June 21, 2024 • 39 mins
It’s time to get off that beach blanket and speed down the Intracoastal Waterway with Surf City Jet Ski & Watersports! Trudy Solomon hosts this exciting episode, interviewing owners Houston and Katie Lowder. Their business offers summertime fun with jet ski rentals for freestyle riding within a nine-mile stretch, the largest freestyle area in North Carolina! Or enjoy a guided jet ski adventure tour south to see the best parts of the Cape Fear Region from the water. If you want to slow things down, you can enjoy paddleboarding, kayaking, and the new this year, paddle board yoga!
In addition to their watersports business, Katie and Houston have recently expanded their ventures by acquiring a furniture store in Sneads Ferry, now Lowder's Furniture.
Learn more and book your adventure at SurfCityJetSkiRentals.com!
Location: 512 Roland Ave, Surf City, NC 28445 on Topsail Island
Phone: 910-899-8606
Email: surfcityjetskirentals@gmail.com
Find and Follow them on Facebook, Instagram, and Trip Advisor!
Also visit Katie & Houston’s new furniture store, Lowder’s Furniture!
Topsail Insider is Sponsored by Saltwater Suites & Resort - Topsail Island’s premier luxury hospitality experience! Book your beach getaway today at SaltwaterTopsail.com or call (910) 886-4818!
Topsail Insider is also Sponsored by Surf City Line! Come out for Beachin’ Bowls, Margaritas, and Live Music, and enjoy your meal on their top deck with Ocean Views!
Visit SurfCityLineNC.com for their full food, bar, and brunch menus!
Topsail Insider is edited by Jim Mendes-Pouget.
jimpouget@gmail.com | http://bit.ly/PodcastsByJim.
Send Christa a message! Please leave your contact information if you’d like a response.
Please Follow/Subscribe to Topsail Insider on your favorite podcast-listening platform!
Please also visit www.topsailinsider.com and sign up for our Mailing List where you’ll get early access to upcoming episodes.
Or leave a Voicemail for Topsail Insider right from the website - your message just might be featured in an upcoming episode!
Follow Topsail Insider on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube!
If you are a Greater Topsail business owner or nonprofit, Register to be a Guest on our website at www.topsailinsider.com!
Or if you wish to Sponsor or Advertise with Topsail Insider, please email christa@topsailinsider.com or call/text 910-800-0111.
Thanks - I’ll see you around Topsail!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Topsail Insider where you can hear all
about the businesses and eventsin the beautiful coastal towns
in the greater Topsail area ofNorth Carolina.
Coming up, we have TrudySolomon hosting today and she's
interviewing Katie and HoustonLouder owners of Surf City Jet
Ski and new this year Louder'sFurniture.
(00:23):
We're talking about jet skirentals, jet ski tours,
paddleboard and kayak rentalsBasically, all the summer fun
things you need to add to yoursummer vacation.
On today's episode of TopsailInsider, experience a new level
of luxury on Topsail Island atSaltwater Suites in Surf City,
(00:47):
north Carolina.
With no nightly minimum, youcan enjoy short getaways or an
extended stay.
Each suite features luxurybedding, full kitchens with
dining tables and dishwashers,and all suites other than the
three ADA suites have full-sizewashers and dryers.
And don't forget about thosebeautiful ocean views.
(01:07):
24-7.
Self-check-in provides ahassle-free and seamless
experience.
Saltwater Suites is the perfectchoice for your next beach
getaway.
Book your next Topsail visit atsaltwatertopsailcom or call
910-886-4818.
Or call 910-886-4818.
(01:28):
Saltwater Suites TopsailIsland's premier luxury
hospitality experience.
Come on out to Surf City Linefor the best made-from-scratch
beach and bowls on TopsailIsland.
Treat yourself to theirdelicious bowls with shrimp,
steak, fish, chicken or pork, orenjoy their peel-and-eat shrimp
, beach break salads and more.
(01:49):
They offer a full bar servinghandcrafted cocktails,
incredible margaritas and theyproudly serve North Carolina
craft beer.
The line boasts the biggestdeck on the island with three
levels for listening to livemusic, relaxing in the sun, or
head on up to the top deck toenjoy your meal with ocean views
.
Visit SurfCityLineNCcom fortheir full menus.
(02:13):
The best service and beachvibes on the island await you at
2112 North New River Drive.
Whether you're a local orvisiting from out of town,
celebrating a special occasionor just soaking up the sun with
family and friends, it's alwaysa great time at Surf City Line.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Welcome to Topsail Insider.
My name is Trudy Solomon and Iam your host today.
Today we're talking withHouston and Katie Louder.
They are the owners of SurfCity, Jet Ski and Water Sports.
Welcome, Houston and Katie.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Hey, thank you for having us.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
What's up?
Glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
We have lots of fun activities folks can do around
here during the summer andbeyond, just hanging out on our
beautiful beaches, and we wantto talk today about your
business.
Surf City, jet Ski and WaterSports definitely gets you off
the beach chair and speedingdown our intercoastal waterway.
Obviously, you offer jet skirentals, but what are the other
sport rentals and services youoffer?
Speaker 4 (03:10):
So, yeah, we do jet ski rentals primarily.
However, we do offer guidedtours and guided adventures,
where we take people out and wesee other parts of the waterway
pretty much from here all theway down to Carolina Beach.
We also do stand-uppaddleboarding kayaking, and
we'll be introducing paddleboardyoga this summer as well.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That's a lot of activity and that's a long
distance too.
I like that.
About what?
A 55-mile round trip for ourlongest two-hour guided ride.
Yep, well, you're located at512 Roland Avenue.
This is where your office andyour docks are both located.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
How far can folks go away from the dock?
What is the riding area?
Talk about that, because yousaid all the way to Carolina
Beach.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Well, for our guided rides it really varies.
We can run from Surf City allthe way down to Carolina Beach.
For our freestyle rentals weride between the two bridges of
Topsail, so you have the SurfCity Bridge and the North
Topsail High Rise.
That's a nine mile distance.
You're free to play in thewaterway in your freestyle
rental anywhere in between, aslong as you're staying in the
channel, that's a huge area.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That is a big area.
Yes, tell me about Surf CityJet Ski business.
How long have you been inbusiness?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
We started Jet Skis in 2011 in Carolina Beach and we
opened up Surf City Jet SkiRentals in 2015.
So we're going on.
Our ninth year We've been inthe business for 14 years.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Right, so two different locations.
So you've been doing jet skislonger than you've been in Surf
City.
Yes, right, all that's locatedright here within the same
general area.
But you're from North Carolina.
You were born and raised hereright.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Both of us were born and raised in Albemarle, north
Carolina.
It's about an hour east ofCharlotte, that's not coastal?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Nope, not coastal.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
What brought you here ?
Yeah, so I came down to visitmy brother and look for a job.
It stuck, I came down.
It was my first year teaching.
I stayed at home throughcollege, literally at home went
to a hometown college.
So I came down the first yearthat I was a teacher.
I said I'm going to go andspend the summer at the beach,
at Carolina Beach, and same soyou grew up in the same area,
uh-huh, we grew up together.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
You knew each other, uh-huh, and you both ended up in
the same area here.
Yep, but you weren't planningthat together, no.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So we remained friends all through college,
high school.
He actually took me to highschool.
He's a year older than I was,so just buddies and we
reconnected.
When I moved down here for thesummer I started working for him
, but this was your boss, thatwas it.
This is still my boss.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
We'll just put that out for the public.
That's great.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
That's great.
She moved down for the summerand we kind of rekindled things,
and once I rekindled I guessthere was nothing really to
begin with.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
No, yeah, yeah, I started work.
That was the second year youguys were in business, so I
started working for him and Iwas still a teacher.
So it just kind of worked outand obviously we started dating
that summer.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I continued working there every summer, there on
after, and now you not only havea business together, you have a
family together and everythingthat's wonderful.
But you've got other adventures, so you have a new business too
, besides the jet skis.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, we have Louder's Furniture now.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We sell furniture that's not related to the water
sports.
No, never.
How did that happen?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Oh man, that fell in our lap a little bit.
We've been looking forsomething.
We're selling Carolina BeachJet Ski Rentals to one of our
longest employees, since we livein Surf City now it's just not
feasible to go to Carolina Beachand he wanted to continue, so
he's actually buying it.
We knew we needed somethingelse to supplement losing that
in the future and we went to buysome furniture in Sneeds Ferry.
(06:36):
My last birthday my mom wasgoing to buy us some outdoor
poly furniture.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
And we met Mr Tommy.
Instead of just buying someoutdoor furniture, you bought
the store Pretty much.
I mean that's interesting.
So now you've got these twobusinesses, they obviously have
different clientele, probablydifferent busy seasons.
How is this working?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It's working.
This will be our first seasonwith both.
So far so good.
Houston has been primarily atthe furniture store right now to
do the deliveries, to unloadthe trucks.
I'm at the jet ski dock Untiljet skis break.
Then that'll flip-flop andhe'll be at the jet ski dock.
But so far so good.
The furniture store really justtriggered us one because we
wanted something that was ours,that we owned.
We own the land.
So you know we're not dealingwith leases and it's not as
(07:18):
insurance-driven, it's not asweather-driven.
It is still pretty seasonal.
We think we definitely havebeen busier with dealing with
rental houses, but it's moreyear round and definitely with
furniture.
We're dealing with locals, withjet skis we mainly deal with
tourists.
So it is completely differentclientele.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So your jet ski business back to that.
You start.
Tell me your season for that?
Typically Easter to Labor Day.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So you're ready to go by Easter and you've got that
up and running certainly by nowoh yeah, we're there.
You've done this business foryears and you had two locations
and now you're going down tojust the Surf City location.
Tell me what you do, whatequipment you have, what you do
to prepare for the season.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
We don't, we just guess Such a lot Houston does.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Houston spends all winter I don't what's the
correct term getting the jetskis ready, because we sell them
.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We redo our jet skis every year.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
We've been doing that for I don't know how many years
.
It took a while to get there,but we've learned that's great
for our business.
So we sell them.
So Houston spends all wintergetting them ready to sell,
getting the new jet skis readythere's things he does to them
to get them ready, getting thedocks ready Just a ton of the
maintenance and mechanical side.
We both spend a lot of time onthe website.
We pour into our website everysingle year.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, keeping that updated is important, especially
like you said, you have a lotof tourists, so that's one of
the first places they'll go.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
We drive people to the website.
