San Diego Sport Innovators

SPOTLIGHT

BOOSTAMONTE MOUNTAINBOARDING MEETS SPORTS INSURANCE SOLUTIONS

By Chuck Scott

Tell a typical insurance company you’re a mountainboarder looking for coverage and you might not even get a call back, much less a policy that fits your needs at a price you can afford.
That was a major obstacle Brad Beren faced on the way to turning his passion into a successful business.
Hooked for years on the thrill of riding an oversized skateboard down a slope, Beren and a friend founded Boostamonte Mountainboarding as an apparel company with an eye toward becoming the Billabong of the sport. “That’s still one of the goals, to grow with the industry,” Beren said. “But I don’t think the industry is there yet to support such a huge company in terms of just apparel alone.”
So Beren expanded Boostamonte’s scope and the majority of his business today is providing lessons to youngsters as well as adults.
“It’s been exciting in that it has taken kind of a sidestep into this lessons area, and that’s become the forefront of the company,” Beren said. “We’re basically creating the way for people to try something they have never heard of before and would otherwise never get a chance to try.
“That helps Boostamonte become a full-service company in supplying everything that anybody would need to try the sport. As the company grows with the industry and as I create more of a customer base, the opportunity to distribute the apparel and distribute the boards are vast.”
But many community- and school-based organizations require vendors such as Boostamonte to carry $2 million in liability insurance and Beren’s initial efforts to find the right policy were going nowhere.
Enter SD Sport Innovators and Craig Dawson of Sports Insurance Solutions.
Beren had heard about a SDSI Marketing Panel discussion in December 2010 and thought he’d check it out.
“It was my first SDSI event,” he said. “I had no intentions of meeting anybody specific. I went there with an open mind to spread the word of my company at a real beginning time in my company. What better way to get it out there?”
Dawson, whose office is in Laguna Beach, was also at the SDSI panel discussion, having recently become a member of the organization after seeing SDSI Executive Chairman Bill Walton at an action sports trade show.

“You go to one or two (SDSI) events, you see what’s going on and you realize this is the group to be in,” Dawson said.
Dawson had introduced himself to Walton before the panel began that night. Little did he know that would result in a referral to the entire audience.
“Halfway through the panel discussion he basically gave me a little plug,” Dawson said. “He said ‘By the way, there’s a guy in the audience tonight who just does sports insurance and if anyone needs it you should hand him your business card.’ … Brad came up to me and told me what he was doing.”
Said Beren:

“Craig was one of the first guys I met that night. He’s just real open, honest, friendly and you can tell that right from the beginning. He went on to tell me he insured people who did crazy things like bungee jumping and professional surfers, that kind of stuff. So I kind of knew right away that he was somebody that I needed to further explore this with.”
A year later, Beren has his insurance and is able to focus on growing his company.
“Craig went to work finding the right product for Bootamonte and that was over a year ago,” he said. “It took up until December (of 2011) for me to be able to pull the trigger and buy the policy, but part of the ease of working with him was him sticking with me throughout the year. It couldn’t have been a better fit for our company.
“This last year has kind of been a testing phase with Boostamonte, making sure that we had a quality product,” Beren added. “Now that I have the insurance I’m going to focus on schools, after-school programs, day camps, that kind of thing. Without that insurance they don’t take you seriously as a company and they can’t work with you.”
“I went away from that night just ecstatic, thinking that I had found the key to the foundation of the company,” he said, “and here it is a year later and it turned out to be true.”
Dawson, who had been insuring extreme sports athletes for several years before broadening his business a couple years ago, said some of the larger insurance companies don’t understand the sports insurance market.
“The State Farms, the Liberty Mutuals, all these companies you see every single day … they could provide you your homeowners insurance, your auto insurance, your life insurance, all that kinds of stuff,” he said. “But the minute something comes up that’s not on their radar? You talk about mountainboarding? Just the sound of mountainboarding is like, ‘What?’”

Dawson worked with Beren on the presentation of Boostamonte that was shown to underwriters.
“What I did with Brad was show that what he’s doing is not as risky as it sounds,” Dawson said. “People think of a mountain, they just think probably Shaun White for a start. They think Shaun White on a mountain going over these crazy dropoffs and stuff. But what Brad’s doing is quite different. … You have to get underwriters to understand what the operation is.”
Typical of an SDSI member, Dawson has an innovative product of his own about to hit the market – a standalone primary insurance program for bicyclists.
“It’s is the equiavalent of auto insurance for bicycle riders,” Dawson said. “People will be able to buy insurance to protect theft of their bicycle, phsycial damage to their bicycle and also give you the liability coverage you would get on your auto insurance. … If you were to get hit by an uninsured driver and you’re riding your $4,000 road bicycle in the weekends with your mates, where do you go, how are you going to replace that bike, let alone the injuries you might sustain?
“I know it sounds kind of weird to have your own insurance policy for your bicycle, but if you don’t own a car or you don’t own a home and you don’t even have renter’s insurance, you’re basically riding on the road at your own risk. And even if you do have homeowners, you do have auto, there’s a lot of gray area when it comes to claiming on anything that happens with a bicycle on the road.”
Dawson said he’s planning to launch the product in seven states in February and hopes so expand to all 50 states as soon as July. It’s a concept he has kicked around with Walton, an avid cyclist.
“It’s not every day you get to talk to someone like Bill and just tell him your ideas and off you go,” Dawson said. “I don’t think there’s a negative word that comes out of his mouth.”
Like Dawson, Beren is sold on the benefits of working with Walton and the SDSI organization. Boostamonte also took part in an exhibit called “The Science of Sports” that SDSI put on at Balboa Park last spring.
“It has been invaluable,” he said. “The exposure opportunities and the networking opportunities that SDSI has brought to the table, before I was even a member, are outstanding. I’m so esctatic and excited to see what 2012 is going to bring with the additional benefits of being a member.”
For more information on Boostamonte Mountainboarding visit www.learntoboost.com or contact boostamonte@gmail.com. For more information on Sports Insurance Solutions visit www.sports-insurance-solutions.com or contact daws@sports-insurance-solutions.com.

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