“I’ve been with West Marine for over six years now. I grew up in California and although boating wasn’t always my passion, it was something I always did with my family for fun. I moved to the Virgin Islands for a long time and got really into charter sailing on big boats down there. I totally fell in love with it and wanted to find a way to incorporate that into my overall life goal.
“I ended up moving back to California, where I went to college, and discovered that there was a West Marine located about 15 minutes away from my school. I applied there, started working part-time, and worked there all throughout college. Once I graduated, I started looking around the company for other options and they offered me a job in South Carolina to manage one of their locations. So they relocated me here and I got to Charleston and instantly fell in love with this place.
“I have a lot of fun here because basically my job is one big social event. We learn stuff every day, but you’re also there to support other boaters. I really pride myself on the fact that everybody that works in the store is a boater and we all work here because we’re passionate about it and we love to talk about it, we love to grow the sport, to grow the whole industry.
“It’s an incredibly fun place to work. When people come in here and they’re shopping for their boat, it’s like a toy store for adults. I hire people who like to have fun, it’s a job prerequisite. I never feel like I’m going to work; going to work is just as much fun as not going to work sometimes. I see the same people — when I’m out on my boat having fun, I see my customers everywhere and hang out with them and talk to them, or they just come to the store and hang out and talk to me.
“It’s so fun being the place they think of when they have a question about their boat. They know there’s an amazing resource of people here that do this everyday; they use their boats, they live on their boats, they’re living the life. That’s what’s so cool about this place; we’re always there to educate people and to help them.” —as told to Kelly Smith
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