*Parents, do you never know what to get your kids for the holidays?
*Kids, do your parents always give you socks and underwear?
We have the solution for all!
Sign up for our Wish List and take all the guesswork out of it! Just ask a sales associate for your own personal wish list of merchandise you want in our shop (item, brand, color, size, etc.) and we’ll keep on hand for your parents, grandparents, etc. to use as a buying guide to get you exactly what you want!
So, come on down and crank out a wish list before you get something lame!
Emerald City
1118 Orange Ave.
Coronado, CA 92118
619-435-6677
Marco Perez
Store Manager/Head Buyer
About Emerald City:
Mission Statement
Emerald City The Boarding Source is a board sports oriented shop dedicated to providing superior selection and service for hard goods as well as the coolest apparel and accessories to fit these active lifestyles. We stock surfboards, skateboards, stand up paddle boards, bodyboards and skimboards.
Emerald City the Shops
The Emerald City surf shops are the creation of two brothers, Kelly and Larry Kraus. After many years of surfing, traveling, and college, the Kraus boys decided it was time to go into business and open a surf shop in their second hometown of Coronado. Emerald City was born. The Coronado store opened in February of 1988. Larry and a third partner soon opened a second store in July of the same year at the newly redeveloped Belmont Park in Mission Beach. That partner eventually exited. The MB shop expanded in size three times but closed in 2005 when the lease expired. The Coronado shop relocated from the original Isabella Avenue address to the main street, Orange Avenue. It also expanded in size as space became available. A third store in Bonita was opened in 2001 but struggled against the 9-11 recession and closed after a little more than a year. The Coronado location is going strong and celebrated a 20 year anniversary in 2008.
Emerald City the Name
For years Coronado had its small share of publicity in the surf mags. One of the rules of localism back in the 70’s was that photographers had to conceal the location of the spots they portrayed. Fanciful aliases were often used. Coronado was dubbed “Emerald City” because many shots had a beautiful green hue to the water. When it came time to name the business, there was no other name to use but “Emerald City”.
History in Brief- Surfing is Life
Kelly and Larry, the sons of Phyllis and Walter Bartholomew Kraus, grew up surrounded by water in Imperial Beach, California. Their late father, a long time IB dentist, was known to his friends as “Black Bart the Imperial Beach Beast”. He built his dream home right on the beach in what turned out to be the most southwesterly house in the continental United States. Older “hackers” may remember “Lots”, the spot just to the south, before condos eventually ate up the empty dirt parking “lot”. No longer in the family, it’s the house just to the north of the access path now known as “Sidewalks”. With Mexico to the south, the Tijuana estuary behind, and very few houses to the immediate north, the Kraus’s front yard was the Pacific Ocean. This naturally became their main playground and both boys became avid surfers just as soon as they were big enough.
The waves in IB are quick, powerful, hollow beach breaks that constantly change their nature. Any surfer that can excel there soon becomes versatile in many conditions. Kelly took to the sport at age 11 close to the beginning of the short board era. He grew up through the changes from single fins to twins and finally thrusters. This combination of wave and equipment variety left Kelly as a surfer who loves to ride a wide variety of board styles and adapts to all kinds of surf.
The Tijuana Sloughs is more than just an estuary. It is also the name of a big wave spot just south of where they grew up. Over eons the Tijuana River has created alluvial deposits of rock off shore of the river mouth. These reefs extend half a mile and more out from the beach and offer challenging open ocean waves on the largest of winter swells. The outer Sloughs does not even really start to break until the faces reach twelve feet, and has a peak that tends to shift hundreds of feet: in, out, and sideways, and tries to catch everyone inside. From very early on, Kelly looked forward to every chance to charge these offshore waves and is still out there most every time it breaks.
In 1978 the boys moved north to Coronado while still teenagers. Larry started surfing in Nado at age 14 where they both soon learned the rare intricacies of that area.
After high school Kelly put in one year at Southwestern College but then took a few years off from college to work and travel. He spent several partial winters on the North Shore and made a few plane trips to mainland Mexico, particularly Puerto Escondido. Returning to school, first at San Diego City College and later UCSD, Kelly found that summers were best spent doing road trips to mainland Mex, camping all along the Pacific coast enjoying the powerful waves at many different spots. Favorites were the tubes of Pascuales, and the clean lefts of the river mouths in tropical Michoacan.
Similarly, after high school, Larry started traveling to surf. He has sampled spots from Puerto Rico, Mainland Mex, Hawaii, Fiji, and Indo. His current favorite is the island of Isla Natividad, off the middle of Baja, which he tries to hit on most every good summer swell.
When not away on longer searches, we have always chased the close Baja spots from Baja Malibu to San Miguel, always yearning for the classic and rare days at Salsipuedes and Calafia. Kelly currently resides in Coronado, Larry in Mission Beach. As an example of their different tastes the two brothers have embraced a couple of new surfing off shoots. Larry is an avid tow in surfer chasing big swells all around Baja with his jet ski. Kelly has taken to stand up paddle surfing which opens up a new world of possibilities on both big and small days.
Skateboarding
Skateboarding was naturally an early dry time interest. With the introduction of the first urethane wheels (Cadillacs), and later, the first precision bearings (Road Rider Fours), all sorts of new possibilities arose. Many miles were logged exploring the early skate spots of the county: drainage ditches, schools, churches, parking buildings, and an occasional pool. Kelly even created an early, and quite primitive, quarter pipe skate ramp back in the seventies. In more recent times, out of the water for a year with ear complications, Kelly built and maintained a half pipe that filled the whole of a back yard. The ramp remained low key and thus survived several years, no small feat in Coronado.
Snowboarding
The Krauses had enjoyed skiing as a side interest for years. The emergence of snowboards offered a much more natural feel to anyone who surfs or skates. A new passion was soon realized. As a specialty board store Emerald City was pleased to offer snowboards almost from the start. Emerald City watched the sport grow from a nuisance, to a fad, to an exploding “extreme” alternative, and finally to a mainstream sport. With the widespread popularity came competition from sporting goods discounters and EC found it prudent to scale snowboards back and eventually discontinue them altogether.
