A Day in the Life

It’s normal that I wake with the sunrise. I live at the beach near the Ventura and Los Angeles county line at what I call the Wild West end of Malibu, but I consider it to be the most beautiful part of Malibu. It has nearly no businesses and far less traffic than the other end. It is very peaceful and allows me peace and tranquility. My bed faces a window that looks West over the water and the sunrise wakes me—not a bad way to start my day.

On a typical day, I am in the ocean teaching surf or paddle by 8 A.M. I have a gift for teaching water sports. I’m not sure if it’s because of my passion for what I do or that it is just something I’ve done for so long that it just comes naturally. Whatever it is, I truly love to teach people how to surf, paddle, kite or any other ocean board sport. I teach my students to survey the beach and water, to look at swell, wind, and currents, and to look at the beach and decide the best launch and landing zones. People who are not familiar with the ocean have no idea what they are looking for in regards to safety and success at their new chosen sports. It’s my job to teach them to enter and exit the water safely, in addition to the skills I teach them. I do the best I can to convey the 47 years of ocean experience I have acquired to them, I explain everything in a manner that is easy to comprehend as well as execute.  My brain and their body; it works well every time. To me there is nothing more gratifying than watching new students succeed at the highest level. I love the feeling of fulfillment I get from the people I introduce into the ocean for surf, paddle or whatever it is they are seeking. I love to watch their smiles after I have given them my office, my life, my love. The ocean has given me life, love, respect, and a purpose. Without it, I’m not sure where I would be.  A day in the life with me is like being the most radical fish in the sea. Radfish, how could I be anything else..

My new store is open at The Zuma Beach Plaza. Radfish Malibu is live all day everyday. Come see what its really about. I live the dream and I want to share it with you. Come be a part of the Radfish Beach Patrol. We can clean a beach, go for a surf or paddle do the things that not only make us feel good, but help us to sustain the life many dream about. What are you waiting for? Call me—I’m available by appointment 7 days a week and you can call anytime.

Radfish Malibu
29575 PCH Malibu, Ca 90265
(310) 433-1767

Watch The Grand Opening at The New Radfish Malibu Store.

Grand Opening: RADFISH MALIBU

Here are some details on what’s going on with my shop and in my world. Hope to see you at the Grand Opening this weekend!

• Grand Opening: October 1 to 2, 10 A.M. till 6 P.M. Sunday at noon will be a special appearance by the Radfish Twins and we will be filming for the web series “The Adventures of Radfish” discount coupons and a chance to win a free paddle board. Also you will get to read my mission statement. I am on a mission to give back to the community that has given me the life I never dreamed I would have. My hobby is my job, that is probably why I am so good at it.
• Today I started my first Meet-Up, it is called “Radfish Malibu Beach Patrol“ I sent out invites to everyone in my google accounts as well as Facebook and twitter. This is the link, check it out.
• The surf dropped a bit but it was very clean all day, I gave a 9-person group paddle lesson at 7:30 this morning and it was a blast.. It was a group of entrepreneurs and I totally related to them and I think they really liked me. I gave them lots of ideas and made a video for them. I explained how I have over 60 pages on Google’s search engine due to all the social media and other things such as reviews and interviews and previews, good news, and any other internet banter I can get into. Excuse my French, but I just keep throwing sh** at the wall and most of it seems to stick.. Here is a peak at the video I shot with the EA group. It’s called “Radfish Malibu Board Meeting.”  It’s really fun to shoot with an iPhone in the water, edit on phone with iMovie and post on YouTube 10 mins later. I shoot at least 2 or 3 YouTube vids a week. You should watch my channel, there are about 200 vids and they are all fun. If you subscribe to my page I will make a special video at your request as long as it is something that will make my heart race, I hate boring. Anything that is considered a thrill seeking situation I am all over it. Subscribe to my channel and send me your requests.
• The other thing that I have really gotten hooked on is Snapchat. Its so funny, up until about 4 months ago I didn’t even know what snapchat was. Now I shoot everything I do on SC, from morning till bed time I post at least 50 times. I post all lessons, all surf and  play, dinners, driving, pretty much everything I do. I will share my snap code and follow me. You will dig it. I do live the life it is exactly where I want to be and you will see that it is apparent I  not only love my life, but, I truly am living the dream. Snap code below!
  

  Snapchat Tony Radfish radish.malibu.com

  Ok, Im pretty beat, in fact I’m nodding off at the computer.. Let’s get together again tomorrow. Same Rad time, same Rad channel.. Radfish out.

