Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Halleran.
Hi Nick, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Despite growing up near the Buffalo region of New York, I always had a passionate curiosity about the ocean and surfing. I moved to Virginia Beach at age 19 and fell in love with surfing. While trying to learn as much as I could, I discovered the vast differences that surfboard design could make in a surfer’s experience — focusing largely on optimizing board design for East Coast surfing conditions. Unable to find boards that seemed to fit VB conditions, I began making my own; and upon realizing how much more enjoyable those boards made local waves, I became determined to build East Coast-centric boards for my community. Rather than viewing my “outsider” upbringing as a weakness, I leaned on it as a strength; inviting surfers of all backgrounds and experiences to engage more deeply with the previously “secret knowledge” of board design. This open-door community-driven approach to the last decade plus in business at MAR has resulted in more surfers riding better boards and a more connected and informed local surf community. Today, MAR is Virginia’s only local surfboard factory and board repair shop, and offer’s the largest used board inventory in the area.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The road between starting MAR and where we are today has been anything but smooth. My first work-space was a 10′ x 12′ shed in a friend’s back yard. Then a 10′ x 20′ storage unit. We moved into our current building in 2018, with just 500 sq. ft. and have been fortunate to add neighboring spaces to our lease as it became available and we expanded our offerings over the years. The shop today is roughly 2,500 sq. ft. of factory and retail space, with my private shaping workspace set up in a 500 sq. ft. building off-site.
The only “investment” MAR ever received was $500 from my personal checking account while in college and several years of me working unpaid while doing other side-jobs. I even lived in my van for a year and a half just to ensure I could keep as much money invested in the business as possible in the early years.
I as industry outsider, and fully self-taught board-builder, establishing credibility in the early years was a real challenge. While many shapers lean on the lineage of their mentors, I had to patiently build credibility on the merits of my own work. I took on the repair-work that many others refused, said “yes” to custom jobs that would inevitably be difficult to execute, and focused on delivering excellent customer experiences to any and everyone who came to our door. Thankfully VB is relatively small-town and our one-by-one approach to excellent customer experiences and high-quality boards has now landed us with an ironclad reputation as the go-to source for the best boards and repair work in our community.
Training team-members has also been a challenge. Working on surfboards is a unique craft, and one that doesn’t offer massive financial opportunity. As a result, virtually every member of my team over the years has to be trained from the ground up and many don’t stay in the field very long — typically only those truly in love with the craft stick around and find success.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I specialize in designing and building the best surfboards for uniquely challenging surf conditions. Virginia Beach is known for relatively weak waves, which means your board must be optimized for those conditions to really enjoy surfing here; in perfect waves, the wave does the work, but in weaker waves the board has to precisely harness available energy and help the surfer translate that energy into fun maneuvers. Through years of personal experience bouncing between the waves and the shaping bay, I’ve learned the intricacies of balancing board design elements to optimize opportunities for East Coast surfers.
I’m always most proud when surfers come to us with feedback on a board we recently made them. Newer surfers often share that our boards help them finally “get over the hump” of the challenging surf learning curve, and life-long surfers often exclaim that they’ve “been riding the wrong boards” their whole lives up until trying ours. I often say that life is hard enough, so if we can make surfing easier and more enjoyable for someone that’s a great reason to work hard every day.
I think the thing that sets MAR apart from others is that we’re focused on what our local surf community wants and needs, without the distraction of the larger surf-industry. My board design theory (both functionally and aesthetically) is not influenced by my social-media feeds; it’s influenced solely by visits to my local surf-spots, conversations with fellow surfers, and the nuanced changes that each season brings to our local surf scene. I’m not interested in growing to be an industry-wide recognized name — only in serving our community as well as we can so that more surfers get more joy by surfing better and more often.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The best way for folks to support us is to give one of our boards a shot! We have a demo fleet of our models available for free test-drives because we know you’ll fall in love when you try it.
Everyone is welcome to come by the shop anytime. Our team is passionate about welcoming anyone interested in surf and sharing what we know to help enhance your experience.
We love to hear from folks enjoying our work, so feel free to tag us or just follow along on social media @MARsurfexchange.
If you’d like to stay up to date on community events, board-swaps, new models, and etc you can get on our email list at marsurfexchange.com.
Pricing:
- New Boards: $785+
- Custom Boards: $785+
- Used Boards: $100+
- Repairs: Free estimate on drop-off
Contact Info:
- Website: https://marsurfexchange.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marsurfexchange
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marsurfexchange/
