Building North Carolina’s Fingerboard Scene | Boardparadise | S3 E138

On this week’s episode of the USAFBL Fingerboard Podcast, we’re live from the Atlanta Tour Stop with a very special guest, Josh from Boardparadise! We talk about the legendary Boardparadise shop in Greensboro, North Carolina, its deep roots in skateboarding, and how they’ve recently brought fingerboarding into the retail world. Josh shares how his team added parks, events, and new sponsors, transforming the local scene into a thriving community.
We dive into the Hangout events, growing collaboration between skate and fingerboard culture, and how local businesses like Boardparadise are fueling the next generation of riders. From grassroots events to national exposure, this episode is packed with insight, energy, and inspiration for shop owners and riders alike.


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Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:04)
you

Welcome to USAFBL Fingerboard Podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cunningham. Today I've got Josh with Board Paradise. ⁓

Speaker 1 (00:24)
Yeah man, is awesome, I'm honored to be on here, appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (00:29)
Definitely. We're actually live here at the Atlanta tour stop, the regional USFPL Southern Regional Tour stop right before the event's getting ready to take off. I'm super excited to get you on the mic. I know we've been chit chatting since the last Wilmington event and you got the you got a new storefront.

Speaker 1 (00:47)
Yeah, yeah, we are our shops in Greensboro Greensboro North Carolina ⁓ We've been there since the late 90s ⁓ And we are an action sports You know specialty store our shop we specialize in snowboarding skateboarding surfing and As of this past year, we've added finger boarding ⁓ into the store. So we have fingerboard ⁓ retail

and we also have fingerboard parks integrated into the shop. ⁓ You can walk into the store and pick up a board and fingerboard in the shop. multiple parks in the store on a daily basis.

Speaker 2 (01:27)
Interesting. I know that I need to make it out there. I need to make it out to that shop. need to I need to I need to more. feel like.

⁓ the

Speaker 1 (01:48)
Yeah, you do. mean this event, like the amount of work, ⁓ I was just talking to Owen, my son, about how much work is involved in putting this type of event together. you know, it's people don't realize how much work it takes to get here, set it up, put things together in the morning, deal with it after hours, then the cleanup. So I think you have a lot going on, but we'd be stoked for you to come by the shop for sure. That'd be awesome.

Speaker 2 (02:16)
Yeah, no, I appreciate the recognition of what it takes to do all this stuff. It's pretty wild, pretty crazy. Lots of planning, lots of logistics, lots of stuff going on behind the scenes.

the the ⁓

Speaker 1 (03:03)
that's awesome

Yeah,

I think that when you see this level of finger boarding and what the guys are putting together, it's hard, know, at least coming from my stance, you're having a brand, you know, with the shop going, man, like that guy's really good. Like we should get him on the team. And I think that, you know, brands that are coming up and that are hungry to add riders, this is a perfect place to do that in the setting.

Speaker 2 (03:38)
Yeah, you get to see all the local and upcoming talent as well. Not just the established people, but there's a lot of people that are also coming out trying to make things for themselves. So like, I've been finger boarding for a few years. Got a lot of tricks up my belt. Like I'm really, really good. like Instagram isn't necessarily like the easiest place to really get noticed and stuff and finger boarding and just in general. And so like there really isn't too many like options and finger boarding to come out and get noticed and really get that recognition that you're looking for.

Speaker 1 (04:06)
Yeah, this is a great platform for that. It's really cool.

Speaker 2 (04:09)
Man, I so talk to me about the local scene for you guys, because I know you guys are mainly more skate integrated, but you guys have definitely gotten more into finger boarding is for sure. But tell me about like kind of the skate culture, what's going on in your area, stuff like.

Speaker 1 (04:23)
Yeah man, so our skate culture is pretty deep in Greensboro. We've had a really good skateboard, like grassroot skateboard scene in our town for a long time. We've had a lot of pro rider team tour stops come through. We have two concrete city parks, we have an indoor park. There's multiple skate shops in our town. So our scene is really good.

Speaker 2 (05:13)
talking about the one with like you're in the sink and all that.

Speaker 1 (05:19)
So the culture of this is kind of passed through. And you can see a lot of the fingerboard companies play off skateboards. I mean, it's just like there, right? It's easy to do that. ⁓ as far as the fingerboard scene goes in our town, ⁓ I've leaned on guys like Loosenut. I've leaned on guys like Apex, Kevin Apex, FBS, ⁓ to really help me. I also lean on Age at Rise. ⁓ I talked to Zava.

a lot ⁓

Speaker 2 (05:55)
I've that there's going crazy.

