Meet Tim Sanford | Stand up paddle board Coach and Guide

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tim Sanford and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tim, how does your business help the community?
My business started as a local paddle surf shop here in Los Angeles (paddlemethod.com) where I was the business owner and lead coach/instructor/guide. My plan was to provide stand up paddle boarding lessons, rentals, tours, and workouts as a premium service aimed at enthusiasts who wanted to participate at a higher level and make the most of paddling in SoCal year-round.

I have a background in water sports, personally, and have worked professionally in customer service, business development, as well as professional development. From the moment I started paddling, I saw the potential in it as tool to build community and get people who may be new to water sports on the water.

I started teaching people to paddle board/surf over 12 years ago and through hours of lessons with thousands of people in varied ocean conditions have had a unique perspective on how a population of people as diverse as those living in Los Angeles can come together with a shared passion for getting on the water.

One of my surf mentors mentioned to me early on that teaching people to get through the surf zone is a therapeutic exercise for the paddler. “You can’t bullshit a wave,” he said to me and everyone’s baggage ends up in a yard sale when you get in over your head. I have found this to be true with hundreds of clients because the same can be said of the wind. . . you can’t BS that either and in SUP you have to deal with both. Paddle boarding is all about sharing a moment with something bigger than oneself and mother nature doesn’t care about a paddler’s plans, ego, or excuses. Those that feel the call of the water and find their way to my lessons get introduced to those shared moments through a learning methodology of “baby steps” that take a person of any background to a person who paddles confidently in an ever-changing, fluid environment. Sharing those moments with like-minded paddlers is the defining characteristic of our core paddle crew community.

The ocean can be humbling and awe-inspiring. Every wave you catch traveled a long way to get to you and it’s a very personal experience that not everyone can understand. Skill-building workouts and group paddles with our core crew is a weekly highlight for LA-based paddlers and a chance to share those moments and plan future ones. It’s where paddling as a lifestyle and a practice is a shared event with other people who connect to it and through it at a deeper level.

Opening my school lead me to create the equipment to service the needs of my students, so in 2014 i started a line of inflatable paddle boards, 360goanywhere.com, that were built tough enough to handle the surf zone so beginning paddlers could get in and out through crashing waves, build reflexes to stay safe, and skills to start catching the waves. These boards led to our first adventure paddles to explore up and down the coast from Morrow bay to Laguna, inland lakes, and even sections of the LA river.

Once the crew had formed, geared up, and skilled up, many looked to take their passion on trips and explore other parts of the world. For many, I would contact other paddle coaches in other parts of the world to connect my tribe with their tribe so paddlers from my local area who wanted to expand their horizons globally could easily do so. In 2015 I started perfectpaddles.com an online resource for paddlers who wanted to explore, get local knowledge from the local paddle Pros, and connect with the international paddle community.

I feel extremely lucky I was able to find an activity that I felt so deeply connected with and found a way (or three) to share it with a community of people that has organically popped up around the globe. Many of our paddlers, dreamed of getting on the water, and paddling came along at the right time for them to find a way. The more people who find a deeper connection to themselves, other paddlers in their hometowns and around the world through paddling are also making a life based around the water. The higher goal for all three businesses is to create opportunities for people of all backgrounds to connect with each other and interact with their local waterways. All water flows to the Ocean and as an oceanfront business, in a huge city like LA, gives me a platform to show how important and connected all the water ways of the world are just like we are all connected to each other.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Finding out what I wanted to do for work was one of the primary challenges of my life. I was the guy who majored in everything and could never really commit to one thing. I ended up as an English major because I liked to read.

I got into bartending early because it allowed me to travel and meet new people.. My first job was in Edinburgh Scotland which indirectly landed me back in Seattle during a peak in cocktail culture and was where I learned I had a gift for customer service. All the while I had a creative impulse to write screenplays (go figure) and that lead me to Los Angles where I continued to bartend a night or two a week but primarily lived the writer’s life that was not actually financially successful but allowed me to build a creative discipline which a rely on to this day to maintain and build my businesses.

During this time I picked up part-time work as an assistant at the LAUSD evaluations and research branch during a massive rollout of professional development for all members of the math department from grade 5 and up – including teachers, coaches, principals from the entire school district. This is where I learned what high-quality education looks like in practice and why a massive rollout could fail without a quick and responsive feedback loop.

After this, I started working as a sales rep and eventually a sales coach for a payments and point of sale company. I gravitated to the business development side of things. Two things happened here, along with prior life experiences, that set the stage for me to jump off a cliff and into my own business. One: I started working on a community gift card program for the Montana avenue business association where I figured connecting all the shops would be a benefit to all during the holiday season. 2. The company I worked for announced that they were changing to an inside sales model and they wanted me to manage a phone bank. Ugh!

In a word, I was freaked out about the idea of just being inside all day and I had limited time to come up with a plan other than, I quit. Randomly I googled career counselor and found one, no references, about three blocks from my office where I could go on a lunch break and not tell anyone. I went for one session and the woman whose name I wish I could remember basically walked me through the basics of the book, what color my parachute was, or something, and I walked away with an idea of what ticked my boxes in life.

Around that time, my 12-year relationship ended with a woman I met in Seattle and while out surfing one morning feeling sad about life I saw someone paddle by on a stand-up paddle board. Something told me that I would be good at that.

My experience trying to source one 14 years ago to demo and even see if it fit in my apartment,, led to a series of events where all the boxes i had just found about started to get ticked one by one – be outside, work closely with people, be creative, be of service to the community, etc.

Somehow, the idea of sharing this passion with others through coaching, building a community, and sharing the stoke with the rest of the world went from a “colorful parachute” to finding the perfect vehicle aka vessel for me to be my best self and make a living while doing it.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I love living in LA! I get to be close to nature, and frequently in it, while being close to the Hollywood bowl, the LACMA, and a ton of ethnically diverse local restaurants.

My itinerary would include finding all the independent ethnic grocery stores that serve food – Bay city delis, The Samosa House, Matsawu, etc

Hikes in Topanga

Paddling off Broad beach at low tide

SUP surfing at little dume

I like to walk around DTLA market area and also sunset junction

When staying close to home I priortitize a low tide beach walk between the piers

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Definitely, my Dad who taught me to sail, row, and love adventures that go on and on

Heath Hamilton at the Annenberg beach house

Santa Monica pier paddle

Steve West ASI (SUP and paddle Guru)

Jeff Pielet USCGA flotilla 12-4

The Paddle Method Core Crew – Marion, Dedric, Wioletta, Ida, Roxy, Nathan!

Website: paddlemethod.com

Instagram: paddle_method

Facebook: paddlemethod

Other: www.perfectpaddles.com perfectpaddles IG perfectpaddles FB perfectpaddles twitter perfectpaddles pinterest