Warm weather lures paddleboard manufacturer to Boynton
“In Wisconsin, you can only use the boards three, four months out of the year.”
Marco Caporaso, Surfis Inc. president
the lure of year-round warm weather, a manufacturer of stand-up paddleboards has moved its headquarters to Boynton Beach from Wisconsin.
Surfis Inc. is now operating out of a 7,500-square-foot warehouse at 1914 Corporate Drive. Workers are painting the soon-to-be opened showroom.
The company is starting with six employees and plans to hire 12 within its first year of operation.
Surfis started in 2013 when its parent company, Abatron, based in Kenosha, Wis., began experimenting with a new round of resins to make high-quality building restoration products.
At the request of friends in Key West, President and co-founder Marco Caporaso, a chemist, said he experimented with resin to make a paddleboard. The finished product brought raves from the friends, and Caporaso said he began making more.
“One thing led to another,” he said. “We realized there was a huge market potential” as paddleboarding grew.
The sport is still young with a trade organization, the Stand Up Paddle Industry Association, started only in 2010. But other paddleboarding companies have begun operating in South Florida as the sport spread here. Titan Paddles, for one, got a boost last January when JP Morgan Chase announced that the Dania Beach company was one of 20 from around the nation that won $150,000 grants to im Feeling prove their businesses.
Surfis’ Caporaso thinks his own company will grow in South Florida, selling and making its trademark Whaleback standup paddleboards.
“This is a much better location,” Caporaso said, with Surfis able to test its new paddleboard creations yearround.
Plus, there’s a bigger market for the growing stand-up paddleboarding sport, he said.
“In Wisconsin, you can only use the boards three, four months out of the year, Caporaso said. “We are excited to have found a home here.”
Boynton Beach City Manager Lori LaVerriere said the
company will fit into her city.
“As a manufacturer of stand-up paddleboards, Surfis will augment the water activities that are currently offered along our Intracoastal Waterway and beachfront,” she said in a news release. “The demographics that utilize Surfis outdoor gear and sporting goods align well with our target markets.”
Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, said, “With plenty of waterfront access and with a population that loves water activities, Palm Beach County is the perfect location for this growing company.”
The board helped Surfis move by providing real estate information, conducting site tours, offering employee recruitment assistance through Career-Source Palm Beach County and establishing connections with industry leaders and government officials. Surfis received no financial incentives to move to Boynton Beach, said Elizabeth Arevalo, a spokeswoman for the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County.
Christopher Thomson with Cushman & Wakefield brokered the transaction.