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New Boardriders Shop coming to Malibu

In 2019, Quiksilver will celebrate 50 years. The iconic brand--founded in Australia and widely associated with Southern California culture--has been through it all as one of the founding members of an industry that, today, has evolved and grown beyond anything that could have been forecasted.

But Quik, like many companies, has faced its fair share of growing pains over the years -- most recently, filing for Chapter 11 for its US operations and undergoing an aggressive global restructuring.


About 18 months later, the company has emerged from a rebuilding phase, which included an overhaul of operations, production, and reorganizing “over-extended retail,” which meant closing a well-known big-box account, according to Oaktree Capital’s David Tanner, who was instrumental in leading this transformation. A corporate name change, from Quiksilver Inc. to Boardriders Inc., was announced in March, coupled with the news of the company’s return to profitability for the first time in years.

To say the metamorphosis was an enormous undertaking is a gross understatement, and Tanner and President Greg Healy have indicated there is still much work to be done. But the tide is turning with early indications of a silver lining, such as positive order book trends for fall, positive comps at full-price retail, and promising long-term growth internationally. The company will close out FY17 with a 7% margin. With those accomplishments under their belt, and an impending 50-year celebration and grand opening of the company’s new Malibu retail location, Tanner and Healy explain what this means for the future.

David Tanner:
We were going through a very intense period for these last 18 months, turning the company around. We've done a ton of work, cleaning up the cost structure and stabilizing the revenue line. We've got the organization pointing in the right direction.

We've built a lot of rigor and discipline into the business, and we are fundamentally in a different place from a performance perspective than where we were five years ago.

This was a company that, for a number of years, was declining at 15% per year, was dramatically unprofitable, and there was no bottom.

Taking it into Chapter 11, we’ve cleaned up the balance sheet, restructured the business, fixed the cost structure, and built the foundation for growth. We’ve taken the business from unprofitable to mid to single digit margins.

We wanted to signify to our employees and to the world that this a different company. It's not the same old Quiksilver, it's a fundamentally different organization in the way it acts, and its performance.

We aren't just one brand as a company, we are three strong brands that all have growth paths. We wanted to embrace all of our brands because they are all important to our future.

It opens the door to the next stage in our company. It signifies the shift from defense to offense, and looking at where we are going. We are looking much more at the market and how we are going to grow the business than we were two years ago. It's a combination of all those factors. It's been talked about for a while and we just felt like it was the time


Greg Healy:
Boardriders Inc. is a name that represents what all the brands under our roof stand for. The essence of our brands is centered around board riding, whether that's on the water, on a skateboard, or on the mountain, so we felt it was necessary to name our company along those lines.

We started along this path about five or six years ago when we launched our first experiential retail store called Boardriders in the Southwest of France, and that concept has spread across the world. We now have 14 of these stores globally, and just announced that we'll soon be opening a new location in Malibu on Pacific Coast Highway. It's been a really successful retail venture for us, and it was just a natural extension that we named the whole company Boardriders.


David:
The stores are very experiential, and are our most profitable doors. They really encapsulate the board riding culture and have become community hubs that people gather in. I think "board riders" just really represents the culture that we serve. It's where the former American Apparel store was located. An iconic location.



Instagram #2017BestNine

With the 2017 coming to a close, a popular thing on Instagram has been the #2017bestnine posts. A site called 2017 Best Nine collects what they consider your best 9 posts on Instagram and makes a photo collage of them..

Here is Shacked's:



And the Best Nine from our Online Store:





To see what your best nine are , go to 2017 Best Nine, it's free and nothing to install or sign up for.

New Year's Surf Forecast

Large complex low developing in the NPAC over the next few days.

SoCal fun through Sat; small Sun and early next week
New, possibly larger, WNW/NW swell on track early 2018

Throwback Thursday: Topanga Beach 1965, with Mickey Dora




From "The Living Curl" (1965,2008), a surf film by Jamie Budge

Graham Smith x Bay Street Boards



Bay Street Boards' recently had the honor of having the legendary South African shaper Graham Smith come through to the shop for a few visits. Graham is one of the true early pioneers in the South African surf scene, contributing as one of the first shapers in the region. He's also the father of Jordy Smith, one of the top 3 surfers in the world. Having shaped boards for his son for over 30 years, Graham knows a thing or two about high performance.

Merging his knowledge of super high performing boards like those he makes for Jordy along with his unique ability to make boards that work for surfers of all levels, Graham brought Bay Street Boards' a whole fleet of boards made specifically for SoCal surf. Four beautiful fish/shortboard hybrids are the highlight of the collection.

Ranging from 5'6" to 5'10", these boards blend the outline and volume of a fish with the rails and bottom of a high performance thruster.





Bay Street Boards
🌴☀️Santa Monica ☀️🌴
Surf & Skate Shop
3216 Santa Monica Blvd
310.310.2485
Mon-Fri 10a-8p Sat 10a-7p Sun 10a-5p

ZJ Boarding House's Semi-Annual Sale


ZJ Boarding House's Semi-Annual Sale starts Tomorrow!! Swing in and check out some of the deepest discounts of the season! Save $100 on GoPro HERO5. Select Fleece $29.99 for both Men and Women. Save up to 50% on Select Billabong Mens, Womens, and Childrens Apparel, Shoes, and Accessories–don’t miss it!

