Surf Execs Talk Shop, Ride Waves in Cabo
By JENNIFER BELLANTONIO
The crowd whistled and clapped as Richard “Wooly” Woolcott walked up to the podium to get his award.
He shook hands with the presenters and turned to his peers. They howled louder.
“OK, I need a shot,” Woolcott said.
He grabbed a tequila bottle placed on the podium and tipped it above his lips, letting the alcohol stream down into his mouth.
Then he thanked his grandma for taking him surfing as a kid while his mom stood knee-deep in water yelling at him to be careful.
Woolcott, founder of Costa Mesa-based Volcom, took home three awards at the sixth annual Surf Industry Manufacturers Association Surf Summit conference, held May 15 to 18 in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
He was among more than 250 movers in the surf industry that met at the Royal Solaris Los Cabos Resort for surfing, educational workshops and schmoozing.
The trade group also held its first Image Awards, in which retailers and apparel makers voted for nominees in five categories, including Print Ad Campaign of the Year, Manufacturer of the Year and Industry Achiever of the Year. Woolcott and his Volcom team swept those three.
The event drew the who’s-who from the biggest in the industry, including Irvine-based Billabong USA; Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.; Irvine-based Rusty; Foothill Ranch-based Oakley Inc.; Irvine-based Ocean Pacific Apparel Corp.; Costa Mesa-based Hurley International, a unit of Nike Inc.; and Santa Cruz-based O’Neill, which markets clothes from Irvine.
Local retailers included Laguna Surf and Sport, Becker Surfboards Inc. and Jack’s Surfboards in Huntington Beach. And there were trade media and Hollywood types, too.
“I’ve been there in the past when ‘surf’ wasn’t a good word,” said Mike “Shooy” Schillmoeller, vice president of marketing at Rusty. “Everyone seemed really pumped on it” this time.
The summit started as a little get-together of about 50 people six years ago and now is a full-blown conference.
This year, more industry leaders from around the globe came, particularly from Europe and Australia.
Everyone was working angles.
Executives, such as Joel Cooper, chief executive of Irvine-based Lost Enterprises and the association’s treasurer, waded in the hotel pool, sipping margaritas and swapping strategies.
Retailers talked shelf space with apparel makers.
At the Los Cabos International Airport, Paul Naude, chief executive of Billabong USA, chatted up Bobby Abdel of Jack’s as they waited for a flight home.
Waves aside, the undercurrent still was about work.
“It’s a full-on business trip,” Schillmoeller said.
The conference featured workshops on issues such as global expansion, retail distribution and youth trends. It also had three keynote addresses.
In a lunch keynote, Harry Hodge, senior vice president of Quiksilver and founder of Quiksilver Europe, urged brands to think global. Europe is a growth market for a number of OC’s surf players, particularly Quiksilver.
“Today surfing is out of the box,” he said.
In the opening address, Naude, association vice president, talked about increased competition from “formidable” foes: mainstream brands looking to cash in on the surf lifestyle.
He said the surf industry needs to create retail space and show its apparel to a broader audience, such as in the Midwest where non-industry competitors are “stealing market share.”
“We really need to compete back,” Naude said.
Distribution was a hot,and sometimes heated,topic.
Main themes: how surf brands can grow distribution without alienating core customers (surfers) and Abercrombie & Fitch Co.’s play in the surf scene through its Hollister stores.
“(Abercrombie’s) going to grow, and they’re going to be players,” said Rick Brooks, chief executive of Everett, Wash.-based Zumiez Inc.
The discussion left attendees wanting more.
“Nobody shows their cards,” Schillmoeller said. “You get little glimpses but nobody shows their cards. That’s the way the competition in our industry is. It’s fierce.”
This summit also featured more of these folks from outside the surf industry, including Michael Wood, vice president of Northbrook, Ill.-based Teenage Research Unlimited.
Peter “P.T.” Townend, marketing and events director of Primedia Inc.’s action sports group in San Clemente, said he’d like to see more of these speakers who get the industry thinking.
“For people to grow their business they have to reach outside the enthusiasts,” Townend said. “There’s only so many people that can surf.”
