New Ron Jon a Palace to Surf & Tiki...

Stumbled across this picture on their site... a new store in Orlando... nice architecture and tikis in front to boot!

They carry some great hawaiian shirts and a few generic tiki mugs and accessories. Love the architecture of the new store!

I've been seeing ads for the new place on television, but its the first time I've seen pix. I think Mai-Tiki is helping with this.
Mahalo.

While the architecture is fine, I have a problem with 'Ron Jon' in general. And that is this: it's a poser surf shop.

It's as genuine a surf shop as Kohl's is a tiki outlet. Ron Jon doesn't make boards there, doesn't have employees that shape or know anything about board design, and it's more interested in giving one the 'appearence' of being a surfer more so than providing one the tools to 'be' a surfer.

A real surf shop has an inch of freshly (or last year's) glass filings on the ground, has employees that know surf design, has shapers that have an inch of glass dust in their lungs, and reeks of resin!

There, I'm better now...

Ron Jon, home of the cheap Chinese surfboard and other worthless piles of krap. I hate Ron Jon with every fiber of my being. The people at Ron Jon care not for Tiki or Beach Culture, they just want to exploit it.

I agree with the opinions expressed here... two years ago I was in Cocoa Beach and saw the neon palace they claim to be a "surfshop." It's as bad as "Pac Sun" selling surf wear in the malls all across the U.S. I was researching surfboard stands for ideas on these tiki surfboard stands I want to make when "Ron Jon" came up as a dealer, and when I went to the page the A-Frame pic was there... just thought I'd post it up... I hear you though, Bong, Captain... the smaller the shop the more core they are...

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer on 2003-06-14 16:58 ]

[ Edited by: Lake Surfer on 2003-06-14 17:00 ]

"the people at Don the Beachcombers and Trader Vics don't give a crap about Polynesian culture, they just want to exploit it..."
Sorry, couldn't resist the irony of the previous statements.

Sorry Kailuageoff,
Trader Vics might not be politically correct, but they have a cult following that is 50 years strong and coming back with a vengeance, which undermines your statement.
May the Tiki Gods forgive your bemusement.

Well, I don't know about the opinions of others on this board, but I am personally offended by all the scantily clad native women featured in the menus, matchbooks, mugs, and wall art found at Trader Vics, and formerly found at Don the Beachcombers.
I think these depictions are highly exploitive and degrading to women in general and the native peoples of the world in particular. Hence, I have made it a personal goal to secure as many examples of these offensive itmes as possible, and lock them away in my private collection where they will cease to cause further emmotional and psychological injury to man and woman kind.
If anyone finds one of those 8mm movies of the Mai-Kai Mystery Drink Girl, please let me know.

Aloha from the Sunshine State!

[ Edited by: Kailuageoff on 2003-06-17 07:55 ]

On 2003-06-16 20:51, Kailuageoff wrote:
Sorry, couldn't resist the irony of the previous statements.

Sausaugeoff,

Even though I know central Florida is a Mecca for surfing and knowing how to actually vote for the candidate you intend to, what exactly is the 'irony' of the previous statements noting that Ron Jon blows?

(or did you just get a thesaurus and were just dying to use your new word of the day 'irony'?)

I just thought I would test out the word...

I propose we lock this topic and officially add Ron Jon to the list of forbidden topics on TC, alongside politics, the war on Iraq, religion, whether something is officially cool or uncool, and Dennis Miller.

-Mug