Topmark mountain bike and watersports shop in the Lake District Cumbria, North West UK - Telephone 01229 824740
Upcoming Events
NEW OPENING HOURS
Mon, Tue, Wed, Fri
8am - 6pm
Sat
9am - 5pm
Thur, Sun
Closed
Meet the Topmark Staff & how Topmark came to be
Pictured above L to R: Mike Simpson, Paul Nickson, Mark Nickson, and Simon Jackson.
Mike has been with us since 1989, coming straight from school. His main jobs include bike assembly and sales, but he does a bit of everything. His hobbies are mountain biking (on his Marin B-17), and crown green bowling.
Paul came to work for us in 1983. He is our bike shop manager and the main buyer for the cycle department; Paul is also an excellent bike technician. He is a keen road cyclist (currently enjoying his Wilier Evasion), a very talented photographer, and a performer in a local musical society.
Mark has also been with us since leaving school. He’s a jack of all trades and gets involved with almost every aspect of the business. He can be found making tea, delivering bikes, running the kayak section, updating the website, driving a fork lift and even selling radio controlled model aircraft ! His hobbies almost justify a website of their own, but to name just a few... Kayaking, fishing, kayak-fishing, cycling (Marin Eldridge Grade), power kiting, photography, water skiing and model planes!
Simon joined the team here in 1998 and is our head technician. He is well recognised amongst the “roadies” as a superb wheel builder (over 30 year’s experience). He enjoys road cycling on his Wilier Mortirolo; he has been restoring a classic Jaguar XJ-12 for several years, and also redecorating his house, which is very much a work in progress taking more years so far than he will admit to!
Also, not pictured are Frank Thomas, our part time wheel builder, and Dan Beckett who assembles bikes 3 or 4 mornings each week.
In The Beginning
By Bill Nickson (Owner & Founder of Topmark)
TOPMARK STARTED ALMOST BY CHANCE
I had been a keen water skier for several years, when, in the early seventies a friend of mine returned from a summer holiday in the south of France. He had seen what he could only describe as a giant water ski with a sail on. It sounded like great fun so we made a few enquiries and found out they were called WINDSURFER REGATTA'S. We eventually bought one each for the princely sum of £299 each.
After taking delivery we set about rigging, not an easy task, as there were no instructions and no one to ask for advice in those early days. We did eventually lash them together and took them down to the sea here at Barrow in Furness. After many weekends of falling in and getting completely frustrated I packed my Windsurfer away in the shed convinced that they were unsailable.
It was the following year when my friend returned once again from the annual trip to France, arrived at our local beach, unloaded the Windsurfer and to my absolute amazement proceeded to sail up and down the beach----WINDSURFING HAD ARRIVED IN THE NORTH OF ENGLAND.
On early models the booms were made from laminated teak and unfortunately (or fortunately), mine stated to delaminate. I made a few phone calls and located the importer, a very nice gentleman by the name of John Crouch who was an agent for a Dutch company. I told him of my problem with the boom and after a few minutes of discussion John asked if I would like to become a WINDSURFER dealer.
I was already in business in partnership with my wife running a small but very busy wholesaling business supplying local shops with non-food items and this sounded like a good way of buying a new boom at trade price!!
I was by now addicted to this challenging new sport and wanted to introduce all my friends to Windsurfing. It was hard to show them how to do this cold, wet and almost impossible pastime, so I enrolled for the very first Windsurfing Instructors course. It was at a place called Newton by the Sea on the North East coast and was run by Sarah Sutherland and her husband Will, another two dedicated windsurfers. After a couple of weekends I had gained my "International Windsurfing Instructors Certificate." I met Will and Sarah many times over the following years as we toured the National race circuit, which we all enjoyed immensely.
It wasn't easy selling the boards and progress was slow, but then in August 1978 Windsurfing got the kick start it needed, Prince Charles was featured in the national press sailing my beloved Windsurfer Regatta (I still have the newspaper cutting in my scrap book) and now everyone wanted to try this exhilarating new water sport. Time moved on and we eventually stocked other makes of boards such as Mistral, Bic and more recently AHD and Starboard along with all the other familiar brands and products associated with a windsurfing shop.
MOUNTAIN BIKING
I first saw a mountain bike at a trade show in Munich in the early '80s. The bike was a prototype painted in white under the brand name of Mistral. I was immediately attracted to the bike and can only presume that Mistral had placed the bike on their trade stand to judge the public reaction. I believe that if the bike had gone into production it would have had a price tag of £1000, a lot of money all those years ago. Could a push bike at that price ever sell I wondered?
Some time later I had a phone call from a colleague of mine, Mike Lingwood, who at that time was importing windsurfing equipment. He had just returned from a trip to the States where mountain biking was booming, and he was convinced that it would take off in the U.K. even though the bikes were relatively expensive. He was also convinced that it would be a far bigger business than windsurfing…. "anyone can ride a bike" he explained, "You don't have to go to all the trouble of teaching people and it really does look a load of fun". I agreed that if he imported a container of bikes that I would buy four, and at the end of the day I could always have one for myself and sell the rest off to my friends. The bikes were an instant success with us - if there wasn't enough wind to go sailing we would head for the hills in the Lake District with our bikes, we were just like big kids. (I was nearer forty than thirty at that time)
Mike Lingwood was right, mountain biking did take off in a big way and as a result we have a very successful cycle business which runs very nicely along with windsurfing.
I feel very fortunate living here in Barrow, right by the sea and yet only about twenty minutes from the Lake District hills which enables me to participate in two fantastic sports at least once a week whatever the weather.