You may have started to notice our new tagline “SURF comes first” beginning to appear on our website and social media sites. It symbolizes everything we stand for in the shop and how we live our lives. As surfers, we tend to base our schedules around surf forecasts and weather reports. If there are going to be waves, and they don’t even need to be that good, we blow off work and cancel appointments. We spend all day waiting for the right conditions, when we should be taking care of our responsibilities and being productive. Everything else waits, SURF comes first.
In the shop and our website, we focus only on surf. A lot of businesses these days are now selling surf as a back-up to their other main product lines. We believe SURF comes first, and is more important than this. Likewise, the local surf shop is the original supplier of products and hub for every surfing community. Long before large corporations realized the popularity and profit potential of surfing, there were the small surf shops along the coast taking care of their surfers. They were the backbone of the surf industry. That is quickly becoming lost due to surfing’s increasing popularity. In this new world of online shopping and corporate mass consolidation of retail, the small surf shop is slowly fading away. Our surfing heritage is more important than this and we should all put SURF first.
As a coastal surf shop, the seasonality and remoteness to larger populations makes running a successful business difficult. This makes it tough to compete against all of the businesses that are now selling surf. Oregonian’s pride themselves on “keeping it local” and supporting small business. As surfers, we should all take pride in supporting our local surf shops, and your surf community. If you want the shops you love to be there when you need wax, break your leash, or misplaced your gloves, we all need your support. When buying that next wetsuit or surfboard, pair of boardshorts or bikini, head to your local surf shop, or at least give them a look online before going to a large corporation. SURF comes first, and always will at Moment Surf Company!
