SoCal rules!! So we went down to Long Beach California Jan 5 for the launch of AXS Longboard Retailer Magazine (oh yea and to go to Agenda 2012) and had a blast, 28 degrees celsius and sunny in January! We hung out with Michael Brooke and Rick Tetz for the weekend, drank some tequila (Thanks to Pablo and Don from Loaded) and chilled at the Hilton Long beach! Famous Dave’s BBQ did a great job hosting our launch party, great ribs, wings and nice cold beer!

Small is the new big,” marketing guru Seth Godin once famously wrote. In Godin’s terms, “small” means, among other things, being able to use speed, flexibility, creativity and personalization to your advantage.

Longboards are more pervasive than ever. Even with a decline in the overall population of skateboarders in the U.S. over the past several years, there has been an increase of almost 8% in longboard purchases by skateboarders since 2009.

Q:Will 2012 be a strong year in terms of longboarding? Scott Imbrie – Original Skateboards: Trending can be done using Google Insights for search. There is no doubt that 2012 will be the biggest year ever for longboarding; if this chart is any indicator, longboarding is just about ready to be a “real” sport.

When searching for new ideas for your business, sometimes it pays to learn from a completely different industry. As longboarding becomes more popular, it’s beginning to mirror both the culture and business of the bike world. Consider the following:

Q:What percentage of your overall sales are longboards? Kelsey Crozier – Switchback Longboards: I would say more than 95%. Longboarding is our passion. We do have a selection of street skates that I buy now and then, but they tend to sit in the back. Same with the reissues. Street guys do come in sometimes, but I only carry sale stuff that I got a deal on and pay it forward to them. I keep about one of each width of deck in stock from various brands.