But just right now! Bright days maybe ahead!
Do you remember being a youth and needing surf accoutrement? I do.
I remember walking into a surf shop, smelling the wax, seeing the pink Astrodeck, the Mountain and the Wave, the fluoro Shark watches, the checkered Vans, the Op shorts, the Gotcha Fishman and thinking they were the only thing that mattered in life besides actually surfing.
The product, the image, was, in my juvenile mind, synonymous with the activity.
Oh how I wanted it all! My parents could afford very little/nothing so I was left mostly on the outside looking in/with Wahlboard t-shirts from Pismo Beach but still. I dreamed.
And I wonder about kids today. They don’t lust for product, do they. They don’t walk in to surf shops with eyes wider than Matt Biolos’s pant legs. They don’t need anything to belong. There are no more signifiers and thus the industry has been in a decade long death throe.
Whose fault is it?
Maybe the Australian Surf Industry Awards!
I read this morning about them on the industry blog Shop-Eat-Surf. Let’s tuck in!
The Australian Surf and Boardsports Association held its annual awards in Sydney on Thursday May 26, celebrating the high achievers of the Australia’s multi-million dollar surf industry. Held at the Crowne Plaza in Coogee, the night attracted over 200 retailers and brand representatives from all over Australia.
Both retailers and brands were recognised with 30 awards presented across a number of retail, product and marketing categories.
On the brand side, relative newcomer Vissla has announced its arrival as a significant player when it was awarded the Breakthrough Brand of the year. Rip Curl’s attention to technical details was well rewarded when it took out product of the year in the boardshort, wetsuit and surf accessories categories. The Otis Youngblood won sunglass of the year while Reef was the number one footwear brand.
It was also a big night for Billabong, taking out swimwear brand of the year and the men’s and women’s brand of the year. To cap things off Billabong also won the men’s and women’s marketing campaigns of the year.
It was another big night and SBIA president Anthony Wilson was delighted with its success:
“It’s nights like tonight that really sets our industry apart, it really did have it all,” “Wilson said.
And what the goddamn hell?
There are too many wrong things happening here to fully digest but the Crowne Plaza in Coogee?
Attracted “200” people?
Billabong swimwear “brand” of the year and marketing “campaign” of the year?
Arbitrary award shows are, in and of themselves, embarrassing. This embarrassing one launched in 2011, smack in the middle of complete and utter surf market meltdown. In the five years since things have gotten steadily worse.
Not that we shouldn’t fiddle while Rome burns (welcome to BeachGrit!) but celebrating and awarding our mediocrity/squandering of an entire movement/at the Coogee Grand Plaza just seems….lame. And if I was a kid today I would want nothing to do with any of it.
How can we fix?
I think Michael Tomson was very right when he proclaimed size is the enemy of cool and there are many interesting smaller brands popping up all over. Like Rolling Death Maui or OurCaste or Insted We Smile or Saint Laurent’s Surf Sound collection. Brands run by people who have a finger on the pulse, who still care. A trimmed Quiksilver is better than it has been for years and Lost, pulled from the teeth of a management group, has snap again. Etc.
Is the future bright? Who knows! Tune in this time next year for the first annual BeachGrit Awards live from the Santa Ana Holiday Inn to find out but in the meantime, fuck the other bastards.
Last link didn’t work yoooo! I need me to capitalism all over these up and comer surf brands. Sorta surprised you didn’t push the best surf brand that no one ever talks about http://www.surfohio.com/
Chas I’m so glad you called out these awards too, read about them somewhere and was legitimately embarrassed for all involved.
me too!! I mean Reef won best shoe award?
is $750 really a lot of money though? for a custom made surfboard that could potentially last a lifetime? On minimum wage an Australian kid could buy a new board in two weeks. The surfboard industry doesn’t suck, the consumer sucks. There are so many sick new shapers making cool boards that are fun to ride. With some brands you can even test the board before you buy it.
The problem as I see it, is that the “surf industry” now represents a group of individuals who are desperately trying to change surfing from a subculture into a sport. The corporate mindset can be broken down to one key word – “growth.” There’s no growth in a subculture. We’re an insular little group, we don’t care about people learning to surf, we’re not trying to spread the stoke, if anything we want less people in the water as we’re a fucking selfish bunch. So at some point in time the surf brands and the surfer went in different directions, wanting different things from surfing. As a result we all shunned the surf brands (ok we still have to get wetsuits and board shorts from them sort of) and that made them even more desperate for growth as now they’d lost their core consumer. Some of the new smaller brands are trying to grab some of that core consumer $$, but now were jaded, we look at them and ask – “but what does it stand for?” There’s no heritage, no backbone.
agree
backbones are overrated.
