Julian Wilson, one of the world’s most interesting surfers, in his new livery.

Woah. So, like, this is news. Today, like right just now, Julian Wilson has become the first high profile Australian surfer to sign a head-to-toe deal with a non-endemic surf brand. (Actually, that’s not 100 per cent accurate – Nike only have him to the neck. Oakley own his eyes and Red Bull have his head as Julian has a hat deal with the energy drink kings. The complicated life of an extreme-sports athlete, eh?).

Although the news is spreading online like, well, like news spreads online (ie. fast), there’s still an amusing amount of confusion over details. Surfer mag in the States were one of the first media outlets to get a story up, stating that the 6.0 homepage featured a Q & A with Wilson, and an image of him surfing with a 6.0 logo on his board. Surfer journo Todd Prodanovich went on to note that 45 minutes after the Association of Surfing Professionals published a story, Nike 6.0 removed Wilson from its website altogether.

Since Todd’s piece went up on Surfermag.com the ASP have pulled the story from their site, while Nike 6.0 have put Julian back on theirs.

Australia’s Surfing Life have just weighed in, and seem to be the first surf media outlet to actually do some reporting (disclosure: your correspondent used to work there) by speaking with Julian’s brother/manager Bart and unleashing a juicy rumour about Steph Gilmore.

Man, it’s going to be an interesting year for surfing.

Nike’s first Julian clip: