Christian Shubin of Poseidon Paddle and Surf: A Man of Many Talents

Saltwater High in the house! Hey, everyone, we've got Christian from Poseidon Surf today, and this is a good friend of mine. I'm super stoked to have him on the podcast. I'll try to drag him back as many times as I can. And yeah, what I want to talk to Christian about today was his origin story with Poseidon, which is how the two of us met. And we'll just kind of free flow from there. Christian, how are you, brother?

Good, thanks for having me. Super fun.

Yeah, dude, good to have you here.

I listened to a couple of your other episodes recently, and it was cool to hear you actually doing it. And I was pretty excited for you.

Yeah, thanks, bro. We got some good ones coming up, it's just getting better and better. So you're coming on in the good time when the thing is launching. Its launching big, bro.

Nice, nice!

Yeah, man. So you and I, we go back, shit, how long do we go back now? Maybe 10 years? A little further?

Something around there. I believe somewhere between probably 2011 to 2013. Somewhere around there, I'm guessing.

Yeah. So we met through Wave Tribe and Christian originally, well, we'll talk about the store Poseidon. But you were originally a customer of mine and then became a friend, which is a great thing about business, right? So why don't you tell us a little bit about how did you get the idea for Poseidon and then how did it kind of grow into what it is today?

Yeah, sure. So, my family and I grew up in Malibu here, surfing our whole lives. And our mom was a surfer in the 50s. She was like one of the first women surfing Malibu First Point, like in the late 50s to be kind of expected into that.

Sweet, I didn't know that.

Yeah, and so she had a little run there and was an inspiration to us telling us about how it was back then, and then she took a break from surfing to raise us. There's four of us kids, I have two brothers and a sister. So she took a break to raise us and then, I think it was in the late 80s, she got back into surfing. One of our friends bought her a longboard and she hadn't really surfed since the late 50s. She actually bodyboarded during the 80s and whatnot, and then got back into surfing and then we just grew up surfing with her.

Did she teach you how to surf? Was it just like take the family out for mom's going to be out on the point, you guys figure it out sort of thing? How did that happen?

Yeah, we grew up at the beach, so we were always in the water. And it wasn't like she had to, there's a kind of community here, moms watching out for each other's kids. And back then, there weren't really surf lessons like they are now. Right now everyone gets a lesson as soon as they can as a kid. Back then, it was more watching other people and going out. And I don't really remember people actually giving lessons. But, yeah, we're just in the water from a young age, bodyboarding. And then as soon as we could, we're surfing. And yeah, it's pretty unique that we got to surf with her. She was kind of like one of the only mom who's really surfing in the ocean with us. And she was well respected because she was like the cool mom that knew everyone. And we're just really blessed to be able to surf with her.

That's sweet.

Yeah. My younger brother, Matt, he spent a ton of time surfing to Malibu with my mom. Malibu's pretty spread out, so he was stuck with her. He didn't have a car even up until he was 16. So they would just surf every day with each other basically.

And there's a couple of years between you guys, right? How many years?

6 years, yeah.

6 years. Okay, so that's a pretty good spread.

Yeah.

Yeah, sweet.

Anyway, so moving on from there, that was kind of our environment growing up and then I went to college. After college, still kept surfing whatnot, and it hit like different plateaus in surfing and got into stand up paddling in a roundabout way.

That was the early days for stand up, right?

Yeah. Laird Hamilton. What happened is Laird Hamilton moved to Malibu, I want to say in the late 90s or something like that. And he was doing it for probably 6 or 7 years in Malibu before we even tried it. And so it was basically like him. And then, I want to say it was 1999 somewhere around there, 2000s somewhere that we kind of started to play around with it.

And was he the only guy in the water that was doing it or was he and his bros or was it just him, he was just like one dude?

It was really just him on an 11 or 11' board that his dad shaped or something like that. And he would come down the line up on this giant board and do a helicopter 360 right in the most critical spot and never fall. He's just an animal.

Amazing.

But it's cool seeing him. And then we really watched him and knowing it was like him and then maybe him and one person and then like him and maybe two people. And then by the time my brother, my older brother actually, our oldest brother was the one that tried it first, and then I was like, "Oh, I'm going to get one this for exercise. And so I can look like Laird or something."

You do kind of look like him.

