10 Over Surf Shop didn't start in the conventional way. Most shops these days are forced to succumb to the rising pressures of rate increases, forcing them to take their trade online. For Chris Thomson, the reverse is true – and there's even a reverse behind the reverse.

“10 Over Surf Shop actually came about after we launched Longboarder Magazine, a print product in a digital age,” said Chris Thomson, shop owner, who launched that mag with fellow longboard enthusiast Sam Bleakley – the mag is now celebrating its fourth annual edition.

“It was from there, with how well it was received, I thought maybe a surf shop made a lot of sense, to give people a relaxed place to hang out, thumb through the magazine, chat about surfing.” 

But that story is an over simplification of the steps it took to get to there. There's moving countries, abandoning college and, ahem, repurposing college bursaries to live at Newquay Backpackers to surf every day. There's personal struggle, a very real cancer diagnosis and the COVID bomb that forced Chris and his family to rethink how their life was going to look over the next few years. So 10 Over Surf Shop isn't necessarily a shop history lesson, it is Chris' and his families story, and the steps it took to get here. 

Chris Thomson

On Surfing 
“My first experience of surfing? Wow, that was when I was nine-years-old. I'd also just spend about six hours a day the skate park – that was prior to even thinking about surfing. But during the school holidays, I'd go and visit my dad in Wembury, and he bought us an old seven foot, pop-out surfboard. My brother and I would lug it to the beach, which took about an hour and we'd spend all day there.

“We actually spent more time sliding on the seaweed into the sea than actually surfing because we thought that was more fun. Eventually we progressed to actually riding the board, watching other people surf and beginning to understand what was going on. That's probably where it all started.

“By the time I was about 13, I'd been surfing for a couple of years and was really lucky because some of the older guys took me under their wing – where I was brought up on the Isle of Wight. 

“I was living in Cowes, which is obviously much more known for sailing than surfing and the decent beaches were about an hour away.

“They'd take me surfing at weekends. It was always a 5.00am start for some reason, always cold and always raining, but I'd tag along with their group and they'd drive us to the beach. I was probably one of only two surfers in the whole school. Everyone else played football. So that 'older' generation of surfers really became important to me. I saw older, they were probably in their 30s or something.

“The Isle of Wight is so tidal, there was a lot of downtime. You could get up at 5am, drive for an hour and a half, get to the beach and find it pumping, or completely flat. So that downtime meant hanging out in surf shops.

“You're sitting there making 20 cups of tea a day for everyone else, but you're absorbing everything. That was rocket fuel for me. And then I started reading about Newquay in Wavelength Magazine. And that was it, I knew I had to be there.”

On Newquay
“Anyway surfing just took over. I remember my predicted GCSE were quite high, flunked them. Got into college to study sports science, got a little bursary to go and do that but instead, cashed it in, moved to Newquay. I remember my mum not thinking I would actually go and still, now 30-years-later, she still can't believe I did that. I remember arriving in Newquay when I was 17 and thinking, I can't believe I've actually made it.

“From about 17 to 20 I lived there. It was like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, 17 and 18-year-old lads from all over the country who'd done exactly the same thing. We'd all ended up in these shared six-person bedrooms that smelt of mould and weed, trying to figure out what we were going to do.

“From there, surfing was just my life. I didn't have a winter for about six years, mostly because of sponsorship from Fat Face. I spent those years travelling and competing on the longboard circuit.

“I also worked in Newquay in the summer. It was a few years later I met my wife, Theresa. She was visiting Newquay over from Canada and we hit it off instantly. We had been together for a few years, had kids. Felt settled here.”

On Changes

“Then in 2012, she was diagnosed with stage-four lymphoma. We decided to move to Canada to be close with her family as we really didn't know what was going to happen. I put everything to do with surfing on hold. We stopped looking at anything to do with surfing and I became a marketing agency guy.

“Theresa got better and on the side, I was building Marwick Marketing. It became huge, and I sold the business and moved to Costa Rica, before eventually coming back to Newquay because of COVID.

“And one of the biggest things we realised when we came back was just how exceptional the community in Newquay and Cornwall is. You don't necessarily realise how much you have until it's gone.

“When we first moved back, we'd go for a walk through town and see who we'd bump into and who would stop for a chat. That was such a novelty after being away for so long. It felt like home. And then we got stoked on surfing again.”

On Longboarder Magazine
“I had competed and done trips with Sam [Bleakley] for years. We both loved longboarding and wanted to produce something that showed how passionate we were for it. If we were going to do Longboarder, it made sense to have an online shop because we'd been doing that through Marwick for years. Then the online shop turned into a physical shop.

“So the original shop at Lanteague wasn't necessarily about having a huge turnover. It was about giving 10 Over Surf Shop a real-life personality. We wanted to show people what we wanted to do and give the brand a physical presence.”

On 10 Over Surf Shop 
“In the meantime, I was walking past 11 Cliff Road every day, thinking about the early 2000s when this was surf shop road. I walked past the building and always thought; it would be great if that was a surf shop again.

“Then, about a year later, they put a For Rent sign outside. I rang them instantly. It still took just over a year and a half from that point to getting the keys.

“There were so many questions. How were we going to find the money? How much were we going to spend? How long would we have to wait? What were we going to do in the meantime? They wanted three months' rent up front, for example, and you're thinking, 'how am I going to do that?'

“But I think there was a bit of blind faith and conviction in what we were trying to create. Some things just get stuck in your head. You can see them all the time. You know exactly what it should look like. And that vision outweighs the question of 'how are we going to do this?' You just find a way.”

On The Future
“I think the first year at this new home, we're going to see a lot of stoked faces.
There's already a lot of happiness from people who are excited to see a surf shop on this side of town again. This was surf shop road back in the early 2000s, so there's a heritage there.

"Then there are people sitting outside having a latte on the new patio, kids picking up their first surfboard, people coming in and hanging out. I think it's going to be quite a smiley, happy building, catering for any surfer who wanted to meet likeminded people, have a chat or just somewhere to hang out. There's no ego here, just the idea that everyone loves to surf – and that's ok. 

“We'll have lots of events, but ultimately I just want it to be a place people want to come and feel like they can enjoy anything to do with surfing. So really, it's about bringing some of that community back. And I think that's really what 10 Over Surf Shop has always been about.” 

10 Over Surf Shop is the new home of Longboarder Magazine, Wavelength Magazine, Marwick Marketing, the UK Surf & Skate Expo, Out Of Office Conference and DYSUJO. Pop in when we're open and ask any of the staff for information about; print advertising, becoming a mag stockist, retail, PPC, SEO, Google Ads, Meta and digital marketing.