28-Hour Days

Again I’m sitting to write after midnight. It has become a regular thing for me in the last several weeks. I thought opening a retail store would offer me an opportunity to delegate and hire people that could lighten my work load. Until today, I had single handedly created, built, and saturated the local market with my boards and lessons. The reason for my success to date is two-fold:

1. I have 47 years of ocean experience—I learned to surf before I rode a bicycle, which makes me more comfortable in the water than on land.
2. My passion for not only ocean sports, but the feeling I get from teaching people that have no clue how to deal with the most powerful thing I have learned to respect, as well as fear, Mother Ocean, My one and only true love…

So as I was saying, it’s late and I am tired—I should be sleeping—but I know that there is never enough time in the day for me to do all the things I need to do. Sometimes I feel like I do what 10 average men do in a week in just one day. I know you might think I’m some kind of egomaniac saying that, but on an average day, I’m at Zuma Beach for the first half of the day, then at Corral Beach the second half. I spend 6 to 8 hours teaching surf and paddle almost every day. Sometimes I do another 2 hours teaching kite after that. I lost close to 20 pounds this summer because I usually eat a bowl of oatmeal with a banana for breakfast and do lessons back to back all day. I don’t even realize I’m hungry and go without food till dinnertime… I know, that’s not healthy, I just forget to eat… I am so passionate about the feelings I get taking people who have never been in the ocean and teaching them to surf, watching them pop up perfectly and ride a wave all the way to the beach—it just consumes me. I have a gift, the ability to teach anyone to surf or paddle. I have an approach that I think is quite unique, at least among the other instructors in this area. I teach my students the body mechanics that make it easy to balance themselves over the centerline of the board. It’s really not rocket science: feet on the centerline knees bent and upper body straight, with their lower body as a gimbal to keep their upper body over centerline, and above all, EYES STRAIGHT AHEAD…

It’s so funny, I watch countless other instructors teaching their students and as they do it wrong the instructor does not even realize that they are doing it wrong. In other words, I know a lot of great surfers that are not even close to being what I would call a good instructor.

That reminds me why I was writing this post tonight. In addition to being hyperactive, an overachiever, and a self-drive machine with an bigger-than-life will to succeed, I just won’t give up. This past few weeks I’ve worked on the beach most of the day, in the store trying to at least cover the rent and employees wages (before they quit or get fired), then remodeling or cleaning and painting the store. I think it has actually slowed me a bit, I’m so tired I don’t think as clearly as I should. It’s 4 days until the weekend I advertised the Grand Opening, I don’t have any employees, the sign maker is a week behind, I haven’t even moved my inventory in, and the apparel I ordered is not in yet.. Funny thing is, I don’t even think that it will be a problem. I am so confident that this whole endeavor is going to go through the roof that I just keep pushing. It is in my blood that I will do or die. Just like my passion for the beaches and Sea, I will live and die the life of a diehard waterman. I will share my skills with as many people that choose to follow my path. For now, I will continue to drive toward the finish line, even though I have no Idea where that may be. The thing I really need most at this point in my journey is 28 hour days. First thing in the morning I will clean the beach and go to my lesson scheduled with 9 paddlers at 7:30 am. Goodnight—Radfish out.

To Understand Fear

At the end of every day, I take a moment to reflect on what I’ve done, to look closely at my actions, choices, and decisions. I often judge myself, either to massage my ego, or beat myself up for the mistakes I’ve made. I make a lot of mistakes, far more than I feel comfortable to admit publicly. It often seems that I do something wrong at least 2 or 3 times before I get it right.  It’s most often things that involve my personal and business life. For some reason I have a habit of making decisions fast and not taking time to think about how the end result will  effect my future. It’s called instant gratification, and I have it pretty bad. Fortunately, it is only in my own life that I’m like this—with others, I’m very protective. I think it comes from my desire to live on the edge, the thrill of risk, trying to achieve things that are seemingly unreachable. I always push harder and faster than what most would consider reasonable or conservative. Im just wired that way.

So what I realized tonight is even though I may make a lot of wrong decisions and usually do things the hard way, I have to remember that I came a long way in a very short time. I stopped thinking that I was overwhelmed and working too many hours (all day on the beach , and long into the night preparing my new store). I actually took the time to feel a sense of accomplishment regarding what I was actually doing. I’m opening up a retail store in Malibu. That is pretty amazing and I had a sudden sense of joy and happiness. I stopped thinking that I was not good enough  and lost any doubt in my mind that I was not prepared for the next chapter of my life. I’m actually a real businessman. I realize at 53 years-old that sounds a bit silly, but everyone knows  most surfers refuse to grow up.

