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I hope you guys are all safe and well and that Covid, whilst impacting businesses in different ways, has not impacted you in a personal way.
Well…what a difference a few weeks make! Not long after lockdown skateboards sold like hot cakes, then we all saw the bike ‘revolution’ (which appears to be continuing) but who would have predicted the watersports boom? Not me. As soon as the great British public were allowed to, they took to the water - and not just those that were hardened watersports enthusiasts but, it seems, so did many newcomers. You actually feel guilty saying how good things have been because so many industries have suffered and continue to suffer. Travel and Tourism (overseas) is having a terrible time and (at the time of writing this) further travel restrictions and isolation rules have just come into force. Their loss may just be contributing to our gain and we simply have to ‘make hay’ whilst we can – who knows what’s around the next corner? Winter could be tough! Watersports are going off, the ‘staycation’ business is booming and the £££’s that were going to be spent in Spain, Greece, Turkey and wherever are now heading towards UK shops, schools and businesses. Similarly the ‘pot of gold’ that I eluded to in my last piece does appear to have materialised and shops are reporting ‘best ever month’, ‘best ever week’.Is this sustainable? Who knows, but without wanting to overlook the misery and devastation that Covid is wreaking, we don’t want to look a gift horse in the mouth. The fervent hope is that the new-found (or refound) watersports enthusiasts are going to stick with it and indications from the bike industry (which is ahead of us in the curve) are that there is a sustainable uplift. So I am a little surprised that this article has a very positive feel. I appreciate that this may not apply to every store in every corner of 31
the UK but hopefully if it’s not good for you now… it’s on the way. I don’t usually like to quote without a name but one watersports retailer (who has asked not to be named) had this to say. “May was better than expected and higher than last year. This surprised me. June was manic and massively up on last year and now [mid July] we have already doubled the previous year’s full month which was, in turn, our highest ever month since we started. Coping with demand is the issue and getting supplies in and out.”Well that sounds like a good problem to have. Moving on, how has the season been so far? “Remarkable. After the lockdown and the doom and gloom we could never have imagined that it would bounce back as it has done,” says Matt from H2O in Poole. “At the time of lockdown we, like so many others, were wondering if we would have a business to return to but we cannot really believe it. It’s awesome.” So paddle boarding is obviously the real winner? “It is. Sales have been fantastic and boards are outselling anything else. It’s like nothing we have really ever experienced. Even going back to the heady days of windsurfing this is way bigger than then.” Are these completely new enthusiasts or bornagain enthusiasts? “They’re new. That’s the great thing. And they’re already returning and buying second and third boards for other family members – they are all loving it and they’re here to stay. This is an amazing time to be here helping all these people discover a new way of life. And that is going to feed through to other sports – WindSUP, Wings, Windsurfing, Surfing and Foiling are all going to feed off this – it is amazing!” I didn’t want to put a downer on things but I had to ask if something was not going well? “Wetsuits. We didn’t get the sale of spring suits and everyone has gone straight into a shorty plus a lot of the business has gone to the big online guys. And fashion for us is out – we’re really a hardware store. Back to where we used to be. It is awesome.”
