Ocean Beach Surf and Skate Shop owner Roger Caldwell does well to ensure that his store provides quality essentials for the sizable local sporting community. But that’s not all. The shop, which competes for business with large sporting goods chains, keeps its edge by engaging the community in skating activities that bring youth and pro skaters together.
“We don’t focus on clothing or image,” Caldwell said. “Our mission is to provide something substantial and beneficial for the whole community.”
Caldwell opened the store at 4881 Newport Ave. “” then called the Ocean Beach Surf Shop “” in 1999. The business focused primarily on surf lessons and merchandise, and it wasn’t until July 2005, when extra space opened up in the same business complex, that Caldwell was able to add “Skate” to the store name.
He expanded the store and its vision, aiming to serve the skating community as conscientiously as it had the surfing community.
When opening that “second door,” as Caldwell refers to the expansion, he said he wanted to ensure that the shop retained its reputation as a core store. After looking around to see what other stores were doing, the solution was simple.
“We were already doing a lot of outreach [programs] through surf,” Caldwell said. “That was our niche, really, reaching out to the community. Now we could do the same thing for the skateboarding community.”
The shop’s surf camps are popular but seasonal. So when a former employee built a series of wooden skate ramps, Caldwell seized what he saw as an opportunity to offer skating demonstrations and youth skate camps.
“Skating is so easy to mobilize,” Caldwell said. “With the ramps, we’ve created portable skate camps that we can take to any school, church, recreational center and home.”
Since then, experienced skaters and aspiring riders have become a familiar sight at the store’s parking lot for the Sunday demonstrations and free open skate. And while the lot has been empty of late due to colder winter weather, Caldwell said activity should resume this month.
As for the business move itself, offering skateboarding merchandise has increased sales, clients and talented friends. Consequently, the shop has formed a skateboarding team, OB Skate Team. It consists of ten riders that vary in age and skating skill, all with the same passion for skateboarding and athletics. During the Sunday skate demos, team members inevitably show up to teach new tricks or ride with fellow skaters. They also help Caldwell with his community outreach efforts.
“When we conduct a camp or demo at a birthday party or school, we’ll bring a couple team riders to assist instruction and show off [the team’s] talent,” Caldwell said. “These riders are like heroes to these kids.”
Russell Neff is an OB Skate Team rider who recently landed a professional sponsorship by Seedless Clothing Company in Ocean Beach. Soft-spoken but hard to miss in a crowd, Neff has enthusiasm for the sport and Ocean Beach.
“If you grow up in a richer area, sometimes kids are really interested in what kind of shoe or name brand you’re wearing,” Neff said. “The riders around here skate to skate “¦ Around here, they’re really skating from the heart.”
When he is not traveling for skate demos or competitions around California “” and, more recently, Barcelona, Spain “” Neff is on hand to teach new tricks to the kids in the skate shop’s outreach programs.
“Roger (Caldwell)’s constantly throwing demos and events with the kids,” Neff said. “We’re really in it for the community.”
In fact, Caldwell has collaborated with schools such as Ocean Beach Elementary for Partners in Education, a program that connects schools with local stores that their students frequent.
“Kids, adults, surfers, skaters “¦ they don’t just come here. They all hang out here,” Caldwell said. “If a kid we know is getting into any trouble at school, teachers call us and we do what we can to help out.”
The shop also holds movie nights complete with refreshments, product discounts and sport clinics for camp members and other interested parties. Caldwell’s intention is to always provide a constructive place to hang out, with productive activities and constant education.
Working with kids is not such a stretch for the business owner, as he used to teach physical education to kindergarten through 12th-graders at the San Diego Jewish Academy.
One year after opening the “second door” to the skating community, Caldwell said Ocean Beach Surf and Skate Shop has evolved into “the hardware store of skate and surf.” And as the community continues to grow, he promises that so too will the shop’s commitment to service.