Scrolling Ryan Marx’s Instagram feed, we thought maybe we’d just discovered the Millennials’ answer to Steve McQueen. Bombing hills on a skateboard. Yes! Slick motorcycles. There he is! Snowboarding powder. Swoosh! And of course, surfing. And, uh, mopeds (?!). That last bit lands as the final deadpan punchline for a man with steez on a level we can only hope to achieve someday. Smitten by the surge of cool emanating from Ryan’s pores, we decided to name him WavePoolMag’s Employee of the Month.
Marx has both mechanical and retail superpowers. On one hand, he’s a full-on grease monkey who knows vintage motorcycles and the pneumatic wave technology inside and out. On the other hand, he’s a retail guru who has memorized the Fall 2026 Florence Marine line. Ryan is also well-versed in the retail calculus, bringing a lot of experience to the equation.
“My background is working in shops,” said Ryan on-site at the Palm Springs Surf Club. “I started working at the skate shop when I was fourteen for cash under the table, then transitioned to the surf shop when my local skate shop closed down. I even worked at a snowboard shop for a little while, but came back to the surf shop. Now I’m running the retail store here.”
That early experience shaped his approach to retail operations at Palm Springs Surf Club and feeds into the unique setup here in the desert.
“We want to sell surf community, we want to sell surf lifestyle, and push the stuff we care about. We don’t want to just be making water park merchandise and gimmicky items that feel like keepsakes. We want to make stuff for real surfers, products people care about. And people care about this place so much; we just need to build more on that.”
Editor’s Note: This post is made possible in cooperation with WavePoolJobs and ShorelineJobs – the industry’s dedicated wave pool and surf park job center.
Palm Springs Surf Club currently sells branded merchandise both on-site and online. Top sell-through products include soft goods and accessories featuring the surf park’s iconic logo, which has become a sought-after souvenir.
“Our Palm Springs gear sells so well, mostly T-shirts and classic hats. We do really well with towels and tote bags. We just opened an online store two weeks ago, so now we’re shipping orders all over the world, which is pretty cool. People don’t have to come here to get a piece of the park and support what we’re doing.”
The shop is currently working closely with Florence Marine X, John John Florence’s brand, which, somewhat surprisingly, fits the desert setting more than 100 miles from the nearest natural surf break.
“We’re going heavy on Florence right now. They’re amazing and take care of us so well, so we want to return the favor. They just built a huge new section for us. It’s one of our best-selling areas right now.”
A good surf shop offers something H&M never could: a reflection of the culture that’s grown up around a local break. Despite the desert location, the Palm Springs wave pool shop still feels distinctly coastal.
“There are definitely some differences between the pool shop and the coast shop, but I don’t think you should stray from the surf shop model or the core values of surfing. The shop is where many people were raised and learned the rules and guidelines of surfing from older crews. Sure, we might be a little different than surfing at the beach, but everyone comes here for the same reason. They all come from that same community, and that’s what we’re trying to foster here.”
Transition into Mechanical Operations
In addition to managing retail, Marx became involved with the mechanical side of the wave system, something that wasn’t entirely foreign to him.
“I come from a mechanical background that’s more self-taught. I like working on antique motorcycles, cars, motors, anything I can tinker with. I was doing surf with the surf patrol guys, running the wave. Then I started working for Surf Loch Wave Systems, which designed our proprietary wave machine.”
Although Marx didn’t study engineering formally, he and others at Palm Springs have become comfortable working on the mechanical systems behind the Surf Loch pneumatic wave machine.
“It’s the same with Chance (Gaul), who works here, and another employee, Jake Levine, who actually comes from an engineering background. When we started working on the wave machine, we just hopped in the back, picked up wrenches, and learned everything we needed to so we could do it ourselves.”
The process is physically demanding and requires some serious machinery.
“For sure, it’s pretty daunting. There isn’t a piece back there you can move without a gantry or crane. Everything needs a couple of people to carry it. We have special machinery just for removing and installing a lot of the parts. It’s more laborious than anything else, but mechanically it’s pretty straightforward.”
Mechanical Simplicity and Ownership
Despite the futuristic reputation of wave pool technology, Marx finds the work surprisingly familiar.
“As cool and futuristic as it seems, it’s pretty straightforward technology when you get into it. It feels like working on an old car or motorcycle. Once you get into that rhythm, the work starts to feel easier. It becomes second nature.”
Right now, he says, the system is running better than ever.
“Our machines are running better than they ever have. I think it’s because we’re all here, taking ownership of what’s happening back there.”
Team Structure and Collaboration
The operations team at Palm Springs Surf Club draws heavily from surf towns like Laguna Beach and Huntington Beach. Over time, Marx says a unique work dynamic developed, something he didn’t expect at first.
“Even if we haven’t known each other forever, our mutual friend groups run deep. We care about the crew before anything else. It became a fill-any-gap-that-needs-filling scenario. It all evolved so organically.
None of us thought we’d be working on a wave machine. I never thought I’d be running the retail store again. I thought I was done with that side of it. But it sucked me back in. And I just want to see this place succeed. So anything that needs to happen, we’ll get it done.”
