Bill Porter | The Grab Matters Podcast - Episode 60

How do you navigate running a brick and morter pro shop in today's time where Amazon seems to run everything eCommerce? Bill Porter is the founder and owner of Performance Ski and Surf, located in Orlando, Florida. Being in the heart of the towed watersports scene, Bill's shop is the "go to" pro-shop for everything wake and watersports. Although his mom initially tried to get people to convince Bill to not open Performance, he did it anyways, and has had a profound influence on both pro riders and beginners alike. Herb O'Brien's influence, wakeboard tech, online operation vs. brick and mortar, customer service, the most important innovation wakeboarding has seen, selling snow gear, Nautique vs. Mastercraft, and the future of wakeboarding and Performance Ski and Surf. Hear all that and much more in Episode 60 of the Grab Matters Podcast!Follow Performance: https://www.instagram.com/perfski/Perfski: https://perfski.com/Thank you to our sponsors:Liquid Force: https://www.liquidforce.com/15% OFF Driftline use "grab15" at checkout: https://tinyurl.com/yvksusym$50 OFF Skiboatcovers use "grab50" at checkout: https://www.skiboatcovers.com/Chapters:00:00 - 1:20 Intro4:00 Intro to watersports7:20 Herb Obrien 10:00 Dealer territories 15:00 Waterskiing vs. Wakeboarding 22:30 Wakeboard tech24:25 More retro boards26:10 LF’n Wheel of Questions31:40 GOAT33:50 Online stores35:20 Customer service47:44 Driftline Deserves Some Love50:00 OWC x Perfski53:00 Industry shifts55:00 Gear talk1:03:20 Ski Boat Covers (Ad)1:07:20 Selling snow gear1:13:25 Question from Rusty Malinoski1:18:40 Grassroots1:31:10 Being a pro1:33:10 Nautique to MasterCraft1:41:30 Most influential 1:44:00 Future of wakeboarding 1:53:40 Future of PerfskiShoot us a text!Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GrabMattersPodcastWebsite: https://www.grabmatters.com/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@grabmatters/videosInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/grabmatters/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@grabmatterspodcastFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/grabmatters