From surfing Hobby → $80K/Month Business

🏖️ Creative Entrepreneur fun one-liner:

Why did the entrepreneur become a gardener?

Because he wanted to grow organic...traffic.”

Onto Today’s story….

From surfing Hobby → $80K/mo Business: How to Turn Your obsession → a Thriving business.

Have you ever had a hobby or obsession,

that you wished you could turn into a full-time business?

Steve Watts loved Bodysurfing,

a water sport where you ride waves without any equipment,

using just your body.

The bodysurfer relies entirely,

on the wave to propel themselves forward,

rather than using a surfboard or other floating device.

Steve used Handboards; little surfboards that strapped to his hand,

that give him more lift, speed and control when bodysurfing.

As a surfing enthusiast,

Steve wondered if the homemade handboards he crafted in his garage,

had potential.

Fast forward to today,

and his company Slyde Handboards,

brings in over $80K per month selling these tiny surfboards around the world.

Discover his secrets on,

how how you too can transform a hobby into a thriving business.

Steve grew up in Cape Town, South Africa.

As a kid,

Steve's and his brother would bodysurf,

using whatever makeshift handboards they could put together,

from frisbees to broken surfboards.

The joy of gliding along the waves,

stuck with Steve into adulthood.

Little did he know,

this childhood pastime would someday become his career.

After high school,

he backpacked around the world for a year,

visiting over 40 countries.

During his travels

he met other surfers and people who loves waves,

and heard their stories.

They also grew up using all sorts of different objects,

like lunch trays or even making boards themselves.

It was then he realized there was,

a possible opportunity..

to create a brand around this awesome growing water sport movement,

as no other company was doing this.

After returning home,

Steve started his college and,

earned his degree in Product Design in London.

After this,

he moved to Los Angeles for his job.

He worked a short stint at a design firm,

before deciding to turn his childhood passion into a business.

But where would he find the money,

to turn his big idea into reality?

At the time of starting Slyde,

Steve was teaching surfing in Venice Beach.

He had just received his green card to stay in the country,

and that also allowed him to legally start his business.

While teaching a student named Russell,

he told him all about this awesome company he was trying to start.

About 2 months later

they met for dinner.

Russell loved the concept so much,

that he decided to invest right there and then,

without even seeing a handboard.

Steve launched Slyde Handboards in 2010,

in San Clemente, California.

A small surf town,

about an hour south of Los Angeles.

In 2011,

Russell and Steve drove across the country,

from California to Florida

to their first Surf Expo.

On the way

Steve had a lot of free time,

and he wrote a lot of tutorial articles about handboarding and leveraged SEO,

which he had learnt earlier.

Those articles,

to this day have been a huge source of free traffic,

for his website.

By this time,

Steve had already spent several years,

refining his handboard prototypes for his own use.

With a designer’s eye

and surfer’s soul,

Steve iterated extensively until he perfected,

the ideal size, shape and functionality.

Finally he created

lightweight yet durable boards,

with vibrant graphics.

In the early days,

Steve ran Slyde Handboards directly out of his Venice Beach garage.

His girlfriend Angela handled PR outreach.

This allowed Steve to spend more time on,

the design, marketing, and branding.

Angela slowly landed profiles

in major outlets like,

The New York Times,

Business insider and Forbes.

This media exposure helped grow their brand enormously.

Because of this media exposure,

in 2015,

they got a chance to be on Shark Tank.

Steve and Angela pitched Slyde Handboards to the Sharks.

Mark Cuban agreed to invest.

Sales surged following the airing of their episode.

Slyde Handboards slowly expanded globally,

with orders fulfilled to over 40 countries.

Sales started to grow and,

he could also finally take a salary for himself,

along with Angela.

Steve hit roadblocks and learned the hard way

the importance of keeping ample cash buffer.

To get more traffic and customers,

they focused heavily on social media marketing,

SEO, and email marketing.

They have about a thousand blog posts,

and around 20 long form tutorial type articles,

which get organic traffic.

They also started using AdWords,

initially using a fairly modest budget

to cover all the keywords,

they were missing with organic traffic.

They also started collecting emails from the website visitors,

using lead magnets.

Slowly traffic increased and,

they started to get about 500k visitors a year to their website.

Steve says, his internal drive

and his “why” carried him through,

the inevitable dark days.

If you genuinely love solving problems for customers,

the hard work never feels like work.

By staying focused on bringing others joy,

Steve turned his obsession into a thriving business.

Now they are making 80k/month.

Steve says…

“Starting and running a company teaches you so much,

on a regular basis.”

“ I think above all, it teaches you a lot,

about yourself

and what you are capable of achieving.”

7 reasons why they succeeded:

1. Childhood Obsession

Steve loved bodysurfing as a kid,

using makeshift handboards made from frisbees or broken surfboards.

He realized as an adult,

that there was an opportunity to create a brand around handboards,

as no other company was doing this.

2. Leveraging SEO

On a drive across the US,

he had free time,

so he wrote many handboarding tutorial articles and leveraged search engine optimization.

Those early articles have been a major source of free website traffic, for Slyde Handboards.

3. PR

Steve's girlfriend, Angela, was skilled at public relations,

and landed profiles of Slyde in major media,

like the New York Times.

This exposure grew awareness enormously,

and helped attract investors,

like Mark Cuban and Ashton Kutcher,

on Shark Tank.

4. Validating the product idea:

He used handboards, for his own enjoyment,

for many years,

refining prototypes continually.

His students and fellow hand-boarders,

loved his products.

5. Seeking advice:

Steve built a team of advisors,

whom he could meet regularly,

to review his business and get mentoring.

This allowed him to course-correct,

before small issues became big problems.

6. Obsession with customers:

Steve says his motivation came,

from a genuine love of solving problems for customers.

This obsession meant that,

even through tough times,

his work never felt like a burden.

7. Built confidence through Small Wins:

He started by selling handboards directly from his garage.

As it grew slowly and sales increased,

he gained confidence to grow more.

🍨

Hope you liked the story.

Keep Zoooming!

Yours “anti-hustle” Vijay Peduru