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Ron Jon Surf Shop Founder, Ron DiMenna, Dead at 88

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Sep 7, 2025 7:23 PM ET

Ron DiMenna, the founder of the surf shop mega-franchise Ron Jon Surf Shop, reportedly passed away peacefully on September 6th, 2025. He was 88.

In a statement from the company, they grieved: “The entire Ron Jon family mourns this loss. On behalf of our Board of Directors, management team and employees, we extend our deepest sympathy to Ron's wife, Lynne DiMenna.”

As a staple within the East Coast surf scene, Ron Jon Surf Shop opened outlets ranging from Florida to New Jersey, with their flagship store in Cocoa Beach, Florida – home of Kelly Slater. That location boasts the title as the “World’s Largest Surf Shop.”

The statement from the company continued: “Ron founded Ron Jon Surf Shop more than 65 years ago in 1959. A young surf enthusiast who was not content to simply ride the waves, Ron wanted to bring surfing to the masses and was a pioneer in recognizing that surfing and the beach captivated people everywhere. Over the next six decades, Ron Jon Surf Shop expanded into a worldwide phenomenon that currently has retail stores along the east coast from the Jersey shore to Key West, Florida.”

Although legendary, the “Ron” in Ron Jon was somewhat of an enigma.

Per Matt Warshaw’s Encyclopedia of Surfing, “DiMenna himself, meanwhile, was all but invisible to the public; the only known photograph of him to surface after the mid-'60s was a 2010 mug shot taken after DUI arrest in Merritt Island, Florida; it was his third such arrest in six years, and resulted in a five-year revocation of DiMenna's driver's license. By that time he was for the most part living in a mobile home, at non-disclosed locations up and down the Eastern Seaboard.”

Nonetheless, DiMenna was inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame in 1998.

Rest in peace.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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