Carol Holland, the Godmother of Surf Travel
- December 4, 2007
- 0 Comments
- By Story/Photos by Gayla Schaefer
Long before I started writing about surfers, actually long before I started writing at all, I met a woman who by almost all accounts is the Godmother of Surf Travel.
I was a newbie Event Director at Brevard Zoo at the time. I had been at the job maybe two months and was still trying to wrap my mind around planning the zoo's biggest event of the year, Boo at the Zoo, since my only event training came from high dollar black tie galas outside of New Orleans.
It was a bit of a culture shock, but one I was excited about because the hands-on conservation ethic of the zoo was much more to my personal style than the high falootin' cocktail parties and seemingly unlimited expense accounts of my national non-profit days.
It was during this time when I was contemplating 10,000 small kiddos and their parents wandering the park in costume after dark that Carol Holland called me up out of the blue.
My recollection of the call goes something like this…
"Hi Gayla. This is Carol Holland. I own Surf Express and we have always loved the zoo and animals so I want to do something to help the zoo."
"Fantastic!" I said, thinking that she was going to offer a small $50-100 sponsorship since that seemed to be about par for the small businesses who had agreed to participate at that point.
"I was thinking we could donate a 7 night trip to Costa Rica, including airfare and accommodations and you could raffle tickets."
Jaw drops on my end of the line.
I am going to have to fess up here and tell you, much to my shame, that I had no idea who Carol Holland was, or who her children were, until the first night of Boo that year when I was talking to my best friend and event committee chair, Alexia, and her husband Blaine who was escorting their children around the event to the various trick-or-treat booths where local businesses were handing out candy to the itsy-bitsy ghouls and goblins.
"Do you know who I just saw?" I heard Blaine practically exclaim to his wife. "Todd Holland is over there handing out candy and raffling a free trip to Costa Rica for a week!"
After he had moved on to take the kids through the Haunted House, I quietly asked Alexia who Todd Holland was, thinking his name sounded familiar, only to get an astonished guffaw from my friend as she said something like, "You really don't know? You incredible space cadet!"
Ok, I spent a lot of time gawking at my personal cherished surfers from the shores of Cocoa Beach and Sebastian, but I never paid much attention to the Who's Who. I had heard the names float by from the guys: Slater, Holland, Zamba, but, I never paid any more attention that I paid to the names of starting quarterbacks. Just not my thing.
When the event ended that night I hit the Internet and familiarized myself with Todd's fantastic exploits (with some helpful hints from my buddy, Blaine, and my embarrassed husband who also was ashamed of me) and I discovered that my new buddy, Carol, was much more than the Boo saving grace who generated so much word-of-mouth in advance of the event because of her donation that our numbers swelled way past any other year and who handed over a huge check to me for the raffle proceeds that probably helped land me a promotion a few months later.
It turned out (as most of your probably already know) that she is a dynamo in the surf travel world admired by all I've since talked to who have ever met her.
The world of the fundraising professional is a weird little existence that involves an extensive amount of rear end smooching and efforts to appease the egos of those who donate even a dime. (There is a reason I don't do it anymore.) But, Carol never asked for that or expected it. She just called up one day with an idea how to help. She did most all of the work and she got relatively little acclaim for her efforts. In a decade of fundraising related activity, I can honestly say I met less than a handful of people like that.
I have adored her ever since.
Years went by. I had kids and transitioned into the Hybrid Mom world of the freelance writer and I saw few people I had known at the zoo. Then one day an assignment came along that gave me a chance to reconnect with my old Boo at the Zoo pal.
I was asked to do a story on everything you can do in the waters around the Space Coast. The editors unpleasantly decided to eventually title my article, "Get Wet!" which I am still blushing over, but in my frantic efforts to find a way to fit in something about every aspect of the local Life Aquatic, I emailed over to Carol to ask her for some help.
