1994-'95 New Hot Waxes & A Thank You Note

Team Hot Wax, "West Coast" Division

My brother is in the middle. The two guys beside him are good friends from High School and surf trip companions, especially Mike in the yellow trunks holding the tequila bottle. 

They each have different Hot Wax T-Shirts on.  

(Cabo)

This was another year of Hot Wax Surf Shop expansion. We moved the store, once again, to a different mall space, and over night we grew from 1600 to 2000sq. feet. The new landlord was a real prick though. We rented the space as a one floor unit, and, after awhile, we needed more space, so, we asked the landlord if we could build another floor. We would have to take out the ceiling, add steps, and basically build a loft.
"Sure." He said, and he recommended his friend as a contractor. Since it was his place we were happy to use his connection. Within two months we had turned his 2000sq. ft. one floor rental space, into a 2000 sq. ft., with a 800sq. ft. loft = 2800 sq. ft. rental unit. And we paid for it all. We paid his friend..who, dully noted, did a real good job.

Hot Wax space #3 Wilmington

The expansion was perfect. We had the surf and travel equipment upstairs, and all the clothing, shoes, and skate stuff down stars. The landlord never said a word about anything while the loft was being built nor after it was completed. Then, about three months later, we got a letter from him saying he was going to raise the rent. He figured, after all, we were now renting more space from him. The landlord told us that once the old lease was up the rent would double, along with our Merchant Association fees. Mark and I started looking for options. (Within the next two years we would build our own space and move, but, more on that later.) When we told the landlord we weren't renewing our lease, the landlord sued us for the loft we had built with his contractor. He claimed we altered the space without him approving it and he wanted $30,000. We had to pay $2200 for an attorney to litigate. The attorney called in the contractor for questioning and the contractor lied about knowing the landlord. Finally, in arbitration, we settled. Mark and I had to write the landlord a check for $3000. The whole incident cost us over $5200+ what it cost to build the extra space! It was my first lesson on "no good deed goes unpunished."

Before we moved into the landlord's retail space he had his own rug store in it. When he and his wife moved their store to Raleigh, we rented the space from him. It was rumored that when he worked in his rug store he'd upset the customers with his sarcastic snootiness. No one in our area liked him. After we moved out of his space, and after the lawsuit was settled, all we heard of him was that he got a divorce and the wife got the rug store in Raleigh. Then a random thing happened...
Mark saw the landlord in passing and they got into a verbal confrontation.
"God will judge you as a thief!" Mark said in frustration. When Mark got angry he cursed.
"God can go **** himself!" the landlord yelled back at Mark. Mark was stunned silent, which was rare. He had subjective ideas about God but he knew one thing for sure, you don't say that!

Within the year the landlord stuck his neck in the loop he made at the end of his rope.
I wanted to feel sad but I was more perplexed. Why wouldn't someone want to simply change their philosophy if the one they have isn't working for them? There's a lot of books to choose one from.

Hot Wax Carolina Beach

This was the year we opened a Hot Wax in Carolina Beach. Mark's brother's Hot Wax in Atlantic Beach had shut its doors long ago and he'd been doing odd jobs since. We put him to wok at the CB store. 

At this time there weren't many people who went down to CB, and even less people there had money to spend on expensive surf cloths and sunglasses. We didn't sell much outside of t-shirts and key-chains, however, we did sell a lot of surfboards to the CB locals, unfortunately, that didn't pay the shop's bills. 

On top of it all, the building we rented leaked and it had bug problems. We were always finding spiders in the sweatshirts and webs between the boards. The wetsuits would be filled with nests of cockroaches in no-time. Ants liked the surf wax and infiltrated Mark's brother's lunches. The windows would let in puddles of rain and we couldn't even lock the sliding class doors that were at the back of the shop correctly due to the rotting wood. Mark and I were constantly doing repairs to the place and spraying pesticides. Eventually we shut down the CB store and focused only on the one in Wilmington. Marks' brother started shaping surfboards with Mark. 

HW Challenge at the CB Pier near Sunskipper. 

In 1994 we held the Hot Wax Challenge at CB for the first time. Wrightsville Beach was asking us to jump through too many hoops to get the permit needed to hold the event at Crystal Pier like we had been doing. They were also asking for more money and more Port-A-Johns. Then there were the parking issues. Carolina Beach had non of this. We could hold the contest without a Council Meeting, permits, and extra added fees. We still had to rent plenty of Port-A-Johns however. 

By this time we had a couple of pros like Ben Bourgeois, and pro turned Billabong rep Wes Lane come surf the contest. A lot of other industry reps who lived on the east coast (mostly from Virginia Beach) came to surf too. The prizes were so good and there was usually decent surf. These pros-turned-reps brought give-aways for the bystanders and the winners. Most of the stuff was their out of season samples, but we didn't care, as long as we had goodies to give away. The CB surfers won a lot this year and were excited about the clothes they got. They had little in the way of means because most CB kids were from poor families and became high school drop outs. I was always excited when they won surf trunks, t-shirts, and sweatshirts. They appreciated them a lot and surfed hard for them! 

On the personal side, this was the year I spoke to a group of kids at Trask Middle School about surfing and making good life decisions. Teaching came easy for me but being a motivational speaker was a little strange. For example when I coached my daughter's Optimist Club softball team I could teach the tools for playing a good game, but, I wasn't really good at motivating the players to do their best. I always thought it was because of my attitude, "if you want to do it you would," much like exercising to keep weight down. I believed if I could do step class at the gym three days a week and lift weights two days to stay strong and slim, why couldn't anyone if they really wanted too? And if Mark and I could build a small business from nothing and make it something, why can't everyone make their dreams come true? All it takes is consistency. My Mom calls me tenacious. Maybe it takes a little of that too.

Surfing, snowboarding and dirt bike riding taught me that we go where our eyes go.  I remember one time at Snowshoe when I was racing my son down Widow Maker, for some reason I focused on a snow machine. I ran right into it. It's true that when we look ahead our minds process a path, and, freewill states that people get to choose what they look at. If we look straight down while moving we don't have time to understand upcoming obstacles. Once while riding my dirt-bike I crashed into a tree because I was looking down at all the rocks I was going over. I didn't have time to adjust when a turn in the trail came up abruptly. Now I try to keep my eyes off of the setbacks and on the goal. When I do this I seem to get somewhere. Surfers call it setting the line.