Surf Exchange Company: Where Community-Building, Commerce, and Sustainability Meet
Andrew Nota is a connector. But even if you don’t know him personally, this fact is made abundantly clear by Surf Exchange Company: his multi-faceted marketplace that doubles as a community-building machine.
Surf Exchange offers a platform for people in the surf, snow, and skate world to buy and sell used goods. But it also offers other growing services, ultimately helping to connect individuals, shops, and small brands.
And it’s only continuing to grow.
Read on for our conversation with Andrew, a self-proclaimed dreamer who’s working toward more connection and community in our space.
An Eighth Grader Shipping Boards to Spain
Like many of our outdoorsy friends, Andrew started young. He grew up spending summers at the beach, giving surf lessons so he could buy boards, while winters were for teaching ski lessons and hitting the slopes.
But unlike most of us, Andrew started an international business before his peers even knew how to fill in a check. What began as a passion for collecting vintage surfboards morphed into an obsession with learning, buying, building, and ultimately selling to buyers around the world. Middle school Andrew—yes, middle school—was shipping boards to spots like Hawaii, Spain, California, and Africa, slowly building an international clientele.
It’s no surprise, then, that adult Andrew created a multi-vendor e-commerce platform that connects buyers with sellers, shops, and small businesses. “It’s really a personal pursuit of mine,” he says. “Every facet of it has come from past experiences and past passions of mine.”
A Better Way to Buy and Sell Second-Hand
Anyone who’s ever searched for used goods has probably perused online resale platforms. The problem? As Andrew puts it, “There's a bazillion [used goods] displaced all across a bazillion marketplaces.” Not only that, but you have to scrutinize every post for scams.
That’s where Surf Exchange sets itself apart. “The original goal of the marketplace was to centralize all that and create a safe marketplace that was backed by shipping and analytics,” Andrew explains. When a seller creates an account, that person and their for-sale goods are checked and filtered by Andrew before going live. All transactions are done via PayPal, so no one shares their banking information.
Security was such a priority, in fact, that it was a major reason why he took his time launching Surf Exchange back in 2022. “I wanted to launch this big idea, knowing that it was trustworthy.”
Building Community, from Maine to Jersey
As a place to buy and sell used goods, Andrew’s marketplace naturally fosters connection between people. But it’s Surf Exchange’s other growing offerings that encourage community-building in an intentional, unique way.
One of those programs is selling small businesses’ goods on their website, giving them a larger platform to reach people in the space. We’re stoked to say Clean Ocean Designs is one of those businesses.
“I think there are certain levels that small businesses’ voices kind of get diminished when you get into the larger industry,” Andrew notes, addressing a common struggle among local and emerging brands. “I'm working hard to kind of be on their scale, to kind of be a placeholder for community members to have more reach, more say, and more space in the surf, skate, and snow world.”
Another offering, which is in its early stages, is a distribution service. From Maine down to New Jersey, Surf Exchange is now going shop to shop, helping local manufacturers, small businesses, and individuals pass their products along. They’re also working to create pickup and drop-off locations at surf shops, the first of which is Omen in Newport, RI.
The goal, Andrew says, “is to connect all of these communities, from New Jersey to Maine, by doing that physically.” He adds, “I want to meet these people and connect with these people, and I also want to create opportunities for individuals and businesses in each one of those places to grow, to scale, and to become a part of this bigger network in this bigger community. We can kind of be the vehicle for that.”
While he’s helping to foster relationships on a larger scale, Andrew is also strengthening the local surf community in Rhode Island. He’s doing this by collaborating on public events, like the CVRRENT Film Festival, and promoting other offerings, like surfboard repair workshops with Ridan Engineering.
So…What’s Next?
Since 2022, Surf Exchange has been growing and expanding its services—and you can expect more of that in the near future.
But Andrew also wants to grow in another way: sustainability. By facilitating the exchange of second-hand gear, Surf Exchange innately supports more environmentally friendly practices. However, Andrew is eager to expand those efforts even further, and he has a couple of exciting ideas up his sleeve. “I really want that to be a priority, as much as connecting people,” he says.
To stay up to date on Surf Exchange’s latest initiatives, learn more about its services, or use its marketplace, visit SurfExchangeCompany.com. You can also find them on social media.
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We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Andrew Nota. If you want to learn about another change-maker based in southern RI, check out this article on ORCA, a nonprofit on a mission to help clean our beaches.
Wishing you a great time outdoors, with whatever it is that you love to do. -COD
