Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Arechaederra.
Chris, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Creating a fishing charter business had always been a dream of mine, but I never thought it would happen this fast. And I had never thought it would be this successful so soon. I started working on my grandparents’ boat since the age of about 12, spending almost every summer up in Oxnard, CA. We fished, worked, polished chrome, fiberglass, everything. I did that for years and years. Then graduated from San Diego State University in 2013 and was trying to figure out what to do as a career. I spent a year trying to figure it out, working a couple different jobs and I finally realized that small business was my calling.
I started a small online marketing firm for small businesses, managing and building social media pages, doing web design, graphics, campaigns, and small projects for local and small businesses in and around San Diego. All while working full-time for a PR firm in Los Angeles. After a few years, I came to realize that I liked my job, but I wasn’t in love with it. I wanted a change, and small business was always my goal, and fishing was just a hobby at that point. I decided to combine the two, and take a leap and jump back into my childhood goal of creating a charter business down in San Diego. San Diego will always be my home, and so I picked up everything, took a big gamble, bought my boat and never looked back.
Today, I’m super stoked, and even more grateful to be part of Fisherman’s Landing in Point Loma, becoming their 6-pack charter boat within our first year of operation. In the span of 5 months, we ran about 60 charters throughout the 2017 fishing season, and now we’re ready to double our business in 2018. Eventually down the road, I’d really like to get into Long-Range fishing and break into that market so we can be fishing almost year-round.
Fishing and small business are two of my favorite passions in my life, and I’ve been lucky enough to meet the right people along the way, and somehow combine the two to live out a big dream of mine.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
With any small business, there will always be bumps in the road. And we’re certainly no different. The beauty about small businesses is that it’s 100% on your shoulders. You’re responsible for your failures just as much as for your success. If the bills don’t get paid, it’s on you and nobody else.
With us being a fishing charter business, it’s even more stressful because of our main asset: the boat. There’s always something to do on a boat, there’s always something to fix, and there’s always a project that you’re doing or that you need to do. There’s a never-ending list of things to do. But I think that’s why I like this business so much because I consider myself to be a productive person, and I always need to be doing something.
We’ve had our share of troubles, whether it be financial, mechanical, crew members, or when fishing is bad, you name it. It’s still a pretty new business, and we’re still fine-tuning the business aspect of it as we continue towards the season. But honestly, our problems are all worth the stress because we get to fish for a living at the end of the day.
Please tell us about Black Diamond Sportfishing.
We are a relatively new fishing charter business in Point Loma. I own and operate a 6-pack charter boat out of Fisherman’s Landing called the Black Diamond. We take people who charter our boat out fishing for any kind of trip from a 1/2 day local trip, all the way up to a 3 day trip out to the tuna grounds down off the coast of Mexico. We’ve been around since 2016, and we’re super stoked to be in business in one of the Sportfishing capitals on the planet.
Our boat is a 48′ Egg Harbor Sportfishing Yacht. Over the past 18 months or so, we’ve been re-investing a lot of our profits back into the boat to upgrade a lot of the systems, accommodations and overall experience for our customers. We’re dedicating the first couple of years of our business to make it spacious, comfortable, efficient, and overall just turning it into a ruthless fishing machine for this fleet. Every offseason so far, we’ve taken on a major project, most recently our fishing platform. We pretty much completely gutted and built a brand new platform from scratch for our guests to fish on, including a brand new fiberglass deck, new paint, and even added another bait tank so we can carry a massive amount of bait for 6 people. She was built in 1974, so she needed a little bit of work, but overall it’s a solid east coast boat that can run and run and run some more.
I’m really proud of the boat, but I’m much more proud of the operation as a whole. The boat is an important tool for the business, but another major part is our crew. We have a crew of 6 guys that we’ve hand-picked over the past 18 months and I’m really happy with all of them. They’re all really great guys, and catch a lot of fish collectively. But catching fish is only one element to his business. Customer service has to be top-notch, along with the food being fantastic, every customer needs to be catered to, and keeping the boat in really great shape is important as well.
All of these guys have to know how to do every job on the boat, not only for the sake of safety but because I require it of them. I really enjoy running the business end of things, and I will run trips often too, but when I can’t be on every trip, I know for sure that it will run smoothly on our end. All that’s left is for the fish to do their part. It’s really the boat that separates us from every other boat. Everybody can claim that they have the best boat in the fleet or that they catch the most fish. But honestly what’s most important to me is that we do things the right way.
I’ve always been that kind of person to keep my head down, work hard, and do only the good things in life. I’m not saying that we’re the only boat that does things the right way, because there a lot of operations out there that do. I’m just trying to continue to build this business, and continue to provide a solid foundation for the boat and for all of my crew too.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Some of my favorite memories from childhood do involve fishing, from pulling up some massive rockfish up at the Channel Islands, to down here tuna fishing in San Diego. I love being on the water, I love being on boats in general.
Not one, in particular, comes to mind, but a flurry of them being on the water at such a young age do. Aside from that, I was a pretty normal kid, playing whiffle ball outside every single day in the summer growing up.
Pricing:
- 1/2 Day Charter – $1,500 (All-inclusive for 6 people or less)
- Full day Charter – $2,750 (All-inclusive for 6 people of less)
- Overnight Charter – $3,300 (All-inclusive for 6 people or less)
- 1.5 Day Charter – $4,200 (All-inclusive for 6 people or less)
- 2 Day Charter – $5,500 (All-inclusive for 6 people or less)
- 2.5 Day Charter – $6,600 (All-inclusive for 6 people or less)
Contact Info:
- Address: 2838 Garrison St. San Diego, CA 92106
- Website: www.blackdiamondsportfishing.com
- Phone: (619) 318-4509
- Email: hello@blackdiamondsportfishing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackdiamondsportfishing/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blackdiamondsportfishing/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/black-diamond-sportfishing-san-diego
- Other: https://www.fishermanslanding.com/boats/blackdiamond.php
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