After completing Part 1 of our 2025 Euro Tour in continental Europe, we returned home for a few days to attend the Surf Expo September show in Orlando, and then just a few days later crossed the pond again to exhibit at the UK Surf & Skate Expo in Newquay, a small town in Cornwall. We flew into London and were stoked to get a rental Citroen station wagon looking thing to drive west. Nearly 5 hours of driving through typical British weather...squalls, sunshine, mist, more squalls, wind, etc. Oh yeah...and on the wrong side of the road (for us), sitting on the wrong side of the car, and on only a couple hours of sleep from the red eye flight. Thankfully we didn't have to haul the board samples, as we had shipped them all via ocean freight to the show. The highlight of the drive was the fact that the route took us right by Stonehenge...literally right by it. So we had to stop and check it out
We arrived in Newquay and spent the next day and a half setting up, checking out the shops in town, endearing ourselves to the locals, and getting a surf in at Towan; the only spot protected from the winds. Also...we began our quest to find the best Fish n' Chips in town, an apparently scandalous conversation if you bring it up amongst the locals. Our first stop was at Rick Stein's at Fistral Beach, which I believe I rated at a 6.2. It can be better, I know it!
The surf in Towan was 2-4', clean, lots of close outs but the water was beautiful, the sun shining (in between squalls), and a few makable corners made an hour and a half in the water lovely. It was amazing to note how large the tidal swings are here!
The next day was the first day of the Expo. Like most other expos, it started with unknown expectations and a slightly underwhelming pace. It was Friday, after all. Yet things picked up as the day went along, and we made some great connections with shop owners, surf school owners, and general characters.
We met Stephen Downes, the owner/founder of Dawn Patrol Coffee (we bought some, it was excellent). Stephen lost his arm to sarcoma and his inspiring story is well documented on his Instagram page, where he is known as "The One Armed Surfer."
We also met Mike Young of Escape Surf School; the oldest surf school in Newquay, the largest, and Mike also happens to be an expat from S. Africa and one of Grant Twiggy Baker's mates growing up. In fact, that's how Mike recognized our brand...small world indeed!
After the day we stopped in at Flounder's for Fish n' Chips. Large portion, traditional, quite good. 7.4. Things are looking up...
Saturday the show was more crowded with locals. We sold through everything we had brought which was nice, and hope to leverage some of the connections to getting more distribution here in the UK. The crowd; the people here in general, were wonderful. We met and hung out with skate legend Tony Alva. After the day, on more than just a few recommendations, we picked up our Fish n' Chips from Francine's on our last night in Cornwall.
10/10. Absolute banger. The absolute standard of Fish & Chips the world over. Paired with a Fuller's London Pride it was tops. We went to the local Red Lion pub for a Guinness. Bad weather was rolling in on Sunday, sending us back to London early the next am.
Steve returned to the states from London, whereas I continued onwards to Taiwan from London to go over some crucial new items with the factory there. I spent only 72 hours in Taiwan before returning home. The net result was literally flying around the world!
We're optimistic that our efforts here will bear fruit and help be our beach head back into the European market. Escape Surf School continues to test our 7' Surf School model and the One Armed Surfer can be seen around town with a bright Pink 7' RockIt, amongst other local young shredders and rental companies picking up what we had on the rack here. Cheers!
