Surfside’s Duke Edukas Talks About Early Snow Sales

mike lewis

• October 20 2009
• 803 views
• 7 comments

Despite the return of unseasonly warm temperatures to Southern California, Mammoth Mountain kick started the season with free riding last Friday and its second earliest opening in history. We got a hold of Costa Mesa’s Surfside Sports Owner Duke Edukas to find out what the early opening means for snowboard sales and his predictions for the winter last Friday, while both of us were unfortunately not riding.

How has the early opening impacted snowboard sales for you?

It certainly is a huge boost to peoples’ psyche when they see the snow and Mammoth having that early season storm has really added to it. It’s their second earliest opening in history. I can’t say we’re selling droves of snow stuff, but we’re getting a ton of people in here. They’re looking, they’re talking, they’re touching, they’re analyzing, we’ll sell a couple snowboards a day, maybe a pair of boots, a couple pairs of bindings and some outerwear. It’s sporadic, but it’s still there and it’s better than before. It’s better than 90 degrees with Yorba Linda on fire.

It has definitely sparked the interest. I’m optimistic. I really wish we weren’t having  two days of 90 degree temperatures in a row to throw people off.

That snow was not supposed to happen. It was supposed to rain and it was like “that El Niño thing is cool.”

For California for sure, and that area has been particularly hard hit. This should be big with so much of the industry being there.

Yeah, it has definitely revved it up. You know, myself, I feel happy to be a snowboard dealer again.

“I think there’s less product, and I think people are trying to control the discounting on the Internet, and [if] we get the snow, which we always need, then we’ll be heroes…”

What are your predictions for this winter?

It depends on the snow and the product in the pipeline. Last year our problems were, number one, too much product in the pipe, and number two, too much stuff being radically and irresponsibly discounted on the Internet. If those things can be controlled, and I think there’s less product, and I think people are trying to control the discounting on the Internet, and we get the snow, which we always need, then we’ll be heroes [and be the ones] fricking laughing. If there isn’t snow, it wont’ be good and if there’s discounting on the Internet, it could be a disaster. But I feel more that it’s going to be a success. I’m more 70/30 for success now.

Is that a different weighting then you would have had at the beginning of the summer?

You know, last year was a disaster. Thank God we got snow at the right times and Mother Nature cooperated. Snowboards almost became like a commodity – “I don’t care what it is, I just want the cheapest one.” Or people would come in and know the board they want and show me their iPhone or Blackberry, and say “will you meet this price from Moosejaw.com,” and it’s 30 percent off before December 1st. It was crazy and convoluted.

We saw the potential future last year if product pricing isn’t done responsibly and there’s too much product in the pipe. Last year we also had the economy going against us. The economy isn’t that much better, but there are rays of hope. In our area people’s psyche is way better. People aren’t talking about it every day. I haven’t hardly heard about it and I work the floor. That was all I heard last year – the public talking about the economy, worried about their jobs, their 401k’s, and this and that, their houses, and everything else, and I’m not hearing that anymore. People have moved on.

I’m definitely sick of writing about it!

Yeah, they’ve been there, they’ve done that and we’re still here – we’re gonna have fun. We have competitors in our area that have gone out of business. We have competitors in our area that are understocking their racks – I’m full blown, business as usual. Let’s go for it or go out in a blaze of fucking glory.

With the weather conditions and online pricing really being out of your control for the most part, how are you planning for this season?

We’re marketing ourselves better. We have a better local’s only mailing list. We’re doing things with the different brands like Volcom, Burton, and Electric. We’re co-branding each others brands locally. We’re really getting behind the whole community as far as being able to provide what they need for snowboarding.

We don’t dabble in snow – we’re full blown. We have a 17,000-square-foot store and a quarter of it is dedicated to snowboards. It’s not like we have a couple jackets or a few goggles – I’ve got 250 goggles on a wall right in front of me. I’m not bragging, it could be deemed irresponsible, but the way the companies are partnering with me, I can take all my goggles right out of here and trade them for eyewear in the spring. Usually we don’t have to, but it gives me piece of mind.