by Board Retailers Association | Dec 10, 2019 | Industry, News, Surf, Women's Market
The Surfer Awards Fan Favorite Poll Results Are In…And Some Are Shocking YOUR CHOICES FOR BEST SURFER, MOVIE OF THE YEAR, BEST BARREL AND MORE FOR 2019 DECEMBER 10, 2019 BY TODD PRODANOVICH In case you hadn’t heard, last Thursday was the capital-b Biggest Night in Surfing. It was a big ol’ party at Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu, where elite surfers dressed to the nines, The Mattson 2 melted some faces and gorgeous bronze statues were handed to the year’s most impressive surfers. One of the biggest shifts in our sweeping overhaul of the Awards this year was that all the winners in the live show were crowned by the Surfer Awards Academy, consisting of nearly 50 experts and icons like Gerry Lopez, Bruce Irons, Albee Layer, Taylor Steele, Carissa Moore and many many more (the only exception to this rule is the award for Battle of the Vlogs, which was awarded based on the Fan Favorite Poll). The Academy was broken into panels of 10 judges based on their specific expertise, and judges couldn’t vote in categories they were nominated in, of course (you can see the full results voted by the Academy here)). But we didn’t just want to know how surfing’s elite felt about the year in surfing, so we decided to do a Fan Favorite Poll to run in tandem with the Academy vote. The fan poll winners may not be crowned on the night of the big show, but it certainly does give a different kind of bragging rights to the winners—the people’s champs, as they were. What follows are your picks for the Surfer...
by Board Retailers Association | Dec 10, 2019 | Industry, News, Point of Sale, Private Label, Resources, Skateboard, Snowboard, SUP, Surf, Trade Shows, Vision, Wake Surf, Wakeboard, Women's Market
Such an outstanding event. Massive thanks to the Distinguished Panel and Supporting Event Partners including Surfing Heritage and Culture Center, Locally, Solite Boots, Action Watch, Exchange Collective and Sambazon as well as all of the Retailers, Brands and Vendors that attended this outstanding Regional Retailer Roundtable Event. Check out the Highlight Reel by clicking below. Filmed and Edited by Noah Schuler. The next BRA Regional Roundtable will happen at Surf Expo in the Learning Lounge on January 9, 2020 at 4 pm. For additional details on this and other upcoming BRA events, click:...
by Board Retailers Association | Dec 6, 2019 | Industry, News, Surf, Women's Market
PRESS RELEASES | Published Dec 6, 2019 on Shop Eat Surf Surfing celebrated its biggest night of the year last night with the 49th annual Surfer Awards, held at Turtle Bay Resort on the fabled North Shore of Oahu. The industry’s most prestigious award show celebrated the year’s greatest achievements in surfing and surf filmmaking, with newly-crowned four-time world champion Carissa Moore winning the Women’s Best Surfer award, and 2019 world title hopeful Italo Ferreira claiming the Men’s Best Surfer award. Director Michael Oblowitz received the Movie of the Year award for “Heavy Water”, a documentary about the life of one of surfing’s most venerated big-wave chargers and aerial pioneers, Nathan Fletcher. This year’s Surfer Awards saw the addition of new categories, allowing for an equal number of performance awards for both men and women for the first time in the show’s history. In addition to Carissa Moore’s Women’s Best Surfer win, big-wave surfer Justine Dupont took top honors in the Women’s Heavy Water category, Courtney Conlogue claimed Women’s Best Maneuver, Vahine Feirro took Women’s Best Barrel and local Hawaiian longboarder Kelia Moniz elegantly earned the Women’s Best Style award. Nearly all of the night’s big winners were chosen by the Surfer Awards Academy, which consists of surf experts, including stylish ‘70s legend Gerry Lopez, modern aerial maestro Albee Layer, Hawaiian ripper Coco Ho, and many more icons of the surfing world. The one award of the night that was not voted on by the Surfer Awards Academy was the Battle of the Vlogs award, which celebrated surfing’s most beloved YouTube stars and was voted on by the surfing public as...
