grommies kids surf

Grommies Boots up for grabs!

In this months issues of Snow and Active Magazines we are featured on their competition pages.  Why not try your luck!

It's well worth checking out their on line sites at www.snowmagazine.com
and Active at www.goactivemag.com

Snow is a free printed publication and if you are into snowboarding and ski-ing is a great read packed full of useful info. on kit, resorts, travel, fashion .....

Active is a new magazine launched this month.  If you love the outdoors you will love this mag includes articles on mountain biking, sky walking, sailing, hill walking and more.

Fancy a surf?

As I'm sure your all aware there has been some big storms crossing the country during last night and today. I came across this picture of a local spot near Porthcawl... Any one fancy a surf?
Its all go on the Grommies front; Sarah is busy sorting out designs and future stock.

Other developments include Jack obtaining some sponsorship from 'Splashography' and 'Dodgy' clothing - so he's pretty stoked, although always keen for more.
Anyhow will post shortly about some magazine competitions we are in - giving you a chance to win a free pair of sheepskin boots!

PR Push for Grommies

Well its Sunday morning, the sun is shining and it's relatively warm considering its February. There is a light east-south-east wind, which means that its off shore at the main beaches on the  South  Wales coast.  It's 3ft glass, and firing...and I'm sat here typing this? Well I just thought it would be good to put our latest press release we had in 'Wales best selling Newspaper". If your interested you can read the full article from the South Wales Evening Post here. So far we haven't had anyone contact us in regard to sponsoring Jack, so if there is anyone out there we would love to here from you. Anyhow I'm off to the beach shortly to get a surf in for the first time in 4 weeks, and this time I'm not going to forget my hat!

Jack Mander looking for Sponsorship.

We at Grommies have been actively searching for for some young Grommies to sponsor and support through the sport of surfing. As we are a company focusing on 0 to 10 year olds we were absolutely gutted to receive these shots only to find out Jack is 14 - arrgh!! after sending him a  nice 'sorry but' e-mail we had a think and thought if we can do anything to help we'd have a go... So we got back to Jack, sent him a pair of sheepskin boots, and said we'd stick him on the blog. So here we go. Take a look, and if you or you know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone (you get my drift), who's in the industry and would like to give Jack some assistance then please drop me an e-mail and ill let him him know. Jack is super keen, and some support would definitely be appreciated...

Anyhow we asked him some questions and this is what we got back:

Where you surf? Godrevey in Hayle mainly

How you get to the beach? my mum or my mates

Who your surf hero(s) are? Mick Fanning  and Benji Weatherly

Who you surf with? The local Hayle groms and Shore Surf 

When and how you got into surfing? about 3 years ago because i moved to Cornwall

What you want to be when you’re older? hopefully a pro surfer or surf photography 

What type of board you ride? 5"6 and a 5"4 both kamikazes   

What preparation you do before a surf? have a little stretch

What you’re into in school wise? p.e and art

What you do if it’s flat? skate and mess around with mates.

So grab the grommies e-mail address from our mail site, or click the 'about' link on the left and lets help Jack!

We also had another Jack from Westward Ho! contact us, and after having a chat with his dad he's on board - we will be posting up a page on our main site along with ed B... Now if there are any girls out there under 10 years of age looking for sponsorship please, please let us know...

weekend antics...

Time to catch up on activity over the last week. We have been busy working on the 'nine to five's' (hence the reason why its been a week since the last post) and we are  also having to concentrate fully on grommies, so time is a commodity we need to use wisely. The meeting with Carl last weekend was good, and he txt earlier to say that draft design ideas will be through mid week - great.  Also managed to start a more pro-active search for some young grommies to get involved with the sponsored grommies programme, which has been boosted by  help from some magic seaweed  forum members  -  thanks for all your help  so far, you know who you are. We have also been asked to  help a young guy in Cornwall search for some sponsorship - more of that to come very soon.

With one half-day window of dry weather this weekend, and our Devonshire VIP visitors in tow (my parents) we got out on Gower and went for a coastal stroll. We went out to a certain headland and I teased myself about the surprisingly light winds and swell coming into the bay. Climbing up the top of the rather steep point I was greeted with this beautiful view, and A missed surf opportunity!

It was a surprise to see no one out - according to all the forecasts, prediction sites and wave buoys this place was never going to be working, but once again nature has the last trick in the hat when it comes to surprises. It goes to show that despite all the modern technology we have at our disposal you can't beat an eyeball check to see whats really happening. Get out there and explore!
So no surf for me this weekend, but I have had some great text and e-mails telling me how my surfing friends  had missed it / arrived too late / went to the wrong place. Thanks guys it cheers me up no end. All thats left to say is: 'tis a fickle thing this surfing malarky!!   

A typical grommies saturday

Saturday the 4th - we had a couple of orders in which is always welcome, but the afternoon was mainly about the meeting with Carl, and discussing designs for the summer range of products. With money being an issue (isn't it always!?!) we are focusing on a couple of grommies products which will work together as a complete set, or as a single item. Carl has done design work for clothing before (although not kids surf wear), so we are pretty confident he's going to pull of some really creative stuff, utilising the grommies logo and brand. The meeting lasted for about an hour and a half, Carl was going to put some grommies branding together for next week, in time for Sarah's meeting with our design wales consultant.