That's our hub.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
All right.
So the two of you have yourbusinesses.
Tell us about your family.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
We got a little seven-year-old going on 70.
Maverick, that's our littlebuddy.
We had him soon after we gotmarried we both, I think, before
we got married.
And when we got married we didnot know if we wanted kids,
didn't know, it wasn't hard, no,it wasn't hard, yes.
But we decided once we gotmarried well, we'll just see
what happens.
And it happened real quick.
So Maverick came into our lifethe first summer that we opened
(09:08):
Surf City Jet Ski Rentals, I waspregnant, I was working at
Carolina Beach by myself.
Basically, houston was drivingup here from Carolina Beach, and
that was a summer.
Yeah, it was busy.
That was busy.
I was big and pregnant andtired, trying to stay in a good
mood for all your customers.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, that was tough.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
That was really tough and I swear that was the
hottest summer to the books.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It probably wasn't but to me it was so where's.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Maverick now in the picture.
Maverick is at Surf CityElementary.
He loves it.
That's one reason we wanted tobe in Surf City.
We love the community.
So Maverick thinks he is incharge of the jet ski regional
dock.
He actually just what.
Two days ago he was docking jetskis.
He was down there with hishands on his hips waiting on the
customers to get back.
He tells all of his friends atschool that y'all are going to
(09:53):
work for me at Surf City Jet SkiRounds when we get older.
Yeah, we're in trouble.
He is.
He's very bossy and we keepasking.
I wonder where he gets thatfrom.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Katie, katie.
Okay, if I showed up tomorrowto get a jet ski, I would run
into Maverick.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Most of the time.
So he goes.
He spends know this, being inSur City.
Everybody's a family there.
All the business owners arefriends with each other.
We have each other's back.
So when they started doing thatfull day camp what it's been
three years ago, he's been goingand it's awesome because they
come to Soundside Park to eatlunch.
So like we get to see him, hiscounselors will walk him across
there During the weeks.
(10:32):
He shows up like all of ouremployees are, like his big
brothers and big sisters andsince he's the only child that
really works out, to providethat for him.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I want to talk about your employees just more than
just you two running things.
You've got a lot of good help.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
We have 17 employees right now 17.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I know the Jet Ski place you're guiding people.
There's a chance for someonemisunderstanding something or
having some kind of trouble.
So I love that you have a lotof good staff, so tell me about
them and what you require.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Yeah, so that's been a learning curve but we have
been so blessed I don't knowprobably since we opened Surf
City.
The first year was tough but weget all local kids.
We have a few kids who comehere for the summer.
They have beach houses here, sothey've grown up in the summer
and then most of them aretopsoil maybe Dixon and we've
learned that high school andcollege kids are great for our
job because that's when we'reoperating.
(11:19):
So we used to require them tohave jet ski experience, but
we've since then learned that'snot as important because we can
teach them that you pour a lotinto that, we pour a lot into
that.
We need trustworthy, good kids,good, respectable kids, and I
don't know how, but we get them.
Every single kid.
That's worked for us.
I mean, honestly, we becomefamily with them.
(11:39):
We'll have a Christmas partyeven though we haven't been at
work for months.
So we just we require that.
The normal morals.
I guess that's what we need.
If we can get that, we can trainthem into a jet ski employee.
We put them through first aid,cpr certification.
We do it with surf city firedepartment.
They have to have theirboater's license.
Obviously we require that theyhave to do that themselves to
get that.
And then Houston spends tons oftime with them on the water
(12:00):
getting them used to everythingthey need to know.
I'd spend tons of time withthem on the customer facing end
and yeah, it just works.
And we usually have a handfulthat come back throughout high
school and college and workforcein the summers and they take it
serious.
I don't know how we've gottenthem to take it so sick, but
they, they get the seriousnessup.
Yeah, they get that.
They get the seriousness of itas much as fun as it can be.
(12:21):
It is dangerous, it can be, itcan be, and they know that.
You can read our reviews thatwe get every day.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's always of how knowledgeable our employees are
we're bragging a little bitabout how well your staff is
trained and ready for what mighthappen each day, but I'm going
to brag a little bit more.
So surf city jet ski wastraveler's choice on trip
advisor for 2021 and 2022 andyou have a lot of great ratings.
(12:50):
You have five star customerratings and you have the largest
riding area in north Carolina,and so you've got a lot of
opportunities out there forpeople to come and have fun, and
you do get brand new jet skisevery year.
Tell us about what's out therenow when people show up.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
So right now we've got Yamaha VX.
We love Yamaha.
You've had.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yamaha equipment for years Yep.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, so when I went to MMI MMI is Motorcycle
Mechanics Institute in Orlando Iwas trained on Yamaha products.
They make a good product and webuy new skis every year, so
it's super dependable, reallyreliable for the customer and
for your sake, I think just asmuch.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So when Katie said, when the jet skis start breaking
, you have to come over and fixthem, but yeah, if you have a
new product that probably cutsdown on those headaches and that
would be a problem if a touristwas here and trying to rent and
half their adventure wasdealing with issues.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
That's right, and we don't want issues.
We want a flawless experienceand the customers love it.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
We have customers that come every year and they
love like, oh, what color arethe jet skis going to be this
year?
Oh, do they or do you?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
pick out different colors.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yamaha changes them, so they come out with a new
color.
So, like even us, we getexcited.
What color is it going to bethis year?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Okay, they're beautiful this year.
Every couple of years theychange the body style and
different colors.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Okay, so you have the old jet skis still.
What do you do with those?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
We sell them individually, okay.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, do you do that like at the end of the season or
something like that?
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Pretty much.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Pretty much.
But if I bought one and I havetrouble with it, do I get to
call you to come fix it?
No, ma'am, nope, sorry.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I think you've helped us.
You've had some people Idefinitely have, he has.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
But no, and we have so many people actually reaching
out to hey, can you guys workon our jet skis?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Oh, because there's no apparently there's not, maybe
not, but you do have theexperience.
I love this.
You have the experience withthe equipment.
You give your high school andcollege kids, you give them a
lot of good training and youguys are prepared.
I guess that's the point I wantto make.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
We take it serious, people assume that we don't.
I think Jet Ski Rentals have alittle stigma, but we don't we
take it so serious and I guessbecause we're together and this
is our family business.
Every night we go home and,okay, what happened today?
What can we make better?
Won't it look really good?
What should we capitalize on?
And that we've taken pride inthat.
(15:00):
Like we want to be the best, wewant to be professional.
We are not just this jet skirental people that decided to
buy two jet skis and we're goingto rent them out to you.
We try to stand out fromeveryone else that we are a
legit business.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
That has been here and are going to be here for a
long time.
So what if I'm a tourist who isfrom inland, didn't grow up on
the coast, didn't have a lot ofboating or lake or anything
experience around me?
So I'm coming here and I'venever been on a jet ski?
So I want to help that personright now.
Think about what they're goingto encounter when they arrive.
They have to come over to thedock and then what happens next?
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Yeah, First question can you swim?
They have to come over to thedock and then what happens next?
First question can you swim?
Oh, yep, it's helpful, right,it is helpful.
That's the first one.
And then, once they sign up,they meet requirements, we have
them check a few boxes on ourwebsite to get through that
booking process to make surethat, okay, this is a good thing
, right?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And that's on the booking screen for them, so
there's no surprises.
Let me ask this.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
If there's no surprises, Let me ask this If
someone wanted to walk up andwanted to get a jet ski, it's
probably you guys stay so busy,you might be booked.
So it's best for people to goto the website first.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
It's definitely best to book.
When the heat of the summerhits, there's a good chance we
don't have any skis sitting onthe dock.
Being in the middle of town, wehave people constantly walk up.
Hey, that takes out human errorthat they can see it.
And here it is because thereare requirements.
You know you've got to swim,even though you have a life
(16:21):
jacket on.
That's what we explain topeople.
You've got to swim becauseyou're scared of the water.
If you can't swim and thatpresents an issue.
You've got to be 18, obviouslyto rent the jet ski because
you're signing legal bindingdocuments.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So they've been on the website and checked some
boxes and they've show upChecked some boxes, that's about
it.
That's it Checked some boxesand you're going to show up and
you're going to be there a lotof time, and then what happens?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Yeah, yeah, once we get them checked in, make sure
all the waivers are finishedproperly.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Check IDs, all the things.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
We actually spent a lot of time making a orientation
video that's very basic and itends I don't want to say
complicated, but very thorough,so that anyone from anywhere can
, within watching that 10-minutevideo, they're going to have a
really good understanding of howto operate safely, navigate the
(17:08):
waterway safely.
Those two things are those arethe two things.
So it's a 10-minute video.
Everyone sits down and watchesit and they also also go through
, or they have a safetychecklist that they follow along
with that, and there's a coupleof questions at the end that
just kind of trigger your braininto reverse thinking on what
should I do in this situation?
What should I do in thatsituation?
That kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, we give them a quiz.
We've been doing the quiz forwhat?
Two or three years?
We've done that safetychecklist for as long as I can
remember, but we turned it intoa video years ago and I revamped
the video last year.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
That's a good idea.
People are very visual.
They are, and it has.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Like I mean we have actual video of the jet skis in
the map.
We actually had one of thewildlife officers, I think from
Carolina Beach, saw it not solong ago.
He's like can I have this togive to all the rentals?
And I was like absolutely notproprietary, we worked too hard.
We did, we worked really hardon it and um sure that, like I I
tell people a lot of times, ourrenters sometimes are more
(18:02):
knowledgeable than some ofpeople that are not renting on
the water because we give themso much information before they
go out.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
And it's fresh on the brain they didn't learn it five
years ago, when they tookonline test?
They learned it five minutesbefore they got on the jet ski.
Okay, okay they.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Okay, they've gone through the video and the safety
and all that.
They're on their jet ski, sothere's a few options that y'all
provide for getting out andgoing.
You said bridge to bridgeearlier, so that's from the Surf
City Bridge to the NorthTopsail Bridge.
That's right.
That's the nine mile stretch,nine miles in between.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
For the freestyle, yeah, freestyle, okay, and
that's.
Is that your most common?
That's our most common.
One hour Most people want to gofor an hour.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
And you get to cruise at your own speed, your own
pace, and we have employees thatare on the water as guides.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
You don't have to follow them, but they're out
there making sure that you'rebeing safe, making sure that
other boaters and jet skiersaren't being unsafe, but to help
you.
