They Stand Out in a Laid-Back Industry

Paul Hill grew up immersed in winter sports in Calgary, Canada. When he moved to Los Angeles, he took an interest in windsurfing and began managing a retail outlet that sold skis and windsurfing equipment. When snowboarding became popular, Hill saw an entrepreneurial opportunity to cater to younger sports enthusiasts with a specialty business targeting high-end sporting goods. As a dealer in “extreme” sports, Hill has had to overcome the laid-back business image associated with that industry. The co-owner of Wind n’ Wave was interviewed by freelance writer Karen E. Klein.

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When I started this business, I felt it made good sense to sell to both snowboarders and windsurfers. It helps keep our revenue and cash flow stable all year, and we reach much of the same audience with both sports. So we sell a lot of our windsurf customers snowboarding gear and vice versa.

We sell to the high-end market, so we don’t compete with the general-interest sporting goods stores like Big 5 and Oshman’s. Our average ticket is more than $400.

I realized early on that we had to differentiate ourselves from many people in the active-sports industry. It’s easy to get labeled as a surfer/snowboarder-type first and a businessperson second. But we knew that people who could afford the equipment we sold would not tolerate second-rate service.

We went to trade shows early on and [found] kids in the booths smoking cigarettes, hanging out and talking to their friends and not minding their business even though they needed to write a lot of business in three days.

There’s a certain appeal to the “indifferent” image that has been very successful with the Gen-Xers who are our target market. When you sell to the youth market you don’t want to come across as big and corporate, wearing a business suit. But though we are all sports enthusiasts ourselves and we compete in these sports, we aren’t interested in being the coolest people in town. We want to run a very, very good business.

And when people are spending a lot of money, they don’t want to deal with complacent businesspeople who don’t return phone calls. We get a tremendous amount of business from referrals, so people come in the door expecting the bar to be high.

Others come in and don’t know us that well. They’ll drop their snowboard off to be tuned and waxed and they’re half-shocked when it’s done on time. We advertise that we replace windsurf components with warranties right out of stock, and we do it every time. New customers are absolutely shocked, and they refer us to their friends.

When it comes to employees, we hire one out of about every 20 people who walk through the door. A lot of them think that because they are good surfers or snowboarders we are going to give them a job. Although they must be involved in the sport to work here, we also look for people who are bright, who have fire in their eyes, who are hungry to learn and grow and who look at life like a challenge. The onus is upon us to train them and get them up-to-date on all the technical knowledge.

We have generated a lot of goodwill for ourselves just by applying sound business practices in an industry that is more known for employing hobbyists.

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At a Glance

Company: Wind n’ Wave

Owner: Paul Hill and Tony Ramos

Nature of Business: Retailer of ourdaoor sporting goods

Location: 11910 Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90064

Web site: https://www.windnwave.com

E-mail address: info windnwave.com

Year founded: 1993

Employees: 12

Annual sales: $1.9 million

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If your business can provide a lesson to other entrepreneurs, contact Karen E. Klein at the Los Angeles Times, 1333 S. Mayflower Ave., Suite 100, Monrovia 91016 or send e-mail to kklein6349@aol.com. Include your name, address and telephone number.