Ever thought of paddle boarding to work? Probably not. Want to give it a go? Of course you do!
This week on JOE’s business podcast The Capital B, host Nick Webb was joined by Kris Goodbody, of outdoor sports firm Big Style.
Big Style is primarily a kite surfing business, but due to the adverse weather conditions that restrict kite surfing, it has become much more than that. To quote the founder of Big Style himself: “Everything shuts down when there’s no wind.”
The business was established in Dublin, but as Goodbody pointed out, Dublin is not always the ideal place for the water-based sport due to the occasional lack of wind. The business took action, and Kris followed his own advice, to “keep with the same product line but diversify what you’re offering”.
Listen [from 25’20”] or continue reading below to hear how Kris is expanding the range of products on offer, including an intriguing new commuting option for the workers of Dublin.
“We have started this thing, which is called the ‘Paddle to Work Scheme’, which is great. We basically start in Chapelizod and paddle board down to Ringsend. It’s eight kilometres, do it before work, sunrise over the Liffey, great craic, everybody loves it, charge €50 a head, throw-in breakfast,” said Kris.
Colour us intrigued, Kris, if slightly wary of the deep and dark waters of the Liffey.
Big Style also headed to the West of Ireland, and started offering kite-surfing activities in Mayo, as well as incorporating some activities that the wind is not a necessity for. “We’ve got kite-surfing for wind, stand up paddle-boarding for no wind.”
But Mayo isn’t the furthest place that they expanded to. Not by a long shot. The next step Big Style took was all the way to Tanzania, where they have just opened a kite-surfing school there for the Winter. Take a look at a really cool video to see for yourself:
Clip via Big Style
Goodbody talked about the benefit of this move, both from the point of view of Big Style as well as the point of view of the hotel in Tanzania, “We make your hotel a kite-surfing destination, and you let us put our kite-surfing school there for free, and keep our brand”.
Check out some more of Big Style’s cool videos here:
You can learn more about Big Style here.
