Pemulis Water & Power sits at 4051 Judah Street, a few blocks from Ocean Beach in San Francisco's Outer Sunset. It's a surf and motorcycle shop built around a simple idea: the convergence of nostalgia and novelty. Vintage moto gear alongside contemporary surfboards. Rare finds next to functional essentials. The kind of place where curation matters more than catalog depth.
That mix is exactly why Rage belongs here.
Rage is often introduced as "traction pads and leashes," and yes, the brand makes both. But if you stop at the product category, you miss what makes Rage worth carrying: it's a creative project first—a rider-owned surf company built to protect the freedom to surf, travel, and make films without corporate constraints. The gear exists because the culture exists, not the other way around.
What Is Rage?
Rage Rage Rage—usually shortened to RAGE—is an Australian surf hardware company founded in January 2017 by professional surfers Creed McTaggart, Noa Deane, Beau Foster, Ellis Ericson, and filmmaker Toby Cregan.
Their own mission statement is refreshingly unpolished: create "something" homegrown, completely their own, and make surf vids with friends. In Stab's early coverage, Toby described the original impulse as something that came up "over a lot of beers" in Hawaii, with the point being to do something for themselves—"on our own terms"—with "no corp shit" attached.
The founding story matters because it's still true. Rage remains 100% rider-owned and operated. In a 2025 interview around their fifth film release, Toby explained that Rage began from necessity: the crew wanted to do trips together but didn't have a hardware sponsor—and the core reason for starting the brand was simply "to make the videos." The accessories are the practical layer that keeps the creative engine running.
This is why it's more accurate to think of Rage as a cultural project that sells surf hardware, rather than a brand that makes content. The brand is the crew, the filming, the trips, the edits, the music taste, the deadlines they barely hit, and the jokes that somehow become design language.
The Aesthetic: Vice, Purple, and the Cockroach
Rage's visuals are instantly recognizable: bold, blunt, a little aggressive, and anchored by a purple that doesn't feel "fashionable" so much as defiantly unbothered.
On their own site, Rage describes itself as "the vice crushing the corp norms," then pushes the metaphor further: "the purple cockroach rising from the nuclear rubble of the surf industry."
That imagery isn't random. A cockroach is resilient, a survivor, a creature of the margins. A vice is a tool you tighten yourself. Rage closes the loop with a DIY directive: "Tighten your own vice & do it yourself."
In a shop that sells surfboards and vintage motocross—where people still respect tools, maintenance, and personal style that isn't focus-grouped—Rage's aesthetic doesn't feel like branding. It feels like a point of view.
The Films: Why Rage Is More Than Traction Pads
If you want to understand Rage beyond product shots, watch the films.
RAGE 1 dropped in early 2017 as an 11-minute statement piece: Creed, Noa, Beau, and Ellis surfing without schedules, without pressure, without bedtime—"we stayed up late and got up early and we scored waves." The soundtrack pointed at the wider cultural lineage: D.R.I., Nirvana, Daniel Johnston. Music that doesn't exist to sound surfy, but to make the surfing feel more human and volatile.
Between RAGE 1 and today, the series continued with RAGE 2, RAGE 3, and RAGE 400—each arriving irregularly, more like a band dropping records than a brand running a content calendar.
RAGE 5 came out in May 2025. Shot and directed by Toby Cregan, it features the expanded crew at full strength: McTaggart, Deane, Shaun Manners, Beau Foster, Holly Wawn, Wade Goodall, Kai McKenzie, Jaleesa Vincent, Jake Vincent, Kai Hing, and Benny Howard. Toby described it as having "throwback stuff" mixed with "hifi surf vid" quality—archival grit inside a modern edit, with the crew's history left visible rather than polished away.
That's the convergence of nostalgia and novelty in the most literal sense.
Meet the GERA
GERA is RAGE spelled backwards—their name for the extended team. The founders set the tone, but the roster has grown to include some of the most interesting surfers in Australia's freesurf scene.
Shaun Manners — Margaret River royalty. His dad, Mat Manners, is a legendary local shaper. Shaun's style has been described as "the best kind of thrash": timeless tube poise mixed with contemporary spins and tweaked grabs. A three-fin purist who "just wants to fucking rip." His signature Rage pad features checker plate texture inspired by the steel found in the back of Australian utes.