There's constant contact on thewater.
That way, you can do what youfeel safe doing.
But talk about beyond thatthough, If you did something
different from bridge to bridgeGuided ride.
So the guided ride is that youhave to follow one of us because
(19:02):
we're taking you outside of ourriding area and definitely for
all the locals they understandwhen you start heading south.
Sandbars are horrible.
They change every year, butthere's definitely more scenery.
So when you go on the guidedride, we're going a little
further.
You get to see a lot more.
We can take you into the ocean.
That's a big thing, yeah tellme about that.
So, like today actually we're at5 o'clock we are taking our
employees out on the boat andjet skis, heading to Lee Island
(19:24):
so that they can play in theocean and get some good pictures
, and we try to do that a fewtimes during the summer.
That's our team bonding.
But riding in the ocean is thefun stuff.
If you want to jump the waves,go in the ocean and play.
But you got to be with usbecause that can obviously get
dangerous if you fall off thejet ski in the inlet.
You got to know how to navigateit.
So that's what the guided rideis.
We actually tell people for theguided rides.
(19:45):
You need to be experienced togo on the guided rides because
we're going further and fasterit shouldn't be your very first
time ever on the water.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
At that point, we ask people if it is your very first
time ever on the water.
At that point, we ask people ifit is your very first time ever
on the water with a ski.
We want you to do the freestyle.
That way you can cruise and getthe feel for it at your own
speed and pace and some peoplearen't comfortable with going on
a whole big trip and it wearsthem out.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
So tell me about speed.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
They can go as fast as the jet ski can go, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Which is.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Which is roughly around 50.
50?
Yeah, 50 to 55.
It really depends on the riderthe rider weight, the water, the
water conditions.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The wind, the weather .
Yeah, that's right, and that'sfast.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
That is fast, that's fast.
There are jet skis that gofaster, but that is not safe.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I was going to ask that I, but that is not safe.
I was going to ask that I'mjust curious my own knowledge, I
didn't know how fast a jet skiwill go Faster than you'd ever
be comfortable with.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You know, and on calm lakes, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
We took some to calm lakes and I was even like nope,
we're good, let's back it ondown.
Okay, yeah, well, good, so Ilove and well care of.
So, like we said, a good placeto start is to go to the website
which issurfcityjetskirentalscom.
Go there and find outinformation about your rentals
availability and your pricing,because you can make a
reservation directly on thewebsite.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
All of our reservations are on our website.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Someone was vacationing sometime this summer
and they already have theirvacation dates figured.
How you encourage them to book.
That Is a week in advanceenough time, definitely,
definitely.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
We have people that book.
You know they book theirreservation and they go ahead
and book once we're open.
But as long as you book like ifyou get down here on Saturday,
like most of them do, and youbook Saturday, sunday, monday
you're going to be able to pickwhat time you want.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
What do you do about bad weather days?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Bad weather days are bad weather days.
We Go home and take a nap.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Basically, we don, basically we don't see those
days often.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
no, we really don't we don't get many rain out days
anymore.
I feel like we used to.
We used to get like two or threedays and they were the best
because that was just us two wedidn't have employees yeah, we
were seven days a week, but no,if it's bad weather basically
what we tell people if at thetime of your reservation it's
bad weather, we're going toreschedule you or cancel you and
refund you.
We tell people please do notworry about the weather, book it
(21:54):
, we'll deal with it then,because at the beach it rains
for five minutes and then it'sbeautiful.
We really do our best to workwith people.
We tell a lot of people don'twait until the last day of
vacation to come, because Ican't tell you the amount of
times it rains on Friday andthey're so broken hearted that
they didn't get to go jet skiingbecause they don't have any
more time to reschedule.
No-transcript, I promise you,book it, we'll deal with it.
(22:21):
We'll move you, we'll cancelyou.
Whatever we got to do, we'regoing to make it the best for
you.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
So you said you has to be there, has to do the
paperwork, has to rent it forthem.
14 and 15-year-olds can drivewith an adult on board.
I think it's a learning tool.
I think it's giving these kidssome responsibility when they're
out on the water.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Oh, to put them on the front.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, Now the adult on the 14 and 15-year-olds.
The adult has to be on the jetski with them, but they actually
can operate and I think it'sawesome.
We've watched kids grow up onthe jet ski dock that have been
coming to us since they werelittle and they're 14, they get
there and they're like we get todrive, and then when they're 16
, they're there, they're givingme their ID.
I don't even have to ask for itbecause they are taking their
own jet ski age.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
What's some other important things that y'all want
to tell people right now.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Just do it Go.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
It's fun.
The important thing thatHouston wants everybody to know
is just go do it.
It's fun, it is.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
We have people tell us every day this is the
highlight of our vacation.
Yes, it overwhelms peoplebecause we do have so many rules
in place.
That's okay.
We've gotten that feedback froma few people.
Y'all got a lot of rules.
Well, we got to take care ofyou.
How much fun are you going tohave when you come out here and
damage a jet ski or get hurtbecause you didn't listen and
you didn't have rules?
Not that you didn't listen,it's because you didn't have
rules.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
If you have people with large parties, how many
people could go together?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Typically we cap it at eight jet skis in at a time,
okay, but for one party thateverybody knows each other, that
gets to be a lot.
Everybody's out there together,but we can accommodate.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
We do a lot of group outings with tours.
That way we can all go down, wecan check out Lee Island or go
down to Figure 8 in one of theinlets and we can pull the jet
skis up to the beach and hop off, take a swim break.
Everyone gets a good photo opand hang tight for a few minutes
.
And we do a shark toothadventure with a lot of groups.
That's a good one.
We go down and we look forshark's teeth on one of the
(24:24):
barrier islands, so that'salways a very popular one for
the groups.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
So how much time does some of those adventures last?
That's a two-hour shark tooth.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
That's a two-hour shark too.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
That's a two-hour, and we tell people as quick as
you can get to Lee Island, we goto Lee Island.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, so typically they take 30 minutes to drive
down there and then 30 to 45minutes walk in the island and
then come back.
So you get a little bit of bothyou get to explore, but you
also get to ride the jet ski.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
You probably have like a half-day adventure with
your friends or family orwhatever, because you should at
minimum 30 minutes early,because that is where we're
doing the training.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Okay, and we are serious about that training.
Those 30 minutes are for us.
Yeah, they're mandatory.
So if you get there late,you're still going to stand
there with us for that timeframe to get your training in.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Okay, so we have talked a lot about jet skis.
Maybe that's just becausethat's not a thing that I've
done a lot of and it sounds likea lot of fun to do with family
and friends.
But let's talk about.
You mentioned kayaking andpaddle boarding.
They're very popular in ourarea, so tell us what folks need
to know about these things.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Yep.
So with our location, we'reliterally just 100 yards from
the marsh, and so we can sendpeople straight out from our
dock to calm waters that havevery little current and it's
also a little bit protected bythe wind.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
And not be encountering boats and other
things yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
That's the biggest thing, honestly, and you can
take it to the intercoastal ifyou would like.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
So, tell me about ages and groups and things for
those we recommend for solo onthe paddle sports to be eight
years old, that strength factorthere.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
We're flexible on that, like our seven-year-old
does both of them, and he'sperfectly fine.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Well, it's not like they can show you an ID and tell
you that they're eight versusseven.
Yeah, and that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
That's a recommendation, the paddle
sports are the laid-back thingsthat we offer Basically there's
not a ton of requirements, butyou provide life vests, yes,
ma'am.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
And what about some people if they did fall off
their board and they're in somemoisture shells or whatever like
they?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
need to.
They do have to wear shoes onour paddle sports some type of
shoes, because you are going tobe in oyster beds and we prepare
them for that and we kind oftell them too.
If you're going and you startfeeling the bottom, you should
probably back on out of thatarea.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
So how much?
Speaker 3 (26:22):
time do people plan for that?
Two, I'd say, is our bestseller.
We have some people gettingkayaks for longer, but mostly
two hours for both of those.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
A lot of early mornings and a lot of late
afternoon rentals on thosePeople just take a little cooler
, yeah, we provide coolers.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
We have coolers and we've got the ice at the fish
market, so you know we'll sendthem with what they want.
They can fish off the kayaks ifthey'd like to, and we've had
some success this year withkayaks, our third year with
paddle boards and now we'regonna do paddleboard yoga, yeah,
and now we're teaching that.
Who's houston teaching, not us?
lead yoga instructor right hereso I've made a lot of friends at
(26:55):
the elementary school throughmaverick I guess that's a mom
thing, right?
Yes, so one of my girlfriendsher name is katie she is a yoga
instructor in surf city and sheactually was like, hey, I didn't
realize y'all had so manypaddle boards and they're right
there.
We're meeting her today to getthe kinks worked out and get it
rolling.
So we're going to be offeringit.
I think now she's going to dolike an early morning session
and then like a sunset sessionfor now.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
That'd be great.
There'll be a lot of groupsthat take advantage of that.
I think so too.
So you guys have been togetherfor a lot these years.
I know you have a lot of goodstories to share yeah, we do and
so tell us something that'skind of fun to talk about we
rode off on a jet ski at ourwedding, did you really yeah?
(27:37):
I have a picture in my weddingdress.
He was in his tux In yourbridal attire.
Yeah, jet skis were part of ourwedding.
Now, has anybody booked yourjet ski business to do that for
their own wedding?
No, they have not.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
No, we have not offered that you need to
advertise that we are thegetaway service that we did,
like Mavericks Gender Reveal, atour jet ski dock when I was
pregnant.
That's where.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I fell in love with Houston at the jet ski dock.
So that is our life.
Yeah, it's a big part of yourlife.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Moments we like watching people grow up.
People grow up.
We've definitely got to watchkids grow up, whether it's
customers.
We also get to watch ouremployees grow up out there.
So that's always fun becausesome of them start working for
us when they're freshmen orsophomores in high school and
then we get to watch themthrough high school and college.
So that's one of my biggestparts.
And then just watching theyoung kids that come and I see
them each year and then theycome and then they get to drive
(28:22):
this year.
That's fun.
That's my favorite part ismeeting the people.
We've met some awesome peopleat the Jet Ski Doc that we are,
still, to this day, friends withFacebook friends.
We keep up with each other allyear.
They come to see us.
That's my favorite part aboutthe Jet Ski Rental business.
Everybody's happy.
