Owning The Coast
Owning The Coast is your weekly deep dive into the people, places, and possibilities that make Santa Cruz one of the most inspiring places to live. Hosted by real estate pro Brandi Jones, mortgage and market expert Ryan Buckholdt, and insurance specialist Jerry Seagraves, the show blends their unique expertise with candid conversations and dynamic guests. Each week, you’ll hear stories that go beyond property lines — from navigating the local housing market to discovering hidden trails, tasting the best bites in town, and meeting the entrepreneurs, artists, and community leaders shaping the coast. Whether you’re a long-time local, a newcomer, or dreaming about making Santa Cruz home, Owning The Coast offers the insights, inspiration, and insider knowledge you need to thrive in life and living by the sea.
Owning The Coast
Beer, Grit, and Santa Cruz Roots w/ Shawd DeWitt
What does it take to turn a life-altering surf injury into a thriving hospitality brand? We sit down with Santa Cruz local and entrepreneur Shawd DeWitt to trace the unlikely path from Rainbow Fin Company to Beer 30, Beer Mule, and the rebirth of The Trout Farm. The throughline isn’t hype—it’s standards, honesty, and a relentless customer-first mindset that says service comes before sales and the rest follows.
Shawd shares how a neck injury nudged him and his wife toward a new vision, why they flew to Portland to reverse-engineer the nation’s best beer bars, and how they sold almost everything to go all in. The early lessons came fast: obscure imports and sours looked great on paper, but the register voted for IPAs and crisp lagers. That pivot—guided by sales data, not ego—became a blueprint for sustainable craft beer curation across two very different markets. We dig into tap strategy, cold-chain discipline, and the value of location: a sunny beer garden off the freeway where commuters can exhale, connect, and stay awhile.
Then we head poolside. The Trout Farm’s transformation reads like a hospitality case study—refreshed deck, cabanas, full bar, hot food, and service choreography that includes reservations, Sunday yoga, and weekend DJs. It’s resort energy tucked into the Santa Cruz hills, designed for families, locals, and visitors who want clean, seamless experiences without pretense. Along the way, Shawd speaks candidly about social media’s limits, the power of honest buying, and the joy of building spaces where people feel welcome. We close with life beyond the tap list: shifting from crowded lineups to mountain trails, making room for future grandkids, and keeping Soquel Avenue on a slow burn.
If you care about craft beer, community building, or how real hospitality gets made, this one’s for you. Listen, share with a friend who loves Santa Cruz, and leave a review to help more people find the show.
Welcome to the Own the Coast Podcast. Hello, hello. Welcome back to Owning the Coast Podcast. I'm Brandy Jones at Keller Williams Try, one of your hosts. I'm here with Jerry.
SPEAKER_02:Jerry Seagraves, Seagraves Insurance. And Ryan Buckwell, Cross Country Mortgage. And today we have a special guest, Shaw DeWitt from Beer 30. The famous favorite DeWitt. The famous.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I wish you guys could see a shirt. It's an ACDC shirt that's beer, V-E, lightning bolt, and then has mule underneath. I want that shirt.
SPEAKER_04:That's pretty cool. No trademark infringements. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, oh, oh, oh. So, Shod, you own Beer 30, and I just found out you own the trout farm.
SPEAKER_04:Do you own the trout farm? Part of six owners on the property and four own the business.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. I absolutely had the best experience three weeks ago there. I mean the best. So I worked at the Shadow Brook to put myself through college to start real estate. So they really heavily leaned on hospitality. And you know, we had to go to Mercedes-Benz to learn. We had to go to Holiday Inn to learn all about like the human experience. And you guys nailed it. And even at Beer 30. So let's start with kind of your footprint in Santa Cruz County. What brought you here?
SPEAKER_04:Well, my parents.
unknown:Oh.
SPEAKER_00:Were you born here?
SPEAKER_04:Born born in San Jose, and then I think like six months later, lived on 36th Avenue for a couple of years. And then we moved up to Napa for a couple years. My dad was going to college up there and decided to not do that. And then him and his best friend started making skateboards, which they've been making fins in 68 in Santa Cruz over off Thompson Avenue when it was chicken coops. And then start my parents started Rainbow Fin Company, and then I lived in La Salva from I guess like six years old until 20. And then got married and still living in the county, still married to the same woman.
