WAILUA – Two young entrepreneurs have moved around the world and into the Kinipopo Shopping Village.
Now Charlie Rifenbark and Kelsey Espina, owners and operators of equipment rental business Scotty’s Surf Co., are ready to make the most of their new space.
“It’s been so much fun. It fits my personality really well,” Rifenbark told The Garden Island. “I’m excited to bring people here on vacation.”
Rifenbark, a former soccer coach from Oregon, took a desk job in Kaua’i in 2016. He then started a part-time mobile delivery service called Charlie’s Surfboard Rentals, after buying a used quiver .
Rifenbark renamed his business Scotty’s Surf Co., in honor of his late father, when the coronavirus pandemic shut down the world in 2020.
“As soon as tourism came back, we really started to do well,” he said. “I was getting to the point where I was becoming the maximum, as far as I could grow on my own.”
It was then that Espina, Rifenbark’s longtime surfing buddy, “finally broke down” and became a business partner.
The duo moved from a small space in the Kapa’a Sands complex to the commercial village of Kinipopo on April 1.
Rifenbark and Espina’s new storefront sat empty for three years before moving in. It is now equipped with kayaks, boards, electric bikes, umbrellas and much more. (The full inventory, when rattled off by Rifenbark with characteristic aplomb, seems endless.)
Espina shares her friend’s outgoing personality and aloha, traits that have shaped their approach to Scotty’s Surf Co.
“We mean, ‘If you had friends on Kaua’i and they had what you needed, you would call them,'” Espina said.
“That local family vibe – ‘Hey, you can borrow my stuff.’ But we have to charge you,” he continued with a laugh.
Scotty’s Surf Co. is open six days a week Thursday through Tuesday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
To reserve equipment or make an enquiry, call or text Scotty’s at 808-346-1304.
Online booking will open in May.
w Info: scottyssurfcokauai.com
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Scott yunkerjournalist, can be reached at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.