She e-introduced me to Jim MacLaren who gave me one of the absolute best interviews of my life, by phone no less, in under 30 minutes. He told me all about the ins and outs of surfing our little neck of the woods in such a fast paced enthralling way, well almost like prose really, that at the end of the monster assignment (1000 words or less on EVERYTHING you can do in the water around here – I mean, c'mon!), I decided on the spot that I was going to find a way to write more about surfing. Having been reminded of the fantastic exploits of our own beloved Mrs. Holland by MacLaren, and told of a new live aboard boat package she was excited about by Carol, I decided to pitch it to an unlikely place: the newspaper Business section.
Why do I say unlikely? Well, how often do you read about surfing in the Business section? Hmmmmm?
But the editor gave me the go ahead and a few weeks later, after doing more interviews than I had ever done on any story in my life, I turned in not one but four stories on the business of surf travel, which led Buddha to offer me this job as a staff writer in the first place.
Unfortunately, while I was working on my surf travel opus, Carol was out of the country doing what she does best: researching fantastic new getaway locations and accommodations for her clients. I obviously had to include her in the story anyway, so I had Jim and one of her agents, Jason Rossicki, tell me all about the company and the business. While I was loitering about the Cocoa Beach Surf Company Complex Surf eXpress office during those interviews, I also spoke with a woman who did the accounting for the agency, and she told me more about the amazing magnitude of what Carol "created."
I was convinced I needed to do a story just on Carol since the surf travel story had morphed into something much broader in scope including tour operators from all over the country.
And yes, I was told by one or two that Carol was not the first in the Surf Travel game, but the distinctions seemed mostly hair-splitting and even a bit East versus West Coast old school argumentativeness. So, for the purposes of this specific story, let's say that Carol was among the very first pioneers in the industry.
As a fellow gal of, shall we say limited stature, I was even more impressed by how she did what she did.
Now, I worked at a zoo for many years and was constantly surrounded by the most empowered types of women who had back-packed across the African Savannah or learned to communicate with gorillas, and it is within that context that I tell you I was awed by Carol's fearlessness when I heard tale of how she ventured, often alone, into the extreme jungles of Costa Rica and other Central American countries, to first seek out great new places to surf, then to back up until she found accommodations in the general proximity (early on, she says these "accommodations" were as simple as a shack with a light bulb) and then how she was sought out by the leaders of the burgeoning tourism sector in Costa Rica to bring "these surfers" in to the country at a time when maybe five or six surfers wandered Costa Rican shorelines each year.
I have reported this interesting tidbit elsewhere before, but it is worth repeating again here for mass consumption yet again. Rosicka told me that not long ago, as they were traveling through the Ecuadorian Airport one day, he was amazed when the President of Ecuadorian Tourism himself made a point to come over and shake Carol's hand and thank her for brining surfing to his country.
And, lest this part of the story go somehow unnoticed – this woman makes no grand standing attempts for recognition from anyone, at least none I have ever seen or any which have been reported to me by those in her field.
Anyway, several months after that story on the entire industry of surfing ran in the local newspaper, I was still searching for a venue to tell Carol's story. I found a way to do a profile on her for a local women's magazine, but the timing was not right because at that moment Carol was taking care of something much more important: her very ill mother.
She apologized to me that she couldn't be part of my story right then, and while I was definitely disappointed, I was also touched by her incredible humanity and lack of vanity. I hate to say it, but I have interviewed many people who could "use" the free publicity even though there were really much more important things they should have been attending to than photo shoots and chat sessions.
Again, Carol is not like most other people.
A few months later, I found another willing editor, this time at Space Coast Business magazine, where I was just bantering away one day about women in business who blew my mind and my editor was equally amazed at the incredible untold story that is Carol Holland.
He gave me the go ahead to do a full business profile on her for the issue that pub's this month (Dec. 2007) on tourism, even though most everyone else in the issue is someone focused on bringing tourists to our beaches – not sending them to a land far, far away. I am incredibly grateful to him for the chance to tell her tale for all the local tourism industry movers and shakers to see because, I kid you not, many of them have never heard of her.
"I am just really not much of a joiner," she told me during the course of my interviews for that story. "In North Carolina, where we lived before we moved here, I was at all the right meetings and on all the right boards. But, its just not who I am. There is a reason that I like getting in a car and driving off alone into the jungle."
It was with a touch of sadness though that I found her for the interview and, in hindsight, I fear she agreed only out of kindness to my excitement. She was obviously still recovering from the emotional roller coaster.
