Hello surfing, meet your pimp

"Two years ago Paul Speaker realized the sport of surfing, governed by the Association of Surfing Professionals, was coming up way short of its potential as a business because competitions were sold individually, leaving an untapped gold mine of media rights and sponsorships."

Off With His Head!

 

I talked to my Goldman account rep and he said there were a lot of things I should look at:

Energy Infrastructure MLP's
Long Duration Government Bonds
And this very interesting emerging market right here in the USA - Surfing....

I went Long Duration Bonds. I don't think surfing has the legs.

 

WE'RE all on board (get it?) but the masses are not.
i think all rides look the same to them.
olympic potential i think not.
unless the wave pool technology.........gets..........REALLY GOOD......maybe put $ there.....

 

and arent a lot of the big clothing companies struggling?

 

yep....Quik's share price is in the tank...sells over $2 bln of gear per year & has lost money 6 yrs straight.

Billabong sells over $1bln annually & its share price is also in the tank (50 cents or thereabouts); Billabong essentially collapsed as a company in 2008 & has never recovered.

 

I recently bought some quiksilver stock in hopes that somebody like nike buys the brand before it tanks. What are you getting rich on, Yankee? I want to be like you, traveling the world to heckle gnomes and peddi's

 

Seems like the waves will continue to get more & more crowded. More people taking up the sport, more huge corp money pushing it as a 'lifestyle' activity that they want to link their brand with & just more humans with more disposable income.

 

Hello guys. We want surfing to tank. Die. Become an afterthought.

Do you realize how much better it would be if it was like the 70s? Do you like crowds?

 

dood - i was there in the seventies. wanna know what it was like? go out to your yard, cut down a tree,
shape it down to 7ft and glass in a fin. then go out and try to keep it from sinking.....thats what it was like.
on the east coast we were constantly 'treated to' equipment the west coast did not want.
i'm bitter about equipment; less so these days.....

 

A lot of these companies went, or are going out of business because they sell their end of year leftover merch to TJMax or Target for 1/4 of the price they sell them to surf retail shops for. Once people find out they can buy the same thing for less they will. Now the usual $25 dollar shirt (in a surf shop)is no longer bringing them in $12.50, its bringing in $3.75 (at Marshalls). All their financial models must have been surprised when they were expecting big profits and got pennies instead. IMO they got greedy and got caught double dipping. This scenario among many others...