Ocean surf 5

Welcome to 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 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.