History
The dread or dead surf shop has been around for 12 years as of 2006 and in those 12 years we have surfed every swell that has landed upon our shores in the Caribbean island of Barbados.
The store itself is a family run business that started from very small beginnings and has over the years grown into a fully fledged surf shop that can rival any store the world over for the products we carry and our friendly service. At the head of the family is Russell Garrett a surfer for life and a father.
Being a father he felt it necessary to pass on of his surfing knowledge to his children having remembered himself how much easier it could be to learn with a little push in the right direction and so formed a surf school to teach those not born into the lifestyle and sport.
The surf school has since taught many children and adults to surf. Surf lessons are now not only done by himself but by the whole team, Russell's two sons and also Matthew Kidd, a team member, employee and friend. Russell first met Matthew after the shop had been open for about three years. They met at a local surf contest here in Barbados where Matthew proving himself as a very talented young surfer. Shortly following several contest victories and consistently placing in the top three Matthew was adopted by the dread or dead surf shop as a team member and sponsored with the necessary equipment he needed to aid him in his training and to help him fulfill his potential as a competitive surfer.
Since then Matthew has won several national championships in Barbados and also represented Barbados at the world titles on many an occasion and ranked respectably. Matthew now is fully involved in the day to day activities of the shop and also in our "extra-curricular activities" of daily afternoon surf sessions as a friend of Russell's and his two sons Jay and Kane, a friendship which has bloomed and developed over the years, as too has Jay's and Kane’s surfing developed as they grew up.
A partnership forged from the passion for the sport of surfing and lifestyle that all wave riders lead. So the shop was born out of an obsession to ride waves but, also, came to exist from doing board repairs. Now, all the surfers out there will know dings on boards are the most annoying thing ever, the only thing worse is having to mess around with fiber glass itch your skin or days and then have an ugly repaired board behind it.
So Russell started doing repairs for kids who were unsure of fiberglass and people who didn’t want to touch the stuff and then he was good at it so everybody that had a ding brought their board to be repaired at a small cost. This was now a business in itself and required correct materials in quantities larger than available at your local hardware store.
The shop was born in the back yard fixing boards and teaching surfing. From here logical progression came to the buying and selling of used boards, which leads to sale of leashes, wax, sun block and board shorts. Now all the shop needed was some walls and doors to really be a store.
We are now out of the back yard onto the main road on the south coast in a little store packed to the ceiling with surf, skate and kite equipment and not to forget ones roots and humble beginnings the surf school and board repair shed still exists today.