We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sean Fell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sean below.

Sean, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

The initial idea for the business started with me making myself my first surfboard. All my close friends, which was a tribe and we called ourselves the Waterboyz, wanted me to make their surfboards. We had already been handwriting WBZ and Waterboyz on all our surfboards for the past year or more and so naturally, that was the label I started putting on the surfboards I began making for all my friends. It wasn’t long before there were people outside our friend group asking me to make their surfboards. I decided to take a break from college and focus on making surfboards and decided to start making t-shirts to go with the surfboards and before long we were collecting wholesale accounts that wanted to carry our boards and shirts. We pursued the wholesale business model for 3-4 years before it became apparent that maybe the retail business model would probably work better for us. Around 1995 is when we started to focus more on the retail business and the business really started to grow more. Since then we have been through a lot of changes in the business including the advent of online business, moving locations, building a more community-based hub with an indoor skatepark, and adding a cafe to our business model. I have found out that things, change, the business environment, the public needs and wants and you need to be flexible and be able to make changes to your business model and evolve to stay relevant.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I got into the surf and skate industry from my passion for surfing and skating. Growing up that is what I gravitated towards although I also participated in lots of other activities as a youth including golf, tennis, and soccer, I really had an affinity for board sports. We have been building surfboards for 33 years now and we also still print our own t-shirts. I worked in restaurants for years as a teenager and into my early 20s, before starting Waterboyz, so when the time felt right adding a cafe to our business model only seemed natural to me. We serve a healthy menu and I’m proud of the ever-evolving menu items we are curating for our customers.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The initial funding for the business came from family and friends and it wasn’t much because we were not doing much business, it was just a few surfboards and t-shirts initially. The growth of the business was from just putting everything that was made back into the business for years. At some point in the early 90s, it got to the point where I needed to take out a loan for some equipment and my grandmother co-signed a loan to make that happen. Since then I’ve pretty much been on my own, but have had lots of advice and some help from mentors.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The time between 2009 and 2014 was a very rough patch for a lot of businesses and we were no exception. It seemed to me that not only did we have some bad economic times but internet shopping was seriously digging into brick and mortar retail businesses. So to pivot slightly I decided to take our modest snack bar for our skatepark and turn it into a full-fledged cafe. That was probably one of the best decisions that I’ve made in a while.

Contact Info:

• Website: waterboyz.com
• Instagram: waterboyz
• Facebook: waterboyzsurfandskate
• Twitter: wateboyz_wbz
• Yelp: cafe single fin