Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Adams
Hi Will, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born here in Los Angeles, and grew up in the valley. I started surfing around the age of 16 and had no idea how much that would permanently alter the course of my life. I played sports growing up, and while I wasn’t an elite athlete, it was pretty easy for me to generally get functional at a given sport quickly. I had skateboarded a little and snowboarded from a young age. Surfing was such a different animal to me, I was terrible and none of my other sports translated. I’ve always been pretty hyper-competitive and it really drove me to try and get better. I wanted to be better than my friends and stepdad. But without much guidance, I just toiled for years.
I eventually went out of state for college and graduated from (The) Ohio State University with a degree in communications in 2009. I moved back to LA after school, spent a year and a half in Pasadena only to realize I needed to be closer to the ocean.
Moved to the westside in 2011, then Venice specifically in 2012, and I haven’t looked back since. Even though Venice has changed quite a bit over the years, I’m still hopelessly in love with this neighborhood. Venice has the history, the weird, the culture, the food, the natural beauty, the ocean access, the people, and this innate pulse to it that’s so hard to find anywhere else. I’ve made some of my best friends here, met my beautiful girlfriend here, and started a business that I’m extremely passionate about here.
Alright, 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?
Of course there have been many challenges along the way. I think anytime you choose to take a more entrepreneurial path you are trading away stability for potential. The journey has been marred by a lot of tough years, empty pockets, mistakes, and recalibrations.
I graduated college right after the recession started which immediately changed my career path. I helped start a business because I couldn’t find work. I worked 16-hour days for months without pay to get it off the ground. That eventually grew into me running operations for the factory-side of the business. The industry and nature of sales were very unpredictable, during lean months I’d give up my relatively modest paycheck to pay employees. The industry we were in, the clientele we dealt with, and how the business was being run above me was a perfect storm of absolute chaos that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I put in 7 years and wasn’t passionate about the product, it was a difficult grind, and it ruined me financially and mentally.
I quit, which felt like a major failure at the time because I was walking away from something I had truly poured myself into while trying to build it into something lasting. I shifted gears and started a product development company, where I was mostly a one-man band. Nobody above me, nobody below me, and I could choose my clients. It was going fine but as things from a political rhetoric sense got sketchy -in regards to trade relations- with China, I decided it was best to stop taking on new projects. I ended up working construction with a friend for a few years while also taking on various odd jobs to pay the bills.
I got a call from another friend that his former roommate needed help for the day with his surf school. I needed the money and figured it would be a one-day thing. A year later, I was essentially running his business, but the program they ran was terrible. It was purely about money and marketing, the guy didn’t surf, and didn’t care at all about how his business was affecting the ecosystem of surfing in Los Angeles. I quit and started my own. It took another year to pivot my product development business, get money for equipment, get all my paperwork lined up, and get my permits. We were ready to rock in January 2020. I had leveraged everything I had and then in March 2020, we had to shut down for most of the year.
I’ve looked at the pandemic as a pressure test on systems and businesses, a lot of them broke from that pressure. I’d like to think a lot of the tribulations and lessons learned helped us navigate through that time. As a business in the last 4-years, we’ve had new and different challenges and while things are never easy, I am grateful I have experiences I can draw from to dig deep and overcome when needed.
We’ve been impressed with Venice Beach Surf Club, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I started working on Venice Beach Surf Club as a concept in early 2019, I had been working for another surf school for the previous year. I really loved teaching and helping people find their stoke, but I loathed the methods we were asked to teach and the values of ownership. I found myself sharing the lineup with people who had learned these methods and they were mostly hapless surfers who were a danger to themselves and others. I knew there had to be a better way. So I quit and started working on VBSC.
I used the downtime of the pandemic to sharpen my knives and really build out my teaching program and plan for the next few years. I drew on my previous experiences to help shape my approach for Venice Beach Surf Club’s teaching program and business overall. Factory operations at it’s core are about process and efficiency. Product development is problem-solving. What I’d call ‘good’ product development has an eye for the final product through the whole process and that final product really informs every step from concept, to prototype, to consumer-facing product.
Our program became about the final product: being a competent, independent surfer. Everything we teach is viewed through that lens. We differentiated by not focusing on flashiness, marketing, and trying to trap tourists for a few hours. But rather building functional technique that will never need to be unlearned, building real community, and offering unique experiences that you wont find with any other school in Los Angeles.
As we close in on year 5, I’m extremely proud of what we’ve built. We’re the highest rated surf school on Airbnb (4.99 stars with 600+ ratings). We have more regulars than any of our competition. We invest ourselves into our clients and that’s resulted in a really cool, tight-knit, budding community. We host quarterly social events and have just wrapped up an amazing 5-day surf retreat in El Salvador. We also have some really killer, high-quality merch. Despite having almost no presence on Google, our bookings have steadily increased on a year-to-year basis.
Looking forward, our true north is still always going to be leading with substance over sizzle, but that said, we have some really exciting plans for 2025.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Adaptability is probably the most important.
In life, business, and surfing there’s always curve-balls thrown your way. You can wish them away all you’d like but the ability to learn how to roll with them and find a way to turn it in your favor is how you find success. Something I’ve learned over the years is no one is coming to save you, but if you take action, you can generally bend the outcomes in your favor. So, as a rule, I generally try and keep moving even if it’s not always a clear step forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://venicebeachsurf.club/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vbsclub/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@VeniceBeachSurfClub
