Newport Beach, CA, November 2nd, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE, Aaron Byrnes, a Newport Beach import-export founder, explains why he pays closer attention to his business calendar when sailing season and the pickleball tournament circuit come around.
A Calendar Built Around Two Seasons
Most people mark the year by holidays. Aaron Byrnes marks it by sailing season and tournament season.
He lives on the water in Newport Beach and plays pickleball regularly. When the America’s Cup calendar heats up, or a run of tournaments lands on the local courts, he says it changes how he looks at his own work for a few weeks at a time.
“I don’t watch sailing to relax,” Byrnes says. “I watch it because every race is a decision made under pressure, with conditions that won’t hold still. That’s the same problem I have with a shipment.”
Why Timing Gets Harder, Not Easier
Byrnes has worked in import and export since 1990, mostly in rugs and antiquities. He says the hardest part of that work was never sourcing or pricing. It was timing: knowing when to move and when to wait.
“A boat crew reads wind, current, and the other boat, all at once, and they have seconds to decide,” he says. “I read currency, customs, and the person across the table, and I usually get days instead of seconds. That should make it easier. It doesn’t always.”
He says watching a season of races reminds him that preparation only buys you so much. “You can study the course for months. The race still gets decided by what happens in the last few minutes. A deal is the same. You can do the groundwork for weeks and still have the outcome turn on one late call.”
What Tournament Season Adds
Pickleball season adds a different lesson, Byrnes says, one about pacing rather than conditions.
“A tournament is a string of short matches, back to back,” he says. “You can’t play the fifth match with the same intensity as the first, or you won’t have anything left for the final. Deals come in strings too. I’ve learned to pace a string of shipments the same way, rather than treating each one like it’s the only one that matters.”
He says this is a habit more than a strategy. He doesn’t plan his business calendar around either sport. But when both seasons line up, usually in the same stretch of the year, he notices himself slowing down before big decisions rather than speeding up.
“When everyone around me is amped up watching a close race or a tiebreak match, I find myself doing the opposite at work,” he says. “I’ll sit on an offer an extra day. I’ll ask one more question before I sign off on logistics. The sport doesn’t make me more aggressive. It makes me more patient.”
Why He Thinks This Matters for Trade
Byrnes says import and export rewards patience more than people expect going in. He compares it to watching a long race rather than a sprint.
“New importers want the fast version: find it, price it, ship it, move on,” he says. “The people who last in this business are the ones who can sit with a decision for a few extra days when the situation calls for it. Sailing and tournament season both put that lesson in front of me every year, which is probably why I keep paying attention to them.”
He says none of this is a formula. He doesn’t track outcomes against the sailing calendar or keep notes tied to match results. It’s simpler than that.
“It’s just a reminder that shows up twice a year,” he says. “Conditions change. Pace matters. The read you make early in the day isn’t the read you’ll be making by the end of it.”
About Aaron Byrnes
Aaron Byrnes is a founder working in import and export, based in Newport Beach, California. His work has centered on rugs and antiquities since the early 1990s, after an earlier career in residential and commercial construction. He lives in Southern California, where he sails, plays pickleball, and follows a handful of podcasts on markets and the economy.
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