Speaker 1 (06:19)
and then we left and was like, yo dude, like this is fire. Like we need to get, like we need to get involved in this and we need to have this stuff in the shop. And so we immediately went to like parks in the shop within like a couple of weeks, man. We had stuff in the shop. So the scene ⁓ in Greensboro is definitely growing. We did our first event in the shop. was called Hangout One. We did Hangout One back in August. ⁓ You guys sponsored it. A couple other guys sponsored it. Hangout Two is October 25th, also in the shop.

and we've already added other sponsors who've already added Kim's okay Ron we're adding two to three as a sponsor so we're already adding Zeg heads drew a Zegs is gonna help so we were already adding more sponsors for that and the idea for us is like we want to have a free event I don't I don't really want to charge at the door ⁓ we have guys on board employees working it guys photographer we had a video guy and a photo guy that hangout one so

there is some cost involved to it but I'm trying to keep the event free

Speaker 2 (07:20)
that

Speaker 1 (07:23)
So and I'm trying to just add sponsors to be able to compensate for some of those costs and to be able to keep the event for free. ⁓ Apex, Kevin at Apex, we're working on an outdoor event at the local college. So we're going to like pop up a tent, pop up some tables and bring parks to the street, like straight up to the street. So we are ⁓ we're all about it, man. It's super fun. And it's something it's something like you can't skate.

and others the same like stay every day and skate every damn day like you can't you literally can't skateboard every day I mean I guess you could which are going to be used in the growth so it's a break from skateboarding is a break from video games and I'm all 100 % all in

Speaker 2 (08:07)
I love it, I love it. Man. So kind of leak a little bit of like what you guys got going on now and some stuff that you're looking for in the future.

Speaker 1 (08:18)
⁓ As far as the the shop goes ⁓ I try to keep I try to keep board paradise Is the store a little bit separate from some of our? ⁓ SMU brand branding stuff so we have ⁓ our own brand kind of in-house is called social ⁓ So we have a couple team riders a couple fingerboard guys on social we're ⁓ Working on our own truck right now. It's it's all been prototyped out

and I'm not here like out like slinging social stuff. I'm kinda keeping it on the DL because I just don't think we're quite there yet, but we do have some really cool fingerboard components coming probably about a holiday. We've got a couple of team riders on. I'm looking to add some more team riders to that. I for one haven't been talking to anybody here about it. It's just on the down low, but some of the guys have seen some of the posts I've made and some of the laser stuff we're doing.

they're pretty pumped on it so that's kind of coming up ⁓ looking forward to hang out too that's coming up and where I'm worried about like having too many people like in the shop like we only have a certain amount of space so like the first the hangout one was a test run to see if like can we actually do this in in the store and it worked

the ⁓

Speaker 2 (09:49)
that's awesome thinking ahead stuff like that yes obviously these things are get bigger and bigger bigger right especially in an area where there really isn't anything I think the next closest thing is probably a good like you three four hours away

Speaker 1 (10:01)
the warehouse ramp guys which is three hours from a which is really cool now up on a name drop another guy sewage crew sewage crew those dudes are putting on events in Charlotte like if if you guys want to see if you're around the Charlotte area or maybe South Carolina you want to see what's happening go follow sewage crew they've done an event with a skate shop in Charlotte ⁓ or a moda skate shop

parts and service and then they did another event with a guy done in Greer, South Carolina just last weekend. you're looking at like events possibly happening happening like every couple weeks. Yeah, like in our zone.

Speaker 2 (10:42)
that Which is amazing to see because North Carolina started with Dave Ware and then Alex with ⁓ Radio FBS kind of like, you know, gave them a hosting spots and then it's really started to pick up drastically from there.

Speaker 1 (10:57)
the ⁓

Speaker 2 (11:06)
the

Speaker 1 (11:12)
wild

yet this is fingerboard con s global like that you know and maybe even like somebody's that these ramps that you have in here like these parks are even upscale from that like they're insane so it's not like that there that's a smaller setting it's a tighter area but they're still fun events and you know if they're free it's good company we're hanging out ⁓ so I think that just listening to like what the people want guys you know the community wants

And then making adjustments from that standpoint like yeah another example is hangout one We did in the afternoon on a Sunday that wasn't the most convenient for everybody But we did it on a Sunday afternoon because it was easier for us Yeah as a shop, so we're doing the next one on a Saturday night We're starting it at four and we're going to nine gotcha, so we immediately changed that to Saturday, so I think

Speaker 2 (12:04)
the a Saturday afternoon. Now we're two day weekend events. The setup is so tedious that you might as well. It's wild to explain it. But anyways, like, you know, we do a Friday and a Saturday. So some people they can't do the Saturday, you do a Friday. Some people can't do a Friday, but they Saturday. Some people are like, I'm taking off the whole weekend. We're making it a thing. And so like, trying to accommodate everybody and trying to get it to where like, you know, everyone has the opportunities. It's hard to figure out that balance for sure.

cool parents stuff. Shout out to my mom's love of that. Those should have pulled me out for that.

