Mitch’s has been a fixture in the San Diego surfing community since 1967. Mitch’s North, the second shop is located on Pacific Coast Highway in north Solana Beach, between Fletcher’s Cove and Swami’s surf break. They provide anything and everything surf to the surfing community, from the most famous surfboard shapes to a new board for today’s beginners. Mitch’s also carries blanks and board making materials, and design custom surfboards.
With a surfboard stock that includes shapes by Takayama, Gato Heroi, Campbell Brothers, Tudor (as in Joel Tudor) Rainbow, Bing, Christensen,Mandala and many more, plus a wide selection of blanks that attracts the best shapers around, “For surfers” absolutely defines Mitch’s surf shop. Walking into the shop feels like being a kid and entering a house of a real surfer. There are boards and blanks everywhere.
They carry a unique selection of brands like Ando, Matuse, Mattix, Sanuk sandals and Creatures of Leisure traction and leashes. They have a fully stocked wetsuit department, even carrying 4/3 for women. Here is a shop that caters to the surfer, male or female, that surfs year-round.
There are two Mitch’s surf shops, both next to classic surf spots. One store is in La Jolla just up the street from Wind n’ Sea and one is in Solana Beach down the street from Swamis and Seaside Reef. While stopping in the store, it is not uncommon to overhear the employees talk of a recent session at their local spot. These guys really surf a lot, so they know their equipment and it is the perfect place to buy a board. Since Mitch’s is surrounded by giants, like Surfride and Hansen’s, I was curious how they stay afloat and if the Internet helps business.
Mitch’s employee, Juice, who is in charge of figuring out what the shop needs to stay up on current trends, answered core questions. He said his main goal is to keep it a core shop, basically a shop for surfers.
Do you have a website?
Yes. It is used mostly for sales. The in-shop soft goods like t-shirt are available on there. I have a lot of boards on there, but in the shop I can tell you more about the shaper and what goes into making the board and what kind of board you should get for your height, weight and ability.
How does the website do?
It does really good. We sell a lot of surfboards off of it.
Do you update the website regularly?
The website is updated daily. The blog is updated about once a week or we try to.
What is your blog about?
It chronicles what happens in the shop and the new items that we get in. We have a lot of blanks that we get in, a lot of different surfboards. On the blog we feature the newest arrivals like from Christensen and Mandala and Fine Line and all of those guys. It is on mitchsnorth.blogspot.com
What are your techniques for dealing with a bad economy?
We just try to stay true to what the shop originally was back in 1967 which is to keep it for surfers. We keep our prices as low as possible. It is still a surf shop and there are famous shapers who come in daily to buy blanks from us. It keeps our shop catered to surfers rather than tourists.
I noticed the brands you carry are a little more unique than your average surf shop. Can you explain that decision?
We carry a lot of the shaper t-shirts and Matuse. We do a lot of stuff with Ando (Andy Davis). That stuff is always going to be loved by the surfing community since most surfers like to stay more “artsy” with their stuff.
