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About
the Founder
Founder and President: Cory E. Smith
"Cory is a revivalist, an Indiana Jones of the Pearl
World“ says Eve Alfille, President of the Pearl Society, Evanston,
Illinois. "As a passionate ocean person he was always out
there from the beginning “ says Shellei Addison, publisher and
author of “Pearls: Ornament and Obsession” published by Simon &
Schuster. “He was out there on the remote pearl farms working
with the people and earning the trust of the pearl farmers”. Vogue
Magazine reported in October 1998, "Cory acquires pearls for the
world’s finest jewelers”, and Paul McHugh of the San Francisco
Chronicle insights Cory well, “This is a man that is a natural
lover of the sea and all things connected with the ocean
environment. Among the things he prizes highest are the ways in
which humans are able to connect themselves to the ancient and
vibrant marine realm.” |
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For two decades, Cory Smith,
a former avid surfer and long time diver has continuously harvested
a living from passions aligned with the ocean;
surfing then pearls. His education is typical of the
entrepreneurial mind. Smith educated himself in classic eclectic
style; a fusion of 3 years at Cabrillo College and select
courses at the University of California at Santa Cruz blended
with extensive travel and being mentored by savvy local businessmen
while operating a hands-on small business from the age of
19. The experience he gained in the surfing industry as a
young man set the course for his entry into the world as an
international pearl trader. 1979-1992: President Santa
Cruz Surf Shop and Santa Cruz Surfboards
1992-1997: President I.N.C. International Nucleus
Company-Tahiti
1993-1997: President Oceans 3 Pearl Company-Tahiti
1997-Present: President: Pearls Krisana, Inc. |
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As a
teenager, he entered the political and expressive world of surfing
retail and manufacturing as the proprietor of the once famed
Santa Cruz Surf Shop and Santa Cruz Surfboards, coined by the San
Francisco Chronicle and the surf industry's Action
Sport Retailer magazine as the first environmental surf
shop in the world. Santa Cruz is in the hub of the surfing world
launched primarely during the 1980s' as amazing local surfing
talent and the powerful waves of the area mixed
to bring the world's eyes for the first time somewhere
different than Hawaii. Soon Santa Cruz became known as
"cold" Hawaii and Santa Cruz Surf Shop was in the middle of this
explosion. Within just a few short years, his small shop and
surfboard company grew to international recognition by way of his
sponsored and talented surf team he called the "The Santa Cruz Surf
Crew", attempting to obvert the limiting and competitive word
"team" with the more inclusive word "crew", representing all
the personalites of his company's 60 member group. Many
of his crew became surfing household names as they conquered huge
waves and discovered previously unridden ones around the
world. Throughout the ‘80s and early ‘90s, his company’s name and
talented surfboard riders graced the covers of magazines,
calendars, surfing posters and starred in surf movies throughout
the surfing world. |
Image 1 &
2. Smith organized an effort with Surfer Magazine producing an
acclaimed adventure article and surf movie release called
“Wilderness Surfing” where Smith and a handful of talented
exploratory surfers penetrated the rarely ridden and un-filmed
Pacific Northwest. The youngest of the trip at 23, and
characteristic of his style, Smith negotiated the politics of the
protective reigning inhabitants and his own crew of proud high
quality surfers and individualistic film makers which brought
readers and audiences around the country intrigue and held them in
suspense as the story revealed itself with hostile locals and the
unseen surfing secrets of the wild North. Image 3 &
4 Member of "Santa Cruz Crew" on the cover of an
Australian Surfing magazine and another profiled in his growing
ranks as a professional surfer. |
Upon visiting Cory shortly
after he opened his new environmental surf shop, Yvon
Chouinard, famed environmentalist, mountain climber and
founder of Patagonia, Inc., responded to one of his questions about
the absence of ocean consciousness by many in the surf industry;
“There are not many people like you and me”. Cory accepted this as
the ultimate compliment of his young career, privately assuring
himself he was on the right path.
“Interdisciplinary”, a new term at research universities as
Stanford reflects the current expectation to bridge fields
broadening a researchers’ ability to gain insight and solve the
complex problems of today’s world. Cory’s retail formula was
ahead of it’s time, an “interdisciplinary” application by
forethought and display of the vast wonderments of the sport he
loved as; historical and evolving, physical and spiritual, a
fluid natural world and futuristic, and just a plain rush ……knowing
well there would be no sport without them.
