By Breeana Greenberg
At 8 years old, Eric Martin was snorkeling off the coast of San Clemente. By 12, he was spearfishing with a three-prong pole spear.
“I got into it as a kid; I was a lifeguard for 12 years with State Parks—in the water every day,” Martin said. “Grew up surfing.”
Decades later, when Martin went to work at a commuter shuttle service in San Francisco, he “felt like a fish out of water.”
After leaving a job in San Francisco and moving back to his hometown of San Clemente, Martin found that there was a noticeable lack of dive shops in the area and looked to fill the void. So, he opened Lost Winds.
“I decided it was time to start my own business and provide a service to the community that wasn’t being met,” Martin said.
Lost Winds opened as a brick-and-mortar shop in August 2016 in San Clemente after four years of online sales. The name, Lost Winds, takes after a nickname for Lasuens Beach in San Clemente, the beach Martin first started diving from as a kid.
“Everyone, when I was growing up, was calling it Lost Winds,” Martin said. “I don’t think it’s on any more state literature, because it’s not the real name of the beach, but locals still know that Lost Winds is the name of it.”
Over the past six years, Lost Winds grew to provide gear for anything from scuba and freediving to spearfishing.
“We are kind of known as a one-stop shop for spearfishing in particular,” Martin said.
This year, Martin decided to expand Lost Winds to Dana Point after realizing that there was “a market over here that wasn’t being served for spearfishing and freediving.”
(From Left) Lost Winds owner Eric Martin, Store Manager Mike Koepsell and Sales Associate James Blaydon celebrated the opening of the dive shop in the Prado West development, at Pacific Coast Highway and Amber Lantern on Sept. 24. Photo: Breeana Greenberg
“I wanted to come and give this community a fresh look at diving and bring high-end customer service for the local community to get in water,” Martin continued. “The shop is a full-service dive shop, so that means snorkeling, freediving, spearfishing, scuba diving. We do certification; we’re going to be running a charter next year.”
One service Lost Winds offers is helping to fit customers into the best spearfishing, freediving, and snorkeling masks for their face shape. Staff members walk customers through the process of how a mask should fit comfortably and create a good seal against their face.
Martin encourages customers to reach out if they have any questions about their equipment.
“We encourage everyone to either text us, send us photos and give us a call, because a lot of times when I think about spearfishing and/or scuba, in general, there’s a description, but there’s different adapters and certain sizes for a lot of things, especially spearfishing, different environments,” Martin said.
The dive shop also offers scuba and freediving certification courses. Each scuba course offered by Lost Winds has a maximum of four people per class to ensure the best experience possible. All dive gear and air tanks are included in the class.
“We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world,” Martin said. “A lot of people that live here don’t understand that we have some of the best diving in the world, as well.”
“We have Catalina off our coast that you can jump on the Catalina Express,” Martin continued. “I actually teach a freedive course every other weekend, and I have an instructor that teaches scuba diving courses every weekend.”
Lost Winds opened its Dana Point location in the Prado West development, at Pacific Coast Highway and Amber Lantern, on Sept. 24, and is looking to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the coming weeks.
Breeana Greenberg
Breeana Greenberg is the city reporter for the Dana Point Times. She graduated from Chapman University with a bachelor of arts degree in English. Before joining Picket Fence Media, she worked as a freelance reporter with the Laguna Beach Independent. Breeana can be reached by email at bgreenberg@picketfencemedia.com