Good one Cap. Bingo on 95% of that. The only thing I would disagree on is there are some cool, smaller brands which will be, as in past down cycles, the breath of fresh air and the salvation of anything remotely creative going forward. We have to wear something to work, no? But I do believe they need to break out of the seasonal/trade show/predetermined merry go round the industry has been stuck in for 40 years.
The retail game is really the key. Although there will be some pain, I’m thinking the Pac Sun/Zummies and other big ‘lifestyle’ type retailers are doomed. It will be either e-comm or from a real, core surf shop. The core surf shop is actually positioned very nicely as the empire crumbles around us.
I agree, I actually think the time of the core surf shop is returning in some ways. Just the retail model needs to change as you mentioned. I also want to mention that although I lament the plight of the new smaller brands, that doesn’t mean I think they’re doomed. Its more of a call to arms – make us feel something, forget what the big guys are doing / have done. Oh and don’t incorporate, that seems to go badly.
c’mon man I’m a size 34, 6 foot tall, can’t i be cool too?
It’s amazing how many of us recall our youths around surfing through a sort of magical haze, yet view today with a kind of gritty disgust.
Maybe what really sucks is getting older.
Because it was magical, individualistic, rugged and less commercial then. Nobody looking at demographics just people passionate, smart, artistic and grateful they were turned on to the act of riding waves. Constant progression and great characters. There were no big company’s back then. Today what sucks is when the corporate stuff spills over into our beloved surfing. CPA’s which are a necessary part of every corporation, that do not surf or grew up surfing end up running surf brands. They don’t care about what is cool unless they do enough “research” to find out that it sells. Of course by that point it isn’t cool anymore but they push to sell it anyway. It’s disgusting and we all see it. The best shit in our beloved surfing is in the hard goods and some of the amazing people making them. Surfboards are fucking incredible and changing all the time. Advancements in Fins by fin shapers are at an all time high. Wetsuits are the best they have ever been and the trunks that are made for surfing all day without a rash are the best. It’s the people of the surf community at large that make it what it is. I wouldn’t put it down to getting older.
True, but getting old does suck.
he said “older”
Yeah I’m with you on a lot of that, but I think ageing does play a part. Like, what’s “then” to you? Everyone’s “then” varies slightly depending on their age — yet the way we all look at “then” is amazingly similar, whether our personal “then” was in 1971 or 1998 or 2003. Like, Chas loved Gotcha, but I know older guys who despised that whole era, because their “then” was 1957.
it has to do with perspective imho. Are you limiting yourself? people can learn to shape, wear anything they want, talk shit, call out bullshit, listen to the widest variety of music, make music and send it out there, be funny and share it, the list goes on.
oh it’s always been disgust. Surfing and surfers suck. Spread the word.
I thoroughly enjoy BG’s willingness to completely alienate any and all mainstream advertisers in the name of truth.
“Wider than Biolos’ pant leg” is fuckin genius …..
hahaha loved it
shit , new brands springing up everywhere , next you will be telling me an Asian made board could win best surfboard model and or the biggest brand s/bd Co’s are having a very big downturn in sales , more stringerless eps carbon will fix all financial woes and ills , so we the consumer can profit from tech babble , and babble forth!
the consumer never profits
kids are just another extension of one’s own success
Next years Breakthrough Brand Company nominees:
1.) Mel’s Concrete Company – serving the needs of wave pools across the globe
2.) Chloe Chlorinated Color Compositions – cause chlorine shouldn’t ruin good colors
3.) Larry’s Leaf Gettin’ Nets – cause leaves in line-ups sucks
4.) Vissla – the forgotten has forged ahead
5.) Baby Ruth Candy Bars – sales have sky-rocketed in and around wave pool complexes
I ain’t often one
Who’d be having a crisis in faith
Though I would not be the one
That you’d come asking anyway
I ain’t no big believer
In the virtues of belief
Though I would not say that outside looking
Out’s a virtue either
Is Banks cool? Your ad says yes, but your heart says no.
is that a backside drop-wallet over there or what? stalling for a tube that’s going to take a while to materialize?
nope
Does Banks pay BeachGrit for all the accidental clicks from the white border of the comments section? (Click just left of the avatars) More likely, me thinks Banks produces B’Grits ball huggers in exchange for ad banners in the rails << | >>
they should
Has anyone actually ever deliberately clicked an online ad?
hahahahahaha! right?
Surf fashion to be replaced by wave pool fashion in the near future.
difference?
Well less tropical idealism less artsy and maybe more Bible Belt think Jesus shorts and nascar style stickerd boards. Shit I don’t know I just hope it sucks.
Holiday Inn? The La Quinta Santa Ana Airport is the way to go, practically the Sunset Strip of the OC.
Ok….I’m officially changing the venue.
I learned just yesterday that the Sheraton has a “pretty good” salad bar and it’s “never busy.” Maybe that’s the way to go?
