December 1986
I had just turned 22yrs old. I had the Tony Hawk looking haircut, sweatpants (80's) and Vans. I opened The Board Shop Surf Skate Snow. It was the FIRST retail store in NH to sell surf, skate, and snow under one roof. It was located at Hampton Beach from 1986-1995. It also was the first store to ever use "board shop" to refer to surf, skate, snow sold under one roof. There were ski shops that were called "board shops" but they were referring to the skis as "boards".
I'm sure somewhere in history someone opened a store called "The Convenience Store". Then over time every corner market became a convenience store. Well that's what happen with The Board Shop. Around 1987/88 I started noticing stores popping up on the east coast using Board Shop (such as Jim's Board Shop) when they would carry surf skate and snow product. Lots of times these shops would put the surf, skate, snow in a different orders (such as Jim's Board Shop snow, skate, surf) and I would laugh. Surfing came first, surfing led to skateboarding which lead to snowboarding....Surf, Skate, Snow.
Since Board Shop became a general term, referring to stores that carried surf, skate and snow it forced me to add to the name of the shop. I believe, I pioneered the term Board Shop. This, in addition to all the history of the early pioneers living out on the Isles of Shoals, the first road in NH being called Pioneer Rd (which is located by Ordione Point in Rye, part of route 1A) and also a great surf spot in North Hampton called Pioneers, all lead me to call the shop Pioneers Board Shop.
Well that's todays history lesson.... The Board Shop ruled! Lots of friendships were made over those 10yrs at the beach and we'll never forget Rick Kenney. Rick was the catalyst of The Board Shop...
-Steve-
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