“You just always have to strive to get better. If you’re on the railroad tracks and you’re not moving, you’re going to get run over. Plus we want to get better. We want to surf better, we want to help our customers surf better. We’re just hungry to get better.”
There is something indescribable in the air as Tory Strange, surfer, shop owner and advocate of stoke, utters these words. It’s something warm, something static, something you just can’t quite put your finger on. It feels as if something is blooming, like everyone is just now thawing out after a long, hard winter.
As the days begin to heat up, so are things here at the Surf Station.
“We came off of our first really down year was last year and I don’t mind saying, it really taught us,” Strange said. “It’s teaching us how to get better and we are going to get better.”
Strange is joined in his efforts for improvement by general manager, Antonio Berrocal and boardroom manager Sunny Stevens. The first order of business? Breathing some life into the shop’s online presence. Strange and his management team are working to improve selection and navigation, as well as to increase and elevate online content being generated by local creatives.
“We got a web team going. It’s Ed Toy, myself, Brian Brown, this guy Andre [Leach] who lives out in France who’s like a SEO and Google expert,” Berrocal said. “He went to UF back in the day and he just loves the Surf Station. He’s kind of like an angel.”
The new online store will highlight what the Surf Station has always put first: putting great boards into the hands of surfers.
“What we’re going to do for the new website that’s going to be exciting is if you’re looking at a certain board, it’ll be matrixed to where if you want to see a board in other sizes, all you have to do is click and the board will change and the construction, if you want to see EPS it will change, so it will be real easy,” Strange said.
The shop’s boardroom will boast favorites including Channel Islands, Firewire and Lost, while also pushing local shapes from the greats, including boards from Ken White and Josh Autrey.
“We’re getting a lot of feedback from through Channel Islands from their team riders and now from some of the major brands. It filters down all the way to the local level. We’re listening to what surfers are riding in the water here and what people like,” Strange said. “We’re coming at it from the top and the bottom; from the grassroots to nationally and regionally to know what it is that people want.”
Not only will the boardroom selection be improved and refined in the coming months, Stevens has already worked to transform the boardroom experience with the addition of a big screen TV for shopper’s viewing pleasure.
“You can come up and watch the WSL events with the guys and talk surfboard design and the boards are laying right here too,” Strange said. “You don’t have to watch it at home, you can come down here and hang out.”
The shop’s management team has also worked to make improvements for the groms with their upcoming summer surf camp. Beginning every Monday after the release of students in St. Johns County, campers will be led by Angela Miller and new camp director, Alec Zappone. Camps will be available in Anastasia State Park as well as Crescent Beach through June, July and August.
“We’ve got some really good sponsors for our surf camp this year. Volcom is coming in, Quicksilver is coming in,” Strange said. “Several of the returning instructors will be here from last year and then we’re doing an all groms camp for like 3 to 7 year olds. So that’ll be exciting.”
Another exciting addition to the main shop store front is Linen + Waves, a women’s boutique and fashion clothing store for the coastal lover. Linen + Waves is owned and operated by Amanda Strange and is located where the Girl Next Door was previously.
But don’t feel left out if you aren’t a female looking for some new threads in the shop, the men’s side will be improving their clothing selection as well.
“I think a big thing in the shop has always been selling surfboards, and because of that, our clothing and everything downstairs has kind of been put on the back burner,” Berrocal said.
Berrocal, a Flagler College graduate with a minor in coastal environmental science, is looking toward further pushing brands with eco-friendly business practices and products.
“Vissla is doing a lot of work with environmentally friendly approaches. They have a line of shirts, where each shirt has like three recycled water bottles in the thread, so that’s something cool. That’s taking a green approach,” Berrocal said. “A lot of the brands we carry are getting eco-resin, that’s another thing Firewires have going for them, they are more environmentally friendly.”
With these improvements underway, Strange feels hopeful for what this summer season has in store for the shop.
“We don’t want to be the largest, we just want to have the best customer service and just all around enjoying the surfer lifestyle,” Strange said. “I’m excited. We went through some tough times but you’ve got to go through the valleys. If the valley’s low, the peak will be high and I think that’s where we’re headed.”
