Wavejammer Legacy

07/25/2023

Please join us for a Paddle Out Ceremony in memory of Scott Meredith on Saturday, August 12, 2023, at 7:00pm on the Guyer Avenue beach, Lavallette.

If you would like to participate in the paddle out, please bring your own board. If you are not paddling out but would still like to join the ceremony, you are welcome to stand with others on the beach.

We look forward to celebrating and honoring Scott in one of his favorite places with those who love him.

11/22/2022

It breaks our hearts to share the news that Scott passed away from cancer on Friday, November 18th, at home surrounded by family. Scott was a light in this world, and we will continue shining his light by carrying it within us in our own lives. He will be dearly missed.

A memorial will be held on Saturday, December 17, from 12pm to 4pm at the Timothy E. Ryan Funeral Home on 145 St Catherine Blvd, Toms River, NJ 08755. A service celebrating his life will be held on the premises at 3:30pm.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation on his behalf to the Cancer Research Institute.

- Karen, Kyle, and Becca Meredith

10/19/2022

Late in 1987 the lot between Wavejammer and California Taco was cleared and a sign went up saying that "Lido Plaza" was going to be built. This new plaza at 1490 Route 37 would become the Toms River home of Wavejammer for the next 20 years from March 1988 until September of 2008. Making this move close to doubled our size from 2000 sq. ft. to almost 4000 sq. ft. Then in 2003 we took over another part of the plaza, but that's getting ahead of things.

This Album contains photos for the first 10+ years at our larger 1490 Route 37 location. Specifically from early 1988 when we were building the new version of Wavejammer until the end of 1998 with some photos from the 1998 Wavemmer Crew Christmas Party. Then the next Album will pick up in 1999 and cover through September 2008.

By 1988, not only did Wavejammer grow in size but the whole Surf and Skate world was growing like crazy. Wavejammer added a number of brands which were already getting pretty big like Instinct, Quiksilver, Billabong, Local Motion, Rip Curl and Town & Country Hawaii. We were always searching for brand new brands like World Jungle, Counter Culture, Volcom and Ezekiel. We picked up Volcom pretty early on and lost money on the brand for a year or two before it started to catch on gradually ..... then it blew up! Some brands we carried from our day one like Vans. In our early days all the Vans were made in California (as they had been from their start) and we picked our own color combinations, made to order. Over the years sometimes we couldn't keep Vans in stock and then some years they were not so popular.

Our surfboard selection expanded and changed a great deal over the years. Some board brands made quality boards, great shapes and sold well ..... but weren't around for too long for one reason or another. Others like Byrne by Michael Barron, Pearson Arrow, Rainbow, Quiet Flight and especially Matt Kechele Surfboards were staples at Wavejammer. Throughout the album I'll point to some of the board brands at that time but I have in mind eventually putting together a separate album devoted just to Surfboards at Wavejammer.

10/17/2022

10/13/2022

Wavejammer Surf Shop opened for business on April 5 1985. Our original location for 3 years until March of 1988 was a 2000 square foot store located in Brookside Plaza, 1501 Route 37. At the time when we opened there was a vacant lot between our strip plaza and where "California Taco" was open for business. As I remember it, the food at Cal Taco was pretty good but they were a few years ahead of their time and didn't last too long.

In April of 1985 I was not quite a year past from graduating from Rutgers after 5 years there. My older brother Glenn and I had been talking about the idea of opening up a surf shop for about a decade. Over those years, in addition to checking out every surf shop in NJ that we could find, we had family in Florida and spent plenty of time surfing and doing "research" there. In the summer of 1984 Glenn had a "real job", I was tending bar at The Chatterbox Bar on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights and Karen, who was not quite my fiance yet had more hands-on retail experience than both Glenn and I combined. What could go wrong? During that summer we decided to try to make it happen.

I have to say that in general we felt like the local Toms River community accepted and embraced us fairly quickly. With some of the more "hard core" surf community there was a bit of uncertainty because as the "owner", I was not one of the local rippers from Casino Pier or somebody who was already well known from working in another local surf shop. But once people found us and got to know us, this uncertainty tended to fade pretty quickly.

In 1985 we carried brands like Sundek, Hobie, Beachtowne and a big one for us at the time was Maui & Sons. Very soon after opening we picked up Stussy, Gotcha and Life's A Beach. We started out carrying Victory Wetsuits and quickly added Body Glove to our mix too. For surfboards on opening day the racks had Fox Wave Weapons from Florida, Rockin' Fig surfboards out of Huntington Beach CA and Precision surfboards which was actually out of Rockaway Beach NY. Skateboards were an important and fun part of the mix since both Glenn & I skateboarded a bunch over the years. The mid to late 80's was a BIG time for skateboarding and our business there really took off quickly.