The quality of the products now sucks, because all the brands wants to make everything and because there are a million new brands, Remember XTRACKS pads? one of the best grips ever, made in USA, why they close? Now a piece of robber with a lot of colors and a kick and glue is a tail paid. The quality is not important because the kooks buy by color.
And the people who wants quality and performance products?
Yeah I always wonder what happend to Xtracks- they were the shit. Pretty abrasive on the old knees when surfing in boardies though…
I live in costa rica and never have problems with my knees, but i guess depend the model, they have different models with different materials.
They were tail pad scince. Infact when kelly start Kommunity the kelly model was made in xtrak.
i fucken loved x tracks
#Giantasteroid2016
Chas,,, it’s sucks, really.
During periods 2001/2003 and 2005/2007, between my works as archictect, I managed two surf shops in Ipanema, here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The two stores were really for surfers, surfboards, fins, waxes, wetsuits, and of course surf wear …
The first of them, we were national representatives of Xcel Wetsuits …
In both many athletes were sponsored, especially in the second store (guys for the WQS and WCT).
Were shops where everyone could go barefoot, sand in the feet, even shirtless (quickly, of course), or dressed wetsuits …
There were many shops for surfers, in fact … almost all closed.
In its place came fashion surf shops … basically specialized in … clothes.
Fashion surf shops… many nationals / locals, who do not want to sponsor athletes, competitions … just explore basically … the lifestyle of soul surfing … soul surfers … sell clothes … shoes … pants … hats … and in the store background, reserve a small space for boards and equipments.
They basically want to explore the surf image, make money with it, but without committing to it.
Sellers who do not surf, do not know equiments, and what are the types of fins or the materials and systems of wetsuits … repeating an annoying decorated speech.
And guess which contributed to the failure of almost all surf shops?
Representatives of the big brands and his owners in Brazil!
Representatives of major brands (QS, Billabong, MCD, Reef, Lost, Volcom, Oakley, Arnette …) were true motherfuckers, leeches and vampires …
The guys arrived at the store, stores, and forced the owners to buy the entire grid products, but does not deliver anything in stores if you do not buy everything.
Forced married sales, male and female, all sizes … equipments included… including those who hardly sold: a certain type of surf leash, a certain type of fins, deck, specific size wetsuit…
We could not choose what we knew was selling more, compose grids according to what else sold in clothing and equipment.
Sub-brands could be sold only if you buy the top brands (Von Zipper … Billabong, Quiksilver – Roxy, Rip Curl man and girls, etc …)
In this period the economy in general in Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, was broken …
A vicious circle in which no working capital (security), you depended on to keep the store and buy these products only on … selling …
But you bought products and has to pay them in 30 days … 60 days … but remember: you bought, forced, whole grids, many products will be on the shelves without selling … because you had no choice.
So what’s the solution? Genius: burning stock, promotions … 10%, 20%, 30%, 50% … Eureka! You are already in financial loss.
Very few shops, really for surfers, survived, a few in Arpoador (beginning of Ipanema beach) … and some within the boards factories (Macumba Beach, Recreio beach, Vargem Grande…)
What exists is a boutique surf market, a surfing fashion market …
There is no surf market for the surfer.
All these motherfuckers burn in hell!
The big 3 have been running this game in Australian and the USA for years, the old – “give us growth year on year or we’ll open blah blah surf down the road” then “ok now you have to stock all the brands / our entire matrix that we do regardless of whether they sell” and then finally “oh you and blah blah surf both have your backs to the wall cause of our shitty business practices – well eat bags of dicks now we’re opening up our own shops next door, good luck.”
Man!!!
Exactly!!! Bullseye!!!
ps:
You had to pay in 30/60 days, but look …
Are basically in fashion, four seasons for sales in Brazil: Spring (a small collection), Summer (many products), high summer (another small collection), winter (many products) …
Just do the math, the months between collections (you have to buy early, or you go to the end of the line and buy only what is left over) … you simply counter the months between collections against 30/60 paydays for each purchased collection … this account to make a profit, pay collections, buy collections, not close …
And remembering again: every surf brand representative entered the store and put the knife on your chest to buy the entire grid, married sales … blah blah blah … or: the surf brand cut you from the store buyers list …
Result: store without new products, stored old products, stopped, unable to sell.
The end … closed surf shops.
Australians still wear ripcurl t shirts and other shitty “Australian” made in china brands with pride, it’s funny. I laugh at Australians.
Sounds like you have a lot of fun on holidays
I thought this story was going to whine about how there aren’t enough ads here to support BeachGrit. I would give you a few bucks a year to continue this site, and I don’t pay for any media. Start a crowdfund thingy.
I would never whine! We’ve worked very hard to alienate! And thank you for being willing to get crowdfundy.
I blame the internet.