Anyhow after the meeting Carl wanted a lift to Caswell - the beach does have surf, but arguably the worst break in Wales - the apartment he needed a lift to was right on the beach front, so I thought I'd take some pictures from the car park (especially as there were some surfers in)... I would of done likewise but I didn't have my kit. Anyhow i did get a wave in on Sunday at Rossilli - although I managed to forget to take my wet suit hat - this made it a very cold surf indeed! Well, its Monday evening now and back to doing what I'm paid too - that two week break is already seeming a very distant memory!   

A few days to go before work (well the other work rather than the grommies work!)

Well we have a couple of days before going back to the day jobs, and we have been doing okay with grommies sales wise both yesterday and today which we've both been quite surprised about. With Christmas arriving  we  expected  things on the grommies front to go quiet; we both sort of thought that things may not pick up again! Other things we have been doing included a real big look at the finances - the realisation that its  tough  being a new small business certainly sharpened the focus for us in regard to our next products. My dad wasn't lying when he said about cash flow  being the biggest killer to small businesses, so the cash-flow forecast has been at the forefront of all discussions. We have also been in discussion with some manufacturers,  looking at colour swabs for tee shirts, rash vests and boardies; and also arranged to meet with Carl over the weekend to look at some design work for the Grommies kids surf clothing. Carl seems super keen to get involved which is great. 

Anyhow we both have agreed to put more pictures on the blog as it makes it a bit more interesting to read - however I feel a picture of our Excel spreadsheet isn't going to quite do it! So I found this on the surfers village site  I thought it looked pretty cool.

Well it's back to looking at colour swabs and cash-flows for now...

The first day of a New Year!

Well, it's 2008, and with slightly shapeless minds (from a late night of watching Jools Holland BBC2) we managed to get out this today, and have a break from thinking grommies. I knew there was surf on the other coast, but we decided to go for a stroll down to Bandy cove this morning and take in some crisp, sea air.  With the tide in you can't get to the sand, but we had a stone skimming comp, but my years of practice paid off. It certainly was chilly with the South East wind, and thinking about summer time, the grommies 2008 kids surf clothing seemed very distant. However we do need to keep a focus on next year's summer range, as it can take a number of months to source and receive samples of our designs (that we have yet to create!). With all this in mind Sarah and I are back 100% to the 'grommies grindstone' tomorrow, before returning to our regular 'nine to fives' next Monday...

Well, all that's left to say is that we wish you all a very happy and enjoyable 2008, from Sarah and Stu at grommies.

Still dreaming of a holiday...

The weather is not the best today, and although  there is a wave it looks cold and messy (as seen in the shot here) I think i'm gonna wait for a surf - the middle of next week is looking good, when the wind swings off-shore, and also maximize on the week of holiday left before returning to my proper job (yes, both myself and Sarah have 'proper jobs' - its gonna be a while before Grommies is gonna allow us the lifestyle we aspire too!). Anyhow i'm still reeling about my friend's daily surfing antics in board shorts in Central America, and find myself thinking back to our holiday last June, which was in the Algarve.

We found a lovely little desolate village called Figueria, the accommodation and flights we sourced ourselves. the place we stayed at was called Casa Meranha which is owned by a great couple; Sam  is from Brighton, and  Noa  her husband was originally from Cuba, they had two little babies, who were very well behaved! Noa was very keen  to learn about  surfing, wanting to attract surfers rather than golfers, especially during the winter months, and wanted to learn how to read Weather forecasts so he could take people around on a 'Surf Safari'  - if you're keen, check out the link to their booking site.
There were some fantastic beaches there, and plenty of Surf. We found this beautiful cove called Ingrina, about five minute drive from the apartment, which had a great restaurant, very well priced, and you could tell it was gonna be good as it was full of Portuguese, rather than holiday makers. It also had surf... It was sunny every day - two weeks of bliss! The picture here is the wave at Ingrina - powerful, hollow; mess the take-up off and you're on the rocks. I saw a guy get barreled here - I also saw some guys get seriously munched! - you can judge the size by the black dot (a head) on the right of the picture...

Oh well, I think we have both resigned ourselves to the fact that the 2008 holiday is going to be UK based, as we are gonna be putting every penny into Grommies summer stock, and also getting on the road to push the Grommies brand wherever possible - Look out Newquay!!!

Just to make us all feel a little jealous...

We have survived Christmas, and it's back to work. I managed to get a surf in again yesterday (twice in a week, this must be noted!). Anyhow a friend of mine affectionately know as Love Train is over in Central America for a few weeks on a surf trip. Returning from the cold delights of the sea, his e-mail certainly made me feel all that much more colder...
"Been in Baja for nearly two weeks now. The surf has been overhead every day, glassy and baking hot. Loads of superb right hand points to surf. Not too crowded to start with but getting a bit busier with an influx of American's for Xmas. Wetsuit in the morning and boardies in the arvo. Otherwise heaps of wildlife here, seen whales breaching every day. Also dived with whale sharks, scared myself stupid as they are about 20 feet."
I think a holiday is long, long over due!