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Founders SURF DIVA

When twins Izzy and Coco Tihanyi decided to open a surf school just for girls, skeptics said, “Girls don’t surf. You won’t have any customers.” Undeterred, they launched in 1996, receiving validation of their idea in a Wall Street Journal feature that same year. The Surf Diva brand includes the school and a retail line of surf wear that generates 50% of its revenue. Since bringing the classroom to the beach, Surf Diva’s staff has grown from just the sisters to 20 office and retail employees plus over 60 instructors. In addition to being named one of E! Network’s 12 Sexiest Wet ‘n Wild Jobs, Surf Diva appeared on Inc. Magazine’s 2005 list of the 26 Most Fascinating Entrepreneurs (along with Richard Branson and Michael Dell). The company has also been featured by CNN, The New York Times, In Style, The Wall Street Journal, Travel and Leisure, Shape, The Los Angeles Times and Elle.

Surf Diva was born because Izzy wanted to see more girls surfing, Coco wanted to design clothing for surfers, and they both wanted to work together. This combined with their joint twenty years of experience in the surf industry and educations from the University of California at San Diego, and the sisters were stoked and ready to launch.

Natives of California, Izzy embodies the “Surf” and Coco is the “Diva” in their brand. Prior to joining forces, Izzy was a television producer for a surf show and competitive surfer who also taught the sport. Coco worked as a licensee for Disney as a clothing line brand manager and later owned her own public relations, marketing and clothing design firm called Business Shapers.

In 1996, the La Jolla, CA surf landscape was full of guys who hogged the waves, believing that girls belonged on the beach – looking cute and taking pictures of their beaus on surfboards. Izzy and Coco disagreed, and, despite reactions from naysayers who thought an all-girls’ surf school was a stupid idea, opened the business with $350 and a few surfboards.
The twin-preneurs’ first promotional materials were 50 day-glo pink tri-fold flyers which they left at local surf shops. Within their first month in business, due to the number of calls she was receiving, Izzy realized she was going to have to move her list of interested girls from her address book to a database. At the same time, Coco began selling silk-screened t-shirts that said SURF DIVA. Eventually, the Surf Diva Boutique opened in 2004.

Less than a year after Izzy and Coco claimed their turf in the surf, The Wall Street Journal featured Surf Diva. The article reinforced to the sisters that, “despite what 90% of people told us, it was, indeed, a good idea!”

Surf Diva continued to experience steady growth, and in May 2006 Izzy and Coco celebrated ten years of running the world’s most successful surf school for women. To date, they are still number one. Ever the savvy entrepreneurs, the sisters knew they needed to be open-minded in order to grow their business, so expansion meant going coed with special summer camps and “Guys on the Side” programs. In 2009, Surf Diva even introduced a Surf Pup program for dogs.

Despite their success, it hasn’t been all clean waves for Izzy and Coco. In fact, they avoided a wipe-out after terminating an agreement with a clothing licensee. Worried the other party would dump large amounts of inventory into channels of distribution that would hurt the Surf Diva brand, the sisters secured a bank loan, bought the entire stock, rented a warehouse to store it and ultimately protected their brand image.

In addition to their “surf” and “diva” roles in the business, Izzy and Coco co-authored the book, Surf Diva: A Girl’s Guide to Getting Good Waves. The book encourages the reader to apply the Surf Diva motto to all aspects of her life, “The best surfer in the water is the one having the most fun.”

Surf Diva has built a solid reputation for professional, educated and passionate surfing instructors. The team boasts individuals with sideline careers such as firefighters, paramedics, nurses, teachers, lawyers and snowboarders. Izzy and Coco offer private and group surf lessons starting at age five, weekend and weeklong surf clinics, as well as Girls Overnight Surf Camps, Costa Rican Surf Adventures, Corporate Team-Building experiences and Bachelorette Parties.

What we learned from Izzy and Coco: “Be persistent even in a male-dominated industry. Embrace men for who they are as business people, not gender. Don’t ever feel like you have to give up looking like a girl if you are working with the guys.”

Good Advice

“I have to share two things. First, surround yourself with A+ people. Second, focus on your skills and outsource the rest.”

Dream Big

“When Izzy received the Cool Woman of the Year award by the Girl Scouts that was really cool! Our parents immigrated to the United States not knowing how to speak English in search of the American dream. They taught us to reach as high as you can and never doubted our goals.”

Get a Life

“When we hire people we tell them that your personal life is very important as is getting an education (if they are a student). We think that everyone needs a balance. It’s hard for us because we enjoy so much what we do that it’s impossible not to bring it home!”

This Featured Lady was profiled by Megan L. Reese, WORDrobe™ Stylist for Her Write Image in West Grove, PA.

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