For as long as modern-day wakeboarding has existed, there are season markers that shape the competitive spring and summer months that professional water sports athletes train for all year. Come September with the key contests wrapping up, the US based riders look forward to more time at home, a lighter travel schedule and a chance to learn some new tricks without fear of being sidelined from a contest with an injury. Australian riders tend to pack up and make the trek back home to continue their quest for the never ending summer.
Originated in 1976, Surf Expo sits right at the beginning of September bringing the industry together for shop buyers to see the next season’s newest products. At its height Wakeboarding’s presence grew to a nearly equal sized footprint as compared to the more established and mature surf market. There were endless industry parties, events, high-fives, and legendary stories that were being written in real-time. It was a 3 day marathon of long days, late nights, and pinning the social-gas-pedal to the floor.
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Fast forward to 2024 and there were no water sports manufacturers to be found. What happened? How did we get here? Will it ever come back?
To find out, I sat down with Emerald Exposition’s SVP, Show Director and the face of Surf Expo, Roy Turner to hear it straight from the source.
Ben Greenwood: So here we are, one year later. Last year we had Ronix/Radar on the floor, but I didn’t see anyone else there from the towed water sports world. Seems like things have been moving this direction slowly and painfully but this is the first year that everyone walked away it seems.
Roy Turner: It’s tough to see anything go. I usually tell people that at Surf Expo, we’re a reflection of the businesses we serve. If there’s a market need, we’re there. If there’s an upcoming trend, we’re there. Over the years, I’ve seen it happen a couple of times. I watched the same evolution go with something close to my heart, like skateboarding. The market dynamics change, the model changes. You know, it just seemed to be the market dynamics changed a bit more to boat dealerships, which is geared probably more to consumer events.
Greenwood: Could the pendulum swing back?
Turner: Historically, Surf kind of goes through these seven or eight year cycles where there’s rampant business growth, kind of a plateau, then it’s not cool anymore. There can be drop off, and it’s just because we’re in the youth market, right?
Greenwood: Glenn Sandridge (Editor’s Note: Sandridge is President of the Marine Group at Wakeboarding parent company Firecrown Media) used to say that by not being in the right places, brands would be conspicuous by their absence, and for the Wake category, once a few of the key players and boat companies walked away, it seemed easier for the others to make that same decision. Was it a domino-like effect when they weren’t coming back?
Turner: I think at the end of the day, when it goes from passion play to, I don’t want to say real dollars and cents, but maybe a more maturing corporate view of what a business looks like, you start looking at at ROI and that hope that whole FOMO maybe goes away a little bit, then it’s dollar and cents investment. You know, I still think there’s a value you can’t put on face to face, or a handshake, or sharing a beer, or coming in a day early and getting to go ride with somebody, you can’t put a dollar value on that. But unfortunately, once businesses get to a certain level, they have to and I respect that. Maybe there was just a point on investment total cost versus financial ROI. There was a point in time where that ROI just kind of shifted, and the majority of the businesses had matured to a point where it wasn’t a passion play, it wasn’t an industry gathering. At that point it goes down to an Excel spreadsheet in a P&L statement.
Greenwood: Needing the cost reduction and having other avenues to write orders?
Turner: I respect everybody for running a business that way. I mean, we’re not a nonprofit business at Emerald, you know? We’re publicly traded and every quarter you can read whether we’re having a good day or a bad day. We have to make some decisions that maybe we don’t want to make as a company, so we appreciate that. But being a lifelong enthusiast, from being an end user running retail stores, ending up here, career wise, at surf Expo. I just love the vibe that there really is an industry. I don’t know of any other way in a B2B environment that you can create that without some type of trade event, whether it’s mine or whether it’s wake only or a towed water sports only, or whatever it is. I parlay it back to skateboarding. There was such a tight knit community of brands and riders and kind of like almost overnight, the cohesiveness of the industry just kind of, I don’t know, I wouldn’t say, poof, but it became really hyper regional focused on end users. More guys are skating now than there ever had been. Probably just like water sports. more people are riding than they ever have been, but you didn’t have this continual industry feel.
Greenwood: One of your colleagues mentioned a conversation with a decision maker from a well known water sports brand that they would like to revisit a conversation about coming back. Are those types of signals out there for you?
Turner: You know, you never burn a bridge, right? At Surf Expo, in my dealings, the Wake community is family, you know? I mean, I sat on their board (WSIA) forever and I feel like I’ve got a really good understanding of the business dynamics that go on there. I hope at some point in time, the door always is open, and we all stay in touch so that we could reopen that door, invite somebody home for a visit. The opportunity is always there. And there was never a burned bridge, or there’s never animosity. We understand that here.
Greenwood: There are so many Surf Expo and Wake Awards legendary stories. I think the younger generation feels a little bummed that they didn’t get to experience it, or maybe they had a taste and wanted to be the ones up on stage one day…
Turner: Everybody has a Surf Expo story like “Oh my gosh. Do you remember the night and dot, dot, dot” But if you don’t gather, you don’t get to create those stories. I’m getting older in life and it’s those stories that make you smile, and it’s those stories that help grow the industry and create the heroes.