Wade Goodall — Started as an aerial innovator in the mid-2000s (he invented the Passion Pop), but multiple leg injuries evolved his surfing toward what SURFER called "poetry of motion." Now known for dramatic barrel riding in Australian slabs, smooth style, and a creative filmmaking approach. His signature pad features "Trotter Locker" technology for maximum foot lockdown.
Holly Wawn — Sydney's Northern Beaches to Byron Bay. Australian Junior Titles winner at 15, former QS competitor, now a freesurfer known for explosive power and big swooping hacks. The Surfer's Journal: "a freesurfer known for her big, swooping hacks." One of the few women in the core freesurf hardware space.
Craig Anderson — One of the most respected names in Australian freesurfing, period. Former What Youth cover fixture, known for a smooth, powerful style that translates across everything from beachbreaks to slabs.
Kai Hing — Another QS veteran turned freesurfer, based on the Australian east coast. Known for clean, technical surfing and consistent output.
Jaleesa and Jake Vincent — Siblings, both on the GERA roster. Jaleesa has been singled out by Wade Goodall for her "super unique lines and heaps tech" approach.
Kai McKenzie — The youngest member of the team, and the one with the story that stopped everyone in their tracks.
The Kai McKenzie Story
In July 2024, Kai McKenzie was surfing at Port Macquarie on the NSW mid-north coast when a 15-foot great white shark attacked him. The shark bit through his board—through his Rage traction pad—and took his leg.
His leg couldn't be saved. He spent two months in the hospital.
Three months after the attack, Kai paddled back out to the exact same spot. He's since stood up and surfed on a prosthetic, and has made clear he's not done: "I'm just going to fuck shit up with a prosthetic."
He's still on the Rage team. Rage's Instagram post after the attack: "Sending love to @kai_mckenzie the youngest RAGE boy on the team and the toughest person that we know."
Bethany Hamilton reached out to him unprompted. Kai told Stab: "She just knew what I'd be going through and made the effort out of the blue to connect... She just gave me a rundown of the reality of it and changed my whole perspective to stay positive."
It's the most compelling brand loyalty story in surfing—not because of marketing, but because the crew is real, and the loyalty runs both directions.
The Gear
Rage traction pads range from $55–$62 at Pemulis. Each pad reflects the rider's actual surfing philosophy—no focus groups, no design-by-committee beyond the people whose names are on the product.
Noa Deane Front Pad
5-piece front traction for skateboard-style grip
Creed McTaggart
Largest footprint, flat with no arch
Shaun Manners
Checker plate texture, industrial aesthetic
Beau Foster Bug
Minimalist 1-piece for flow surfers
TM Grip
Team consensus all-rounder
Wade Goodall
Trotter Locker tech for barrel riders
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All Rage traction pads
Rage also makes leashes, board socks, apparel, and the occasional collaboration (they did a shoe with Globe). But the traction pads remain the core—the thing that started it all, the thing that keeps the film trips funded.
Why Rage Fits Pemulis
Both surfing and motorcycles revolve around a rider's relationship with the machine—how it fits, how it responds, how it translates intention into motion. A traction pad is a small piece of foam, but it's a contact point: where your stance meets the board, where control becomes possible. In moto terms, it's the equivalent of a well-chosen grip or peg—functional, personal, quietly expressive.
Rage fits Pemulis because it refuses to confuse "the industry" with "the culture." The culture is the crew, the trips, the edits, the soundtracks, the weird flyers for film premieres, and the decision to keep making things even when the safe choice would be to stop.
Pemulis isn't trying to recreate a mall version of surf culture. Neither is Rage. That's the overlap.
Where to Buy Rage in San Francisco
If you've been trying to buy Rage in the US without turning it into an international shipping exercise, here's the simple answer: Pemulis Water & Power is one of the few American Rage stockists carrying the full lineup.
Browse our Rage collection online or stop by the shop at 4051 Judah Street in San Francisco's Outer Sunset. Inventory rotates based on Australian shipments—if something's out of stock, ask when the next drop is coming.
For detailed breakdowns of each traction pad—specs, rider profiles, and who each pad is actually for—see our complete Rage Traction Pad Buyer's Guide.
Tighten your own vice & do it yourself.
Shop Rage Traction Pads
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