Surf brand goes online
ONE of the Gold Coast’s original surf brands has become the latest to move out of Burleigh Heads.
After more than 40 years in the beachside suburb, Hot Stuff Surfboards is “quitting while they’re ahead” and closing up their shop at the Gold Coast Hwy base.
Owner Catriona NobleHallas said the changing face of retail businesses, high rents and paid parking had caused the brand her husband Paul Hallas kicked off in 1976 to move out of Burleigh Heads to operate online.
“Sometimes you have to quit while you’re ahead,” she said. “But we’ve been in Burleigh Heads for more than 40 years, the original shop used to be near the current McDonald’s.
“We’re just a bit tired, it’s time to go and get a life I think. Big corporates are coming in (to Burleigh) and I think that’s the face of retail at the moment.”
Rival shop Mt Woodgee last year pulled out of the suburb credited with producing Billabong to expand their showroom at Currumbin.
Ms Noble-Hallas said Burleigh Heads had become more of a night time economy.
“It’s a sad state of affairs really, Burleigh was such a gorgeous little village. The rate it’s all going it’s losing that village feel,” she said.
“Burleigh’s turned into the place to be, it’s more about the cafes and the night-life and the bars, more into that sort of thing.”
She said the shop’s closing down sale was a “happy ending” which would allow her to focus on a House of Hot Stuff documentary detailing the brand’s history with a release date expected next year.
“Surfing culture has just grown bigger and bigger, that’s why I’m making this film,” she said.
“Hot Stuff, Billabong and Rip Curl all started in their separate fields, Quiksilver and Rip Curl doing wetsuits, and Billabong doing boardshorts, now it’s all a corporate crunching machine, half the people who wear surf gear don’t even surf.”