SPEAKER_03:Which is rare. Yeah, congratulations.
SPEAKER_00:You're still married to the same woman. You're still married to the same woman. You're still married to the same woman. I'm well, I never got married, and that's another podcast.
SPEAKER_01:So that's a whole nother podcast.
SPEAKER_00:Me and my 11 personalities all had a ceremony. I'm just kidding. So what I've noticed from your establishments and then you know, Rainbow Fenn Company in your family, there's something about you that creates legacy. What is that?
SPEAKER_04:Wow. I never thought of me having any sort of legacy besides being old.
SPEAKER_02:I can I could speak to that because I know Shod really well. And he is the the man inside that he is on the outside. Like I think that he has a high standard for life, and everything that he does, he does to the fullest extent, right? Like, and I saw that in I used to work for him. I know the listeners didn't hear our pre-conversation, but he was my first boss ever. And, you know, working at Rainbow Fin, he just always was like trying to find the highest quality of product that he could make. Same thing comes to his restaurants and his his tap rooms. They're they're always trying to bring the best to the area and fill a niche that's not there.
SPEAKER_00:That's pretty impressive. So was he an easy boss?
SPEAKER_02:He was he was what I needed at the time in my life.
SPEAKER_04:So I was not an easy boss back then.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, I used to sand fins. I used to be in the fin room sanding these wakeboard fins, and everyone I'd sand, I'd be like, this one's gonna make him happy. I know it. And he'd be like, do it again. I'm like, oh man. Wax on, wax on. It's exactly that.
SPEAKER_04:It's exactly that. One employee there, I mean, changed my way of thinking. And I was I was saying like a firefighter, I was always looking for fires and looking for problems. And so I would go around and go, you did this wrong, you did this wrong, you did this wrong, you did this wrong. And then I was really good at it.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, he was great at it.
SPEAKER_04:Well, as an employee, I realized didn't feel so good when one of the guys says, How about you say I did something right? And I was like, Wow. So I think that changed me. And Jerry didn't get to experience that guy.
SPEAKER_02:I I actually needed it though, that tough love, right? Like I was a wild 17-year-old or 18-year-old. I think I was pretty young and you know, I needed wild. I I wasn't wild, but I mean, like, you know, I I really looked up to Shot a lot. I still do to this day. And for me, it was to to know like this wasn't good. I thought it was good. Correcting that path and setting me on a new one was exactly what I needed, you know. So I think it's it's not a one size fits all. You do a good job balancing that.
SPEAKER_00:I think contrary to popular belief, I think really soulful people understand what an employee might need. And I understand that we have these overarching rules and HR rules now to be positive. And you know, there's there's ways to adapt and be a better boss. And but uh, you know, he probably saw that you needed that.
SPEAKER_02:He he knew I had great potential. That's what he really can now.
SPEAKER_00:Look at his shirt.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I would I wouldn't say Jerry has really taken what we've talked a lot about. Yeah, it's like customer service is like number one and money is number two. Oh yeah, yeah. That's how I live my life is it you do really good by your customer, and the rest follows. And but I've also told him he needs to be not so nice sometimes. Way too nice.
SPEAKER_00:So the customer comes first, and you know, there's a whole generation that was kind of switched on us. Customer came first when we were eye to eye, belly to belly, they were in your shop, they were in your store. You got to resolve it then. But now we have the internet. Has that changed how you deal or teach your employees and management how to have customer service first?
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely not. If if you live your life by the internet, you're gonna be disappointed all the time. I mean, people will point out your worst flaws and act like you are like that every single day.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah, that's so interesting.
SPEAKER_04:That's useful. I don't I I I read it and I look at it, and I know a lot of people don't look at it, but I use it as something constructive and where they're trying to use it as something destructive.
SPEAKER_00:That's beautiful. I'm gonna use that as a quote.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's a really good one. Yeah, let me write that down.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, let me write it down for you. I'm the secretary. So beer 30 shows up in your brain as an idea, or were you a group of people thinking about it?