And then my younger brother got on and I think right when we just tried it, we saw like after watching Laid do it for so many years, and then just trying it once even, we kind of got a glimpse into the future, it was kind of this whole untapped thing. So anyways I was doing graphic design at the time. I was living up in Cayucos, California, and I was doing graphic design. That was right about the time of the housing market bubble, 2008.

Right.

And that happened and I was bored with graphic design. I was doing graphic design, working for myself doing that. And I was like it would be cool to just start a little website, at least sell these things online.

So that was the first step? While you were in still Cayucos you started that?

Yeah, it was really out of the bedroom in Cayucos.

Right.

I actually went to school in San Luis Obispo. I kind of knew the area and then I moved back up there after living in L.A., in Venice for a couple of years. I moved back up there, started that, and then did that for maybe 6 months, just getting some traction on it. And it's like the whole thing is like faking it till you make it. I think I put some boards up on the site that I had no connection with.

And just see if you could sell them?

Yeah. And someone called and they're like, "Can we get that board?" I'm like, "Yeah. Let me get right back to you." I think I took payment even. We called the manufacturer, it was Jimmy Lewis actually, out of Maui.

Okay. So that was the first board you ever sold?

Yeah, up our website. I had no connection with Jimmy Lewis. I think my brother had bought one. He had one already. But anyways so it's this like fake it until you make it turn out like this, scrounge it up, got that going. Did that for about 6 months then I went to Burning Man for my first time and I was going to be gone for a couple of weeks. So I had my brother watch the business and my younger brother Matt. We originally were going to work together, but we argued about what it was going to be called and whatnot.

So you just did it, you're like, "Forget it, I'm just going to start it on my own."

Yeah.

Okay, I didn't know that. I thought you guys started it together, so that's fun.

We did. It was kind of the idea was together, but it was he wanted to name it something else. I was like, no.

You remember what he wanted you to name it?

I think it was like Core Water Sports or something like that.

Oh, dude, Poseidon's way better. Way better.

I think if you search Core Water Sports, you might get something you don't want to see. I don't know.

Yeah. Nice.

But anyways, I went to Burning Man so my brother kind of watched the business and did some of the orders while I was gone and then when I got back, he's like, "I'd like to keep working on this with you." At that point, I was working, I was back in Malibu renting a little studio and it's running everything out of my bedroom. My brother wanted to join and we were like we could take some bigger risks if we joined forces. And I thought about not being partners with them. And it kind of made me sad to think of not doing it because we were brothers and I thought about what we could do. So we took the risk and joined together so that we could take a little bit more risk and we opened a store in Venice in 2010.

I remember that store.

Yeah. And it was funny because we were like so...

It was down from the Burton store, right? What was it called?

Well, we had Windward and Pacific in Venice.

Yeah, right.

Yeah. Because they're super iconic corner.

It was a sweet spot. It was a little bit ghetto, but it was a killer spot.

Yeah, Venice is nuts. It's like homeless kind of like headquarters on the corner. And we were just shopping to get something and for some reason, we thought like if we don't do it, someone else is going to do this. And he's had that sense of urgency to be first to market, I guess. But yeah, we did it and it's super fun. And we built out the shop and we just threw some boards in there. We didn't really have much. We just like we had a bunch of parties and super fun.

Yeah.

And working with my brother, it was fun. It's like to double up our energy. So yeah, we did that and then we were only there about 8 months. We moved to Santa Monica, which is our current location, we've been there for almost 10 years now.

So just give everyone a look where you're at in case they want to visit.

Yeah, so Poseidon's in Santa Monica, just south of the Santa Monica Pier entrance on Ocean Avenue. So we're like a block from the beach. But yeah, so that's the history and it's kind of going back, getting to stand up paddling was just something that was super fun just to jump on a board, be able to catch tiny waves, and have a blast. And in the surfing world, is kind of kooky and I admit it is, it can be kooky and there's kind of kooky people sometimes on boards being dangerous or not always considerate or hogging waves or whatnot. But I think one of the fun parts about it was just learning and was kind of being a kook again and learning to surf again. Because when you have this paddle and you got to use the paddle and the board's hard to control, it's big, so that is part of the fun thing of learning something new and obviously being respectful of people in the water. But it was something that gave me some new energy to be in the water every day and really made me a better overall surfer because I still longboard, I still shortboard, I foil board, I do all kinds of stuff.

Yeah, I want to interject into that. Because we went to Indo, is it 2 years ago now? A year and a half?