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Richard Schmidt,
finalist Hawaii Triple Crown,
former rider for Santa Cruz Surfboards, at Pipeline,
Hawaii |
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“The ocean will always
present itself with something more awesome than your ego”---
Cory-quote on a placard hanging under a
museum prepared jaw of a 14’ Great White as an answer to
undeserving surfer egos that too often came into his store
everyday…to jack their own jaws. |
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"Cory initiated through
thousands of petitions to put famous Duke Kahanamoku on a
commemorative U.S. stamp. The Duke considered the father of modern
surfing, introduced surfing to Santa Cruz and the mainland in the
1920s’. As an Olympic Gold medalist even swimmer President Kennedy
sought the Duke for coaching. That stamp was finally issued in
2002, 12 years after Cory’s first petitions were sent to the USPS
and the Hawaii State Senate". |
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(continued)
At 12 Cory learned the art of falconry, soon he had a house full of
all types of animals from fish to reptiles to raptors. His sportive
and naturalist mode exposed him more and more to the environs and
patterns of life by way of planned and often impromptu occasions
with Killer Whales, Birds of Prey, Elephant seals and
even Great White sharks. He witnessed a language, a culture, a
government with these animals, something unseen to humans but very
much a reality in the process of life. His interests continued
to parallel the natural world, but so did his own inherent business
nature. Somewhere, somehow his future lay close to the natural
realm with a capitalist sparkle. His thoughts and ideals continued
to open as the face of Mother Nature caressed the imagination
of his mind through his falconry and surfing. As his ocean
experiences expanded through surfing, he believed the depth of
the ethereal forces behind surfing was beyond that of the daily
gymnastics of riding a wave, he believed it was about our umbilical
cord connecting us to the sea, therefore essentially to
ourselves. |
After many years of operating
a small yet influential surf shop, he conceptualized his new
environmental-consciously themed Santa Cruz Surf Shop in part to
enlarge his own enlighten self interests, but in part as a reaction
to what he believed was a disconnect many surfers seemed to have,
especially the young ones, from the realness and lessons surfing
offered through the ocean but they were blind to it. He wanted to
remind his customers what they surfed over and stepped on every
time they went surfing. He wanted to link the modern version of
surfing not only to surfings' ancestors of Polynesia and Peru, but
also of the natural world that made surfing a worthy experience, to
show in a virtual sense all the elements which made surfing a
complete experience, at least how he had experienced it. In place of a rack of
surfboards, he had a 600 gallon cold water aquarium filled with
creatures from the local surfing areas. He hatched a baby shark
from an egg brought in by a customer another donated to him by the
Monterey Bay Aquarium. His ceiling was laced with antique
surfboards from the 30s’ and 40s’. Cory built three museum boxes
which featured Peruvian and Polynesian artifacts and another full
of seven million year old marine fossils found just down the street
from his store and tagged by the Capitola Museum.
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Cory discusses the Peruvian contents
of
his store's museum boxes with Beverly
Byer of NBC local news |
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Further explaining the
attributes
of the ocean in surfing as seen
through his 600 gallon cold water aquarium |
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Today both businesses continue
under seperate new ownership and guidance. NHS Inc. grouped Santa
Cruz Surfboards with its' long established international brand
of Santa Cruz skateboards,
snowboards, mountain bikes and clothing
adding management for the new surfboard division of past
members of Cory's Santa Cruz Surf Crew, building one
of finest X-Sport companies in the world. After 13 years
in surfing retail and surfboard manufacturing, life altering events
enlightened him to pursue his developing love and hobby; the
beautiful Black Pearls of French Polynesia, which he discovered in
the 1980s' while surfing the outer islands of Tahiti. |
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Santa Cruz Surfboards
Factory |
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The 80's were a golden era for
his business and surfing, but that soon changed after a series of
personal and business compounding events from 1989 to 1992. One of
Smith's friends insisted that he travel to Central America to
revive his spirit for a three-week surf journey that ended up being
a journey to the soul. There, after a happening that Smith can only
describe as an "Epiphany" or "Great Awakening", and to the surprise
of many and within 6 weeks after his return, he decided to quickly
liquidate his stateside assets, exit the surf industry and move to
start a new life and business in Tahiti. |
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Cory surfing the
