The remodeled Becker Surfboards store will celebrate the grand reopening of its flagship store on upper Pier Avenue with music by Bullys and Matadors, Whitley Heights and The Parted, plus food, ping-pong battles, discounts and giveaways, noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 25.
Giveaway events and contests will run throughout the day, and raffle tickets for a massive prize drawing will be available. There will also be a prize-spin wheel, a chance to “Beat the Kid at Ping Pong” and win a Billabong fullsuit, and product discounts up to 75 percent off.
Sponsors include Billabong, Von Zipper (who will be running the barbeque grill), Xcel, Tom’s Shoes, Element, O’Neill, Brixton, Quiksilver, Hoven, Freedom Artists, Stance, Nixon, Zico Coconut Water, Sector 9, and Hippy Tree.
The store was emptied out in early October and moved to temporary digs on Artesia Boulevard in Manhattan Beach, to clear the way for a sweeping remodel and a more open, airy look with a higher ceiling and a more customer-friendly layout.
The Becker remodel followed an expansion by ET Surf that doubled its two-story building on Aviation Boulevard in Hermosa Beach, annexing a former auto shop next door to create one 7,000 square-foot store.
The highlights of the shop remain the same, including wood racks and a ceiling display of vintage surfboards, but the merchandise from ET’s long board shop to the east has been moved into the new, expanded shop.
Another remodel was completed more than a year ago at Spyder Surf on Pacific Coast Highway, opening up the floor space and raising the ceiling from 10 to 20 feet. The work made it possible for stock boards to be placed up high and wetsuits to be displayed distinctively on a wide, encircling, dry-cleaning carousel.
The changes allowed Spyder to greatly expand its inventory, including quadrupling its wetsuits.
Spyder added new cabinets, surfaces and paint, and raised the ceiling in a board display room, which includes a work station at which Dennis Jarvis, an award-winning shaper, custom designs boards for surfers, who can watch the design develop on a 55-inch-wide video monitor.
