Encinitas Surfboards Inc

Description

Surfing is not just a sport. It’s a business! Yes, I know the “B” word sends shivers up the spine of every ‘soul surfer.’ (And every surfer, if asked, will tell you he or she is a ‘soul surfer.’) We despise business. We spit at it. We’d blow off a surefire, million dollar deal for a good southwest swell. But you gotta eat, right? This reality has plagued surfers since the Hawaiian Kings first put balsa to water. Over the years, it has led many a grommet to the idea that, perhaps, he or she could somehow combine surfing and working when he or she grows up. A few manage to pull this off, but there are only so many slots on the professional tour, and the tour has only been around for so many years. But there’s always room for another shaper or surf shop, right? Just about ever young surfer, at some time in his or her career, entertains the idea of shaping boards out of a grass shack on the beach for a living, surrounded by young devotees of the opposite sex. Or, maybe just opening a surf shop where everyone will hang out all day and watch surf videos until the next swell hits and then hang up the “Gone Surfing” sign and lock the door on the way out, if there’s time. When I was coming up, everyone I knew had shaped at least one board for her or himself, and I remember a time when every city block in Encinitas had a house on it with some kid shaping boards out of the garage, intent on being next up-and-comer. Most of these guys work for Bank of America in Phoenix, Arizona now. And it would take several pages for me to list all of the surf shops in southern California that I’ve watched start and fail over the past twenty years or so that I’ve been paying attention to this kind of thing. The truth is that the surf industry is volatile, at best. Surfing has been around longer than most of the action sports out there, but it’s history is one of rapid change and growth nonetheless. In a little over half a century it has grown from a relatively unknown sport to a major, worldwide, corporate industry. This growth brought with it changes in the technology of surfing—longboards evolved to shortboards and back again, balsa evolved to foam and is threatening to evolve again into epoxy, and freezing your you know what off in the winter evolved into neoprene. It also brought with it changes in the business structures needed to support production and distribution to an international market. All of this, while at the same time keeping up with the latest style. (You need to look good while you surf, after all, don’t you?) Few businesses are able to weather this kind of rapid change. Much like surfing itself, you need to be able to adapt, on-the-fly, to rapidly changing situations while negotiating your way to the execution of a deliberate, planned maneuver if you want to succeed in this kind of dynamic environment. Encinitas is home to two very different businesses that have managed to do just that.

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