By this time Hot Wax had been opened six years and Mark and I had been to over twelve Surf Expos. We'd go to Orlando in January to buy for the Fall and back to school. Then we'd go again in September to buy for the following Spring and Summer. The reps would come by and show us their Holiday lines. Sometimes Mark and I would take a tip to California and go to the Expo at Long Beach. Those were fun because we were able to surf So. Cal.. Body Glove would put on big extravagant fashion show at the Expos during this time. I looked forward to watching them. When the economy started slowing down in the mid nineties a lot of surf companies had to cut expenses. Fashion shows turned into skate demos.
Pros were a regular at Expos. Sometimes we'd go out to dinner with a few. My encounter with Mark Warren removed all the "ahs" I ever had for pros and I found Surf Expo conversations boring. To me, surfing was becoming too retail bound, and even though I was living off of it, I found the ego-driven Peter-Panish attitude uninteresting. I got tired of hearing how every one rips and that each company had the cutting edge of anything in their clothing or accessory lines. The shinny spot of Expos was catching up with old friends from Huntington Beach who were in the surf industry like Robert August, Greg Wade, and Reggie Barnes. I'd see Eddie Rothman from Hawaii, and long time friend Jonathan Paskowitz when he worked for Black Flys. Occasionally I'd spot other friends from high school walking the isles which was always fun.
Over the years the Surf Expo had gotten so large it took all of the three days to get through it. From open to close Mark and I had back-to-back appointments with at least thirty surf clothing venders, fifteen shoe companies, and all the other distributors selling merchandise we needed to fill our 1600 square foot shop. We had cornered the skate shoe market in Wilmington and surrounding cities, and were investing over 30% of our buying power to it. One entire day of the Expo was devoted to looking at hundreds of skate shoes alone.
As far as surfboards, Mark was working hard at keeping the shop well stocked with ProLines and was succeeding. Because Mark shaped so many custom boards, it got to the point that every time I paddled out, there were two or more people out on ProLines. Carolina Beach surfers rode them since they were less expensive than the other boards being brought in from California or Florida. Personally I was getting two to three boards a year, keeping a quiver of three, a 5'2", 5'4" and a 5'6" for hurricanes and traveling, I also kept a 5'6" out in California so I didn't have to pay the extra luggage fee when I went out there. My bother would take out that kneeboard and use it as a stand-up 360 machine when the waves were small at Magnolia St. HB. When I'd show up and pull the kneeboard from the board bag there'd be wax on the nose and tail. "Busted!" I'd tell him.
We had to stop selling Roberts August's longboards because Mark could shape one for a lot less. Robert understood completely and never pushed the topic. I always looked forward to seeing him at the Expo. He was going to Costa Rica all the time and had great stories to tell.
During this time Mark and I had invested in something called The Lipit. It was a small container that held sunscreen and goes on one's watch (or whatever). To date I still use one. We found a manufacture to make the little container and all the tight bands to hold it in place. Then we printed the brown card that tells all about the Lipit. Mark and I had thousands of these made, and during the slow times at work we'd packages them up and sell them. At one point we tried to sell them at the Expo to a distributor, but some people thought "Mobile lip protection in a pod!" was odd. Eventually, the business of the shop over shadowed the Lipit and we ended up with thousands boxed up in the storage room. We kept one prong on the behind-the-counter pegboard full of Lipits though, just in case someone thought they were as good an idea as we did for sun protection on the nose or lips.
Mark and I did a lot of traveling up and down the East Coast for surfing. I liked Sebastian Inlet and the fun break at Spanish House in Florida a lot. The water was always warm which was nice when we went to the January Expo in Orlando. Mark and I would sometimes drive to Cocoa Beach or Satellite Beach to surf after the show. Sometimes we'd go all the way to Sebastian.
I don't know if there's surf in Georgia but South Carolina has Folly Beach which I surfed once at three feet. The waves were so slow that day, but I hear they can get fun. I never saw a wave come in at Myrtle Beach so never planed on surfing there. The North Carolina cost has plenty of surf along its barrier island beaches. Sunset Beach, Holden Beach and Oak Island are good places to surf when hurricanes are heading up the Atlantic. In 1992 Hurricane Andrew gave Oak Island 12 ft. perfect sandy bottom head pounders.
Moving farther up the NC coast one finds beach breaks at Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach which get all the seasonal swells that stir in the Atlantic. Further north is Topsail Beach. There's a hard core local scene much like Carolina Beach there. The Topsail Mafia leader played softball. Many days after surfing we'd chat about the latest in softball bats. He liked me and let me have any right next to the pier I wanted, and he kept my car from vandalism. I was grateful...still am.
Further North is Emerald Island and Atlantic Beach. There beaches face South and are good summer breaks. My Mother-in-law had a trailer at Atlantic Beach so Mark and I would take the kids up there to hang out with family. I liked surfing the beach breaks that broke everywhere along the strand. There was never a crowd.
Frisco Pier, Cape Hatteras
Surf spots are everywhere along the Hatteras shoreline too. Frisco faces South and picks up good hurricane swells. The Light house in Buxton has jetty surf that is always fun no matter how small or how big any swell gets. North of Buxton there's Avon, Rodanthe, and Nags Head. All good places to surf North swells with their deep water and fast inside tubes. There are plenty of both rights lefts on Hatteras Island. Anyone can find a wave that suits them there. It can get very big though. And the rip currents are deadly.
I've surfed Virginia Beach and found the breaks crowed and annoying. The waves weren't that good either. I also surfed Atlantic City in New Jersey. The waves there were jetty good but, the water was pretty cold. Eventually Mark and I stopped traveling North for East Coast surf beyond Cape Hatteras and went South most of the time.
Mark and I were really happy during this time. We lived the lives of surf professionals, entrepreneurs, family and travel. Mark may have been impertinent but he was romantic. The portable phone (cell phone) had just come out and one chilly winter morning I left the house in my new Maxima to do the surf report for the radio station. As I was driving down the road I heard something ringing under a towel I had in my car. I pulled over and answered the phone Mark had got me for my car.
"Hello?" I said.
"Happy Birthday to you..." Mark sang with his quirky voice.
I was excited. Now I didn't have to get out of the car when it was cold or raining to call in the surf report.
Mark was good to me like this. He liked to surprise me often with gifts. He pampered me like I was a Southern Debutante. Sometimes he had a way of making me feel like I had all the money and waves in the world. We were a good team.
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