Salty Beards started in 2012, on the beaches of Ventura, California by professional surfer Nick Rozsa and filmmaker/photographer Chris Papaleo.
Originally, SaltyBeards.com was a place for us to showcase our video's. Today, Salty Beards has grown into a brand, that donates a percentage of sales towards clothing and feeding the local homeless. Sometimes we even take em surfing. It didn't all come so easy though…
As an amateur, Nick had much success competing. Like many others, he soon lost interest with the contest scene and gave it up. In 2011, Nick became a full-time Dad. Shortly after he was accompanied by two unfortunate knee injuries, hindering his career. Leaving Nick dropped by his sponsors, he gave up surfing all together. Without a way to make a living, Nick was struggling to provide for himself and his son Roenn. Later that year he got a call, from longtime friend and filmmaker Chris Papaleo, about a big swell that was on the way. Nick had not surfed in almost a year, but was eager to get back in the water. Chris filmed Nick for a couple weeks, and put together a six minute video titled, "HOMEGROWN". About a month later to their surprise, the video ended up on a couple of popular surf websites. Somehow Kelly Slater came across it, and posted the video on his twitter claiming, "Nick Rozsa is the best unsponsored surfer in the world". That ignited Nick's drive to keep filming. To be continued…