SPEAKER_04:It showed up in my wife's brain right after I broke my neck surfing. And so I was sitting on the couch, and this is probably four months after I broke my neck. And so I guess eight weeks out of a neck brace, and still just kind of cruising around, at least not using the walker. And she's working at a beer distributor, and she puts up this flyer from a a beer magazine and is a craft beer bar in New York. And she's like, We need to do this. And I said, I'm busy right now. So but put a lot of plans in place of just research and development, of finding where we need to go, what we needed to do. And as a team, we put together a plan to go up to Portland. It had of the top 100 beer bars in the nation, six of them, six of the top ten were in Portland. And we're like, well, that's makes it really easy. And of the top ten, I mean, like, I think the top four were all Portland. Wow. So we went up there and went to all those places and started brink drinking beer first thing in the morning and drank beer till the bars closed and put together a plan and brought those pieces back here and went all in.
SPEAKER_00:So instead of beer thirty, it could have been beer therapy for your neck.
SPEAKER_04:That's how you got through it. No, it was really hard.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, drinking all day long. So you it is. You you it's work. It's a sport. I mean, you can work hard for it.
SPEAKER_04:My job title, I gotta make sure the beer's cold. Oh, yeah. I gotta make sure the glassware is clean. There's lots of things I have to check. Yeah, get that beer.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yes.
SPEAKER_03:That's pretty cool though. Take the best of six of them and bring it back and combine it into one.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and and when they did it too, they were the pioneers, right? Like I remember when he came to me with the idea and I was like, wow, that's there's nothing like that here, you know, at the time. There was no craft beer wasn't a thing. Like it was right on the cusp of of that breaking through. And it was it was really interesting too, because I don't know if you care that I share this, how all in you guys went. Like they sold everything to make this happen, right? Like even down to your car.
SPEAKER_04:I didn't have a truck.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, he sold everything. And I think that that commitment to that, to that dream was insane, you know, and to see them flourish in this, you know, it's it's a hard market right now for you guys, but they're still flourishing right now, and and it's really cool to see.
SPEAKER_04:So I tell a lot of people it's like, I mean, we only flourish because I don't have another plan.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, this is it.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that gave me chills. And it's gotta be lovely that your wife you guys were a team. So there has to be well, I'm thinking there's gotta be so much pressure, but so much joy at the same time. Would you say that it affected you guys, or were you just this the team incredible and you're like, we're gonna we're gonna do this and we're focusing forward?
SPEAKER_04:Well, I think I mean one of the things we do is every day is a new day and we have bad days. And I'm it's really easy for me to apologize because I'm quick to I'll I'll say nastiness sometimes. And it's but I sometimes I tell my wife, I'm like, I just gotta have to get it out. Yeah. I mean, for a lot of years, I mean my first answer to everything was no. And then I had to like realize if you want no to have power, you have to say yes sometimes. Oh, that's another quote.
SPEAKER_02:There you go, he's full of them.
SPEAKER_00:If you want human shot. How are you want to say yes sometimes? I am full of no, yeah, yeah. Uh so Beer30 takes off right away, or was it slow rolling?
SPEAKER_04:I would say it took off right away. I mean, and that was probably one of our biggest struggles in the beginning is hiring, because we hired really slow because what the our team was really important. And but like we'd hire someone and then four weeks later we need to hire someone else, and it just kept going. And so, I mean, for I don't know, almost two years, I work seven days a week.
SPEAKER_00:Oh wow. And long hours, like 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
SPEAKER_04:or uh well luckily I mean beer's later. Uh-huh. So I'm glad.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. Not like doing a person at eleven.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah. I mean, like my day would start at nine and go till ten. Wow. So but I mean it was also it was drinking beer as part of the job, so it's not uh the worst thing to be doing.
SPEAKER_00:So for people that don't know beer thirty is in SoCal, what made you pick SoCal?
SPEAKER_04:It checked all the boxes. And those boxes were so it had to have a beer garden. Okay. And interior space was flexible and we felt like it was better to have a smaller interior space and we wanted to be close to the freeway. I've experienced a lot of places that I don't go to often because it's 15, 20 minutes off of the freeway. Maybe in a great spot, but for people to be able to pull off on their way home, decompress from the work day, and then head south on the rest of the day, that's been uh I think a pretty big thing for us.