Yeah, I think 2.

2. Right before COVID. So it was, yeah, right before COVID. And we had never been on a trip before. We never even surfed before, dude.

I know.

And so I was looking for a couple more friends to join me on this trip that we took and we'll talk more about this later in the podcast, because I want to give everyone a little bit of insight into that trip because it was amazing. But I remember the first time you and I went surfing, we surfed in Ramanyang, which is next to Changu.

Yeah, that left.

We surfed that left, we surfed that left. And it was good size, right?

Yeah.

And up to that point, I always thought of you as a stand up paddleboarder. So I had no idea what you're surfing skills were. I was like, "Maybe this guy's a kook. I'm going to paddle out with this guy." Dude, we paddled out and you were ripping. You were absolutely ripping. I was so stoked. I was like, "Oh, yeah, awesome!" And then we ended up getting in some just epic surf on that trip. So I just want to say, don't judge a SUPer by the cover.

Right, yeah. That was such a fun trip. And I was super stoked that you invited me on that and it was like not everyone always invites you on cool trips, so it was super fun.

Yeah, cool. We'll talk more about that later in the podcast. But I want to get back to your...

So anyways, yeah, so I don't know. Getting into that sport, paddling, it was something I probably did like this good 5 years straight just kind of doing it and it's made my body feel so strong. You're pretty much like you're standing up the whole time. You're getting an amazing core workout. Anyways.

And I think you're a big guy, right? You're 6'6, 6'5-ish?

I'm 6'4 about 208. Yeah, I'm a pretty big guy.

So I think SUPing really is for bigger guys. It makes a lot of sense, right? I mean it just seems to me.

Yeah, I think so. And I don't even know why, but the boards typically are bigger. And so, on average, someone who's bigger can handle the board a little bit better. They can move their weight around on it a little bit better. Yeah, for whatever factor in, it does work for me, at least. It's silly how many waves I can catch, especially if they're just subpar waves or even bigger waves, like in some kind of outer reef spots. You can just get in so early to some waves. And I've gotten some of the biggest waves probably in my life on my paddleboard at times.

Oh, really?

But, I don't know. Not always. They're pretty tough when it gets really super hollow or really fast waves, it can be a lot of movement to just get out through the surf.

So what's it like? Obviously the shop has transformed a lot over the years. How has it changed from those early days?

Yeah, in the early days, the paddleboard is something that got us into this having a shop. And so in the early days, we had our whole wall, we have about a thousand square foot shop, and one whole wall was just stacked with boards by like 30 to 40 boards, which they take up a lot of space. And we were actually selling a good amount. The margins aren't great on board, so we would sell them, but we weren't making a killing, but it was sustaining us. And then over time, we have such good walk by traffic there that we've really got into a lot of clothing and then surfboards. So we sell it. We actually sell a lot. In the summer, probably more surfboards, if anything, than paddleboards.

So how do you choose what surfboards to carry? Are they consignment? How does that all work?

Yeah, to be honest, last year we've been selling a ton of softboards just because so many people are coming to L.A., they're renting boards from us. They might need their first board. And so we're either selling them like that or maybe a mid-length, like a 7'6 or something just coming off of like an 8' softboard, getting something that is hard, that hardboard that they can least experience that next level. But yeah, we all sell it. We sell as many boards as we can get. We have a small shop. We also added a coffee bar about three years ago, so a little espresso bar so we can do like any espressos, lattes, cappuccinos, that kind of thing. It's actually pretty cool. It's a coffee cart on wheels that you tow behind a truck. And we pulled it in to kind of get around regulations about the pump and everything.

Yeah. So it's inside the shop?

Yeah, it's actually pretty cool.

That's cool.

Yes, so now we really kind of pretty well-rounded surf shop. We do a lot of custom orders, we do custom boards, we can do custom paddleboards, custom surfboards, do a ton of lessons, rentals, and then our online sales. We still do a lot of good amount of paddleboards. We're making production boards, paddleboards, and surfboards this year as well.

Nice. And who are your main competitors in the area?

There's this other surf shops, Mollusk is a great shop in Venice. So we actually were across the street from them for a while. And they're more focused on longboards and retro shapes. But most of the other shops, to be honest, are all corporate-owned.

Yeah. Like the Rip Curl shop. And what is the other one?

There's Rip Curl, Zuma Jay's great. They're actually shut down now but they're going to reopen now.