But, in true Carol Holland fashion, she smiled and started to ask about my kids and gave me silent permission to continue with my task.
Did I mention this woman has one of the greatest smiles on Earth? She is this tiny little bundle of energy with a real enthusiasm for life who infects you with her down-to-Earth country-girl-meets-beach-attitude in a matter of minutes.
Well, she is also an amazing entrepreneur who took it upon herself to help create an entire industry because she couldn't stand to see how traditional travel agencies and airlines treated surfers and she knew from experience, as a contest organizer for many years, as Todd and Dack's mother, and as a traditional travel agent, how to find the best deals and prepare for the incredibly unique contingencies that surfers on holiday are going to encounter.
Don't know what I am referring to? Well, think about the struggles you have at the airport with a slightly oversize bag, now consider transporting a couple of surfboards.
With the consent of my editor at Space Coast Business, I will recount a bit of the story here, and if you want more, you can grab a copy of the December issue or read it online at www.spacecoastbusiness.com
Ok, so having already touched briefly on many of the facets of Carol's current business success, here is a quick synopsis of the events that led up to it…
As any surfer who was paying attention in the late 1980's and early 1990's, can tell you, Carol Holland was a well known contest organizer with the NSSA and ASP who many remember as a sweet, yet firm, contact in their forays to the competitive world. Her son, Todd, is a former ASP Rookie of the Year who was in the Top 10 and her other son, Dack, was also a well known competitive surfer.
Further back in her story I learned that Carol grew up on a rural North Carolina farm and was a successful realtor with her own offices there when her sons, Todd and Dack, were young. Since her husband, Mickey, traveled to Florida a lot for business, she decided to relocate here in 1982 in the hopes of creating more together time for the family.
"He still travels all the time, so it didn't exactly work as planned," she laughed as she told me. "He and Todd met up in an airport once for dinner when Todd was traveling for competitions."
Carol got involved in surfing in a big way once the family moved to Florida and she is very proud of her roots.
"I was VP of NSSA - East Coast for several years and worked with the national team and organization on getting our kids travel savvy," she explained. "We went to California for Nationals; established a mini-circuit from Jax Beach to Jupiter Beach and had a blast."
She also worked with ASP as a contest director for events here on the east coast including the Op – East, events in Puerto Rico and Panama.
Before Todd went pro, Carol had helped him with his travel arrangements but as he went pro, she decided to go into the travel industry.
"I had such great experiences working with Peter Townend (PT) and Pat and Ian Cairns in the era of Shaun Tomson, Dave Parmeter, Mark Foo. Then Todd was finishing high school and ready to go pro, it was good time for me to 'retire,' so I went to travel school."
She got her training to become a travel agent and went to work for a traditional local agency.
But, the traditional part of the equation was not a great fit for Holland, who is certainly not the traditional type of gal.
Her many contacts from the surfing world sought her out for helping planning their competition travel and their Endless Summer get-aways. It seemed like a natural market to tap since friends do business best - with friends.
The owner of the company was not so thrilled. Carol practically grimaces describing how the owner didn't like Carol's clientele's ultra casual attire.
The straw that broke the camel's back was when the owner became upset at the discovery of wet hundred dollar bills in the agency safe (the assumption being that those surfers had paid with wet bills from out of their baggies).
So, Carol decided to open her own agency catering to her beloved surfers, a move that was, at the time, very unusual.
"My peers were laughing at me," she says with a wry grin.
Never trying to compete with the traditional agencies, Holland was ahead of her time in targeting a niche in the travel market. It was a move that saved her when the Internet revolution changed travel planning forever.
Most Mom and Pop travel agencies were left in the silicon dust when sites like Expedia and Travelocity came along. But, for those who need to prepare much more than a simple plane ride followed by a Hertz Rent-A-Car, those in the know (and those that they know) continue to call on the expert who helped create the surf travel niche in the first place.
As I found when I did the newspaper story, there are relatively few locals who haven't used Carol (or used her exclusively is more like it) to make their travel plans.