SPEAKER_00:It's super fun. If you guys haven't been there, I if you're coming from over the hill or out of town, I mean it's it's truly the best because you get to experience it's kind of like Starbucks, but it's for beer. You get a chance to have craft beer or kombucha or non-alcoholic beer and play.
SPEAKER_02:In the sunshine. In the sunshine with your friends.
SPEAKER_03:I feel like you guys and Central Park, everything all together, you know, all the all the good places.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, you guys nailed a location. It's sunny all the time there, you know. I mean, except for those winter days that rain, but you know, yeah. In June, when it's I mean, but you don't get a whole lot of the coastal fog there, right?
SPEAKER_04:Like it's actually the weather there is perfect, and I would say the biggest benefit we had in our first two years, I bet it rained 12 days in two years. Yeah. And when it did rain, it rained during the week and not on the weekend. Yeah, that's awesome. We were very blessed to have everything aligned.
SPEAKER_00:So you go to Portland, top six breweries, you come back down, you're crafting this, you open, and you know what you want the environment to look like. What did you want the beer to look like?
SPEAKER_04:Not what we thought our customers wanted to look like. So we were we missed the mark on that. We really wanted to bring the craftiest of crafty beers. And basically our customers told us, like, I just want a good cold beer.
SPEAKER_05:Oh.
SPEAKER_04:And so we changed like probably within a month and started bringing stuff. And I mean, our walk-in cooler is six feet by twelve feet, and I had it stacked three high for months until we got some better storage for the kegs, but it was it was it was exhausting.
SPEAKER_02:Now, when when you say you brought in something that they didn't want, were you getting obscure craft brands?
SPEAKER_04:A lot of Belgian beers, sour beers from other countries and just I mean, different stouts and different things we didn't we were kind of at the beginning of the whole IPA wave. That's like when Stone and Drake's were taking off. Right. Really just kind of making that blossom, and our customers wanted IPAs.
SPEAKER_00:That's interesting. Because, you know, even down to Monterey and some of the local craft breweries, I mean, IPA is the the place to go. I mean, surfers, mountain bikers, that that's very fascinating. So that was a fast turnaround. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, no, I was just gonna say, I think the beer culture changes pretty quick. And I remember those early days. Like I remember you had a lot of bottled, darker beers, you know, stouts and porters in the back. And I do think that the the menu is still very dynamic. But yeah, you've got a great selection of West Coast, you know, hazy things that people drink all day long. I think the trap is those sours, like everybody wants them, but they're they hit a little like too hard and they're a little too sweet, right?
SPEAKER_04:Well, it's just it's most of the time it's just one and done.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's just like, I mean, if you're having a a dessert wine, I mean, you're not gonna have sex.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Not if you're waking up feeling well the next day.
SPEAKER_03:But how do you listen to your customers? That's probably one of the hardest parts is to understand what it is that they want. You know, I'll go to dinner sometime and say, Oh yeah, waitress, that was great. And get in the car with my wife and go, Oh my god, that meatloaf was terrible. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you ordered a meatloaf. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I would say beer sales tell us what our customers want. So I mean, they people I had the hardest thing we had when people came into our place to sell us beer was to be like, this isn't gonna make the cut. And that was that was that was really hard because I mean it was even some people we knew and I mean very successful beer breweries in Santa Cruz now. And but I've as Jerry knows, I mean, like probably one of my faults and his faults is sometimes we're too honest.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And it's like, but that's only with people we know that care.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Otherwise, we'll just tell them what they want to hear.
SPEAKER_00:I think people appreciate both of your authenticity.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's important too in that business, because you know, like it's not gonna sell, right? Like if the if you if you lie about it or tell them what they want to hear, it's not gonna sell and then they put it on you.
SPEAKER_04:Well, it's like look at car lots. I mean, if I wanted to go buy an EV today, I could walk in and buy one. If I want to get a truck and I'm gonna walk in there and it's it's gonna be hard to find what I want. So obviously customers want more trucks, otherwise there'll be more trucks on the lot.
SPEAKER_00:Oh so how do you run it now? Well, first of all, when when were you established? When was the founding date?
SPEAKER_04:That was tw March 2014.