Pacific Northwest
in the surf movie and Surfer Magazine article
"Wilderness Surfing" |
Enjoying a soulful
session in Santa Cruz |
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Cory took off one month later to
Tahiti in June 1992 this time to further his interests in the
mysterious pearl industry bypassing the remote surfing reefs that
brought him there originally more than a decade before. He had
played as a hobby with Tahitian Pearls in the 80’s after becoming
impassioned by pearls through his surfing and diving experiences in
Tahiti which he felt were embodied and symbolized by the pearls
themselves. |
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Smith reaping rewards
along an isolated Tahiti outer island reef pass |
Without any real
knowledge or specific contacts in the Tahitian pearl farming
business, nor an ability to speak the local language, proper work
visas’ or liquid working capital, his new business developing in
the pearl industry soon took off anyway by way of blind persistence
and ubiquitous luck. |
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This modern photo
technique (above) shows a surfer in Tahiti catching a wave
reflecting the unique
quality and power of the surf that brought Cory to Tahiti as
one of the first handfuls of surfers to surf these
islands. Only a few Tahitian surfers exsisted on the main
island of Tahiti at this time leaving the abundant outer island
reef waves empty and undiscovered. Captain Cook's journals
reports locals riding waves on the reef passes on pieces
of wood fashioned for surfing in the 1700's. Polynesians are
an ocean people with great navigational skills and are the
ancestors of today's surfing. |
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A professional
surfer during the Billabong Surfing Pro at the now
infamous "Teahupoo" on the main island of Tahiti, now known as
the world's most dangerous wave and the most revered surfing
contest event of the year. Teahupoo was discovered by the
outside and professional surfing world in 1998. Cory
first discovered for himself and surfed Teahupoo alone on a smaller
day in 1983. |
Same day as the photo on
the left, Cory was an invited guest on the Billabong Pro judging
stand, built over the water close to the surfing reef, visiting
with Gaston Tuapua(rt) an old friend and contest security
chief also former security for the Tahiti President, a famous
comic-style Tahitian with the punch of a truck, who
toured the world as a fire dancer, and who also is
V.P. of the Tahitian Surfing Association. The surfing
association held a 2002 barbacue in Cory's honor as one
of the first players in Tahitian surfing, presenting him to
dozens of Tahiti's young up
coming surfers.
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Pearl nuclei (small round
mussel shell beads that serve as the nuclei in the propagation of
pearls) was to become Cory's new working capital in the pearl
business. Pearl nuclei which he obtained from a former U.S. pearl
wholesaler now turned bankrupt creditor whom Cory had
previously provided a large test consignment of pearls he
had purchased from a broker in Tahiti
in 1989 while his pearl hobby was growing. Upon
his June '92 arrival in Tahiti, customs agents seized his
200lbs of nucleus due to lack of proper documentation
(requires the license of a local pearl farm to import)
also his hopeful stock of future working capital.
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Staff preparing nucleus
for sale |
Pearl grafter, a happy
customer of Smith's
I.N.C. International Nucleus
Company |
Nucleus sale meeting,
mayor of Taaha |
These pearl
nuclei, conjoined with his enthusiasm eventually became the
financial seeds of Smith's next adventure; as a pearl nucleus
wholesaler, he called his company I.N.C. International Nucleus
Company, which quickly blossomed into local pearl trader, locally
known as Ocean 3 Pearl Company. Taking advantage of a former
Tahitian surfing contact living in the French Polynesian capital
city of Papeete, and coincidentally who had a friend with a small
pearl farm, his nuclei was soon released from customs and later
that same day as he arrived, loaded himself and his 200lb cooler of
nucleus onto a small smelly inner-island supply ship and with a tip
from his new friends headed out to the pearling region of the
Tuamotu archipelago in 20 foot swells, 600 miles from Tahiti,
attempting to find a market for his pearl nucleus. Here Smith began
to enter into the remote and risky world of the South Sea pearl
farmer. |
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Inner-Island trading
ship |
Hand line caught 125lb Yellow Fin
Tuna |
Tuamotu with pearl station |
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In his move to Tahiti, Smith
successfully began trading his pearl nuclei to pearl farmers
throughout the Tuamotu atolls, often trading for pearls. Shellei
Addison adds again, "He was out there on the farms working with
people and meeting farmers. He earned the trust of the small
independent pearl farmers and eventually created an independent
source for his next significant business journey as a Pearl
Trader". |
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New unfurnished Tahiti
office with
Korean pearl buyer. $31,000 sale. |
Business expanding.
