Neighbors: Blake Parsons

Tucked behind Lelu Coffee and Gilligan’s Island Bar & Grill on Siesta Key is a small surf and skate shop called Califlorida.

To most, the shop is one of dozens of businesses offering a slice of Siesta fun. But for owner Blake Parsons, it is the culmination of a lifelong love of surfing and skating combined with an entrepreneurial spirit that dates back to his teen years.

Growing up, Parsons spent a lot of time skateboarding and longboarding with his friends in the suburbs of Chicago. Parsons learned to surf through trips out west visiting friends in Hawaii and California.

“I got up on the first wave,” he says. “It just came naturally.”

While many of his friends moved migrated west, Parsons found California to be too far. Instead, he rolled to Siesta Key in 2000 and has been running his shop since 2009.

“I hated the cold,” he says. “(Florida) is the best of all worlds — the water is warmer and cleaner, and the people here are more laid-back.”

Califlorida isn’t Parsons’ first foray into the business world. When he was just 17 years old, Parsons launched a high-end cabinetry and furniture company named Blake Custom Building. His time woodworking eventually led to making skateboards. Today, he makes about 45 boards a week — mostly skateboards and longboards with the occasional surfboard.

In addition to the boards, for more than a decade, Parsons also has been creating his own T-shirts, shorts, dresses, board shorts and bathing suits. He began sponsoring skateboarders and surfers through the Califlorida brand by sending up-and-coming surfers and skaters his merchandise to wear at competitions.
Some of his better-known clients include surfer Maggie Dorries and skater Justin Arroyo.

Parsons says all of the designs are his own, and his textiles are manufactured in the United States, specifically in the Carolinas and Georgia.

His products can be found in his store as well as in may other surf and skate shops throughout the world. But with this success comes hard, time-consuming work.

“I take one day off a year — and that’s Christmas,” he says. “I start every morning at 5 a.m. building boards for a few hours, and then, I open up the shop and work there. When I close up the shop, I go right back at it until I pass out.”

Parsons also is the man behind the two longboard races on Siesta Key — Devil’s Run, which happens around Halloween, and Longboarda Cruisa Palooza, which takes place in the spring.

This summer, Parsons will be on the road competing with his Califlorida longboard team in downhill races around the country and Jamaica. The group plans to create a DVD documenting their summer fun. Parsons plans to continue expanding his business and hopes to start his own magazine. And although the hours may be long, Parsons says he has no complaints.

“I don’t think about it as work,” he says. “I absolutely love it, and every day is a new day. I’ve always been a workaholic. I’ve never used an alarm in my life. I just get up and go to it.”