|
About Ocean
Surf Shop
The original surf shop building, owned
by Mr. Williams, was a grocery store, and bait shop
in the 1940's. The store was run by, Mr. Rivers. Mr.
Rivers then acquired the building. He added rooms,
and sold the building back to Williams. In the 1960's,
Williams rented it to Mr. Jack Mauldin, who turned
it into a a surf and sandwich shop. Jack's son, Dewey,
ran the surf shop, and of course called it "Dewey's
Surf Shop."
|
|
The images on
the left represent Ocean Surf Shop's appearance
circa 1950's and 1980's, respectively. |
The surf shop operated until Dewey went
to Vietnam as a Marine in the late 60's. Meanwhile
... Mr. Williams sold the building to Ms. Stringer,
and she rented it to Ricky Koger, who opened the "Natural
Art Surf Shop." Pete Dooley eventually acquired
the store and operated it until January of 1984, when
"Be'il and Beta-Su" turned it into Oceansports
Surf Shop. After Hurricane Hugo, in 1989, the building's
appearance changed dramatically. Mr. Williams stopped
in and reminisced ... showing us where the bait box
had once stood. Oceansports remained in the old building
until 1997.
A new building was completed in April 1997, and Oceansports
moved a handful at a time to the new location ...
just 100 feet away. We lost the "sports"
in the move and became "Ocean Surf Shop."
The old store is now another T-Shirt shop that sells
Hermit crabs. By the way, Dewey stopped in to say
hello, and gave his full approval. In 2000, Ocean
Surf Shop received the SSC ESA "Outstanding Surf
Shop of the Year" award for the 6th straight
year ... making Ocean the Surf Shop of the decade.
In the Political arena, Bettie Sue was
the original protestor on behalf of surfers' rights in the Charleston
area. In 1972, She organized a surf in, at what is
now the Washout, invited politicians and advertised
it on the most popular radio station. She wrote a letter
to the editor of the News and Courier, then at her
own expense, copied the letter and sent copies to every
city council member and every member of the state
House of Representatives as well as every State Senator.
She convinced Mr. D. J. Mckevlins to help her and they appeared on TV to raise awareness of the injustice
that was being served to surfers by denying them Beach
and ocean use.
As a result of these actions she was
asked by the Dean of Nursing at MUSC to chose between
nursing and protesting. She chose Nursing and handed
the reins over to D. J., Tommy Bolus and Stephen FLetcher.
In the second go around, when the City of Folly Beach
again tried to place unfair restrictions on surfers,
Bill and Bettie Sue joined a group of 12 other surfers
to draft a proposal to council, concerning the laws
of surfing for Folly Beach. Tommy Bolus presented
this proposal to Folly Beach City council, which resulted
in our present-day laws. |