ZJ Boarding House
2619 Main St. Santa Monica, CA
(310) • 392 • 5646
Store Hours:
Mon - Sat 10am - 7pm
Sun 10am - 6pm

Holiday Week Surf Forecast

WNW Swell with SSE Swell Mixing In LOLA wave heights in the Eastern NPAC Monday morning.

W/WNW swell stays fun/medium size this week
Selective SSE swell for exposures next couple days
Favorable morning winds for most of California

Venice Pier - Christmas Day 2017


Christmas morning at the Venice Pier , pretty much flat and only a couple people out there. These were shot by Six12 Media









There are some more photos, all full size and in high-resolution, in the Venice Pier - Christmas Day 2017 Gallery.

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other surf spots?
Click Surf Spot Galleries for a list of past days.

Venice Pier - Sunday 12-24-2017


Christmas Eve morning at the Venice Pier , small waves and only a couple people out there. These were shot by Six12 Media







There are some more photos, all full size and in high-resolution, in the Venice Pier - Sunday 12-24-2017 Gallery.

Wanna see photos from previous days at this and other surf spots?
Click Surf Spot Galleries for a list of past days.

Christmas Surf Forecast

New WNW/NW Swell, Surf Picks Back Up Wave heights along the California coast on Christmas Day.

Modest to fun size surf for SoCal through weekend/early next week
Favorable morning winds for most areas; afternoons not looking bad either
More NPAC swell possible for the end of 2017/start of 2018

Wipeout Wednesday



It's Wednesday, so here's another photo set of surfers sending it.   These are wipeouts from Sunset, Topanga, Ocean Park and the Venice Pier and Breakwater areas.   They were caught by Six12 Media.     










      We post new sets of wipeout photos every Wednesday (more or less).   Click: Wednesday Wipeouts to check out the previous Wipeout Wednesday photo sets.   

Socal Winter Surf Outlook

On the coattails of a historic Santa Ana wind and wildfire event, the winter outlook for Southern California leaves precipitation to be desired. We are off to one of the driest starts to the water year on record, and the return of the West Coast ridge, along with typical climatology during weak to moderate La Nina events aren’t indicative of significant SoCal precipitation. This will generally be favorable for conditions through much of the winter, though the thought of less precipitation and the potential for more offshore wind events won’t rest easy on most.

In addition to the return of robust ridging along the West Coast limiting precipitation, the pattern often lends to less consistent WNW/NW swells as stronger lows are within our swell window further away. Coupled with a similar pattern during La Nina winters that keeps lows strongest from Hawaii west, and periodically dropping down from the Pacific Northwest, size through the winter will often cap out in the fun (as opposed to solid) range. The silver lining through December will be the continuation of modest SSW/S swells keeping anything fun from the North Pacific peaky. Through January and into February swell from the South Pacific is at a yearly minimum. While this general rule should stand, we anticipate above-average output from the basin, largely on the shoulders of December.

Surf Picks Back Up

New WNW/NW Swell, Surf Picks Back Up Wave heights for North/Central CA through SoCal Wednesday.

New WNW/NW swell mix builds down the coast Tues and peaks mid-week
Solid size for North/Central California; Smaller/modest size for SoCal
Morning winds mostly favorable - except for Wednesday - onshore flow for some
More WNW swell due to fill in, then fade over the upcoming weekend

Weekend Surf Forecast

Fun to Solid WNW Swell Continues LOLA wave heights off California Friday morning. .

Medium to solid WNW swell Friday and Saturday
Good winds Friday, more problematic Saturday
Easing surf Sunday, reinforcing WNW swell next week
AM winds looking favorable early next week

Surf Story Vol II Book Signing And Art Show



The Surf Story Project is coming to SQN Sport Malibu for a “Surf Story Vol. II” book signing & Art show Saturday, December 16th from 12-4pm. Come stop by for beautiful art, photography, good stories, shopping, and great company!

Malibu's Surfing With Ben will be there with some of his favorite surf prints on display.

2017 Venice Surf-A-Thon


The 24th Annual Venice Surf-A-Thon was held on Saturday, once again taking place at the Venice Pier. The contest is a grassroots local tradition that has evolved from a mentorship gathering for youth beset by gang violence to an inter-generational celebration of community.

As usual, the heats are sort of mixed up, they just kind of happen. There's a Groms heat and a Super Groms heat, both of which usually try to go off the earliest. Super Groms had the youngest surfer in the contest's 24 year history. Jacob Packham, being assisted by his dad.


Full gallery filled with high resolution photos of this heat, check out the Super Groms Photo Gallery


Even though they were judged separately, the girls surfed alongside the boys in some mixed Groms and Juniors Heats.










There's a big gallery of full-size high resolution photos from these heats in the Mixed Groms & Juniors Photo Gallery



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