With the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon and subsequent oil spill along the Gulf Coast, we wondered how surf retailers in the area were being affected by business, and if the spill has impacted actual surfing along their beaches.
I talked to about a dozen stores around Florida, Alabama, Texas and Louisiana to find out how retailers are coping. Results varied from grim and shocking to somewhat surprising and cautiously optimistic.
(See our related story about how Surfrider Foundation is responding to the spill and how the surf industry can help.)
Louisiana, Florida shops impacted most
Outside of Louisiana, the Florida Panhandle seem to be getting hit the hardest by the news of the oil spill. According to Kevin Faotas who owns Aqua Surf Shop on Miramar Beach, Florida, business is down 80% from last year.
(Right: An image on the Fluid Surf Shop web site.)
“It is incredible because last year was so bad because of the economy,” he said.
Faoutas attributes most of the loss in his business to the media, a shared sentiment expressed by everyone I spoke with. “The beaches are still beautiful here, but the media is grabbing at anything trying to report bad news,” he said, noting that the beaches in the area surrounding the shop are still open.
At Fluid Surf Shop, on Fort Walton Beach, Florida, about 15 miles from Miramar Beach, owner Tim Carr said the spill has affected his sales by about 36%. Business is down 25%, but he said they were tracking 11% up before the spill.
“There’s a lot of doom and gloom, even though water is still crystal clear,” he said, echoing Faotas’ feelings about the national media attention.
(Click here to see an updated map of where oil has touched shore.)
Carr said besides the fact that tourist traffic is down from visitors not coming to the beaches, locals who are not shopping have affected sales the most.
“Because tourism is down, all the kids that work on the beach and in restaurants are afraid they are going to lose their jobs. So there is no cash flow,” he said. “We are getting the whole trickle down effect now.”
Just last week Carr said he bought nine barely-used surfboards from a surfer who started selling his equipment because he was getting tight on cash.
“It’s crazy. This is day 50 right now so in the beginning everyone freaked out and May sucked. June is coming around, but they keep saying there is oil a mile off shore even though we really haven’t seen any on the beach. The news has reported the beaches are closed and they are killing us. If you didn’t watch the news, you’d think it was another beautiful day in Florida. They’ve only found maybe six tar balls only on our beach.”
Click on Page 2 to read about surf shops in Pensacola, Alabama and Texas and how SUP sales are faring.
Summer surf camps hurt
Innerlight Surf and Skate Shop has been around for over 41 years and now has four locations along the Gulf Coast. Pensacola, Florida Store Manager Shannon Hampton said the oil spill news has affected her business, especially for summer surf camps.
Although she hasn’t looked directly at sales numbers from the retail shop, she said its Quiksilver-sponsored surf camps are down more than 50%.
“We usually have 35 kids each week for 10 weeks through summer and by this time the first week is usually filled. Next week only has 12 kids, so we’re over 50% down just on that alone, so it’s a little scary.”
Hampton said she is trying to stay positive, but her store has no experience dealing with anything like this.
“We know how to recover from hurricanes but this is such an unknown entity that we just have to wait and see and hope for the best.” She said the only bright spot in her business are standup paddleboards, where sales are up.
“There are so many bays, bayous, and estuaries in the area, I think a lot of people are figuring if it gets really bad, we can at least standup paddleboard. That’s been our stronghold.”
SUP a bright spot
Tim Carr at Fluid Surf shop also said standup paddleboard sales have been its only bright spot. That, he said, and a sticker that says “F” BP, which it is now sold out of.
Liquid Surf and Sail, which is near Fluid Surf Shop in Fort Walton sells mostly paddleboards, wake, skim and kayak boards.
Unlike Fluid, owner Bobby Nabors said he hasn’t seen a drop in business as of yet, but that last year was a tough year for him coming off the worst economic recession he has experienced.
At Innerlight Surf and Skate Shop’s Gulf Shores, Alabama location, Assistant Store Manager Chris Arnold said last week he sold four or five standup paddleboards alone.
(Right: Innerlight Surf & Skate.)
“We do get our days of surf along the Gulf, but we have plenty of days, especially in summer, when we don’t have surf at all anyway, so I have been recommending SUPing to a lot of people.”
In Alabama, he said hotels and condos have experienced a 20% – 60% decrease in clientele, which is impacting business a lot. Interestingly, while Arnold reported surf sales to be down, and SUP business keeping them going, he said his skateboarding business has been consistent.
“If people can’t surf, they’re going to do the next best thing, so skateboarding sales could even increase,” he said.
Click on Page 3 to read about Texas shops and BP claim frustrations.
Texas shops okay so far
In Texas along the Gulf, shop owners that I spoke with are experiencing slightly the opposite effect as those in parts of Florida.
William Cram who owns Ohana Surf and Skate in Galveston, Texas said he is seeing an increase in traffic.
“We are seeing a lot of Louisiana and Mississippi plates and locals typically going east, who are staying closer to home and being more stay-cationers. Why would you go to Florida or Mississippi right now? Galveston beaches are perfectly fine.”
(Right: William “Boog” Cram of Ohana.)
He said Galveston is still in recovery form Hurricane Ike of 2008, so the increase in sales can also be attributed to that.
He also said that while the loop currents appear to be taking the spill away from Texas towards Florida, a hurricane forcing winds the opposite way could change everything.
In Corpus Christi, just southwest of Galveston, a store employee from Wind and Wave Watersports said they have not yet been affected by a decline in business, but they have received a ton of calls from people asking if they have oil on their beaches.
On South Padre Island, Store Manager Dave Nowak of Island Native Surf House said that while the spill has not yet affected sales, he suspects it could, especially because of media hype and an over saturation of images of Louisiana where oil has actually hit shore.
“We have a lot of tourists who come down from San Antonio who know the difference between Louisiana and Texas, but people in the Midwest think the Gulf is the Gulf.”
No help yet from BP
For the shops that have been affected by a decline in sales, many have already filed claims with BP, but have experienced frustration.
Kevin Faoutas at Aqua Surf Shop on Miramar Beach, Florida said he has been getting the run-around for two weeks from BP officials and cannot get a return call from them.
While Aqua Surf Shop seems to have been hit extremely hard, he said surfers in the area have already started talking about moving.
“It’s not like we are a big surf Mecca, but between Texas down to Florida this spill will definitely affect the surf industry.”