Typically when they come to usyou get a few that aren't, but
everybody's happy.
We get to make friends and havefun together.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Well being out on the water is something that do in
your everyday life.
No, we take that for grantedhere.
We do.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
We do, but we get people this.
I've had people come to me intears.
They tell me that this was alife changer for me and they
compliment how good I in Houstonand our employees were to them
for being so calm with us.
We've had some autisticchildren, some disability.
We do what we can.
Didn't we have two grown menthat were deaf.
Well, we took the time to helpthem and I think they came back
(29:10):
once or twice and really gotthem out there.
That was a big moment becauseyou could just see it in their
face.
Those are definitely thehighlights.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
One of my most memorable times just riding jet
skis and doing a tour.
We were at Carolina Beach andwe went out through the inlet.
We're just having a nice ridedown the beach and there's this
big black thing in the water.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
We thought it was a flip-flopper jet ski.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yeah, this big black thing, and it was floating just
on the surface and I was like,man, it's like a jet ski that's
flipped over upside down, oh wow.
So you could only see thebottom of the hole and I'm
getting closer and closer andcloser and it's moving.
It's a turtle, it was a seaturtle.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
It was a leatherback, it was.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Oh, a leatherback.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, so leatherback turtles are the largest sea
turtle species.
They can be up to 900 pounds.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
This thing was huge.
I've never seen anything likeit.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Where were you In Carolina Beach?
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Emma.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Carolina Beach.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
They do swim here I mean they nest in North Carolina
too, but not often.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
150 or 250 yards off the beach.
So I was like dang, that's soawesome and he didn't care, we
didn't get close to him.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I had him on GoPro video, which has since been lost
, and so we kept riding.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
And then there was another one, oh wow, and there
was another one.
We ended up seeing like five orsix of them.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
That's insane.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
It's just huge.
Once in a while it's.
I think I've seen it four timessince I've been on the water
starting in 2011.
Stingrays, the big ones, thebig ones that jump out of the
water.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
They jump right beside you on the jet ski.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
And keep going.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So when you are out on the jet skis, do you have a
lot of good experiences withyour riders getting to see
dolphin?
Oh gosh.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Dolphins are.
Very often there's no rhyme orreason, so we can't tell you.
Hey, this is how or where.
But most everybody came backand was like we saw dolphins.
I was like, good, that's freeof charge.
So just y'all know.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
No extra charge for that.
No, they see dolphins so often.
I think that would be one ofthe biggest reasons to go out
there on the waterway.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I really do, and typically the dolphins are not
scared.
They ride with you.
You definitely get to see tonsof wildlife and the tours I
think that's why the guidedrides you're going so much
further.
You just got such a betterchance of seeing so much more
wildlife.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I appreciate that about y'all's business about
giving people a chance to getout and see the wildlife.
I think it gives them a betterappreciation for what we're
trying to protect up here, so Ido like that.
However, people can see itwhether it's playing in the
ocean or out on the jet ski.
That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
I'm excited about your new adventure with your
furniture store and I can't waitto hear some of the future
stories that come out with that,helping families or set up
their beach houses or rentalbusinesses.
I'm sure keep you busy.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
How's that going so far?
It's going really well.
It's going better than weexpected.
We opened fully in February.
What are your hours?
Tuesday through Friday 10 to 5.
Saturday 10 to 2.
We promised we would not openanother business open on Sundays
.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
With the water sports business.
It's a very small window thatwe have to be open for the
summer to create revenue.
So being open on Sundays is parfor the course on that and we
don't like it, but we have tomake revenue for it.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
The furniture store we decided would not be.
What changes did you make tothe furniture store?
So Houston spent all winter webought in November.
He spent all winter remodelingthe store.
It basically was an old automechanic shop.
It was a furniture store, buthe spent all winter revamping
that.
We sell Ashley furniture rightnow we sell Furniture of America
New Classic and we have threeor four poly vendors for outside
(32:26):
Amish-made poly vendors, so wesell both.
A lot of people don't know thatwe have indoor furniture because
you ride by and you just seeall this outdoor furniture.
So we have picked up and westill constantly, every day I'm
on there trying to find the nextnewest vendor that we can bring
on, and we're really wanting tobe affordable.
We are not interior designers,that's not us.
We're a furniture store.
You come, you need a couch Okay, we've got a couch you can take
(32:48):
home.
You need a mattress?
We got one of those too andwe're really trying to be that
middle of the road furniturestore with reasonable prices but
great products.
So that's, we're spending a lotof time.
I'm pretty sure I've marketresearched everything, because
I've changed every piece offurniture in my house since we
bought it.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Oh, you've tried it out, that's what.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
I, I'm trying it out for everybody.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
That sounds like a great plan, Petey.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
We'll never turn a profit.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
But we'll have new furniture.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
No, I will I understand, it would be hard for
me to sell something that Icouldn't speak to personally.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
That's right.
Especially if it wasn't anindustry I grew up knowing and
learning, that's right, I canunderstand that I have faith
we'll figure it out, because wealways do that's right, that's
right.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
So I can understand that I have faith we'll figure
it out, because we always do.
In 14 years we'll be talkingabout the furniture store.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
That's what I was just thinking, well, this is
something to like.
This will be Mavericks, notthat the jet skis won't be, but
like we own this, this is his.
His name's on it.
That was a big thing for usMavericks name.
We were going, his last name islouder, that's him.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Well, what are some final thoughts?
I mean, we're finishing up here, but what do you want the
listeners to know about you oryour companies?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
We are a small business.
When people come to any of thesmall businesses, you are
providing for a local family.
I love the write-ups where yousay you're buying the ballet
shoes for the little girl goingto ballet.
That is definitely what we are.
Jet skis have put food on ourtable for 14 years.
We have worked very hard forwhat we have.
I like to tell people, not thatour parents did not provide for
us, because they did, we didn'tgo without but what Houston and
(34:21):
I have is from what Houston andI have done.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
We have started from the bottom and you're here to
stay for a while we are here.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
This is home.
Surf City is home to us.
Maverick goes to school here.
This is where all his friendsare.
We went to church on the beachSunday and here come three or
four of his little friendswalking up.
Like this is our community,with Surf City, jet Ski Runnels.
We are here to providesomething fun for the tourists
and locals to do and withLouder's Furn, our goal is to be
the business that people cantrust, because they know Houston
(34:48):
and I.
They trust us and we're here tobe a part of the community.
Houston has to dial me inbecause somebody's like, hey, we
need this for school or for thecommunity.
I'm like, okay, here.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I want to give back to the community because they've
given so much to us.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
And that's important.
I want people to know that whenyou're giving to a small
business, you're, in turn,putting money right back into
that community that you love.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I've seen y'all do a lot for the community.
I value that too, especiallylike when we have families who
are living here and we have kidsand we do think about what the
future of this area will looklike for our children and what
advantages and opportunitiesthey'll have.
So that's good.
I love that You've beeninstrumental in supporting the
schools and the churches andlots of nonprofits, teaming up
with other local business owners.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
I think that's the beauty of Surf City All the
business owners have eachother's backs.
That's true.
We all have the common goal andwe support each other.
I love that more than anything.
We didn't have that in CarolinaBeach, not to speak negatively,
but Surf City has it.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Does the furniture store have a?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
website too.
It does.
I've gone a little crazy thelast couple weeks over that
website, but same thing we wantthe website to be the place
Everybody shops online.
We obviously want you to comein the store, but I want you to
be able to sit on your couch atnight and get on our website and
see what I have in my storewhich is on there.
We have our in-stock pages andyou also can shop all of the
thousands of products that wecan order and get in quickly.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
So tell us that.
Tell us where to find the jetski stuff.
Tell us the websites.
Tell us if anybody's out thereand just listen to this and
doesn't have pen and paper,where can they locate you the
easiest?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
So for the jet skis, honestly it's as simple as
Googling jet ski rentals in SurfCity or Surf City Jet Ski
Rentals is our name, so that'sgoing to come up.
We are surfcityjetskirentalscom.
You'll find our website.
You'll find our Yelp.
Everything Louder's Furniturewe are working on and I hope in
the next couple years it'll bejust as visible online as Surf
City Jet Screens.
It's already great.
But loudersfurniturecom Spelllouder's for me.
(36:35):
L-o-w-d-e-r-s furniturecomPerfect.
That's a Stanley County namebecause nobody knows it here we
go home and everybody knows itlouder at home.
We get loader loaders.
Oh, you're the loaders.
Okay, but yeah, if you googlefurniture stores, sneeds fairy,
we should pop up.
We've worked really hard onthat already in the last couple
months.
But yes, our website, we workreally hard.
(36:56):
Social media is not the bestbecause we're not good at it,
but we're trying yeah, you cankeep up with socials.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
We um try to post what we're doing we do like a
daily deal from the furniturestore and try to move some stuff
at like crazy low prices.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
I've seen some references though other
businesses around town who'vemaybe had your poly furniture
sitting outside and there's asign saying you know it was from
you and has a QR code andthings like that.
That's a good way to get out,get your name out there too.
So I hope we've given people achance to know what you offer
and, like I said, they're twototally different businesses,
but I can understand the rhythmof it all and just the desire
(37:35):
and capacity to do this as afamily.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yeah, I think that's our biggest thing.
Even if we're at work, we'retypically together.
So, maverick's with us, we'retogether.
That's our biggest goal.
I don't With us, we're together.
That's our biggest goal.
If I'm going to spend time atwork, I'm not going to be
without my family.
So even at night I have somehard times where I'm like, oh my
gosh, we're working every day.
But then I try to put it inrespect of we're together and
that is what matters.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Well, thank you for being here.
I thank all the listeners forjoining us today.
Katie in Houston, thank you forbeing part of Topsail Insider
and telling us all about SurfCity, Jet Ski and Water Sports
and Louders Furniture Thank youfor having us.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
This was fun.
Yeah, thanks for having us Goodtime.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode of Topsel
Insider, please show yoursupport by clicking the follow
or subscribe button on yourfavorite podcast listening
platform.
You can also follow us onFacebook, instagram, twitter and
YouTube.
Please also go toTopselInsidercom and join our
mailing list by clicking on theMake Me a Topsoul Insider button
(38:32):
.
While you're there, you canclick the Send Me a Voicemail
button and let me know exactlywhat you're thinking your
message just might be on anepisode of Topsoul Insider.
You can email me at krista attopsoulinsidercom, or call or
text me at 910-800-0111.