Self doubt is common and it is usually based on fear. Just in case you didn’t know, I’m a typical Alpha Male. I don’t often admit to fear but today I am going to spill the beans on why many men are Alpha Male: FEAR. We fear having to accept that we are afraid to do something so we just do it and hope for the best. It doesn’t always turn out perfect, but, it’s better than the feelings I would have as a result of not doing something because I was afraid. I know that sounds really dumb, but it’s the truth. I just can’t seem to feel comfortable knowing that I quit or ran away because I was scared. It is called  fight or flight. I have always chose the fight over the flight. I think it is very common among the majority of my friends as well. The ocean played the major roll in grooming me. From childhood I’ve challenged the sea, and often put my life at risk because if the other guys were going out there I had no other choice than to go too . I realized today that I’m good at taking risks and pushing the limits because I’m afraid not too. This may be the oddest epiphany I have ever had, but it makes perfect sense to me. If you have not read my customer reviews yet, please do. They’re evidence that I really have nothing to fear at all.

 

My Glass is Always Half-Full

I don’t want to start off crying like a baby, but the truth of the matter is that life is not always easy. This week was a bucketful of emotions for me, with non-stop action—some of it good, some of it bad. I am going to share with you the reality of life for a guy like myself and the struggles, I face on a daily basis—but of course, I’ll also include the positive, because as my post is titled, my glass is always half-full. I have to maintain this positive attitude to be able to succeed at being self-employed and living a first-class lifestyle on a less than first-class budget. Here’s what happened:

The day after my last post, I was so pumped up—everyone who saw me knew I was on a mission that was pushing me harder than anything I’ve done in the past. With my dream and my mission, I was moving at lightning speed. And then I had five things happened back-to-back that day that were epic in my trek to develop my dream: Create the best surf/paddle/kite/community-friendly store in Malibu. At 8 A.M., I was in the water as usual teaching two out-of-state visitors to surf. I have a great format that I use and my students surfed every wave I put them on with perfect form and technique. When we finished they were so happy they asked me to take them again the following day, tipped me well, and wrote an amazing review on my Yelp page. Then, as I was on my way into the new store, I ran into a friend, the actor Garey Busey, and we talked about his son Jake. Jake is an old friend and we recently traded our goods to each other. I gave Jake one of my Carbon fiber/Kevlar SUPs in trade for one of his very custom Jake Bikes (If you haven’t seen or heard of a Jake Bike, they are custom-built motorized bicycles that are better than any I’ve ever seen). Anyways, Gary and I talked surf and his classic surf film Big Wednesday, and as much as I love to talk, he took control of the conversation. He ended up in the store and just hung out for a pretty long time. The customers flocked around him and he posed for several pics and just made everybody feel special. He is a class-act in my book.

About an hour later, in walks Clark Gable. Yes, Clark Gable, son of John and grandson of the greatest movie star ever, his name-sake, CLARK GABLE, and a good friend of mine. So Clark walks in and tells me how excited he is about my new store and asks if I’m doing kite lessons—he had an out of town guest that was super amped about learning to kite surf. I told him we could absolutely accommodate him and that I had a new kite instructor who was the best in the area. 10 mins later, in walks Clark’s friend, Ben, from Memphis, Tennessee. Within 10 minutes Ben ordered nearly $5,000 in kite gear and signed up for a 6-hour course in kite surfing classes. I had Grego, (the local kite master) take Ben to the beach to begin his new sport. Minutes later, Clark came back in to thank me and offer his time and anything else I needed to assist in the success of the new store… Wow, What a day… To top it all off, it finished with a call from  my friend, Nina Segal, wishing me all the best with a promise to help in any way I needed along with a stern warning to slow down and not try to do everything in one day (She knows me too well). Then her husband, George Clout Sisino, the most controversial man I’ve ever meet, called me to tell me to not worry about anything and that I could count on him to help me with anything. That is an understatement—George has helped me in more ways than you could ever imagine. Without George I would have never even got into paddle boards, kite surfed , scuba, and most of all, landed a retail store in a premium location (pretty much as a gift). I love that guy and his wife Nina. I was fortunate to be the best man at their wedding 3 years ago. A few other extremely positive things happened that day. I felt it was the best day ever… but they say you can’t appreciate the positive without the negative.
The last five or six days have been very hard. It slowed down in the store, my employees quit or did not show up, and I had my Iphone stolen off the beach. Then, today while I was late for several appointments, I somehow lost my keys to everything—my home, the store, and my truck. No keys to duplicate and the locksmith said the GM site to code my truck was down so he could not code a key to my truck. I looked everywhere I could imagine for over 4 hours. I was so upset that I was thankful, at least, to be alone—I’m sure I would have embarrassed myself if I had an audience.
That brings me to this moment, the moment I decided to write about the Adventures of Radfish. As you may have noticed, I wrote several paragraphs about the great things, the great friends, the fact that I am so fortunate to be in this position in my life—how happy I am to be here. I wrote just one paragraph on the things that have had me scared, angry, frustrated, and any negative content. That is why I am here to tell you, I have great plans and goals that I will try to fulfill in my pursuit of the dream. I, regardless of the roller coaster we all ride, live a dream many wish they could live. I have a choice in my perception regarding my feelings. That is why my glass is always half full.. I hope yours is too.Tony Raffish