SPEAKER_00:Wow. So you are going on 11 years. It's like just like yesterday.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I don't know if we mentioned it, but you guys also own the beer mule in Watsonville.
SPEAKER_00:Which is amazing too.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a pretty cool. It's a great facility. And and uh Do you have a favorite between the two?
SPEAKER_04:I I would say I don't have a favorite between the two. I mean, I like I mean for different things, I would say like beer thirty sometimes could be hard for me because I would say more people know me there and it's like when I'm trying to get go there and just hang out with my friends.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But I mean I don't know. I I think they're both amazing and I mean the main thing is having a cold beer in your hand.
SPEAKER_02:Do you do you find the habits of the the people who are buying beer or the patrons are different between the two locations?
SPEAKER_04:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:Really?
SPEAKER_04:So I mean it's just over there. I mean, we're selling a a lot of Mexican lagers, uh IPAs and uh Fruli, which is uh strawberry ale. No way. So and it's one of our more expensive items on the board, and people love it. And I would it's our most successful location up to date.
SPEAKER_02:And wow, and the main thing is just beer mule is as a whole.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:No kidding.
SPEAKER_04:And there's less competition. Yeah. I mean, you come into Santa Cruz and I mean within 15 minutes there's like 12 places to go.
SPEAKER_00:I didn't know that. So being in the real estate world, I've been part of women's council realtors, modern real estate you know, professionals, and we've used Beer 30 and and beer mule, and everybody loves it. It's great. What on the board from on the draft, what are you generally running out of both? 20, 24 different beers products?
SPEAKER_04:Beer 30 is 31. Holy cow. And then beer mule is 38.
SPEAKER_02:Holy cow, that's a lot of beers.
SPEAKER_00:And you're managing all that in your mind? Is this like a passion project where you you know you're kind of rain man about it where you know everything, or do you really sit down and study the numbers?
SPEAKER_04:And well, we have a uh our partnership is really great. So it's I mean, my wife is our finance and our HR. And I mean, she deals with the banks and insurance. God, more insurance, more more insurance.
SPEAKER_02:I love it. I love it so much.
SPEAKER_04:We just roll back the clock 20 years.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I know. Dude, it's great.
SPEAKER_04:And then our other partner, she's does our social media and also our beer buying.
SPEAKER_00:Speaking of social media, you're on Instagram pretty heavy. And if anybody wants to check it out, what is your Instagram handles?
unknown:Good.
SPEAKER_00:Just look it up. Yeah, no, awesome. No, it's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_02:He's last I have facilities 30 Santa Cruz.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So it's like ask what's your best friend's phone number?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, what's my own phone number is about all I know. So when it when people come to either of those and it's their first experience, people are absolutely blown away. They love the beer, they love the selection, they love the vibe. You have Jeremiah Killy and So Kill, you've got art, you've got a vibe. What happens with food? What did you guys did decide to do about food?
SPEAKER_04:Well, beer 30 was our original plan of how we wanted to do things, and it was with no food and customers to bring in food because I mean that's was one of our favorite places in Portland that's still open. It's called Apex, and they have a Mexican food place next door. And uh Beer Meal, when we looked at that location, they required us to have food, and we're like, there's gonna be other food places next to us. And Watsonville's had a long history with problems with alcohol abuse, and so they were very gun shy of having a place that was gonna sell a lot of beer. And but I mean, we've been working with the Watsonville police and also the sheriff's department, and we're like, we don't want anybody leaving our place intoxicated and we'll turn them away. And I mean, some guy told me one day, he's like Applebee's to never told me tells me no. I'm like, we'll get Applebee's.
SPEAKER_00:So in Watsonville, do you have food trucks?
SPEAKER_04:No. We started with food trucks and that was just for a few months, and then um we have a full kitchen there.
SPEAKER_05:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_04:And then our outdoor space allows food from the other vendors in the the park around us, which is pizza, Mexican food. And there's like Zamin or something. Yeah, nothing. Zamine used to be there. Oh. That's for the Mexican food places, and then there's like Boba Tea and Grape Place.
SPEAKER_00:And then Beer 30 has Are you allowed to still bring food in?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And then so you have what is the pizza place?
SPEAKER_02:Carp. Well, there's carpoos and there's Buzo's store.
