Tradewindsurf from the beginning. October 27, 2009 – Tags:

Born in the earlier part of 2007, tradewindsurf.com was an idea cooked up about 6 months prior, Leigh Sedley a traveling pro surfer grinding out on the QS, and looking for something other than the drag of the QS to spend his time working on and break up the tweaked thoughts that go through your head year to year when trying to crack the big time! Enter a courier driver from the Sunshine Coast, with a taste for beer and an interest in the surf industry, and you have Sedz’s business partner. William Watt AKA Willow. I was contemplating writing in the third person but it’s pretty obvious it is me [Willow] writing, hi everyone!
It’s ironic that we were born one room apart one day apart in the Nambour hospital on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, I’m not trying to create a fairytale here just the irony of your business partner being born next door is a cool thing to throw into the mix. From the start Sedz was always going to be a bit of a star, slightly eccentric and heavily unco-ordinated in most sports, he could really mix it up in the water, two aussie titles, a pro junior title and a fifth at the world juniors in 2003, along with a swag of other accolades rounded out a solid junior career for the lanky red nut to be!
I can’t brag any such achievements, probably a few that are unfit for this article but nothing really that was ever going to make me famous! After wanting to work in the industry for a long time with some prospects that never came to fruition, when the talk of this online something or other about to happen then I was always going to be the partner, to the drawing board so to speak. After six months of rallying, tradewindsurf.com was born, it started as a classifieds website where you could sell your old surf gear, we had a store on there and not long after, the online order form for custom boards came, things were ticking along and after running some parties and a successful girl of the month competition the word was getting out there!
We were happy, but something just wasn’t quite right, and the website showed some real difficulties in the back end with some big problems in the classified section, the only thing that was keeping us going was the custom board store which was ticking over due to the fact that no one could deny the price point and quality that people were getting on the site. Fast forward to 2009 and after some talks with a local web designer with a real knack for his job we decided to take the plunge and create a brand new website, from scratch, same concept, new ideas, new technology, very thorough, and this business can finally get the backing this idea and all of our shapers deserve. First with the artwork, then with the back end, a program called Drupal, a company called second glance, and a genius named Ricky and we were on our way to tradewindsurf.com 09, the whole act was different and finally we were stacking up the orders and finally getting some consistent recognition!
Since the beginning we have come a very long way, and there is no ill feeling towards anyone just lessons learned and paths taken, it’s all part of the journey and the most recent one is the most exciting yet, Sedz has since moved to America, but the nature of the business and our roles are such that we can still work together very closely and things are going along very well. As for me I am no longer a courier worker and am an agent in QLD for …lost enterprises and Famous wax which you can find here at tradewindsurf.com, becoming an agent has made me realize how important the stores are to the industry and we are looking to work with them in the near future, and we are hoping the response is strong as we want to help the traditional retailer not oppose them, as many people may have thought was the case in the early days. We would like to thank the guys that have come on board and given this online thing a try, to the boys that have become part of the family, run the stickers, or put the word out there, special thanks to Luke Cheadle, Micheal Spencer, Mitch Coleborn, Adam Melling, Paul Fisher, Clint Kimmins the Dorrington brothers, Woody and practically half of the Aussie contingent on the QS as well as pepperings of support from surfers out of our continent. When we really get the ball rolling then we want to help you guys were ever we can maybe back a couple of team riders for the year? Who knows.
Here on in is exciting, we have a whole heap of other features that we are saving our pennies for and are adding to the site, soon all our shapers models will be available to buy on the spot, as will your favourite surfers boards, a bit further down the track the classifieds will be back the creases ironed out and all your boards will be able to sell with us dirt cheap and easy! So here we are, I could carry on with features of this site and details of our existence forever but that would give you no time to get amongst the site that we have spent countless hours creating to make your life a little more pleasurable and easier when it comes to buying your surf gear online! I hope that gives you a bit of an insight into who we are and what we are about, like Jake Donlen from Runamuk Visuals said, ‘It’s surfers working to help surfers not suits working to help suits’ Thanks Jake couldn’t of said it better myself mate!