Just Happy to Be Here

Today I woke up much the same as every day: Very sore from the day prior.

I wake up sore because on an average day I give at least 5—sometimes 10—surf or paddle lessons. It may not sound that hard but, what that consists of is 6 to 8 hours of paddling surfers in and out of the surf. I’ve been told by several people that they have never seen somebody swim as hard and as long as I do. It’s not that it’s hard for me—I am in great condition and do it on such a regular basis and have trained for most of most of my life doing this—the problem is, at over half of a century in age my body is like a car that needs new shocks (and tires).

Anyways I’m not complaining, I just refuse to accept that I’m getting old. I still act and (try to) perform like a kid..

After a great breakfast (a banana) I was in the water teaching surfing as usual. I love to teach people and I think that is why I am very good at my job. I get such pleasure and enjoyment from watching a new surfer that has never been on a board before train on the beach with me for 20 to 30 mins and then go out and pop up perfectly and ride the first wave all the way to the sand. I try to be modest much of the time, but when my customers give me the best reviews on Yelp and I get rated as one of the top surf instructors in this area it’s okay brag a little, right?

So my point is, I truly do love my job, I love my life, and I’m just happy to be here. Which happens to remind me why I am writing this today in the blog: I meet a lot of people every day, and many of the people I meet appear to be unhappy, angry at the world and trying to control things our of their hands and it makes me feel sad for them. I won’t lie, on occasion, I have felt brief anger or resentment in regards to others and their actions, but I’ve learned that it is not healthy or a good representation of me and my life choices to show that publicly. I learned years ago that the people I admire the most are those who never have a bad thing to say about anyone. It’s funny that’s truly a learned skill to be able to only have nice things to say about a person, especially when they’ve been a been a problem or threat in the past. So, now I try to do that as well as I possibly can (I’m not perfect).

Today I was just a little rattled by a person that was complaining that I was using this blog as a business tool, and that’s it’s not appropriate to do that in the forum I posted in. The truth is, it is about my business, I am trying to use my business as a tool to gain others to volunteer with me and help keep my beaches and streets clean. I thought for a second and quickly realized that I really wasn’t rattled at all. I felt a bit sympathetic to the person who had made the complaint and made a decision to respond. I went back in a private message and invited him to participate with me in the first project we arrange. I know if they accept my offer it will help change their outlook on many things and most likely make them feel like I do right now: Just HAPPY to be here.

The New Radfish Store

Hi, my name is Tony Radfish and I’m a surfer and stand-up paddleboarder born and raised in Malibu. Nowadays, I build paddle boards and offer lessons, but I’ve recently taken another leap of faith to open my first retail location. As many of you know, I joke that I’m the hardest working beach bum in the world. The fact is, I just might be. In 5 years I’ve created a brand that is truly a lifestyle. I make surfboards, stand up paddle boards, and kite boards. I’ve traveled around the globe giving my apparel , boards, and stickers to new friends I meet. With the help of the internet and social media I’ve managed to sell over 1000 boards and average 500 lessons a year. The crazy thing is, I did that on my own, without a store.

As far as I’m concerned, I have the perfect life—I spend my summers at the beach and off-seasons traveling the world, but the thing that matters most to me is preserving the beautiful place I came from, Malibu. Now that I’m set to launch the Radfish Malibu Apparel and Board Store, along with this blog, I feel like the next natural step is to give back.

I am truly a life-long Malibu local and I have an obligation to my community to show that I am here to give back. I will be using my business to generate customers and create a community to assist me in several projects to help clean our beaches, prolong a healthy environment, and contribute to keeping our community one of the best places on Earth. This blog is here for us, so ideas and feedback are welcome! Help me take Malibu back.

Let’s all have a Radfish day.

Check back here for more information and event announcements, but in the meantime check my social media for updates:

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