Ballsy? Bold? Brave? Daring?
All character traits of cold water surfers. You’ve got to be a bit mad to jump on a surfboard when everyone else is gulping down hot toddys and admiring how warm their new socks are.
Finisterre specialise in cold water surfing. The image of surfing to most outsiders is all about tanned types rocking about sunny beaches. But you know how we live in the UK? Well, apart from about 20 minutes in July, it’s actually not very warm.
To highlight this, Finisterre have made the ballsy, bold, brave, daring move and pretty much pointed out where the industry is going wrong.
“O’NEILL, RIP CURL, BILLABONG AND QUIKSILVER, AS INDUSTRY LEADERS – IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP.
SERIOUSLY.”
Oof, direct attacks on competitors? That’s not cricket is it? Or is it? You’ve got to admire it, mostly because it’s not without substance.
They go on to add:-
“There are more cold water surf spots than warm water ones and we’re travelling to these spots more than ever. We believe cold water surfers make up a large part of the estimated 23 million surfers worldwide. The lifestyles we continue to see marketed are ones that focus on warm water surf regions. It’s a business model that isn’t geared towards designing products around what the cold water surfer actually needs. Do we really need another board short, flip flop, or sunglasses company? We don’t think so. Instead, we believe that designing quality products responsibly and around the lifestyles of cold water surfers is the next step for the industry.
We’re here to represent the cold water surfer, to design products for them, and we’d like to welcome you to the task.
Now let’s get to work.”
We don’t get much surfing in Stockport, the waves at Etherow Park aren’t quite big enough. But we know a passionate brand when we see one, and in this new ad, Finisterre have set the cat amongst the pigeons.
