Ron Jon Surf Shop (Cocoa Beach, Florida) 001 crop

Ron Jon Surf Shop is a surfer-style retail store chain founded in 1959 in

Ship Bottom, New Jersey Ship Bottom is a borough in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 1,156,surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitable ...

and

bodyboarding Bodyboarding is a water sport in which the surfer rides a bodyboard on the crest, face, and curl of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore. Bodyboarding is also referred to as ''Boogieboarding'' due to the invention of the "Boogie ...

equipment, and their

Cocoa Beach, Florida Cocoa Beach is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,539 at the 2018 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The first non-native ...

, store is currently the largest surfing shop in the world. Michele Goodwin is the current president. Ron Jon Surf Shop has 13 stores nationwide. In addition to the Ship Bottom and Cocoa Beach stores, Ron Jon also operates stores in Orange Beach, Alabama; Orlando, Pensacola, Key West, Jacksonville Beach, Fort Myers, Panama City Beach and Clearwater Beach, Florida; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina; Ocean City, New Jersey; and Ocean City, Maryland. There is also a store on Grand Turk. There is also a Ron Jon store in

Cozumel Cozumel (; yua, Kùutsmil) is an island and municipality in the Caribbean Sea off the eastern coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, opposite Playa del Carmen. It is separated from the mainland by the Cozumel Channel and is close to the Yucat� ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. A store in

Orange, California Orange is a city located in North Orange County, California. It is approximately north of the county seat, Santa Ana. Orange is unusual in this region because many of the homes in its Old Town District were built before 1920. While many oth ...

, closed in early 2009. Another store in

Sawgrass Mills Sawgrass Mills is an outlet shopping mall in Sunrise, Florida within the Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area and it is one of the tourist destinations in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. With of retail selling space, it is the eleventh largest mall in ...

in Sunrise, Florida, closed in 2019. The corporation also includes one Ron Jon Surf School separately owned and run by Craig Carroll, located in

. The company made plans to construct a surf park at the location of the Orlando Ron Jon store, but it has since been canceled, due in part that the schematics for the pool were installed backwards. The flagship store in Cocoa Beach is open daily and has over 52,000 square feet of retail space.

In popular culture

Ruon-Jian is the name of a fictional character in the animated television series ''

Avatar: The Last Airbender ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'' (abbreviated as ''ATLA''), also known as ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in some regions or simply ''Avatar'', is an American anime-influenced animated television series created by Michael Dante DiMartino and ...

'' which aired on

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

between 2005 and 2008. His name (pronounced Ron-Jon) is humorously derived from the shop, as Ruon-Jian acts and looks like a stereotypical surfer.

Cocoa Beach Surf Museum

Ron Jon Surf Shop also houses the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum at the Cocoa Beach location. This museum contains exhibits highlighting surfing in the East Coast of the United States. It preserves and documents the unique history and culture of East Coast surfing through exhibits and educational events, community outreach programs for all ages, digital archiving activities, and its new oral history project. It highlights surfing history and culture from Cocoa Beach, nationally and internationally, and from differing perspectives, including exhibits that feature the history and lore that defines Cocoa Beach as one of the premier surf towns in the world.

References

External links

{{Commons category Sporting goods retailers of the United States Swimwear brands Surfwear brands Companies based in Brevard County, Florida Cocoa Beach, Florida Long Beach Island American companies established in 1959 Retail companies established in 1959 1959 establishments in New Jersey Tourist attractions in Brevard County, Florida Surfing retailers