Furnished Office |
Prepared pearl harvest
for foreign buyer. $780,000 |
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Smith acquired an office in
the capital city of Papeete, and began brokering loose "pearl lots"
to the large pearl companies from Asia, representing his newly
trusted allied group of Tuamotu pearl farmers he befriended while
living in the Tuamotu. Slowly, his Asian counterparts who were his
largest customers for his brokered pearl harvests, which have
controlled the world's pearl business since its inception nearly
100 years ago, began revealing their secrets to him. Several years
later, his U.S. pearl business was born as he began to bring his
Tahiti experience and beautiful pearls stateside.
"His passion and persistence has earned him a high regard
in the pearl industry" adds again Eve Alfille, and Paul McHugh
continues; "His background gives him a unique ability to share not
only his enthusiasm, but also his acumen and his ideals. He
understands perfectly that the health of the globe and her human
children depends on the health of the seas. And so, as a
businessman, he is able to offer products from the sea with a
special conscious flair." His recuperative struggles
and incredible stories are featured in a brief selection in a book
titled; “Surviving the Tough Times" by Dennis Powers, Esq. Smith's
story is a story almost uniquely reserved to the American
entrepreneur…..exclusively and extensively following his passions,
he has built, succeeded, lost and rebuilt again the American Dream;
personal freedom by way of one's own design.
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Cory living
with small pearl farming family |
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Previewing a pearl
harvest in advance
of an incoming buyer with staff at the
Tahiti home of a pearl farmer |
A recorded interview with
KSCO radio host Michael Olson, outlining some of his experiences as
a pearl trader, is housed on the Internet at www.metrofarm.com and www.KSCO.com (This is a dated radio program and might not be available from
time to time during archived inventory shifts) The pearling efforts of this
small town surfing aficionado who spent his youth finding his soul
training falcons and camp surfing along remote areas of
California coastline was rewarded with a maturing list of global
business and personal relationships. As his company grew he
produced pearl exhibitions and attended trade shows showing off his
beautiful pearls and pearl jewelry collections throughout the U.S.,
London, Bermuda, Hong Kong and Australia. His clients have included
Tiffany, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Fortunoff, Princess Cruises and
many fine independent jewelry stores and jewelry manufactures
across the country.
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Cory's Tahitian
boys
His finest South Sea discovery. |
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Additional
images and Quotes… "I call him
Christian Fletcher"---Tetuahau Temaru, son of current Tahiti President, Oscar
Temaru “a surfer among the
intellectuals and an intellectual among the surfers”---Rod
Lundquist, 1960’s Northern Californian big
waver surfer, hang glider and English
Professor
“I spent a week with Cory in Tahiti, visiting his
office and staying on a pearl farm with him. He has built a
remarkable and well executed business for himself in another
country, he is certainly an American entrepreneur”---Dennis Powers Esq., Author
and Law Professor, Oregon State
University
“Cory my friend, you
are a conscientious capitalist, a star gazer and chronic soul
wonderer, a perplexing blend of a
man” ---Bernard
Burnett, managing director of Burnett
Fisheries Australia “Had Cory exploited
his meta-physical brain rather than his keen business brain over
the last 20 years he would have been on the cover of Time by now,
or dropped out all together”---Kym Sui, owner Treasures of the Mind, Hong
Kong
“In my performance of a due diligence contract with an investment
group interested in Mr. Smith’s nucleus and pearl wholesale
operations I accompanied him for three weeks in Tahiti and Hong
Kong observing his business and evaluating the pearl industry.
Firstly I was astounded by the beauty of French Polynesia and the
environment surrounding the culturing of pearls and secondly,
equally impressed with Mr. Smith’s business contacts and innate
abilities to web together his vision stringing cultural nuances and
unordinary business hurtles to flow in the direction of his dream.
At the middle of the second week Mr. Smith along with a worker from
the pearl farm speared an abundance of fish that fed us and the
entire staff of 15 for dinner. The same time the following week Mr.
Smith and I were in Hong Kong dining on fish, certainly not as
fresh, meeting with his prospective pearl buyers. Mr. Smith is
living a dream with professionalism and passion, amid
the city scapes or spearing a fish for dinner, something
which I have rarely witnessed in my 13 years of
practice.”---Brian Prosser, CPA Novato, Ca.
