Tai - TaiStix Surfboards: A backyard style, hand shaped and in-house glassed surfboard company, striving for the best quality and variety of shapes
iCrowdNewswire -
Jun 5, 2015 10:10 AM ET
Tai
TaiStix Surfboards
Personal Story
Having grown up near the beach all my life I was always drawn to the waves. My sister and I had a Surfrider inflatable mat, you know the one with the big rope around it, they used as kids. Even in the icy water of Northern California, on any weekend we would spend hours swimming and playing in the waves. In 1979 my Dad moved to Hawaii and invited me to join him for the summer. My Dad’s friend, Preacher, lived across the street from the school and he had this antique Koa wood surfboard. He told me “If you can get that thing to the beach kid you can use it all you want”. So I did, and it wasn’t easy because that surfboard must have weighed 60lbs. Returning to California I found that my Mom had moved inland. I got into motorcycle riding, skateboarding, snowboarding and drugs. Then there was a problem, I didn’t want to go to school as much as I wanted to go boarding. I started making some bad decisions and the next thing I knew I was on my own in the streets of San Francisco. My Dad bought a house in Cabo San Lucas in the mid 80’s and on a trip I got to go surfing for the first time in many years. I went on another trip to Puerto Escondito and my life changed forever. Never had I seen waves like that before. After some traveling I found my mom had moved from the mountains to the beach, to Punta Mita, Mexico, and needed help building a house. I spent the next two years working and surfing in the area. As it grew, it changed and so did I. My Uncle lived in Texas which was a lot closer than California, so in 1999 I found himself in Austin. My uncle was a surfer and made his own boards. We went surfing together whenever possible but life was getting to me and I started to get into a dark place spiritually. I went back to the beach in Mexico but got involved in making bad decisions again and spent a few years losing my way.
Returning to California in 2005 I made a decision to get sober and spent the first five years of sobriety living away from the ocean. When I went home to the area I had grown up I was reacquainted with a girl from my past. Together we decided to go to Baja and try living there. Now four years later we are living and working on our own businesses. I returned to surfing as much as possible. I started making surfboards and doing repairs. I love being part of getting people out in the water as much as possible. Living, playing, and working with equal passion, I enjoy life and all the blessings it has to offer one board at a time, one day at a time.
Business Description
TaiStiX is a backyard style, hand shaped and in-house glassed surfboard company, striving for the best quality and variety of shapes. Taking an approach of shaping to the riders needs, I work with the individual to achieve the “MAGIC” board. Each board is hand crafted and designed one at a time using hand tools and hard work to guarantee the finest quality. TaiStiX is about developing a relationship with our clients to further understand their needs in a surfboard. I was doing tons of ding repair work when some of my clients started asking about new boards. My answer was “We can just start makin’ em here in the garage”. This is how TaiStix got started 2 years ago. Surfing is a major part of my life and it shows in the care I put into my product. There’s a growing local community of surfers, travelers, and tourists and a lack of retail surfboards and accessories. My goal is to start with a mobile surf shop and eventually open a local store front as well as providing equipment for the many local surf schools. My biggest challenge is getting materials at a low enough price to make my product competitively priced and still have a profit margin. Manufacturing falls into the economy by volume purchasing structure. The more I buy the less it costs. Unfortunately, the volume discount comes at thousands of dollars. The responses from all of my clients has been total satisfaction with the surfboards creating instant repeat customers. They are all stoked to be riding TaiStix Surfboards.
What is the purpose of this loan?
Reducing production cost to increase profit. Funds will be used for purchasing merchandise, advertising, and marketing.