About Surf Expo

Welcome to Surf Expo, where since 1976, manufacturers and retailers in the surf, skate, water sports, swim and resort industries have come together in a business-first buying and selling environment.

Surf Expo traces its beginnings to a 1975 board meeting of the Eastern Surf Association when a group of ambitious sales reps rented out rooms to show their lines to the buyers who had congregated in Virginia Beach, VA, to attend the meeting. The following year, Ross Houston, a board member, decided to make this more than just a “show and tell” and launched the first Surf Expo at Cocoa Beach’s Cape Colony Hotel. By its fifth year, Surf Expo moved into Orlando’s Tupperware Auditorium with 150 booths. In 1989, the show moved into its current home at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

Today Surf Expo is produced twice annually for manufacturers and retailers in the Board, Beach and Fashion industries. Held in January and September in Orlando, Florida, Surf Expo draws buyers from specialty stores; surf, skate and watersports shops; resort, souvenir, coastal gift, swimwear and apparel boutiques; department stores; and sporting goods stores across the U.S., the Caribbean, Central and South America and around the world.

Surf Expo features hundreds of exhibiting manufacturers of apparel and hardgoods and a full line-up of special events, including fashion shows, parties, industry ceremonies, surfboard shape offs, skate and other board sport demos. Average attendance exceeds 13,000 including buyers, exhibitors and media per show. All shows are open to trade only.

Surf Expo is endorsed by the Surf Industry Manufacturers Association (SIMA) and the Board Retailers Association (BRA.)

Contact Information

www.surfexpo.com/contact-us