QLD
260 posts
Hi Guys, heard our name mentioned (Board Culture surf shop) so thought we better join in if you don't mind.
First and foremost, whatever we write here is definitely not intended to be an advert or to be hard selling anything. If you feel we are straying from this then please say so and we will delete any such comments etc.
What we would like to do is help fellow longboarders with any queries and general info and also to provide some surf industry and surf competition insights too where relevant.
Now to address some comments made already - "billboard" was pretty spot on when he said the following (and forgive me i haven't worked out how to do the quotation block thing in a forum!):
"Mark Sutton is the owner/manager (as far as I know) of board culture and he is a longboarder. I dont know him well but he comes across as open/honest/interested and passionate about logs and logging. He has been a supporter of burleigh longboard club for quite a while and I think he has been a pretty generous sponsor for them"
Yes, Mark Sutton (that's me) is the owner (in conjunction with my wife Amanda). We took over Board Culture about three years ago, as much for a lifestyle change from the heady corporate scene. I have been longboarding for around 12 years and love it. Also ride shorter boards and fishes down to about 6'8" depending on the waves and my back! Our main staff member is Daniel Carter (mid 20's) and both he and I are members of Burleigh Longboard Club. Dan also rips on normal shortboards.
And yes, Board Culture has been a sponsor of Burleigh Longboard Club for over two years. When Warwick closed up shop at Dukes recently we took on most of his remaining stock and fittings to help out (so the mongrel could go and score more perfect waves in Bali fulltime!) and we also took on sponsorship of the Narrowneck club (from Dukes) so those guys weren't left without assistance. We don't sponsor any other clubs at this stage. We also assist a few individual longboarders.
Whilst Dukes was operating we didn't go heavy on longboards in our Mermaid store as we didn't think this was appropriate given that Warwick had the established business and was doing the right thing by his customers. Likewise, we didn't stock SUP's at Mermaid (despite requests) because we felt Scotty from Greenline just up the road had that covered and we are not the types to just butt in. Guess I saw so much lack of business ethics and respect in my corporate days that I didn't want us to be like that (and we wouldn't want another shop to do that to us).
Anyway, now that Warwick has moved on, we have really ramped up our longboard related offering to fill the gap. Its something that Dan and I personally love and are passionate about so it kinda makes sense doing it.
As Asea mentioned, yes, we took over the former O&E store out the front of Cooly Airport - that was in May10. We said we give it a year or so to see how it goes. Unfortunately a combination of economic reasons/GFC and the long hours meant that we were better off just having the one shop back at Mermaid and focusing all efforts on that. So all the (mostly Surftech) boards and other stock has been moved to Mermaid. But I do miss surfing Greeny every morning or 'arvo when its on!
Another point raised here was brands and shapers - I wont mention any cos it might sound like an advert, but its correct that most the brands/shapers already mentined by other forum members in this topic we do have (or can get in).
At the risk of creating the biggest post ever, I'll leave it there and either Dan or myself will hop on from time to time and see if we can help out with some info or just maybe load up some cool vids or pics that come our way - Regards Mark
QLD
260 posts
Ooops, forgot to mention that if you want to generally improve your longboarding and have some great cameraderie/friendship, then get along to a monthly club comp. Its a great way to have a chat to others about what they are riding, where they have been getting waves lately etc. Its up to you if you want to have a go in a heat, but no-one really is playing for sheep stations out there - its more about fun and challenging yourself.
Both Narrowneck and Burleigh have their comps this weekend (usually the seconfd Sunday each month unless there is a major comp on elsewhere).
You can either meet at 6:30 in front of Ambience Apartments at Burliegh (adjacent the viewing platform) and lifesaving tower, or at the carpark at Narrowneck reef. Just check respective club websites for more info. - Mark
QLD
7 posts
Hey All,
Mark said to create an account here to put a name to an avatar... You all seem like a good rowdy bunch of crew too haha... lets hope for waves this weekend :D
Dan...