Thank you for listening andsupporting Topsail Insider and
(38:53):
our local businesses andnonprofits.
These are our neighbors and ourfriends, and together we build
a mighty and a beautifulcommunity I'm super proud to be
a part of.
I'll see you around Topsail.
Welcome to Topsail Insider where you can hear all
about the businesses and eventsin the beautiful coastal towns
in the greater Topsail area ofNorth Carolina.
Coming up, we have TrudySolomon hosting today and she's
interviewing Katie and HoustonLouder owners of Surf City Jet
Ski and new this year Louder'sFurniture.
(00:23):
We're talking about jet skirentals, jet ski tours,
paddleboard and kayak rentalsBasically, all the summer fun
things you need to add to yoursummer vacation.
On today's episode of TopsailInsider, experience a new level
of luxury on Topsail Island atSaltwater Suites in Surf City,
(00:47):
north Carolina.
With no nightly minimum, youcan enjoy short getaways or an
extended stay.
Each suite features luxurybedding, full kitchens with
dining tables and dishwashers,and all suites other than the
three ADA suites have full-sizewashers and dryers.
And don't forget about thosebeautiful ocean views.
(01:07):
24-7.
Self-check-in provides ahassle-free and seamless
experience.
Saltwater Suites is the perfectchoice for your next beach
getaway.
Book your next Topsail visit atsaltwatertopsailcom or call
910-886-4818.
Or call 910-886-4818.
(01:28):
Saltwater Suites TopsailIsland's premier luxury
hospitality experience.
Come on out to Surf City Linefor the best made-from-scratch
beach and bowls on TopsailIsland.
Treat yourself to theirdelicious bowls with shrimp,
steak, fish, chicken or pork, orenjoy their peel-and-eat shrimp
, beach break salads and more.
(01:49):
They offer a full bar servinghandcrafted cocktails,
incredible margaritas and theyproudly serve North Carolina
craft beer.
The line boasts the biggestdeck on the island with three
levels for listening to livemusic, relaxing in the sun, or
head on up to the top deck toenjoy your meal with ocean views
.
Visit SurfCityLineNCcom fortheir full menus.
(02:13):
The best service and beachvibes on the island await you at
2112 North New River Drive.
Whether you're a local orvisiting from out of town,
celebrating a special occasionor just soaking up the sun with
family and friends, it's alwaysa great time at Surf City Line.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Welcome to Topsail Insider.
My name is Trudy Solomon and Iam your host today.
Today we're talking withHouston and Katie Louder.
They are the owners of SurfCity, Jet Ski and Water Sports.
Welcome, Houston and Katie.
Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Hey, thank you for having us.
Speaker 4 (02:50):
What's up?
Glad to be here.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
We have lots of fun activities folks can do around
here during the summer andbeyond, just hanging out on our
beautiful beaches, and we wantto talk today about your
business.
Surf City, jet Ski and WaterSports definitely gets you off
the beach chair and speedingdown our intercoastal waterway.
Obviously, you offer jet skirentals, but what are the other
sport rentals and services youoffer?
Speaker 4 (03:10):
So, yeah, we do jet ski rentals primarily.
However, we do offer guidedtours and guided adventures,
where we take people out and wesee other parts of the waterway
pretty much from here all theway down to Carolina Beach.
We also do stand-uppaddleboarding kayaking, and
we'll be introducing paddleboardyoga this summer as well.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
That's a lot of activity and that's a long
distance too.
I like that.
About what?
A 55-mile round trip for ourlongest two-hour guided ride.
Yep, well, you're located at512 Roland Avenue.
This is where your office andyour docks are both located.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
That's correct.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
How far can folks go away from the dock?
What is the riding area?
Talk about that, because yousaid all the way to Carolina
Beach.
Speaker 4 (03:53):
Well, for our guided rides it really varies.
We can run from Surf City allthe way down to Carolina Beach.
For our freestyle rentals weride between the two bridges of
Topsail, so you have the SurfCity Bridge and the North
Topsail High Rise.
That's a nine mile distance.
You're free to play in thewaterway in your freestyle
rental anywhere in between, aslong as you're staying in the
channel, that's a huge area.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
That is a big area.
Yes, tell me about Surf CityJet Ski business.
How long have you been inbusiness?
Speaker 3 (04:14):
We started Jet Skis in 2011 in Carolina Beach and we
opened up Surf City Jet SkiRentals in 2015.
So we're going on.
Our ninth year We've been inthe business for 14 years.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Right, so two different locations.
So you've been doing jet skislonger than you've been in Surf
City.
Yes, right, all that's locatedright here within the same
general area.
But you're from North Carolina.
You were born and raised hereright.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
Both of us were born and raised in Albemarle, north
Carolina.
It's about an hour east ofCharlotte, that's not coastal?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Nope, not coastal.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
What brought you here ?
Yeah, so I came down to visitmy brother and look for a job.
It stuck, I came down.
It was my first year teaching.
I stayed at home throughcollege, literally at home went
to a hometown college.
So I came down the first yearthat I was a teacher.
I said I'm going to go andspend the summer at the beach,
at Carolina Beach, and same soyou grew up in the same area,
uh-huh, we grew up together.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
You knew each other, uh-huh, and you both ended up in
the same area here.
Yep, but you weren't planningthat together, no.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
So we remained friends all through college,
high school.
He actually took me to highschool.
He's a year older than I was,so just buddies and we
reconnected.
When I moved down here for thesummer I started working for him
, but this was your boss, thatwas it.
This is still my boss.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
We'll just put that out for the public.
That's great.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
That's great.
She moved down for the summerand we kind of rekindled things,
and once I rekindled I guessthere was nothing really to
begin with.
Speaker 3 (05:43):
No, yeah, yeah, I started work.
That was the second year youguys were in business, so I
started working for him and Iwas still a teacher.
So it just kind of worked outand obviously we started dating
that summer.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
I continued working there every summer, there on
after, and now you not only havea business together, you have a
family together and everythingthat's wonderful.
But you've got other adventures, so you have a new business too
, besides the jet skis.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, we have Louder's Furniture now.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
We sell furniture that's not related to the water
sports.
No, never.
How did that happen?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
Oh man, that fell in our lap a little bit.
We've been looking forsomething.
We're selling Carolina BeachJet Ski Rentals to one of our
longest employees, since we livein Surf City now it's just not
feasible to go to Carolina Beachand he wanted to continue, so
he's actually buying it.
We knew we needed somethingelse to supplement losing that
in the future and we went to buysome furniture in Sneeds Ferry.
(06:36):
My last birthday my mom wasgoing to buy us some outdoor
poly furniture.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
And we met Mr Tommy.
Instead of just buying someoutdoor furniture, you bought
the store Pretty much.
I mean that's interesting.
So now you've got these twobusinesses, they obviously have
different clientele, probablydifferent busy seasons.
How is this working?
Speaker 3 (06:55):
It's working.
This will be our first seasonwith both.
So far so good.
Houston has been primarily atthe furniture store right now to
do the deliveries, to unloadthe trucks.
I'm at the jet ski dock Untiljet skis break.
Then that'll flip-flop andhe'll be at the jet ski dock.
But so far so good.
The furniture store really justtriggered us one because we
wanted something that was ours,that we owned.
We own the land.
So you know we're not dealingwith leases and it's not as
(07:18):
insurance-driven, it's not asweather-driven.
It is still pretty seasonal.
We think we definitely havebeen busier with dealing with
rental houses, but it's moreyear round and definitely with
furniture.
We're dealing with locals, withjet skis we mainly deal with
tourists.
So it is completely differentclientele.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
So your jet ski business back to that.
You start.
Tell me your season for that?
Typically Easter to Labor Day.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
So you're ready to go by Easter and you've got that
up and running certainly by nowoh yeah, we're there.
You've done this business foryears and you had two locations
and now you're going down tojust the Surf City location.
Tell me what you do, whatequipment you have, what you do
to prepare for the season.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
We don't, we just guess Such a lot Houston does.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Houston spends all winter I don't what's the
correct term getting the jetskis ready, because we sell them
.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
We redo our jet skis every year.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
We've been doing that for I don't know how many years
.
It took a while to get there,but we've learned that's great
for our business.
So we sell them.
So Houston spends all wintergetting them ready to sell,
getting the new jet skis readythere's things he does to them
to get them ready, getting thedocks ready Just a ton of the
maintenance and mechanical side.
We both spend a lot of time onthe website.
We pour into our website everysingle year.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Well, keeping that updated is important, especially
like you said, you have a lotof tourists, so that's one of
the first places they'll go.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
We drive people to the website.
That's our hub.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
All right.
So the two of you have yourbusinesses.
Tell us about your family.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
We got a little seven-year-old going on 70.
Maverick, that's our littlebuddy.
We had him soon after we gotmarried we both, I think, before
we got married.
And when we got married we didnot know if we wanted kids,
didn't know, it wasn't hard, no,it wasn't hard, yes.
But we decided once we gotmarried well, we'll just see
what happens.
And it happened real quick.
So Maverick came into our lifethe first summer that we opened
(09:08):
Surf City Jet Ski Rentals, I waspregnant, I was working at
Carolina Beach by myself.
Basically, houston was drivingup here from Carolina Beach, and
that was a summer.
Yeah, it was busy.
That was busy.
I was big and pregnant andtired, trying to stay in a good
mood for all your customers.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Yeah, that was tough.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
That was really tough and I swear that was the
hottest summer to the books.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
It probably wasn't but to me it was so where's.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
Maverick now in the picture.
Maverick is at Surf CityElementary.
He loves it.
That's one reason we wanted tobe in Surf City.
We love the community.
So Maverick thinks he is incharge of the jet ski regional
dock.
He actually just what.
Two days ago he was docking jetskis.
He was down there with hishands on his hips waiting on the
customers to get back.
He tells all of his friends atschool that y'all are going to
(09:53):
work for me at Surf City Jet SkiRounds when we get older.
Yeah, we're in trouble.
He is.
He's very bossy and we keepasking.
I wonder where he gets thatfrom.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
Katie, katie.
Okay, if I showed up tomorrowto get a jet ski, I would run
into Maverick.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Most of the time.
So he goes.
He spends know this, being inSur City.
Everybody's a family there.
All the business owners arefriends with each other.
We have each other's back.
So when they started doing thatfull day camp what it's been
three years ago, he's been goingand it's awesome because they
come to Soundside Park to eatlunch.
