O’Neill’s Santa Cruz Surf Shop Closes After 25 Years

Located in the heart of downtown Santa Cruz, the O’Neill shop was frequented for its supply of wetsuits, rash guards, shorts and surfboards. The sidewalk in front of the building would often host raucous live music. It’s a heavily foot-trafficked area, particularly in the summer. But even that isn’t enough sometimes in today’s online-heavy economy. 

Tuesday, January 14 was the shop's final day of business. Lookout Santa Cruz reported that O’Neill is shuttering the downtown location while the company “seeks to consolidate operations in an evolving retail landscape.” O’Neill still has four shops throughout Santa Cruz County, including one at the world-famous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. In a statement to the Lookout, the shop’s General Manager Tanner Beckett wrote that O’Neill will offer affected employees of the downtown shore jobs at its other locations. 

As SURFER contributor Jim Kempton noted in his analysis of how one brick-and-mortar store has adapted to the 21st century, “Like the rest of the business world, surf shops have had to adapt to a constantly changing economic and social disruption.”