Lawrencetown Surf Co.
Building surf community strength, relationships, and knowledge.
Like most surfers in Canada, I grew up in a place with no surfing industry and where most people figured stuff out on their own.
Boards were in short supply, wetsuit selections were nil, knowledge and mentorship was hard to come by. People got by with handmedowns, road trips to the states for gear and eventually a few shops came and went as well. Lots of respect goes out to the surfers and shops who came before me and my relatively short 25 year surfing life. Surfing in Nova Scotia has been around since the 60s!
Being from a place where most surfers have never seen a raw blank, I eventually found myself with a professional surfing career, with Kelly's number in my phone, in long road trip conversations with Dane Reynolds and Sally Fitz or drinking Chilean wine listening to Ramon Navaro describe the differences in his 10'0s*. Fifteen years of travel, a decade of professional surfing contracts with companies like Quiksilver, wetsuits meetings, factory tours etc all accumulated to me feeling obviously very lucky but most importantly holding knowledge that I wanted to pass along to my surfing community in Canada.
A surf shop was always a thought in the back of my mind but the confidence to actually open one came from overwhelming community support. The surfers I respected most wanted a shop and they thought I should be the person to do it, and that was all I needed to hear.
This shop is meant to be a facilitator of community, conversation, and a meeting ground for knowledgeable guests. It's a shop with an extensive range of top quality gear, a place to compare fins or put a couple boards up on the rack and compare rocker profiles. To do this we needed a space that didn't currently exist.
So, Lawrencetown Surf Co. was registered and moved into 3733 Lawrencetown Rd. An authentic surf shop with a shaping bay on site, a legit selection of boards and wetsuits and an attitude that if we don't use a product ourselves, we won't sell it.
Hopefully see you in the shop,
Nico Manos
*name dropping is pretty lame, just helpful for the story =)
