We recently connected with Michael Lisiewski and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael , thanks for joining us today. What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

Matador Surfboards it’s a family owned and operated business for over 60 years it started in 1961 and continues today the original idea was to bring surfing more to the East Coast at its infancy the company has had highs lows and lots of changes. In the late 90s we started bringing it back to its glory trying to put the cool and underground field back in surfing as it became more of a corporate and mainstream sport.

Michael , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Growing up in a surf family leads to surfing and competing and being in business it also puts you around a world of creative and impressive people in your field that make you inspired to go out and push it to the next level

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being in business for a long time and being a small business means that you have to bend and adapt to changing times and changing economies and roll with the punches of things that go wrong everything from public view to how things change through time in the beginning surfing started especially on the East Coast as an outlaw sport A lot of the problems came with lack of information on how to do things correctly as it was so new there was no Google to look things up at the time so there was a lot of trial and error to get into production and to find sources for product

Have you ever had to pivot?

The business pivoted from being more production and manufacturing to more retail both of these segments come with a lot of learning and allow you to better serve your customer if you know all phases of your own business as it’s fluctuated over the years now it seems to be a hybrid of the both as we manufacture and retail

Contact Info:

• Website: Matadorsurfboards.com
• Instagram: Matadorsurfboards
• Other: Brightonbeachsurfshop.com. Wavehogsurfshop.com Matador surf school