Fortunately, Dion’s surf skills pay bills. Because he probably wouldn’t get much work as a babysitter, based on his contemporary look.

When I wake in the morning it’s to Dion’s rings wrapping on my van window. He peers inside and yells out my name, recoiling as the stench of man and mouldy wetsuit springs back at him. Dion’s ready for a coffee and we make for the nearest cafe. He didn’t sleep well last night. He’d nodded off wearing a set of headphones and woke up with them tangled in his beard. He then made the mistake of checking his phone where he saw an email from the distributor of his sunglasses brand Epohke, which he co-owns with Kai Neville and pro surfer Mitch Coleborn. It was bad news, something about a hold up at the factory.
“I woke up feeling shit, read a shit email and went back to sleep with all this shit in my head,” he says. He’s drawn a line in the sand because of it. “I’m making a rule: I have to have had a coffee before I plug this USB into my brain,” says Dion, adding, “There’s something wrong with a world when you’re boss knows he can reach you at any time, any where in the world. You’re just so constantly plugged in, it’s not normal.”
Dion is a busy man these days. Along with the sunglasses brand, he’s got a number of film projects on the boil, and recently agreed to put out a signature line of clothing with Globe. That last challenge he accepted with some trepidation. “It’s a sketchy thing as a pro surfer putting your name on something because if you’re just sponsored then it’s like, okay, we pay Dion X amount to move product.’ But if your name’s on it they can see more or less exactly how much you’re worth,” he says.
Dion concedes his enthusiasm for creative enterprises does run the risk of turning him into a “jack of all trades, master of nothing.” Though it doesn’t appear to be harming him at the moment. The clothing line is running out the door, the sunglass label is chugging along and he’s getting more invitations than ever to appear in surf films, among them an upcoming Kai Neville feature as well as a Globe concept film to be directed by Joe G.
So it comes as some surprise then when his credit card is declined at breakfast. “Maybe I’m broke!” he laughs, before giving the card another swipe and the payment goes through.