Georgian Bay Surf Club opens new multi-use venue in Collingwood (Photos)

Georgian Bay Surf Club has opened its highly anticipated new location in Collingwood, combining a surf shop, restaurant, and event space. 

Co-owner Curtis Eichenberger, who started the brand as a small community initiative, now operates a year-round destination that caters to locals and tourists alike. The innovative venue showcases a unique blend of retail, dining, and community-focused events, contributing to Collingwood’s growing appeal as a four-season destination.

The surf club offers a curated selection of exclusive international brands and sustainably sourced apparel, positioning itself as a key player in the local retail landscape. With a focus on organic cotton and locally made goods, the brand also aims to meet the demand for eco-conscious products.

The opening of this new space follows years of careful planning and brand-building, including pop-up shops and dinners to generate excitement. Eichenberger’s vision of creating a hub for surf culture is now a reality, attracting a diverse clientele and adding momentum to the town’s expanding retail scene.

Eichenberger said years ago he and his friends would surf out in Georgian Bay. From there some clothing featuring the area was made and promoted on Instagram. The intention was to sell to friends. Not make money really but just cover the costs of making the shirts.

“Without kind of doing anything, it really gained a lot of traction just because people thought it was cool. So I actually had a lot more people who didn’t even surf, they were reaching out about getting the sweaters and the shirts and whatever else. And then ultimately fast forward to a couple of years ago where my now partners and I had been looking at trying to find some real estate downtown Collingwood,” explained Eichenberger. 

“The original concept was just a real estate play. And then those guys kind of came back to me and said, you know, we really liked the idea of using the surf club as a brand, which I was obviously okay with because I’ve always wanted to have a hub for our little surf community or a clubhouse style surf shop, knowing that you can’t really have a standalone self-sustaining surf shop. It’s just not going to work. There’s just not enough people buying surfboards and wetsuits in town to justify doing that.

“We knew we were going to renovate an old building. We knew all of that. Once we decided to use the surf club, we actually went back and got a proper branding team to rebrand the surf club. We worked with an interior designer in Toronto to give us the concept of the space. And then, I kind of went back to the guys and as we went back and forth between the different ideas, I said, you know, let’s explore opening a restaurant, and having the surf shop and the restaurant kind of live as one in the same open concept building.”

He worked with Kaegan Walsh Architect Ltd. to create a unique space.

Today, the concept has a bar and restaurant on the main floor and then open concept second storey surf shop and event space. The establishment is open year-round.

“It’s been great so far. We kind of kept the brand in front of everybody for a couple of years while we were doing the build between doing pop-up shops or doing pop-up dinner services and stuff like that with our chef coming up. Partners of mine, two of them own a wine and whiskey bar in Collingwood.

“So we were able to use their bar to do these dinners. Just certain special events. We had drummed up a lot of anticipation over those couple of years that we were building it out.”

The location is about two hours north of Toronto on the shores of Georgian Bay at the base of Blue Mountain, which is Ontario’s largest ski resort. 

“Collingwood has become quite a large attraction with all of our new bars and restaurants, and having the waterfront here,” said Eichenberger “It’s quite a destination.”

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