand there, was able to elbow his way in with the big boys, creating as authentic a brand as any of them. Yet his surf story is a juxtaposition: his background is as "core" as it gets but his vlog reaches an audience that spans well beyond surfing. We talked about Jamie’s independence and what core actually means in the modern world of surf.