Pro Wake Surf Shop Celebrates Grand Opening With Ribbon Cutting
By Ray Balogh
InkFreeNews
SYRACUSE — A sizable group of upbeat participants on Friday afternoon, March 25, helped celebrate the grand opening of Pro Wake Surf Shop at 1309 S. Harkless Drive, Syracuse, in an indoor ribbon cutting ceremony. The ceremony took place shortly before the doors opened to the public for the first time at 4 p.m.
The surf shop is the second location for Pro Wake Watersports, the first having opened in 2012 in North Webster by Mark Richards, then general manager and now co-owner, with his wife, Patty, of the enterprise.
The surf shop sells a wide variety of boat-to-bar apparel, surfing gear and other surf-related items in its 2,200-square-foot, triple-tiered modern emporium.
“This place is for the community,” said Richards. “Now they don’t have to go to Indy or Fort Wayne or Chicago to buy highly reputable brands. There is nothing here that takes from any business in this community. None of the brands we carry were marketed before in this area.”
The 13,000-square-foot former fitness center also houses Pro Wake Design and Graphics. Its four new printers can produce custom boat, truck and car wraps; signs and banners; decals; and other items. “You name it, we can print it,” said Richards.
Also on the premises: a photography and videography studio, marketing department and an educational exhibit sponsored by The Watershed Foundation.
The surf shop is currently open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
The idea for the shop came from Patty on a trip to Florida. “She told me, ‘You need to do something with the Syracuse location’ that I had been renting for three years from Rinker (Watersports). ‘We need a mini Ron Jon surf shop.’ And when my wife asks me to do something, I usually do it big.”
Richards actually purchased three adjacent lots in Syracuse and has big plans for the 30,000-square-foot building to the north of the surf shop — and for the community he never failed to visit every summer for 52 years, keeping his perfect attendance record intact even during the 25 years he lived in Florida.
“It’s time to make Syracuse a year-round destination,” he said. He believes his part in fulfilling that dream is to convert the building into an indoor recreational destination featuring a pair of flow riders (machines that simulate aquatic conditions to enable stationary surfing), an arcade and a restaurant.
“It’s time to stop rolling up the streets in October,” Richards said. “There’s a lot of money here and it’s time to stop letting it leave.” He shared his vision recently at the Syracuse-Wawasee Chamber of Commerce annual dinner and said he received “an incredible response. Everybody is on board with this.”
His timetable is as ambitious as his project. “It would be nice to pull this off in 18 to 24 months.”
For more information, call (574) 337-1898.
This article will also appear in the Wednesday, March 30, The Mail-Journal.