SPEAKER_00:That's the amazing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's really good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. All right, let's transition, unless you guys want to keep talking about that. The trout farm. Have you guys been to the trout farm?
SPEAKER_02:I have. It's pretty cool. Yeah, I think the the trout farm from when we were kids, it's neat for me because you know, I I used to go up there a lot when I was a kid, and now they have this amazing pool, you know, pool deck, great restaurant, and they're full bar up there.
SPEAKER_03:Full bar.
SPEAKER_00:Ryan, have you been?
SPEAKER_03:So funny story. They actually used to fish there when I was little. Yeah. Dad would take me up there to the fish pond up there and fish. And the last time I was up there was before shot it at it and uh caught on fire. I was sitting inside with my kid, and all of a sudden we see smoke coming up. You were there when it happened. Oh, me and my son ran out. That's wild. Yeah, whole thing is on fire.
SPEAKER_00:So when did you take it over and decide with your partners this is what I want to do?
SPEAKER_04:This was in we purchased it in August of 21. So we were definitely not looking for another location and had no desire. Like, I mean, the probably the number one question I'm asked is what's going on with SoCal Avenue location, the old Wiener Sitzel.
SPEAKER_02:That came up before you got here. I was like, I'm gonna let it out. I'm gonna let Shad fill it out, Dan.
SPEAKER_04:So that location was we were gonna start work on March of 2020, and COVID hit.
SPEAKER_02:You're talking about the Wiener Sitzel.
SPEAKER_04:And so that derailed it at that point, and then like towards the end of 20, we started getting some work done, and then the trout farm came up, and I had never been to the trout farm before. I was a surfer, I was hanging out at the beach, and I I didn't want to go up there to go to a pool. And we went up and looked at it as a group, and we were just like, this has so much potential. The building was rebuilt in 2019 and we bought it in 21. So the building was finished. The pool deck needed some refurbishing, and so we spent a good little over a year refurbishing the whole pool deck and adding the cabanas and upgrading everything we could to be open full time.
SPEAKER_02:And those those of us that aren't here and haven't seen it, it's it's basically like a resort, right? Like, I mean, that's the best way I could describe it. You go up there, you've got cabanas, you've got people bringing you drinks by the pool, and it's an amazing sunny spot that's always warm in the summer. It's perfect. Food up there too? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it's amazing. The calamari, the quesadillas, the drinks.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I mean as good as the tacos down at Beer Mule.
SPEAKER_04:They're they're different. And we still have we have a barbacoa taco up there, just like the Beer Mule. Oh, and that was that was Friday's that was their recipe that they allowed us to use up there. Nice.
SPEAKER_00:And it has plenty of parking.
SPEAKER_04:It's I oh really you can't have a successful place and have enough parking. That's yeah. I mean you have a lot of parking. Parking limits our business.
SPEAKER_00:That's fascinating. I I mean, every time I go by, it's full. And so when I went, it was I would say it's a 80% full day. It was 90 degrees. Yeah, everybody was amazing. I read online that you need to make a reservation for the pool. And I ended up making a reservation for the restaurant. They were so the customer service was amazing. I didn't, you know, they're like, man, you're bleacher hair. I can see what happened here, but they handled it immediately. They have this cute little hut with I've got stickers, I've got all the cool stuff now. And then they, you know, you can go pick a lounge chair to lay in, and you they give you a menu. You can order drinks from the little, I guess, cabana right there. They come by, they serve it. It's hot, the food is hot, the drinks are cold. And when I was in the pool, of course, I knew a lot of people living locally, people were bringing their kids before school started. People were celebrating their grandma, you know, people had people out of town and they just wanted them to see this. The sky was so blue, the trees were so green, the pool was like clean. You had, you know, you had accommodations that you wouldn't think about. So there's pool noodles that float through in the pool, you have towels, and then I absolutely love this part. You close at five and you start playing these songs that are about closing time. And you know, people are like, you know, you could tell they're like, get them out, but yeah, you know that they're not saying that, but it's like time to go. And people don't want to go. And ultimately, everybody leaves with a smile. They can't wait to come back the next day. It was just such an experience that I didn't expect. I had heard about it, and I I absolutely like immediately like, let's go meet here, let's have a meeting here, there's Wi-Fi here, we can go here.
