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SURFERMAG ONLINE EXCLUSIVE

Would you rather be more of an inventor than the business owner?

Yes. I can manage the business and employees cause I’ve had to and I can do it ok, but my real desire is an interest in developing things and improving our current products. But you have to wear all these different hats.

What has been the biggest obstacle for you since starting Surfco Hawaii?

Well one of the first obstacles we had when we started our first year was with our nose guards. They used to be glued on with silicone from a US manufacturer that required a special primer. It had to be applied into the nose guard and on top of the surfboard so that the silicone would bond to both parts. Without that primer the nose guard wouldn’t stick. So we started shipping out all these nose guards all over the world with this special little bottle and this special primer and then we found out after a couple of months that the primer began to crystallize in the bottle. We had stuff all over the world and I thought, “Oh my god, what are we going to do?”

So I began to scramble and to pray about it and I thought this could really be the end of our new company. But the Lord brought a call from this guy in California who was working for a Japanese silicone company. He was a surfer and had called to talk to us about selling us silicone to make nose guards, and I told him about our problem, and he said, “Well I’ll just send you some of our silicone.” It turned out when we got it that it did not require a primer, so that was our first major, major hurdle we had to overcome. We quickly switched to that new silicone and we since have switched to a peel and stick.

What would you say has been your biggest triumph over the years?

I think developing products that will outlive me. We get a lot of thank you notes and emails from people who have been hit by their fins or the nose of their board. We also get the reverse side where people send pictures and emails of people who didn’t have a nose guard or Pro Teck fins on and some of those are pretty gory. So I think that’s the most rewarding thing is seeing our product on boards and hearing that it really does do something. The trick is to try to get people using them before they get hit.

What product would you say you’re most proud of?

I think the nose guards for sure and the Pro Teck, just because the Pro Teck fins were really personal. We sat in the operating room overlooking my son getting stitched up and then going through the whole healing process with him. He actually stopped surfing after that. It’s only now that he’s 30 that he’s starting to go back to surfing again.

Wow, so that must have been a pretty traumatic day for him.

Well it was real bummer because he was becoming a really good surfer and he had just begun to enter contests, and that just really set him back. I kind of shake my head when I see parents with kids who aren’t using our products. I don’t say anything, it’s really up to them, but I’d hope they could avoid the same mistake I made.

Which of the tops pros give you the best feedback on your products?

One of the most outspoken people on our products is Pancho Sullivan on the Diamond Tip nose guard. We did an ad with him and he was pretty adamant about telling people that he thinks it’s crazy for surfers not to use the Diamond Tip on their board.

With the Pro Teck fins we have a number of people using them, but one thing we don’t do is pay anybody to use our stuff. I know Shea Lopez really likes our Pro Teck fins and in fact, Shea called me one time when he was 16 or 17. I was the first phone call he made when he got out of the hospital after getting speared through the ear by the tip of his board. He’s pretty consistent about using our Diamond Tips and our fins because of that.

Do you have any advice to someone who would want to start a similar ‘mom and pop’ type business?

I think one of the most important qualities of a small business is you’ve got to have perseverance, and I think perseverance is created by a passion for what you’re doing. If you don’t really believe in what you’re doing or if you’re trying to do it for money then you probably won’t be successful cause it’s really, really too hard. You know, after 20 years, I think if I knew it was going to be this hard I don’t think I would have done it. But I look back and it’s been challenging and it still is challenging but I know my products will outlive me. They’re contributing to the surfing society and certainly reducing injury. There’s a big picture. It’s not always about money. It’s about people.

What are your plans for the future?

Keep doing what I want to do. I’m looking at business continuity so I think at some point I’d like to get acquired by a bigger company, which would allow me to develop more things.

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