So like we get to see him, hiscounselors will walk him across
there During the weeks.
(10:32):
He shows up like all of ouremployees are, like his big
brothers and big sisters andsince he's the only child that
really works out, to providethat for him.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I want to talk about your employees just more than
just you two running things.
You've got a lot of good help.
Speaker 3 (10:43):
We have 17 employees right now 17.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
I know the Jet Ski place you're guiding people.
There's a chance for someonemisunderstanding something or
having some kind of trouble.
So I love that you have a lotof good staff, so tell me about
them and what you require.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
Yeah, so that's been a learning curve but we have
been so blessed I don't knowprobably since we opened Surf
City.
The first year was tough but weget all local kids.
We have a few kids who comehere for the summer.
They have beach houses here, sothey've grown up in the summer
and then most of them aretopsoil maybe Dixon and we've
learned that high school andcollege kids are great for our
job because that's when we'reoperating.
(11:19):
So we used to require them tohave jet ski experience, but
we've since then learned that'snot as important because we can
teach them that you pour a lotinto that, we pour a lot into
that.
We need trustworthy, good kids,good, respectable kids, and I
don't know how, but we get them.
Every single kid.
That's worked for us.
I mean, honestly, we becomefamily with them.
(11:39):
We'll have a Christmas partyeven though we haven't been at
work for months.
So we just we require that.
The normal morals.
I guess that's what we need.
If we can get that, we can trainthem into a jet ski employee.
We put them through first aid,cpr certification.
We do it with surf city firedepartment.
They have to have theirboater's license.
Obviously we require that theyhave to do that themselves to
get that.
And then Houston spends tons oftime with them on the water
(12:00):
getting them used to everythingthey need to know.
I'd spend tons of time withthem on the customer facing end
and yeah, it just works.
And we usually have a handfulthat come back throughout high
school and college and workforcein the summers and they take it
serious.
I don't know how we've gottenthem to take it so sick, but
they, they get the seriousnessup.
Yeah, they get that.
They get the seriousness of itas much as fun as it can be.
(12:21):
It is dangerous, it can be, itcan be, and they know that.
You can read our reviews thatwe get every day.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
It's always of how knowledgeable our employees are
we're bragging a little bitabout how well your staff is
trained and ready for what mighthappen each day, but I'm going
to brag a little bit more.
So surf city jet ski wastraveler's choice on trip
advisor for 2021 and 2022 andyou have a lot of great ratings.
(12:50):
You have five star customerratings and you have the largest
riding area in north Carolina,and so you've got a lot of
opportunities out there forpeople to come and have fun, and
you do get brand new jet skisevery year.
Tell us about what's out therenow when people show up.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
So right now we've got Yamaha VX.
We love Yamaha.
You've had.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
Yamaha equipment for years Yep.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, so when I went to MMI MMI is Motorcycle
Mechanics Institute in Orlando Iwas trained on Yamaha products.
They make a good product and webuy new skis every year, so
it's super dependable, reallyreliable for the customer and
for your sake, I think just asmuch.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So when Katie said, when the jet skis start breaking
, you have to come over and fixthem, but yeah, if you have a
new product that probably cutsdown on those headaches and that
would be a problem if a touristwas here and trying to rent and
half their adventure wasdealing with issues.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
That's right, and we don't want issues.
We want a flawless experienceand the customers love it.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
We have customers that come every year and they
love like, oh, what color arethe jet skis going to be this
year?
Oh, do they or do you?
Speaker 2 (13:48):
pick out different colors.
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
Yamaha changes them, so they come out with a new
color.
So, like even us, we getexcited.
What color is it going to bethis year?
Speaker 4 (13:53):
Okay, they're beautiful this year.
Every couple of years theychange the body style and
different colors.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Okay, so you have the old jet skis still.
What do you do with those?
Speaker 4 (14:02):
We sell them individually, okay.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah, do you do that like at the end of the season or
something like that?
Speaker 4 (14:06):
Pretty much.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Pretty much.
But if I bought one and I havetrouble with it, do I get to
call you to come fix it?
No, ma'am, nope, sorry.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I think you've helped us.
You've had some people Idefinitely have, he has.
Speaker 4 (14:21):
But no, and we have so many people actually reaching
out to hey, can you guys workon our jet skis?
Speaker 2 (14:26):
Oh, because there's no apparently there's not, maybe
not, but you do have theexperience.
I love this.
You have the experience withthe equipment.
You give your high school andcollege kids, you give them a
lot of good training and youguys are prepared.
I guess that's the point I wantto make.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
We take it serious, people assume that we don't.
I think Jet Ski Rentals have alittle stigma, but we don't we
take it so serious and I guessbecause we're together and this
is our family business.
Every night we go home and,okay, what happened today?
What can we make better?
Won't it look really good?
What should we capitalize on?
And that we've taken pride inthat.
(15:00):
Like we want to be the best, wewant to be professional.
We are not just this jet skirental people that decided to
buy two jet skis and we're goingto rent them out to you.
We try to stand out fromeveryone else that we are a
legit business.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
That has been here and are going to be here for a
long time.
So what if I'm a tourist who isfrom inland, didn't grow up on
the coast, didn't have a lot ofboating or lake or anything
experience around me?
So I'm coming here and I'venever been on a jet ski?
So I want to help that personright now.
Think about what they're goingto encounter when they arrive.
They have to come over to thedock and then what happens next?
Speaker 4 (15:33):
Yeah, First question can you swim?
They have to come over to thedock and then what happens next?
First question can you swim?
Oh, yep, it's helpful, right,it is helpful.
That's the first one.
And then, once they sign up,they meet requirements, we have
them check a few boxes on ourwebsite to get through that
booking process to make surethat, okay, this is a good thing
, right?
Speaker 3 (15:48):
And that's on the booking screen for them, so
there's no surprises.
Let me ask this.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
If there's no surprises, Let me ask this If
someone wanted to walk up andwanted to get a jet ski, it's
probably you guys stay so busy,you might be booked.
So it's best for people to goto the website first.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
It's definitely best to book.
When the heat of the summerhits, there's a good chance we
don't have any skis sitting onthe dock.
Being in the middle of town, wehave people constantly walk up.
Hey, that takes out human errorthat they can see it.
And here it is because thereare requirements.
You know you've got to swim,even though you have a life
(16:21):
jacket on.
That's what we explain topeople.
You've got to swim becauseyou're scared of the water.
If you can't swim and thatpresents an issue.
You've got to be 18, obviouslyto rent the jet ski because
you're signing legal bindingdocuments.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
So they've been on the website and checked some
boxes and they've show upChecked some boxes, that's about
it.
That's it Checked some boxesand you're going to show up and
you're going to be there a lotof time, and then what happens?
Speaker 4 (16:40):
Yeah, yeah, once we get them checked in, make sure
all the waivers are finishedproperly.
Speaker 3 (16:44):
Check IDs, all the things.
Speaker 4 (16:45):
We actually spent a lot of time making a orientation
video that's very basic and itends I don't want to say
complicated, but very thorough,so that anyone from anywhere can
, within watching that 10-minutevideo, they're going to have a
really good understanding of howto operate safely, navigate the
(17:08):
waterway safely.
Those two things are those arethe two things.
So it's a 10-minute video.
Everyone sits down and watchesit and they also also go through
, or they have a safetychecklist that they follow along
with that, and there's a coupleof questions at the end that
just kind of trigger your braininto reverse thinking on what
should I do in this situation?
What should I do in thatsituation?
That kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
Yeah, we give them a quiz.
We've been doing the quiz forwhat?
Two or three years?
We've done that safetychecklist for as long as I can
remember, but we turned it intoa video years ago and I revamped
the video last year.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
That's a good idea.
People are very visual.
They are, and it has.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
Like I mean we have actual video of the jet skis in
the map.
We actually had one of thewildlife officers, I think from
Carolina Beach, saw it not solong ago.
He's like can I have this togive to all the rentals?
And I was like absolutely notproprietary, we worked too hard.
We did, we worked really hardon it and um sure that, like I I
tell people a lot of times, ourrenters sometimes are more
(18:02):
knowledgeable than some ofpeople that are not renting on
the water because we give themso much information before they
go out.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
And it's fresh on the brain they didn't learn it five
years ago, when they tookonline test?
They learned it five minutesbefore they got on the jet ski.
Okay, okay they.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Okay, they've gone through the video and the safety
and all that.
They're on their jet ski, sothere's a few options that y'all
provide for getting out andgoing.
You said bridge to bridgeearlier, so that's from the Surf
City Bridge to the NorthTopsail Bridge.
That's right.
That's the nine mile stretch,nine miles in between.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
For the freestyle, yeah, freestyle, okay, and
that's.
Is that your most common?
That's our most common.
One hour Most people want to gofor an hour.
Speaker 4 (18:35):
And you get to cruise at your own speed, your own
pace, and we have employees thatare on the water as guides.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
You don't have to follow them, but they're out
there making sure that you'rebeing safe, making sure that
other boaters and jet skiersaren't being unsafe, but to help
you.
There's constant contact on thewater.
That way, you can do what youfeel safe doing.
But talk about beyond thatthough, If you did something
different from bridge to bridgeGuided ride.
So the guided ride is that youhave to follow one of us because
(19:02):
we're taking you outside of ourriding area and definitely for
all the locals they understandwhen you start heading south.
Sandbars are horrible.
They change every year, butthere's definitely more scenery.
So when you go on the guidedride, we're going a little
further.
You get to see a lot more.
We can take you into the ocean.
That's a big thing, yeah tellme about that.
So, like today actually we're at5 o'clock we are taking our
employees out on the boat andjet skis, heading to Lee Island
(19:24):
so that they can play in theocean and get some good pictures
, and we try to do that a fewtimes during the summer.
That's our team bonding.
But riding in the ocean is thefun stuff.
If you want to jump the waves,go in the ocean and play.
But you got to be with usbecause that can obviously get
dangerous if you fall off thejet ski in the inlet.
You got to know how to navigateit.
So that's what the guided rideis.
We actually tell people for theguided rides.
(19:45):
You need to be experienced togo on the guided rides because
we're going further and fasterit shouldn't be your very first
time ever on the water.
Speaker 4 (19:52):
At that point, we ask people if it is your very first
time ever on the water.
At that point, we ask people ifit is your very first time ever
on the water with a ski.
We want you to do the freestyle.