Speaker 1 (12:50)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. So, ⁓ well, Owen has some great rules, man. He's got to keep his grades up and stuff turned in. So he understands the deal, but you know, just those adjustments, like you're as a, as a rider or a sponsored rider or, ⁓ you know, a parent, you have to think about those things too. And like, it's like, well, this is when it starts, like, this is when it starts, like we either go or we don't. So I'm big on like, the door's open. Do we want to walk through it? So we walked through it yesterday, man. We got down here.

Speaker 2 (13:17)
I'm glad you guys came out. Glad you guys get to see how we do stuff. Like we try to get as much footage and coverage and stuff of what we do as possible because what we're doing here is not really been done on this level. And it's hard to tell people and share it with people like what's going on here because like it doesn't exist anywhere else but right here. Right. And so it's like you got to come out to a USAFBL event at some point in your life. You're a finger boarder because it's like going to any other event is the same. It's on a whole nother level. Right.

And trying to like explain that without sounding arrogant or cocky or whatever. It's just, it's hard, especially on Instagram. I keep like, Oh, this is the best. You got to come out here and stuff. And so it's just one of those like, you just got to see it to believe it kind of a thing.

Speaker 1 (13:59)
the the ⁓

Speaker 2 (14:26)
now for sure for sure one appreciate everything you're doing for the scene for the state of North Carolina and you guys are putting putting in the work and creating a lot of cool stuff for people giving people a lot of avenues I don't think people even understand like it wasn't for shops like you carrying other people's products things like that like you're actually helping the growth of finger boarding brands like

just getting the new really growing the scene, even though it doesn't feel or seem like it, but like just carrying people's products, supplies, magazine, things like that. Like you're helping a lot of smaller brands and stuff like that become more established, more just getting that out there. And I love it.

Speaker 1 (15:03)
Yeah, I think that, you know, and I don't want to keep beating this drum about being a dad and my son being in it, but it's easy for me to be in the industry. I'm in talk to the reps that I'm, you know, the skate reps, the snowboard reps, the surf reps and show them videos like, Hey, this is what we're doing. Like this was our last event. And then those guys are, you know, it's like a snowball of spreading the word so to speak. it's, it's, there was a kid in my shop from Virginia beach.

just other day I think it was Wednesday he's a surf guy but he also fingerboards and he came in the shop his mom lives in my in our town he came to visit his mom and she brought him to the store and he was tripping dude about the fingerboard parks in the shop he's like dude sort of following us on Instagram started sending it to his friends like resends and and he like just like that one guy right from coming in the store and seeing and seeing the fingerboard parks and not having that in Virginia Beach

the ⁓

Speaker 2 (16:15)
It's definitely we're definitely in the early stages of some explosive growth for finger boarding both know grassroots and both like just retail like I'm excited to see more brands getting into retail. I'm excited for finger boarding to be in retail being more of a normal thing like a normal concept.

Speaker 1 (16:31)
Right. Another cool thing, man, that's coming ⁓ that nobody knows about. I'll just drop it real quick, which I think is really cool is the rise fingerboard team is doing a window on the front of our store. And so our storefront is going to have a six foot by six foot window, a rise window ⁓ on the front on the road. And so like you're talking about guys at a stoplight in front of our shop looking over and going, whoa, like, what is that? Yeah.

That's just more recognition.

Yeah, for sure.

⁓ the

Speaker 2 (17:30)
Where can people find you? I know you got a storefront. What's the address? What socials?

Speaker 1 (17:34)
Yeah, well this is the store. Yeah sure man the stores board paradise just all one word we're on Instagram is board paradise There's an email on the end of our website the bottom of our website to reach us And yeah, man, just you know any questions any insight if you're a fingerboard vendor or builder and you guys are looking to for a retail outlet like holler at us man like we you know we have

to carry a ton of brands in our shop we'd be stoked to add more to

Speaker 2 (18:05)
the

⁓

Speaker 1 (18:13)
Yeah man, 100%. Thanks for inviting me, that was really cool.

Peace.