Are Pro Shops a Dying Breed? | Bill Porter - Episode 60

How do you navigate running a brick and mortar pro shop in today's time where Amazon seems to run everything eCommerce? Bill Porter is the founder and owner of Performance Ski and Surf, located in Orlando, Florida. Being in the heart of the towed watersports scene, Bill's shop is the "go to" pro-shop for everything wake and watersports. Although his mom initially tried to get people to convince Bill to not open Performance, he did it anyways, and has had a profound influence on both pro riders and beginners alike. Herb O'Brien's influence, wakeboard tech, online operation vs. brick and mortar, customer service, the most important innovation wakeboarding has seen, selling snow gear, Nautique vs. Mastercraft, and the future of wakeboarding and Performance Ski and Surf. Hear all that and much more in Episode 60 of the Grab Matters Podcast! Follow Performance: https://www.instagram.com/perfski/ Perfski: https://perfski.com/ Thank you to our sponsors: Liquid Force: https://www.liquidforce.com/ 15% OFF Driftline use "grab15" at checkout: https://tinyurl.com/yvksusym $50 OFF Skiboatcovers use "grab50" at checkout: https://www.skiboatcovers.com/ Grab Matters Merch | https://www.grabmatters.com/shop Website | https://www.grabmatters.com/ Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/grabmatters/ TikTok | https://www.tiktok.com/@grabmatterspodcast Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/grabmatters Hunter Thane | https://www.instagram.com/hunterthane/ Chapters: 00:00 - 1:20 Intro 4:00 Intro to watersports 7:20 Herb Obrien 10:00 Dealer territories 15:00 Waterskiing vs. Wakeboarding 22:30 Wakeboard tech 24:25 More retro boards 26:10 LF’n Wheel of Questions 31:40 GOAT 33:50 Online stores 35:20 Customer service 47:44 Driftline Deserves Some Love 50:00 OWC x Perfski 53:00 Industry shifts 55:00 Gear talk 1:03:20 Ski Boat Covers (Ad) 1:07:20 Selling snow gear 1:13:25 Question from Rusty Malinoski 1:18:40 Grassroots 1:31:10 Being a pro 1:33:10 Nautique to MasterCraft 1:41:30 Most influential 1:44:00 Future of wakeboarding 1:53:40 Future of Perfski