Endless Wave Surf Shop Moves Back Online

Endless Wave Surf Shop may have been short-lived at its home on Bellevue Avenue, but the company that created the Wax Buddy continues to thrive online.

The surf shop opened almost a year ago last May at 148 Bellevue Avenue. It sold Endless Wave products as well as other surfing brands. Despite success with the brick-and-mortar operation, Ron Dimauro said they closed the doors to focus on the success of their own products, including the Wax Buddy.

Dimauro was inspired to create the Wax Buddy after realizing how ineffective wax combs were for scraping down surfboards.

“When you go to scrape the wax off the combs, it always dug into your hand. It was a pain,” Dimauro said. He bought a putty knife and sanded it down into what would be the first version of the Wax Buddy.

Dimauro recounted a time he was down at Second Beach with pro surfer and friend Mikey DeTemple, who was using a credit card to scrape down his board. He handed over his retooled putty knife. According to the DeTemple, the simple invention was “unbelievable.”

After shipping out about 800 prototypes made of recycled plastic to surf stores around the country and getting their feedback, Dimauro made it smaller and thicker, and added a comb and a rail cleaner.

“It’s safer and works better than what was out there,” he said. “It was a win, win. Once a surfer tried it they were hooked.”

The Wax Buddy is now in 1,200 stores worldwide. It was in the shop on Bellevue, until it shut its doors last December so the Endless Wave owners could refocus their efforts on their company's website, with operations based out of Jamestown.

Business Manager Todd Meleney said that after the success of the Wax Buddy and their website, opening up a surf store seemed like “a natural progression.”

“We don’t have the face to face interaction with local clientele, which was something we enjoy,” he said. “Distributing online, you don’t have the face to face interaction.”

Dimauro said he also misses shooting the breeze with local surfers and seeing their excitement over the boards in the shop.

“One of the things I really miss is seeing response of people,” he said. “Switching to online wasn’t solely because of the sales, it allowed us to create brick-and-mortar presence in the surfing community.” 

Sea Star Collection, a boutique, will take Endless Wave’s place on Bellevue. The will be on April 12.

Check out Endless Wave here.