Photos from Day One of Board Retailers Association Summit

The annual BRA Summit got underway Wednesday with a full day of speakers, seminars and networking. 

Luis Santori of Bora Bora and Tommy Knapp

Keynote speaker Tommy Knapp, founder of Club Sportswear and co-founder of Honolua Surf Company and the retail columnist for Shop-eat-surf, gave an inspiring keynote address about overcoming adversity, the power of a positive attitude, and setting firm goals.

Other speakers included Glenn Brumage of Tum Yeto on the state of skate industry, a lively panel and audience discussion about pricing and discounting, and a seminar by Paul Schmitt on making skateboards and the CreateAskate curriculum he has developed that can be taught in school. 

The BRA Summit runs through Friday night.

Like any business conference, some of the most best discussions took place at lunch, dinner and in the bar. Here are some photos from the networking on Wednesday:

Roy Turner of SurfExpo, Per Welinder of Blitz Distribution and
Steven Fisher of SurfExpo

Ron Abdel of Jack's Surfboards and Tom Ruiz of Volcom

Dave Nash of Sun Diego inspects the ring that Bob Mignogna
received at his induction to the East Coast Surfing Legends Hall of Fame.

Mikke Pierson of ZJ Boarding House, Mark and Kay Richards of Val Surf

Dee Nachnani of Coastal Edge with his parents
and Tom Holbrook of Quiksilver

Shawna Evans with other members of the Volcom team

Bruce Beach and Mike Carter of Electric Visual

Sean Smith of SIMA, Glenn Brumage of Tum Yeto,
Melissa Clary of BRA and Leanne Milliken of ASR

Jason Steris of Volcom and Bruce Beach of Electric Visual

Greg Macias of Quiksilver, Sean O'Brien of SurfExpo
and Tom Holbrook of Quiksilver

John Bernard of IASC

The lunch crowd