History

The original Hatteras Island Surf Shop opened in Waves, NC in 1971. The building which was torn down about 10 years ago was located just south of the “new” shop, which is now the parking lot for Hatteras Realty. The shop was formerly a general store and the Waves, NC Post Office, and had been abandoned for a half dozen years before we moved in. We ran the store in the summers while in college, 10 to 12 weeks a year, after school the season went from May to October. This photo by photographer Michael Halminski (whose Gallery is just down the street) was shot in the fall in the mid 70’s. That’s me, Barton Decker in the photo surrounded by a lot of WRV’s, we were their first and only dealer at the time. Throughout the years we have carried many brands of boards including but not limited to, Plastic Fantastic, Dick Brewer, Tim Nolte, Infinity, Hollow Wave, Surf Craft Hawaii, Spectrum, Ocean Avenue,Waveline, Aloha, Weber, Mar Bravo, Stewart and many more.

The one thing that hasn’t really changed is you still see more boards than clothes, although we do sell T’s and suits, too. Here is a photo of the shop today.

SAIL SHOP

Since the mid 1980’s the current sailing site in Waves has been our site. In the 80’s it was known as Emily’s from the large restaurant on the site. We had an equipment shed on the southside and Hobies on the beach, all the other gear was at the surf shop down the road. In the winter of 1995/96 we built the current sail shop on the north side of the property. There was a huge grass rigging area and beach and no other houses or buildings around. The site became super popular with both windsurfers and the early kiters rivaling the Canadian Hole for numbers in the spring and the fall.

After attempts were made in the mid 2000’s to make the land into a public launch were squashed, the land was developed for the houses that stand there today. Although diminished in size the Sail Shop remains one of the best launches on Hatteras, with a hard sandy bottom and great exposure to the southwest winds.