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Purchasing select
pearls from a small pearl farmer |
Assisting a pearl
farmer in value sorting their harvest |
“This spirited young man and an often visitor to the island on which I practiced medicine, would bring to me many locals who were afraid to visit my office, as I am French and mistrust still resides in many Polynesian people. It was as if Cory was personally responsible for their well being. Many were suffering with ailments often chronic in nature and difficult to manage. He was positive in his mind that together we could find something to make his Polynesian friends feel better, sometimes a child, sometimes an aged woman. He would attempt to reimburse fees to my office on behalf of “his” patients from offerings he would bring from America; a camera, a pair of binoculars or an expensive deep sea fishing reel. Year after year it was the same. Cory Smith reminds me of Captain Jonathan Smith, the New World explorer of America who married local Indian princess bride Pocahontas, immersing himself in blind eyes-wide-open awe in a foreign culture, living his passions a bit on the edge…and with an open heart and mind.”---Dr. Timothy Palast, doctor of family medicine, French Polynesia
“Cory will wield his insightful and creative skills in any endeavor of his choosing as he did at the helm of a unique and formidable surf shop”--- Steve Pezman, founder and publisher of Surfer’s Journal |
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Showing off his finest
necklace
to Bermuda's Prime Minister |
Cory's Bermuda Pearl
Exhibition
co-sponsored with the oldest jeweler in Bermuda
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Gemological Institute
of America
instructor Angelic Crowne(rt) attended
with Cory from Calsbad, CA. |
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“On September 8, 2001 I issued a letter of intent reflecting our decision to capitalize Mr. Smith’s pearl company. Absent the events of 9/11 a few days later, we were prepared and would have eagerly participated in assisting Cory’s pearl company to become a prominent international enterprise. I personally attended his pearl trade shows, visited his contemporaries and associated pearl farms in Tahiti and the Philippines and can state assuredly this is man with vision, professional resolve and a distinctive capacity to feel comfortable in diverse worlds. It is not often our company’s board would unanimously approve $5,000,000 in capital funding”---Abbey Moleno, CEO of VenturePath, Silicon Valley |
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Cory with Abbey
Moleno of VenturePath
and former President of Tahiti, Gaston Flosse |
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“The Amphora Pearl has been the gem of our family heirlooms for almost 25 years. I found the pearl diving off Cox Island, North West Australia off Exmouth Gulf when an old Maxima shell approximately 1 foot in diameter was found in 35 meters of water and when opened a thud sounded in the slush bucket. On looking down I saw the most beautiful and largest natural pearl I have ever seen. Cory got along well with our family and the boys at the pub took to him grand. One morning my wife found Cory out front in the bush using Kangaroo dung as a pillow, not sure if that was his choice or the boys at the pub. It was then we decided to give in to his requests and sell him our heirloom Amphora Pearl for $50,000, the object of his passion and why he came to visit us”---Master Pearler Captain Francis Jones, Managing Director Australian Pearl Farms, Pty Ltd.
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Pearl grafting
technician
in Australia (inserting nucleus) |
The harvest;
whites,
cremes, silvers and golds... |
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“Hemmingway broke the mold, but
I am not so sure Cory is not building another” ---Augustine
Roush, Roush Entreprise S.A.,
France |
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With Robert
Wan, largest producer of Tahitian Pearls
visiting one of 9 pearl farms |
Cory's trade show
booth
exhibiting at GJX Tucson |
Seattle Nordstrom store
opening |
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“I tell Cory
many times he need get tattoo every time he visits different
islands in my country. He need tattoo every time something happen
with him and his spirit with Tahitian people and the islands, he is
Tahitian, I know because I watch him. I know my friend Cory, his
body will take many tattoo, even his face”---Hiroiti Faatauira,
TahitianTattoo Artist and
Polynesian Mythologist (Cory never found the
time for a tattoo. There is a layering of cultures in Tahiti, a
clash of old values and new. Canoes and BMWs'. The tattoos of
Tahitian ancestors told the story of the person, like wearing your
autobiography. Advanced adults with more life experience,
starting with tattoos early in life
at mid-body, would be covered eventually up to the
face...the most honored of Polynesian society) |
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Beginning work day
selling pearl nucleus
Pearl farms in background |
Fiesty local pearl
farmer |
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Cory (in water)
working
on pearl farm hauling up oysters |
Pearl buying on pearl
farm |
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