Oh, they are? Okay.

Yeah, but they're own, at least, partly by Billabong Boardriders. And then there's Boardriders at Topanga, that's a good shop. But yeah again, a big corporate, they're Billabong.

Yeah. Do those guys ever come around to your shop and kind of see what you're doing?

I know kind of all the guys in those shops and everyone's cool with each other. And to be honest, we try to help each other out, because if I don't have something, I'd rather send it to them and vice versa. So I know they send us a lot of customers who stand up. And if someone needs a wetsuit or a certain board, I know they're going to have more of them. It's easier for me just to send them there. So I think we try to work with each other.

Nice.

Yeah. But in general, I feel super fortunate to have just gotten into the surf industry and doing something I love. I really, to be honest, never thought this is what I was going to do.

It wasn't like a dream of yours when you were a kid?

No. But it's funny. When I was a kid, for some reason, I would look back and I would see even a corner liquor store or something like that and be like, "Oh, it's kind of cool that people go in and give this guy money to get whatever he has."

Right.

And I think in my mind, there's a little bit of that inspiration or maybe that's just like an entrepreneurial spirit or something like that.

Do you think in today's age where a lot of retail is closing down like malls and that sort of thing, you feel it's still a viable business? Obviously it's a lot different to go into a shop than it is to buy something online. So what is the secret sauce, do you think, in retail?

I think location really is important. And I've learned we took a little bit of a risk paying a little bit higher rent to be where we are, close to Santa Monica Pier. At the time, it seemed high. But now, the rent probably would even be higher if we tried to do the same thing we're doing now. So location is definitely good. And then I think being diversified and you see this in a lot of concepts of retails, people adding a little coffee bar or something that makes them stand out, that will bring people in.

Yeah, that was a great idea.

We do so many things in our shop, it kind of blows my mind sometimes I think of like, oh we rent boards, we make custom boards, we do production boards, we make coffee, we do lessons. We kind of do way more than we maybe should. But some years it kind of pays off. During COVID, I had no idea. The year before COVID, board sales, say paddleboard sales were pretty low. I was probably at the low point or even the surfboards, and we were doing better selling clothing and whatnot to tourists. But, all of a sudden that swap, that switch, and now we're selling a ton of boards, can't get enough boards, and then the tourism is gone, so we're not selling that much clothing. But I think being diversified.

So it's because of the diversity that you survived, yeah.

Yeah. We could have easily, in the past, got ridden of all our boards. Actually we always have those connections, but we kind of just go with the flow and see what is working.

Right. How about putting a beer tap in there, dude, then it'd be like the full service, get your coffee, get some beer.

We actually were throwing some raging parties in there. I think you've missed them, actually.

Ah, mainly. I'm sure they've been amazing, dude. I'm sure.

So we had, if anyone from L.A. or Santa Monica area knows about the Santa Monica Pier concerts, and they would be every Thursday in the summer for like 12 weeks in a row.

Wow!

Started out, they've been going on for like 20, some ridiculous amount of time, but they've gotten bigger and bigger and bigger. And a couple of years ago, they reached max capacity. I think one day there was thirty thousand people on the beach.

Wow.

At the pier. And the bands are set up on the pier and then everyone else is on the beach, picnicking and listening to the music, but we were doing after-parties for those. So every Thursday night in the summer, like clockwork, we'd open our doors, we used to have a stage kind of built into our shop. So we'd have live music, we had a beer garden, we had bouncers.

Nice!

We had donations at the bar, bartenders. And it was pretty fun. We did it as long as we could. Vice Narcotics showed up one day, they're like, "What are you guys doing?"

Oh, really? That's classic.

They're like, "You can't do this." We still have events and we'll be doing those as soon as things ease up.

You think those are coming back to summer? You think we're going to be ready? COVID-wise?

I don't think it will be like it was before. But eventually, when we can do like events, we've been doing events like on Saturdays or something like that when we can do private events again.

Yeah. Speaking of music, I think you're an amazing musician. How did your music journey start? Did you play an instrument at home or your mom or how did that all go down?

We grew up going to church and so there's often a lot of music in church. And I think I remember just like singing along. And I don't really go to church anymore.

You go to the church of the ocean.

