Ron Jon Surf Shop – Panama City Beach

Ron Jon Surf Shop’s Panama City Beach location puts the full weight of a surf retail institution just steps from the Gulf at Pier Park. The chain traces back to 1959, when founder Ron DiMenna opened his first shop in Ship Bottom, New Jersey, followed in 1961 by what the company still calls “The Original” location on Long Beach Island. That New Jersey shop grew into a brand built around bright orange signage, a surfboard filled storefront, and the trademarked slogan “The World’s Most Famous Surf Shop,” a phrase still stamped on the company’s packaging and store copyright lines today.

Ron Jon expanded well beyond its New Jersey roots over the decades that followed, eventually building a flagship store in Cocoa Beach, Florida that grew into more than 52,000 square feet of retail space and became known as one of the largest surf shops in the world. The company now operates around a dozen stores across the country plus locations in Grand Turk and Cozumel, Mexico, and the Panama City Beach store at Pier Park carries the same identity and inventory approach that built the brand’s reputation at its Florida flagship.

The Panama City Beach store sits at 600 Pier Park Drive, inside the open air Pier Park shopping complex that anchors the beach side of town. Pier Park spans more than a million square feet and holds upward of 120 stores, including anchors like Target, Dillard’s, and JCPenney alongside specialty retailers such as American Eagle Outfitters, and the complex is often described as Panama City Beach’s unofficial downtown. Ron Jon’s spot inside that lineup gives visitors an easy one stop option for beach gear without leaving the main shopping and dining strip that most vacationers already plan to visit at some point during a trip.

Inside, the store stocks Ron Jon’s full range of surf gear, swimwear, and beach apparel for men, women, and kids, along with the branded T-shirts, hats, and souvenirs that have become collectible in their own right among repeat visitors to Ron Jon locations up and down the coast. Because the chain treats each store as a genuine surf shop rather than only a gift shop, shoppers will find real boards, skate gear, and outdoor accessories stocked alongside the beach towels and sandals, an approach that traces directly back to DiMenna’s original New Jersey concept of selling the equipment surfers actually needed rather than just souvenirs.

The Panama City Beach location is open daily from 10 AM to 10 PM, hours long enough to catch shoppers heading to the beach in the morning and again after dinner once the sun goes down over Pier Park. That schedule matches how most vacationing families use Pier Park, treating it as a daytime shopping stop and an evening dining and entertainment destination rolled into one visit. Given its central spot in Pier Park, Ron Jon’s Panama City Beach store makes a natural stop either right before heading to the sand for the day or in the evening while browsing the rest of Pier Park’s restaurants and shops. Visitors can reach the store directly at 850-233-8898 to check on specific stock or ask about hours around holidays, though the daily 10 to 10 schedule generally holds throughout the main tourist season. For anyone outfitting a beach trip on short notice, from swimsuits and rash guards to sunscreen and beach chairs, the Pier Park Ron Jon covers most of what a Panama City Beach vacation calls for under one roof.