The Street Seen: ZJ Redux
2619 Main Street @ Ocean Park
With a new five-year lease and substantial renovations, ZJ Boarding House has re-opened at the original corner location on Main Street and Ocean Park Boulevard.
Boardriders-owned ZJ Boarding House was planning to temporarily shut down in September 2020 as the building needed a new roof and to be retrofitted with steel girders. Unable to come to a lease agreement with the property owner, the long time Ocean Park surf shop vacated the space in August 2020. But then in December 2020 announced plans to return.
Mikke Pierson and Todd Roberts opened ZJ Boarding House in December 1988. The original name was Zuma Jay Surfboards and the shop was affiliated with Zuma Jay's in Malibu. Pierson lived in his RV in Malibu and Roberts lived in the office at the shop.
Pierson and Roberts discovered that there was considerable animosity between Santa Monica surfers and Malibu surfers. After phone threats and broken windows, the name changed to ZJ Boarding House.
At one time ZJ Boarding House occupied both 2619 Main plus its neighbors to the south - 2623 Main St (formerly an art gallery) and 2625 Main St (built in 2004). ZJ Boarding House survived the 2008 recession and was sold to Billabong in 2015. Australian Billabong got into financial difficulties and was acquired by Boardriders in 2018.
Huntington Beach headquartered Boardriders is a leading action sports and lifestyle company that designs, produces and distributes branded apparel, footwear and accessories around the world. Boardriders brands include Quiksilver, Billabong, Roxy, DC Shoes, RVCA, Element, and VonZipper. Boardriders’s products are sold in over 630 retail stores in 28 countries. Boardriders opened its first US concept store on May 1st, 2018, in Malibu.
The 2619 Main St building had been previously occupied by Pacific West / Jeff Ho Surfboards. At 2001-2011 Main Street, Jeff Ho formed the Zephyr Surf Team made up of local surfers who frequented Pacific Ocean Park in the run-down area of Dogtown. Jeff Ho later formed the Zephyr Skate Team, which became widely known as Z-Boys and popularized skate boarding.
Surfing heals. Surfing empowers. Surfing inspires. Surfing is magic.