Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Orman.
Scott, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The story behind Surf Munkey really started after, with support from my wife (Sue), I decided to take some extended time off from work, and really upped the amount of surfing I was doing. During a routine visit to the dermatologist around that time, the doctor told me that due to the amount of skin damage to my scalp, I *had* to start wearing a hat every time I’m out surfing (scalp and neck cancers are the leading cause of death in surfers). So, I dutifully picked up a hat at my local surf shop, and quickly found that, while what I purchased was labeled a “surf hat”, it really couldn’t be used in actual surfing conditions. The bill on the hat was stiff, and when laying on my board, I couldn’t see where I was paddling, without severely craning my neck. The force of the water and waves against the rigid bill was too much and forced my head and neck around, and eventually forced the hat off my head, ending up like a parachute behind my head and the chinstrap around my neck. My next attempt to follow my doctor’s orders, was to pick up a hat with a soft bill. With this hat, I could tilt the bill up while I was paddling, but as soon as I paddled through a wave, the bill was down in my way again, blocking my visibility. On a particularly large day when I was surfing at Torrey Pines, this all changed.
The waves were big and breaking hard, and I was the only guy out for a good stretch of the beach, so there was already a slight edge of fear in the air as I got into the water. A set rolls in as I’m paddling out, and as I’m paddling through the waves as hard as I can, the bill of my latest hat is now fully forced down, completely covering my eyes. I mean I can’t see ANYTHING, and am not in a position to try and hold the bill up while I’m madly paddling out, plus I have no idea where the next wave is. It really freaked me out – this was the moment I ditched the hat and told myself I needed to figure out a solution. After giving some thought over the next couple days or so, I came up with the idea of using Velcro on both the top of the bill and front of the hat, to keep the bill locked up out of the way. I tested several versions to get the right amount and shape of Velcro, so the bill would remain up, even after taking a pounding by waves. I then started thinking about what else I, as a surfer, might want in a hat. For example, most of the hats available were an embarrassment to be seen in (sort of the bucket hat style), so I figured, why not make it look more like a ball cap? I also added black to the bill to eliminate reflective glare, and shortened the bill a bit to provide more visibility, while still shading the eyes. Lots of other subtle design tweaks before some patent filings, and then our first production run of hats. We made a few more improvements after our first production run, and moved into the UPF (UV Protection Factor) fabrics to get our final hats as you see them today. I’m very lucky in that I was introduced to a manufacturer here in San Diego, which not only felt great to keep it local, but offered so many other benefits over trying to go overseas (where most hats were/are produced).
So that’s basically the story behind the creation of our FlipUpBill surf hats, and what started Surf Munkey. It was really your typical story of a home business starting up out of a garage, with Sue and I sitting around the kitchen table attaching labels, picking up production runs from the manufacturer, and sending out shipments.
After our first year, Surf Munkey was invited to the Slater Invitational in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The invitational is a skin cancer awareness event, put on by Sean Slater (Kelly Slater’s older brother) where they have a surf contest; skin cancer screenings; booths for surf gear; etc… They provided us with a free booth, complete with tables, sunshade, etc.., so that was quite an ego boost and felt like a decent confirmation of the product. We’ve since been selling the hats all over the world, primarily from our website, and have numerous repeat customers who rave about our hats being the only hat actually made for surfing.
The other product, our Wet Plugz surf earplugs, allow the user to hear clearly while surfing, or participating in other water sports. Earplugs have been a problem since I was a kid and first made aware of the dangers of surfer’s ear, and the horrific surgical procedure that ensues (you can look it up on the internet), and started trying to wear earplugs in the water. The problem is, earplugs block out too much sound, so you’re constantly pulling them out so you can hear what your buddy just said, and all you can hear is your heartbeat thumping away – it really takes away from the whole experience of being out in the water. There are other types of earplugs, and one in particular that I’d try and use, and it even had a hole so you could hear, but the problem is the hole would get clogged up by water, and you’d be flicking and banging on your ears to try and dislodge the water that was blocking the sound. Made for some very sore ears after a surf session. So, in those days, the decision was one of whether you were going to enjoy your surf session, or whether you were going to wear your earplugs. You can guess which answer was chosen most often, especially at a younger age.
After successfully coming up with a solution for the surf hats, I felt like maybe it was time to take a run at finding a solution for the longstanding earplug issue. I ended up spending a couple years, coming up with designs, and was lucky enough to find some folks who knew how to make earplugs (they were in the hearing protection and hearing aid business). So, I’d send them my designs and ideas, they’d produce some earplugs for me, then I’d go test them out. I started with the obvious approach of using a membrane to block the water, and then making the membrane thinner and thinner, but the sound was still blocked, no matter how thin we made it. I tried even working with some super hydrophobic materials (think of a thin piece of fabric that has the ability to fend off water), but even these were nowhere near the level of sound I was looking for. I came to the realization that to get good sound, the design needed to have a hole for the sound to travel directly to the ear, so the challenge became how to prevent water from clogging the hole…and what a challenge it was! The surface tension (stickiness) of water is truly amazing – it can stick to even the tiniest of holes, cracks, crevices, and even act as an immovable blanket across a surface. After about a year of trying different designs to prevent the water blockage (all which failed), the guys I was working with said “Scott, I think it’s time toss in the towel on this idea”. It was at that moment, that I realized we needed to accept the water would block the sound path, so our goal was to figure out if/how we could clear that blockage – this eventually resulted in the first patented design for our plugs. Since then we’ve simplified the design and have a newer patent-pending design which we sell today, and have had a lot of success with it. Gone are the days of having to decide whether I’m going to enjoy my session and hear clearly, or whether I’m instead going to wear my earplugs – I get to do both, and so do our customers. It’s a great feeling to have customers buying products you created, but it’s even more powerful when they come back for more. We’ve had several folks, after buying their first pair (to make sure these things work like we say on our website), come back and order one or two extra pair, because they’re so stoked about our earplugs. A well-known musician up in the Santa Monica area ended up buying a couple extra pair after his first purchase, and then followed up after that to purchase a pair for each of his kids. That’s the kind of thing that makes all the effort to get to where we are today, well worth it!
Has it been a smooth road?
As a small business owner and inventor, there are always a lot of challenges, many of which we forget over time, or seem so simple now, but were big unknowns at the time, but that’s also part of the adventure. Aside from all the usual things a small business owner needs to figure out, like packaging, shipping, eCommerce options, etc…, there are also the personal challenges. I remember how stoked I was after I’d come up with the hats and went and picked up the first production run.
All of a sudden, I got this overwhelming rush of “oh crap, now I have to actually go talk to people and try and sell these things!”. Luckily, I was able to quickly turn it around in my head, that I wasn’t going to go “sell” this product, I was merely going to go show it and share what I’d come up with. That took a lot of pressure off me, and when I went around to the various surf shops, it really was just an experience of sharing, and feedback, and often I’d find the discussion would turn into exchanging surf stories, and turned out to be a good experience.
I guess the one other “struggle” area would be the unknown. The old adage “you don’t know, what you don’t know”, can be difficult to deal with. You want or expect things to work one way, but you may find out they work completely differently. Definitely have a collection of stories, that I won’t go into here.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
What sets us apart is that we actually use our products every day. The staring of this business wasn’t a situation where we set out to sell a product. Instead, we set out to solve a problem, and solve it to the highest degree possible. It just turned out, these solved issues many others were facing, and so we found there was a market for these niche products
Is our city a good place to do what you do?
I’d say it’s a good place – we have unbeatable weather and a big surf community.
Contact Info:
- Website: FlipUpBill.com
- Other: WetPlugz.com
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