That way you can cruise and getthe feel for it at your own
speed and pace and some peoplearen't comfortable with going on
a whole big trip and it wearsthem out.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
So tell me about speed.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
They can go as fast as the jet ski can go, okay.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Which is.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Which is roughly around 50.
50?
Yeah, 50 to 55.
It really depends on the riderthe rider weight, the water, the
water conditions.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
The wind, the weather .
Yeah, that's right, and that'sfast.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
That is fast, that's fast.
There are jet skis that gofaster, but that is not safe.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I was going to ask that I, but that is not safe.
I was going to ask that I'mjust curious my own knowledge, I
didn't know how fast a jet skiwill go Faster than you'd ever
be comfortable with.
Speaker 3 (20:37):
You know, and on calm lakes, that's fine.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
We took some to calm lakes and I was even like nope,
we're good, let's back it ondown.
Okay, yeah, well, good, so Ilove and well care of.
So, like we said, a good placeto start is to go to the website
which issurfcityjetskirentalscom.
Go there and find outinformation about your rentals
availability and your pricing,because you can make a
reservation directly on thewebsite.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
All of our reservations are on our website.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
Someone was vacationing sometime this summer
and they already have theirvacation dates figured.
How you encourage them to book.
That Is a week in advanceenough time, definitely,
definitely.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
We have people that book.
You know they book theirreservation and they go ahead
and book once we're open.
But as long as you book like ifyou get down here on Saturday,
like most of them do, and youbook Saturday, sunday, monday
you're going to be able to pickwhat time you want.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
What do you do about bad weather days?
Speaker 3 (21:28):
Bad weather days are bad weather days.
We Go home and take a nap.
Speaker 4 (21:31):
Basically, we don, basically we don't see those
days often.
Speaker 3 (21:33):
no, we really don't we don't get many rain out days
anymore.
I feel like we used to.
We used to get like two or threedays and they were the best
because that was just us two wedidn't have employees yeah, we
were seven days a week, but no,if it's bad weather basically
what we tell people if at thetime of your reservation it's
bad weather, we're going toreschedule you or cancel you and
refund you.
We tell people please do notworry about the weather, book it
(21:54):
, we'll deal with it then,because at the beach it rains
for five minutes and then it'sbeautiful.
We really do our best to workwith people.
We tell a lot of people don'twait until the last day of
vacation to come, because Ican't tell you the amount of
times it rains on Friday andthey're so broken hearted that
they didn't get to go jet skiingbecause they don't have any
more time to reschedule.
No-transcript, I promise you,book it, we'll deal with it.
(22:21):
We'll move you, we'll cancelyou.
Whatever we got to do, we'regoing to make it the best for
you.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:37):
So you said you has to be there, has to do the
paperwork, has to rent it forthem.
14 and 15-year-olds can drivewith an adult on board.
I think it's a learning tool.
I think it's giving these kidssome responsibility when they're
out on the water.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Oh, to put them on the front.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, Now the adult on the 14 and 15-year-olds.
The adult has to be on the jetski with them, but they actually
can operate and I think it'sawesome.
We've watched kids grow up onthe jet ski dock that have been
coming to us since they werelittle and they're 14, they get
there and they're like we get todrive, and then when they're 16
, they're there, they're givingme their ID.
I don't even have to ask for itbecause they are taking their
own jet ski age.
Speaker 2 (23:11):
What's some other important things that y'all want
to tell people right now.
Speaker 4 (23:15):
Just do it Go.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
It's fun.
The important thing thatHouston wants everybody to know
is just go do it.
It's fun, it is.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
We have people tell us every day this is the
highlight of our vacation.
Yes, it overwhelms peoplebecause we do have so many rules
in place.
That's okay.
We've gotten that feedback froma few people.
Y'all got a lot of rules.
Well, we got to take care ofyou.
How much fun are you going tohave when you come out here and
damage a jet ski or get hurtbecause you didn't listen and
you didn't have rules?
Not that you didn't listen,it's because you didn't have
rules.
Speaker 2 (23:42):
If you have people with large parties, how many
people could go together?
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Typically we cap it at eight jet skis in at a time,
okay, but for one party thateverybody knows each other, that
gets to be a lot.
Everybody's out there together,but we can accommodate.
Speaker 4 (24:01):
We do a lot of group outings with tours.
That way we can all go down, wecan check out Lee Island or go
down to Figure 8 in one of theinlets and we can pull the jet
skis up to the beach and hop off, take a swim break.
Everyone gets a good photo opand hang tight for a few minutes
.
And we do a shark toothadventure with a lot of groups.
That's a good one.
We go down and we look forshark's teeth on one of the
(24:24):
barrier islands, so that'salways a very popular one for
the groups.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
So how much time does some of those adventures last?
That's a two-hour shark tooth.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
That's a two-hour shark too.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
That's a two-hour, and we tell people as quick as
you can get to Lee Island, we goto Lee Island.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Yeah, so typically they take 30 minutes to drive
down there and then 30 to 45minutes walk in the island and
then come back.
So you get a little bit of bothyou get to explore, but you
also get to ride the jet ski.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
You probably have like a half-day adventure with
your friends or family orwhatever, because you should at
minimum 30 minutes early,because that is where we're
doing the training.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Okay, and we are serious about that training.
Those 30 minutes are for us.
Yeah, they're mandatory.
So if you get there late,you're still going to stand
there with us for that timeframe to get your training in.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Okay, so we have talked a lot about jet skis.
Maybe that's just becausethat's not a thing that I've
done a lot of and it sounds likea lot of fun to do with family
and friends.
But let's talk about.
You mentioned kayaking andpaddle boarding.
They're very popular in ourarea, so tell us what folks need
to know about these things.
Speaker 4 (25:18):
Yep.
So with our location, we'reliterally just 100 yards from
the marsh, and so we can sendpeople straight out from our
dock to calm waters that havevery little current and it's
also a little bit protected bythe wind.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
And not be encountering boats and other
things yeah.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
That's the biggest thing, honestly, and you can
take it to the intercoastal ifyou would like.
Speaker 4 (25:40):
So, tell me about ages and groups and things for
those we recommend for solo onthe paddle sports to be eight
years old, that strength factorthere.
Speaker 3 (25:48):
We're flexible on that, like our seven-year-old
does both of them, and he'sperfectly fine.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Well, it's not like they can show you an ID and tell
you that they're eight versusseven.
Yeah, and that's the thing.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
That's a recommendation, the paddle
sports are the laid-back thingsthat we offer Basically there's
not a ton of requirements, butyou provide life vests, yes,
ma'am.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
And what about some people if they did fall off
their board and they're in somemoisture shells or whatever like
they?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
need to.
They do have to wear shoes onour paddle sports some type of
shoes, because you are going tobe in oyster beds and we prepare
them for that and we kind oftell them too.
If you're going and you startfeeling the bottom, you should
probably back on out of thatarea.
Speaker 2 (26:22):
So how much?
Speaker 3 (26:22):
time do people plan for that?
Two, I'd say, is our bestseller.
We have some people gettingkayaks for longer, but mostly
two hours for both of those.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
A lot of early mornings and a lot of late
afternoon rentals on thosePeople just take a little cooler
, yeah, we provide coolers.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
We have coolers and we've got the ice at the fish
market, so you know we'll sendthem with what they want.
They can fish off the kayaks ifthey'd like to, and we've had
some success this year withkayaks, our third year with
paddle boards and now we'regonna do paddleboard yoga, yeah,
and now we're teaching that.
Who's houston teaching, not us?
lead yoga instructor right hereso I've made a lot of friends at
(26:55):
the elementary school throughmaverick I guess that's a mom
thing, right?
Yes, so one of my girlfriendsher name is katie she is a yoga
instructor in surf city and sheactually was like, hey, I didn't
realize y'all had so manypaddle boards and they're right
there.
We're meeting her today to getthe kinks worked out and get it
rolling.
So we're going to be offeringit.
I think now she's going to dolike an early morning session
and then like a sunset sessionfor now.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
That'd be great.
There'll be a lot of groupsthat take advantage of that.
I think so too.
So you guys have been togetherfor a lot these years.
I know you have a lot of goodstories to share yeah, we do and
so tell us something that'skind of fun to talk about we
rode off on a jet ski at ourwedding, did you really yeah?
(27:37):
I have a picture in my weddingdress.
He was in his tux In yourbridal attire.
Yeah, jet skis were part of ourwedding.
Now, has anybody booked yourjet ski business to do that for
their own wedding?
No, they have not.
Speaker 3 (27:47):
No, we have not offered that you need to
advertise that we are thegetaway service that we did,
like Mavericks Gender Reveal, atour jet ski dock when I was
pregnant.
That's where.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
I fell in love with Houston at the jet ski dock.
So that is our life.
Yeah, it's a big part of yourlife.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Moments we like watching people grow up.
People grow up.
We've definitely got to watchkids grow up, whether it's
customers.
We also get to watch ouremployees grow up out there.
So that's always fun becausesome of them start working for
us when they're freshmen orsophomores in high school and
then we get to watch themthrough high school and college.
So that's one of my biggestparts.
And then just watching theyoung kids that come and I see
them each year and then theycome and then they get to drive
(28:22):
this year.
That's fun.
That's my favorite part ismeeting the people.
We've met some awesome peopleat the Jet Ski Doc that we are,
still, to this day, friends withFacebook friends.
We keep up with each other allyear.
They come to see us.
That's my favorite part aboutthe Jet Ski Rental business.
Everybody's happy.
Typically when they come to usyou get a few that aren't, but
everybody's happy.
We get to make friends and havefun together.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
Well being out on the water is something that do in
your everyday life.
No, we take that for grantedhere.
We do.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
We do, but we get people this.
I've had people come to me intears.
They tell me that this was alife changer for me and they
compliment how good I in Houstonand our employees were to them
for being so calm with us.
We've had some autisticchildren, some disability.
We do what we can.
Didn't we have two grown menthat were deaf.
Well, we took the time to helpthem and I think they came back
(29:10):
once or twice and really gotthem out there.
That was a big moment becauseyou could just see it in their
face.
Those are definitely thehighlights.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
One of my most memorable times just riding jet
skis and doing a tour.
We were at Carolina Beach andwe went out through the inlet.
We're just having a nice ridedown the beach and there's this
big black thing in the water.
Speaker 3 (29:30):
We thought it was a flip-flopper jet ski.