SPEAKER_02:So it's pretty cool. Yeah.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:You guys do like yoga too out there, right?
SPEAKER_04:On Sundays, and we have yoga that's 10 to 11, and then noon to four we have a DJ. And then people even hire DJs on Saturday for their events, or they could do it any day of the week.
SPEAKER_03:That's pretty cool. You and the instructor for the yoga class. Is that you? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:That's shot all day. He's got massive flexibility after that broken neck.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, from his hips down. He's getting fast.
SPEAKER_02:Happy baby. Yeah, watch him do the splits.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know if I have any flexibility.
SPEAKER_00:So, Shot, are you still surfing or is that over?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, we were just talking about I've been talking about a lot of people. We want to go back and go surfing. I would say my biggest hindrance in Santa Cruz is lack of respect and nice, I don't know, just people being nice in the water. I mean, I've had much better interactions in San Diego as an interloper than I do in Santa Cruz, someplace I surfed my whole life, and just have people just say things to me, and it just when you get grumpy at something you're supposed to love, I mean, why are you doing it?
SPEAKER_02:I've got a toot shod's horn for a minute. He's like one of the best surfers in Santa Cruz. Used to be. Well, I mean, I in my eyes, dude, you still are, you know. You're Kelly Slater to me, dude. Yeah, but yeah, to hear some of this, like I can echo that. Like, I've been surfing here my whole life, and that's why I stopped surfing at during COVID. It just got too wild for me. I couldn't, I couldn't deal with that. That's something that's fun, that it just totally ruined the fun for me, you know. And I'm a nice guy always until that happens, and then it brings something out in me that I don't like, you know? And I think you're the same way that way, but we just need to do a trip to Indo together.
SPEAKER_04:I need about six months of training.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we could we could do that, we could figure that out.
SPEAKER_04:I just need to make surfing a bigger priority. It's like, I mean, I know Jerry mountain bikes a lot. I mean, we go up to the trails and I mean Nobody's yelling at you. Nobody says anything. It's like everybody's stoked. Even people you don't know, they're kind of like, Do I know you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And I mean, we're in Santa Cruz. I mean, you obviously know when people don't know you and don't like you. And it's just it's I don't know, I find it kind of disgusting. And I used and I used to be kind of a grumpy guy in the water, but I was I was pretty even and it's like let's just all take turns. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So right. Kind of the martial law of the water, like you you we follow the rules, and I don't have to be a grumpy old man, but you're not a grumpy old man, but you know, like what you were saying. So are you mountain biking?
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I like that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's fun. There's a group of guys that meet every Thursday called Team Old Soil. They're amazing. And they do a Thursday night ride up in UCSC. And I think Shod's great friends with a few of the originators of that group.
SPEAKER_04:And went to high school with Marvin, right? The originator of the whole thing.
SPEAKER_02:Which we should have Margin Marvin on the show. He's an amazing artist in town, graphic design guy.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. He did the Cuombo Jazz Center. He did the building on the back of Humble Sea.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And a few other small projects. And I know there's another one he did, but the I think the Kuombo one is pretty amazing. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So what's next on your list? Riding the wave.
SPEAKER_04:Well, I would say for me and And my wife, when we were thinking about grandkids, our daughter is planning on having kids, and I think that's really gonna be a huge change in life because I mean our grandparents were really influential in our lives, and we want to be those grandparents.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's so beautiful. That's awesome. Well, as we wrap this up, Sean, is there anything you want people to hear that either know about your businesses or don't know? Maybe a message for them.
SPEAKER_04:I don't know when Soquel Avenue is opening.
SPEAKER_00:They started that. I'm surprised they didn't keep going with that. Well, thank you so much for being here on OTC Owning the Coast Podcast. I'm Brandy Jones with Keller Williams Thrive. You can reach me at 831 588-5145. Jerry.
SPEAKER_02:I'm Jerry Seagraves, Seagraves Insurance, 831 464 1870.
SPEAKER_03:Ryan Buckhold, Cross Country Mortgage, 831 818 2339. I'll see you at BR30.
SPEAKER_00:Hideout, vodka.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, hideout.
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