Her clients are her friends or friends of friends, in a giant national network of surfers who may have trouble with soggy currency but definitely know something about word-of-mouth advertising. Not a one of the locals I interviewed referred to her as anything but "Carol" when asked who they let handle their travel plans – and I didn't start the question with any indication that I even knew a Carol.
Although I never would have noticed if she hadn't been prodded into pointing it out, there is a plaque on the wall of the Surf eXpress office which thanks Carol for bringing surfing to Costa Rica – you know, that place everyone you have ever known has taken a surfing trip to at some point? Yes, Carol is the one who brought you there.
It is a long, and rather complicated story involving names of people all over the world that encapsulates the full breadth of what Carol did to accomplish this.
To summarize: around 1987 she was approached by a friend at the major Latin American air carrier to meet with the head honchos from the Jaco Beach area to discuss how to bring in more surfers. They contacted her because she had already been actively seeking rental units to house her growing clientele and some smart business people had taken notice during the traditional tourist down season that there were a few (seriously, like two or three) surfers in the area even though the major hotel was considering closing its doors because no one else was traveling there at that time of year.
The man sent to meet her at the Costa Rican airport missed her completely in his focus on finding the tall, dignified American businesswoman. Carol is 5'2.
Carol 's upbringing on the farm made her feel at ease in the rural communities and despite her limited Spanish, she wandered around in search of the best waves and the accommodations to match. Sometimes she had to push the car out of the jungle.
One of my personal favorite parts of her story of the early days in Costa Rica involves a wild monkey she became so friendly with that it would eat from her hand in true Jane Goodall fashion because she had spent so much time in the monkey's environment, it accepted her.
She wasn't always alone in the jungle, however. She often took her family, including young grand babies, along for the ride.
"I always show the picture of my grandson when he was three-months-old with me on the cliff in Costa Rica when I hear people say they can't bring their kids," she explained.
It is hard to argue with that and while little Calvin may have gotten a diaper rash during that trip, he survived it, and many since, along with hCarol's grand daughter, and the two are now very well traveled adolescents.
Her motherly temperament towards all, plus her extreme credibility in the field, has made her a force to be reckoned with, especially to airlines that still don't always understand just how much space a surfboard will require and who have been agonizingly slow in some instances to recognize the purchasing force of the market segment who don't often show up at airports in Polo shirts with golf bags in tow.
Of course, most of her business is conducted online now, which she doesn't exactly like being an extraordinarily friendly people-person, any dislike for organized networking gatherings not withstanding.
She has also watched the market change in other ways.
"It used to be when someone called they wanted to talk surfing," she said. "Now they want to know about everything else there is to do as well."
More surfers bring along spouses and children, making Holland's and her team's research efforts even more important to maintain their credo that they never sell a place they haven't personally surfed and explored.
And, as the soul surfing Endless Summer types who were happy to camp in an abandoned bunker have given way to the sophisticated 21 st century consumer with expectations of luxurious accommodations – even in a tropical rain forest – she has watched as four and five star hotels have capitalized on the trend by setting up shop near many of the hottest beaches and new live-aboard boats capable of meeting every desire during a weeklong trip to Panama (a trip only Surf eXpress and Quiksilver are able to sell by the way) have taken the guys and gals really just interested in the sport to a whole new realm of possibility.
Expanding far past Costa Rica, she now offers tours to El Salvador, Barbados, Jamaica, Ecuador, the Galapagos, Peru, Indonesia and Nicaragua. And, exemplifying the fantastic perks that go with the job of being the foremost expert, she or a member of her team, have truly checked out each excursion from start to finish to ensure the best possible advice to their clients.
Its been a great ride to be sure, and one that has let her live the life of her dreams, make millions of memories for her own family, and countless others as well, and it has secured her a place for all eternity as a founder of an industry that has now branched in a million different directions from surfing to snow boarding.
And, fittingly, she relishes every minute of it.
"Where else could I work in my office barefoot, with my dog, and be able to have the grand kids run as well as employees kids which have come and grown and been part of our office 'family' around any time I want?" she laughs with that twinkling smile I remembered so well as she pets her canine companion, Bossy.
Now, that's the Carol we all know and love!
For more information on Surf eXpress visit www.surfex.com