Yes, exactly. But that did, I think, was influential. And then when I was about 20, I joined a band with some friends and I was playing bass guitar. I think our first show was at the Whiskey a Go Go in Hollywood. And it was one of those pay to play things. They sell you the tickets beforehand and you had to sell them to all your friends.

Yeah, awesome. But you played at the Whiskey, bro.

Yeah, we had a 7-piece band or something just like we had this kind of ska punk band.

That's awesome.

In the late 90s but, yeah, playing at the Whiskey for our first show, the sound system in there was just I think that was an experience that made me just want to play it.

Yeah.

Much like kids. So since then, I was in a couple of bands like in college and then came back to L.A. after college and kind of in and out of my old band here and then didn't really give music that much thought. But these parties we used to have at our shop, I started playing kind of opening for some of the other bands that were playing like that and then got my own little group and got reintroduced to music again, singing and playing guitar. And so that was something different than playing bass. It's a new challenge. So, I still play as much as I can during COVID, but it's been a little rough. There's been a couple underground Malibu events that I've been doing in there.

Cool, man. Yeah, no, I think you have a great voice and I always appreciate when you break out the guitar, especially on the surf trips or birthdays in the backyard like what has happened.

Yeah. We're going to have a rage at your house next week. You didn't get the file?

Oh yeah. It's your shot, bro. Get your shot. Yeah, man. So what else? Let's talk a little bit about the trip. Just so everyone knows, we took a trip to Simeulue. I think that's how you pronounce it, which is the island above Nias. And overall, it was such an insane trip. Looking back on that trip, for the last I don't know how long, I've been pretty much returning to places that I've already been. Like I go to Sinaloa over a year and I go to Bali and so this was the first time in a while. I did go to Bells a couple of years, that was amazing, a couple of years ago. But first trip since Bells, where it was a totally new experience, right? New island, new location and if you look at a map, the amazing thing about this place is so it's the island above Nias. I think it's the northernmost island. And the swell window's huge, right? The swell window's basically anything above Sumatra on that side. So anything that comes off of Sri Lanka or the Indian Ocean or storms out of Thailand or Myanmar or all over that side. So I had no idea what to expect. And I fucking loved it. I loved it, man.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. You're way out in the middle of nowhere. It's a Muslim island and at the beginning, I thought that was going to be weird, but in the end it was fine. Like it was kind of cool actually.

Yeah. Everyone is super nice. And it's kind of jarring hearing the chants over the speakers. In the morning.

Yeah. 5 in the morning. Yeah. It made us get up and go surf though. That was good. But the interesting thing, so the Aussies of course are all over that island like they are in almost all the islands of Indonesia. So I think there maybe have been 6, 7 camps, I would say. 6 or 7 Aussie camps scattered across the island. We ended up seeing in 2, you and I stayed in 2. And the second one was much better because we were right on the break.

The first one was great though. We had those two guys who would take us around. They were classic, those Australians.

That was fun because we got to see a lot more of the island that way. And I really love the Australian couple that was there. I forget their names, but they were so much fun. I just love Australians.

Yeah. They were great.

She was a clam dragger.

Oh, yeah.

Remember?

He was the dick dragger and she was the clam dragger.

Clam dragger, what's that? So I'll let everyone out there in podcast world try to figure out what a clam dragger is.

Yeah.

So anyway, yeah, just give me some of your feelings, your insights from that trip.

Um, yes. Amazing, cool thing about that trip is it started out in Bali and that's a nice home base and you get accustomed to the time zone and get used to the weather and go out for a couple of surfs. And I just relaxed and into the surf vacation mode, which is great. And then, yeah, getting to that North Sumatran Island, just doing that, all the flights, and it was definitely an adventure. Like we had that one whole plane full of the people making the trip to Mecca. Remember that?

Oh, that's right, yeah, that was amazing. We were pretty much the only Westerners on that whole plane. Yeah, that was awesome. I now remember that. I think I have a really good video, actually, of you and I walking through the tarmac.

That was great. But yeah, I had a great time. Super fun surf and challenging surf times and it's fun to just to be somewhere different. And you had your shin get hurt a little bit.

So if anyone out there is ever on a surf trip with Christian, do not let him be the doctor or attending person at the scene.

You had so many experts there that knew exactly what.

