In California, Entrepreneurs Make Surfing Happen During Pandemic

(Bloomberg) -- (Editor’s note: This is the second in our “Stories of Summer” exploring the impact of Covid-19 on the global economy, telling the larger story of a once-in-a-multi-generational crisis through the voices of individuals and small businesses. For more, see  {NI TICTOC BLC } on the Bloomberg terminal, visit @QuickTake on Twitter and see the YouTube playlist.)

Situated 100 miles north of Los Angeles, Santa Barbara delivers some of the best tourist attractions California has to offer: wine tasting, sunny beaches, Spanish-style architecture and, of course, surfing.

This summer, the Covid-19 pandemic has altered or put on hold many of the city’s most popular attractions, threatening an economy  that attracts an estimated $1.9 billion of tourism spending annually, according to a Visit Santa Barbara report. Outdoor camps and surf schools that cater to large groups and rely on shared equipment — neither of which bode well in a coronavirus economy — have been particularly affected.

At Surf Happens, a Santa Barbara surf school owned by Chris and Jenny Keet, the pandemic initially caused a complete stop in business. A majority of their summer-camp registrations — which usually come in the spring — didn’t happen this year because of uncertainty about virus outbreaks. As a result, the couple initially saw their lowest enrollment interest in 20 years.

“The biggest challenge we’re facing right now is the unknown,” said Jenny Keet, 35. “We don’t know how our surf school and its old model is going to fit into the way things change in the coming months.”

In Santa Barbara County, small-business revenues fell 27% from January to June, compared with a drop of 16.8% in California and 16.7% nationwide, according to data from Opportunity Insights, a Harvard University research lab. Further, job losses Santa Barbara’s arts, entertainment and recreation industry plunged 48.7% in May 2020 from a year earlier, the biggest decline after clothing stores, according to California’s Economic Development Department.

Funding Support

Despite being in an industry hit hard by the pandemic, the Keets have made every effort to stay afloat. After countless hours of applications and six weeks of waiting, they obtained a total of $190,000 in short-term funding through a Paycheck Protection Program loan and an Economic Injury Disaster Loan -- enough to allow them to retain some employees and start to adapt their business model.

Since many Santa Barbara beaches have remained open through the pandemic, the Keets have been making surfing tutorial videos and teaching one-on-one, socially distant lessons to bring in some income. And now that Santa Barbara County is in the third phase of its reopening plan, which allows summer camps to operate, Surf Happens has started to run programs at 75% capacity.

The surf school has implemented precautions such as small camp sizes, surfboard and wetsuit sanitation, games that allow for social distancing and mask-wearing in order to meet guidelines. Chris Keet, 45, says camps have now been filled for each week in the season thus far and a long waiting list, with business not too far below that of a normal summer.

“The biggest thing that small businesses or any business is facing right now is changing the way that they did business in the past to something to meet this new challenge,” Chris Keet said.

Still, concerns about the future of the coronavirus remain. California saw a record number of new confirmed cases on June 30, and Santa Barbara cases have climbed to records since May 12, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. On June 28, California Governor Gavin Newsom recommended Santa Barbara, among eight other counties, close bars due to the rising spread.

“We don’t know how things are going to change, we don’t know if our current business model is going to be sustainable, and that can be really scary,” Jenny Keet said. “But we’ve chosen to ride this wave.”

Another major obstacle for the Keets has been finding a balance between running their business while also homeschooling their two sons — Jack, 7, and Maddox, 9.

The boys' sentiment about being stuck at home is captured by a song and keyboard jingle written by Jack:

I just wanna go outside and play with my friends

I can't wait till this pandemic ends.

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