The Billabong house has been sold, but to someone who’ll let Billabong continue to use it. Photo: Screenshot/YouTube
If the walls of the Billabong house on the North Shore of Oahu could talk, they’d likely have quite a few stories to tell. Every winter for the last 20-or-so years, Billabong team riders have eaten, slept, and partied there. Andy Irons, Joel Parkinson, and Italo Ferreira have all been crowned world champions while calling the place home. But now, it has a new owner.
As you may remember, a few years back Billabong came under the umbrella of a company called Boardriders, which also owns Quiksilver, Roxy, DC Shoes, RVCA, Element, and Von Zipper. Billabong was reportedly purchased for $155 million at the time. Boardriders is backed by an investment firm called Oaktree Capital Management, which, according to David Tanner, managing director of special situations for Oaktree, “specializes in investing in companies that could be considered distressed.”
Under the watchful eye of Oaktree, the belts at Quick and Billabong were substantially tightened. Quiksilver’s European headquarters in France was sold, as well as the one in Australia.
The sale of the Billabong house could have been the end of an era, but the as-of-yet unidentified purchaser has generously agreed to let Billabong continue to use the house as a landing spot for team riders.
“While we’re not in the business of owning and managing a property on the North Shore anymore,” Billabong Men’s Global GM Mark Weber told Shop Eat Surf, “we’re extremely happy that a close friend of the brand has taken on the house and partnered with us to ensure that it will remain the headquarters for the brand and the Billabong Pro Pipeline for many years to come.”