Oh, dude. And that's the crazy part. And I listened to you, bro. I listened to you. So for everyone out there, I slashed my shin pretty bad and it was really deep. And we're in a totally tropical environment, obviously. So one of my buddies on the trip was a fireman and he's a medic fireman. And he walks over, right? And he's the one guy I should've listen to. And looking back, I was definitely in shock at that point, right? You guys should not have let me make any of the decisions. That's the first. Don't make any decisions when you're in shock, right? So my buddy, he walks over and he looks at it and he goes, "Dude, if I rolled up on you..." and while he was working as a medic in the fire department, "...I would take you directly to the hospital and get that stitched." And I looked at him. I was like, "Yeah, but that means I can't be in the water." Right? So because what happens essentially, if you get something stitched in the tropical environment, you're really susceptible to the microbes, to any bacteria that's in the water, because a lot of bacteria in hot water, right? In warm water. So in my mind, I thought, well, I don't want to get it stitched because then I can't surf, which was stupid because it ended up getting infected anyway. So Christian, oh it wasn't Christian, I have to give it to Christian, but then another guy came up and the guy was a little sketchy anyway, and he was one of the guides I guess, and he'd been living there for about 6 years. I think he was from England or something. Yeah. And he was like, "Dude, every time I cut myself, I use superglue and I just seal it up." And I was like, "Oh man!" I thought, okay, that sounds good, because then if I use the superglue, I can surf.

Yes. Fully covered. We'd just seal it up 100 percent.

Fully covered. The problem was that and I'll never forget, so this guy came over and Christian also both helped seal the wound, but nobody washed their hands at all while they were holding the superglue.

I think we're eating at the same time.

Oh, dude. Yeah, we're eating. It was such a bad scenario. I ended up getting infected. I spent 5, well, I spent days in the hospital.

Well, you surfed the rest of the trip on the island.

Yes. I surfed the rest of the trip. I surfed the rest of the trip.

But then we get back to Bali and things go down, right?

Yeah. And then I was in the hospital and the doctor looked at my, first of all, they looked at the wound and they're like, "What the hell happened here?" And then I told them what I did. And so basically they went in and we scraped the wound, open it up again. It was a nightmare, absolute nightmare.

What do you think if you would have gotten the stitches, started antibiotics and covered it and surfed on it?

That would have been the way to do it, dude. For sure.

That would have been maybe better.

Stitches, covered tape, for sure. I did it all wrong. I did absolutely wrong. Never let me make another decision.

Next time, don't listen to us for sure.

So whoever is listening out there, don't use superglue on your wounds.

That was tough for you just being in such a foreign land and getting sick like that.

Dude, it was super hard.

You might thing you're going to die even. You never know.

Well, I didn't think I was going to die, but I knew, it was right in the middle of the trip. I think we had another 9 days left. I was like, "I'm not going to be on this epic surf trip and not surf." That's what killed me the most. And I remember waking up at night and it was hurting like it was the infection was growing every night. And I would take 3 or 4 Advil through the night, wake up, I'd be down in beers in the afternoon just to get rid of the pain. Remember they used to bring us the buckets? Just bring us buckets. I have like 5 for me and 1 for you. Oh, man. It was tough, dude. It was tough for me.

I remember they couldn't actually drink on that island technically. So you could ask them if you want beer, they'd bring it in these buckets and you kind of drink them and then you put them back in the bucket and then they kind of get rid of the buckets.

That's right. Yeah. So it's illegal to drink because that island's under Sharia law and Sharia law is a Muslim kind of it's a strict law in the Muslim world. But the other beautiful thing about that trip is that, okay, you can't drink, but there's magic mushrooms growing everywhere.

Oh right. Yeah.

That was amazing.

I'm like, "Can you eat this one?" And they're like, "Oh yeah." And I'm like, "Well, you eat it first." Those first guys there, they're eating them all day.

They were eating them all day. Yeah. That was awesome. And then I remember we picked a full hatful and you went to dinner and came back and I'd eaten them all.

Oh yeah. We split them up and then you're like, "All right, did you eat all of yours?" I'm like, "Yeah, I don't feel like I ate that many." And then you said you ate like a bunch of mine.

I was getting you back for the wound, dude.

That's why I found you later just in your total Zen state in the dark, in your room.

It was awesome. So that's definitely a bonus for that island for sure.

That was great. I would love to go back and go to that island or some other island over there.

Me too. Yeah. So anybody out there that's a really epic trip. Wasn't super crowded, couple the waves. If you waited on it, you could definitely get it uncrowded. We didn't get a ton of swell. We got some good swell when we were there, but it wasn't I think we're a little bit off season. A little end in season.