Speaker 4 (29:32):
Yeah, this big black thing, and it was floating just
on the surface and I was like,man, it's like a jet ski that's
flipped over upside down, oh wow.
So you could only see thebottom of the hole and I'm
getting closer and closer andcloser and it's moving.
It's a turtle, it was a seaturtle.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
It was a leatherback, it was.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Oh, a leatherback.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Yeah, so leatherback turtles are the largest sea
turtle species.
They can be up to 900 pounds.
Speaker 4 (29:55):
This thing was huge.
I've never seen anything likeit.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Where were you In Carolina Beach?
Speaker 4 (29:59):
Emma.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Carolina Beach.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
They do swim here I mean they nest in North Carolina
too, but not often.
Speaker 4 (30:03):
150 or 250 yards off the beach.
So I was like dang, that's soawesome and he didn't care, we
didn't get close to him.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
I had him on GoPro video, which has since been lost
, and so we kept riding.
Speaker 4 (30:14):
And then there was another one, oh wow, and there
was another one.
We ended up seeing like five orsix of them.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
That's insane.
Speaker 4 (30:20):
It's just huge.
Once in a while it's.
I think I've seen it four timessince I've been on the water
starting in 2011.
Stingrays, the big ones, thebig ones that jump out of the
water.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
They jump right beside you on the jet ski.
Speaker 4 (30:32):
And keep going.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
So when you are out on the jet skis, do you have a
lot of good experiences withyour riders getting to see
dolphin?
Oh gosh.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Dolphins are.
Very often there's no rhyme orreason, so we can't tell you.
Hey, this is how or where.
But most everybody came backand was like we saw dolphins.
I was like, good, that's freeof charge.
So just y'all know.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
No extra charge for that.
No, they see dolphins so often.
I think that would be one ofthe biggest reasons to go out
there on the waterway.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
I really do, and typically the dolphins are not
scared.
They ride with you.
You definitely get to see tonsof wildlife and the tours I
think that's why the guidedrides you're going so much
further.
You just got such a betterchance of seeing so much more
wildlife.
Speaker 2 (31:10):
I appreciate that about y'all's business about
giving people a chance to getout and see the wildlife.
I think it gives them a betterappreciation for what we're
trying to protect up here, so Ido like that.
However, people can see itwhether it's playing in the
ocean or out on the jet ski.
That's wonderful.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
I'm excited about your new adventure with your
furniture store and I can't waitto hear some of the future
stories that come out with that,helping families or set up
their beach houses or rentalbusinesses.
I'm sure keep you busy.
Speaker 3 (31:40):
How's that going so far?
It's going really well.
It's going better than weexpected.
We opened fully in February.
What are your hours?
Tuesday through Friday 10 to 5.
Saturday 10 to 2.
We promised we would not openanother business open on Sundays
.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
With the water sports business.
It's a very small window thatwe have to be open for the
summer to create revenue.
So being open on Sundays is parfor the course on that and we
don't like it, but we have tomake revenue for it.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
The furniture store we decided would not be.
What changes did you make tothe furniture store?
So Houston spent all winter webought in November.
He spent all winter remodelingthe store.
It basically was an old automechanic shop.
It was a furniture store, buthe spent all winter revamping
that.
We sell Ashley furniture rightnow we sell Furniture of America
New Classic and we have threeor four poly vendors for outside
(32:26):
Amish-made poly vendors, so wesell both.
A lot of people don't know thatwe have indoor furniture because
you ride by and you just seeall this outdoor furniture.
So we have picked up and westill constantly, every day I'm
on there trying to find the nextnewest vendor that we can bring
on, and we're really wanting tobe affordable.
We are not interior designers,that's not us.
We're a furniture store.
You come, you need a couch Okay, we've got a couch you can take
(32:48):
home.
You need a mattress?
We got one of those too andwe're really trying to be that
middle of the road furniturestore with reasonable prices but
great products.
So that's, we're spending a lotof time.
I'm pretty sure I've marketresearched everything, because
I've changed every piece offurniture in my house since we
bought it.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Oh, you've tried it out, that's what.
Speaker 3 (33:03):
I, I'm trying it out for everybody.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
That sounds like a great plan, Petey.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
We'll never turn a profit.
Speaker 3 (33:11):
But we'll have new furniture.
Speaker 4 (33:12):
That's right.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
No, I will I understand, it would be hard for
me to sell something that Icouldn't speak to personally.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
That's right.
Especially if it wasn't anindustry I grew up knowing and
learning, that's right, I canunderstand that I have faith
we'll figure it out, because wealways do that's right, that's
right.
Speaker 4 (33:28):
So I can understand that I have faith we'll figure
it out, because we always do.
In 14 years we'll be talkingabout the furniture store.
Speaker 3 (33:31):
That's what I was just thinking, well, this is
something to like.
This will be Mavericks, notthat the jet skis won't be, but
like we own this, this is his.
His name's on it.
That was a big thing for usMavericks name.
We were going, his last name islouder, that's him.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Well, what are some final thoughts?
I mean, we're finishing up here, but what do you want the
listeners to know about you oryour companies?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
We are a small business.
When people come to any of thesmall businesses, you are
providing for a local family.
I love the write-ups where yousay you're buying the ballet
shoes for the little girl goingto ballet.
That is definitely what we are.
Jet skis have put food on ourtable for 14 years.
We have worked very hard forwhat we have.
I like to tell people, not thatour parents did not provide for
us, because they did, we didn'tgo without but what Houston and
(34:21):
I have is from what Houston andI have done.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
We have started from the bottom and you're here to
stay for a while we are here.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
This is home.
Surf City is home to us.
Maverick goes to school here.
This is where all his friendsare.
We went to church on the beachSunday and here come three or
four of his little friendswalking up.
Like this is our community,with Surf City, jet Ski Runnels.
We are here to providesomething fun for the tourists
and locals to do and withLouder's Furn, our goal is to be
the business that people cantrust, because they know Houston
(34:48):
and I.
They trust us and we're here tobe a part of the community.
Houston has to dial me inbecause somebody's like, hey, we
need this for school or for thecommunity.
I'm like, okay, here.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
I want to give back to the community because they've
given so much to us.
Speaker 3 (34:59):
And that's important.
I want people to know that whenyou're giving to a small
business, you're, in turn,putting money right back into
that community that you love.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
I've seen y'all do a lot for the community.
I value that too, especiallylike when we have families who
are living here and we have kidsand we do think about what the
future of this area will looklike for our children and what
advantages and opportunitiesthey'll have.
So that's good.
I love that You've beeninstrumental in supporting the
schools and the churches andlots of nonprofits, teaming up
with other local business owners.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
I think that's the beauty of Surf City All the
business owners have eachother's backs.
That's true.
We all have the common goal andwe support each other.
I love that more than anything.
We didn't have that in CarolinaBeach, not to speak negatively,
but Surf City has it.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
Does the furniture store have a?
Speaker 3 (35:41):
website too.
It does.
I've gone a little crazy thelast couple weeks over that
website, but same thing we wantthe website to be the place
Everybody shops online.
We obviously want you to comein the store, but I want you to
be able to sit on your couch atnight and get on our website and
see what I have in my storewhich is on there.
We have our in-stock pages andyou also can shop all of the
thousands of products that wecan order and get in quickly.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
So tell us that.
Tell us where to find the jetski stuff.
Tell us the websites.
Tell us if anybody's out thereand just listen to this and
doesn't have pen and paper,where can they locate you the
easiest?
Speaker 3 (36:13):
So for the jet skis, honestly it's as simple as
Googling jet ski rentals in SurfCity or Surf City Jet Ski
Rentals is our name, so that'sgoing to come up.
We are surfcityjetskirentalscom.
You'll find our website.
You'll find our Yelp.
Everything Louder's Furniturewe are working on and I hope in
the next couple years it'll bejust as visible online as Surf
City Jet Screens.
It's already great.
But loudersfurniturecom Spelllouder's for me.
(36:35):
L-o-w-d-e-r-s furniturecomPerfect.
That's a Stanley County namebecause nobody knows it here we
go home and everybody knows itlouder at home.
We get loader loaders.
Oh, you're the loaders.
Okay, but yeah, if you googlefurniture stores, sneeds fairy,
we should pop up.
We've worked really hard onthat already in the last couple
months.
But yes, our website, we workreally hard.
(36:56):
Social media is not the bestbecause we're not good at it,
but we're trying yeah, you cankeep up with socials.
Speaker 4 (37:02):
We um try to post what we're doing we do like a
daily deal from the furniturestore and try to move some stuff
at like crazy low prices.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
I've seen some references though other
businesses around town who'vemaybe had your poly furniture
sitting outside and there's asign saying you know it was from
you and has a QR code andthings like that.
That's a good way to get out,get your name out there too.
So I hope we've given people achance to know what you offer
and, like I said, they're twototally different businesses,
but I can understand the rhythmof it all and just the desire
(37:35):
and capacity to do this as afamily.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
Yeah, I think that's our biggest thing.
Even if we're at work, we'retypically together.
So, maverick's with us, we'retogether.
That's our biggest goal.
I don't With us, we're together.
That's our biggest goal.
If I'm going to spend time atwork, I'm not going to be
without my family.
So even at night I have somehard times where I'm like, oh my
gosh, we're working every day.
But then I try to put it inrespect of we're together and
that is what matters.
Speaker 2 (37:57):
Well, thank you for being here.
I thank all the listeners forjoining us today.
Katie in Houston, thank you forbeing part of Topsail Insider
and telling us all about SurfCity, Jet Ski and Water Sports
and Louders Furniture Thank youfor having us.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
This was fun.
Yeah, thanks for having us Goodtime.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode of Topsel
Insider, please show yoursupport by clicking the follow
or subscribe button on yourfavorite podcast listening
platform.
You can also follow us onFacebook, instagram, twitter and
YouTube.
Please also go toTopselInsidercom and join our
mailing list by clicking on theMake Me a Topsoul Insider button
(38:32):
.
While you're there, you canclick the Send Me a Voicemail
button and let me know exactlywhat you're thinking your
message just might be on anepisode of Topsoul Insider.
You can email me at krista attopsoulinsidercom, or call or
text me at 910-800-0111.
Thank you for listening andsupporting Topsail Insider and
(38:53):
our local businesses andnonprofits.
These are our neighbors and ourfriends, and together we build
a mighty and a beautifulcommunity I'm super proud to be
a part of.
I'll see you around Topsail.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.