by Board Retailers Association | Nov 26, 2019 | Associate Members, Industry, News, Resources, Skateboard, Statistics, Surf, Women's Market
By Tiffany Montgomery | Published Nov 26, 2019 October is typically not a blockbuster month at retail because it falls after the back-to-school rush and before holiday shopping kicks in. However, this October, cash registers at core stores were ringing like crazy with sales on the ActionWatch Retail Panel jumping 15%, according to ActionWatch’s Patrik Schmidle. Year-to-date, the panel has recorded a 4% increase. In October, unit sales jumped 14% despite a slight increase in average selling prices. The sales increases were broad-based with both men’s and women’s growing 15%. All geographies also showed growth, led by the Northwest at 23%. Several categories increased double digits, including a 21% increase in apparel, a 15% jump in footwear, an 11% rise in hardgoods, and a 10% increase in accessories. Even wetsuits, which have been soft, posted a 1% gain. Brand Breakdown Apparel Sisstr, Vuori, Burton and Patagonia are among the fastest growing apparel brands. Boardriders’ brands combined grew moderately at 3%. However, Dot Dash, DC Shoes, Element, Roxy and RVCA increased double digits. Quiksilver and Billabong also grew, but in the single digits. Rip Curl had a good month in bottoms and wetsuits. Volcom had a good month in T-Shirts and accessories. O’Neill Clothing had a good month in tops, bottoms and hats. Vissla had a good month in jackets, hats and wetsuits. Hurley also had a good month across the board, including bottoms, shirts and accessories. Hurley long-sleeve T-shirts grew triple digits. Footwear Oofos, Flojos, Havaianas and Hey Dude were among the fastest growing footwear brands, but some of the more established players such as Vans, Nike SB and New Balance also showed...
by Board Retailers Association | Nov 25, 2019 | Industry, News, Private Label, Resources, Skateboard, Snowboard, SUP, Surf, Trade Shows, Wakeboard, Women's Market
The Board Retailers Association (BRA), a non-profit organization representing independently owned surf, skate, snow, sup and wake retailers, announces the release of the Recap video that showcases the recent BRA Regional Retailer Roundtable Event which was held earlier this month at the Surfing Heritage and Culture Center (www.shacc.org) in San Clemente. Noah Schuler of Schuler Films captured, edited and produced this remarkable recap video: BRA would like to sincerely thank Glenn Brumage and the epic staff at Surfing Heritage and Culture Center for hosting the event as well as each of the Supporting Event Partners including Solite Boots, Exchange Collective, Locally, Action Watch and Sambazon. Board sport specialty retailers from throughout Southern California and beyond as well as board sport related manufacturers and trade organizations participated in this open forum solutions-oriented discussion about the issues and opportunities facing our industry today and in the future. This event marked the first of many BRA Regional Retailer Roundtables, which will serve as a template for more of these discussions throughout the country (in addition to trade shows) on how the manufacturers and retailers can work together to continue to support the board sports that we are all passionate about. Southern California is the epicenter of board sport culture and Surfing Heritage and Culture Center served as the ideal location for this initial event. BRA Chairman, George Leichtweis of Modern Skate & Surf, moderated a panel of key manufacturers reps and BRA retailers / Board members. The distinguished group of panelists included Coco Tihanyi (Surf Diva and BRA), Sean Smith (SIMA), Teddy Schiavoni (Locally and former Chairman of National Ski and Snowboard Retailers Association),...
by Board Retailers Association | Nov 14, 2019 | News, Surf
A little over a year ago, a Yallingup-based surfer named Troy Bottegal started a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the creation and launch of a new artificial reef structure he’s been prototyping over the last decade. Similar to artificial reef projects of the past (some of which failed miserably), this structure, Bottegal claims, once anchored to the seafloor can turn a bank-less coastline into a surfer’s paradise. The unique part that separates Bottegal’s invention from bygone made-made reefs? It’s inflatable. Bottegal’s brainchild is called the “Airwave”–the UFO-looking object. It’s a two-meter tall, twelve-meter wide dome-shaped bladder that, according to Waveco’s (the company now behind the Airwave technology) site, is designed to mimic a reef’s shallow leading edge to transform closeouts into fun, peaky A-frame wedges. The blow-up reef will be partially filled with tons of sand. This, combined with its large base footprint, will apparently render the structure impossible to move during big swells. The Airwave can be removed, however, in the event that it causes any negative environmental impact. According to the Waveco site, the installation process is fairly straightforward. “Six individual Airwaves can be installed at the same stretch of beach, in around 14 days,” the site notes. “That’s six new wave sites in two weeks. Compare this with the twelve to twenty-four months for a typical offshore surf reef installation, with only one wave site created.” Another point of difference between Bottegal’s design and other artificial reefs is that it’ll be placed in shallow waters. “Placing it in shallow enough water ensures the wave will not dissipate into deep water after it starts peeling,” he told MagicSeaweed earlier this...