Yeah, a little earlier maybe in August or June, July, August, you probably get epic surf.

Yeah. Like any surf trip, it's always a crapshoot. Even the small days were fun.

I think that spot there, they have those little surf camps there really no other infrastructure on the island for any tourism.

Nothing.

It was pretty remote. And you kind of got a feel for the culture. I mean as much as you interact with the culture because you're pretty much at these camps.

Yeah.

If you head out to get lunch or a little spot, there's nothing offered.

No English, yeah.

Yeah. There's nothing offered for the tourists that's coming through town.

Yeah, it was amazing trip. Overall, I really loved it. There were moments that I didn't like it, obviously getting hurt and I didn't eat that well in that first camp. The Aussies are not super known for their culinary skills. So the first camp, we had some Aussie cooks I think. Second camp was way better. Definitely.

That was great. Are you looking to do any other good trips?

I'm hoping maybe this fall.

I'm just waiting for things to open up, I guess.

I'm just waiting for things, yeah. Yeah, you too, I would assume. But I would love to do another trip this fall if you're in. I feel like by September, October, things should really be looking good. I already had my first, as I told you, I had my first shot, so I'm getting my second one in a couple of weeks. So I'll be going to Sinaloa for that trip in May. So I've got that one on the books. That'll be my first one post-COVID.

Nice. And how many times have you've been down there?

I think 5, I've done 5 years there. 5 different trips. So, yeah, I'm super, super stoked, looking forward to that one. And then after that, yeah, I'll just be looking to line them up, bro. Let's line them up.

Yeah. Let's go.

Summer's your kind of golden spot, right, for the shop? I assumed.

Yeah, it's really tough for me to travel in the summer. I'm trying to get to the point where I don't have to, but it's really hard to leave it because that's our money time.

Yeah, I think it's okay.

But I travel in the spring and the fall. It's nice and in the winter. Looking to go somewhere soon.

Yeah, man. I'm sure all of us are, especially everyone out there in Wave Tribe world, everyone's itching to get on the road. Sales are starting to bump a little bit. I can see that some guys are traveling, but nothing like pre-COVID. Still, most people aren't getting on planes.

I think once it does, I think you're going to see a big, for your boards bags.

Hope so, hope so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, bro. So anyone out there that's in Santa Monica or L.A., please stop by Christian's shop, Poseidon. Great guy, beautiful shop and yeah, go in and have a coffee and say hello.

Yeah, I'm there 3 days a week. And I got other great staff are open every day, 9 to 7 p.m. right now and then in the summer we're open 'til 9. So we have pretty long hours in the summer.

Cool.

Yeah, come in for a coffee and just some chat and hang.

Nice. And you got some stuff online too if people want to check out a couple of boards or if they're interested.

Yes, so we have Instagram. We have poseidonstandup is our site and then our Instagram is @poseidoncollective. And we have all like a lot of our clothing's pretty much up to date on there, which we sell, get them out online. And then boards we have online, we may or may not have in stock, but we can special order. You can see what's available that might work for you.

Nice. We'll put all the links in the show notes so everyone can click through and support our brotherin, as you say. And yeah, dude, it's super good to get you on the podcast and I hope we'll make this a regular thing. Come back and tell everyone the trials and tribulations of Christian and Derek as they stumble through waves.

Yeah, I'd love to come back on. There's all kinds of different, just chatting and then different parts of the business that we can go deeper into and the challenges the different businesses face, whether you're online or retail. Can be kind of fun.

That'd be cool.

Go into that. And then some stories about some of the trips too.

There you go.

Yeah.

That's what I'm looking for, baby.

Another thing, great to reconnect over the last couple of years. And it's been great. It's been really good.

Yeah, dude.

We kind of had a business relationship and then kind of, yeah, we didn't know each other as well as we do now. So it's been fun.

Yeah. That's really the beautiful thing of being in business. Anything in life is about really about relationships and friendships. But when you're a surfer and you meet a friend that not only surfs but has similar interests and is aligned with you and how you think and look at the world, it's just a great way to roll through life. So whenever I meet those people, I'm super grateful and honored. And you're definitely one of them.

Yeah, we're definitely lucky.

Yeah, bro. Thanks a lot, Chris.

All right. Thank you, Derek.

See you, buddy.

See you soon.