ZJ Boarding House (ZJBH) is a surfboard,

skateboard A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. It is usually made of a specially designed 7–8-ply maple plywood deck and has polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks. The skateboard ...

, snowboard, and clothing store Located in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. The store is known for its annual surf competition in which contestants compete to catch waves while wearing Halloween costumes.

History

ZJ Boarding House opened on December 16, 1988 by Mikke Pierson and Todd Roberts. The original shop was about and occupied the front of 2619 Main Street. Roberts lived in the office at the shop and Pierson lived in his RV in Malibu. The store was originally part of Zuma Jay surf shop, a small hole in the wall shop in Malibu,

. The move to Santa Monica included a partnership with Todd Roberts (co-owner of ZJ Boarding House). Pierson and Roberts had become good friends a couple of years previous to the birth of the new shop, while volunteering to take youth from the Braille Institute surfing at the local beaches.

Since moving to the Santa Monica location, the store has been expanded to the two neighboring storefronts. In August 2020, the store announced that it was unable to reach a new agreement with the owners of the building it occupied and would close effective September 1, 2020. In December 2020, the store announced that it would reopen in Spring 2021.

Community events

* ZJ Boarding House hosts a surf competition in which the competitors are in costume while surfing on the local

Santa Monica beach Santa Monica State Beach is a California State Park operated by the city of Santa Monica, California, Santa Monica. The beach is located along California State Route 1, Pacific Coast Highway. It is long and has parks, picnic areas, playgrounds ...

. * Skate 4 Africa: ZJ Boarding House teamed up with a local startup to collect old skateboard equipment to send to young skateboarders in

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. The sport is becoming increasingly popular among the youth in Africa and is keeping them away from drugs and gangs. Most of the roads are dirt yet these young skateboarders stay determined to ride their boards and have caught the government's attention about the current road conditions. * ZJ Boarding House often produces events that bring people in the community together. One summer they set up an outdoor showing of the surfing film ''

Five Summer Stories ''Five Summer Stories'' is a 1972 surf film by Jim Freeman and Greg MacGillivray of MacGillivray Freeman Films. The last film of the genre by the duo, it explores the joy of surfing amid the backdrop of 1970s political and environmental problems ...

''.ZJ Boarding House & Hurley
"ZJ Boarding House & Hurley Present: Night Sesh Outdoor Movie Night featuring Five Summer Stories"
July 29, 2011. * Michael Guffey, a skateboarder from

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, won the gold medal at the

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

X Games The X Games are a series of action sports events founded by ESPN Inc. and aired on ESPN networks and ABC. In late 2022, ESPN sold the long-running property to MSP Sports Capital, a private equity firm co-founded by Jahm Najafi and Jeff Mo ...

16 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

with help of his fellow ZJ Boarding House team.

References

External links

Official website

by Jody McNicholas, filmmaker and former ZJ Boarding House employee {{Coord, 34, 0, 8.7, N, 118, 29, 0.7, W, type:landmark_region:US_dim:32, display=title Skateshops Snowboarding Surfing in California Residential buildings in California Retail buildings in California Surfing retailers