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Cape May County: Small Towns, Big Hearts, Breeding World Class Athletes

A wise man once said, “People in small towns, much more than in cities, share a destiny.” Residents of the Wildwoods, and other New Jersey beach towns like them, all share a common destiny to make the world (and the town that we live in) a better place, and to be the best human beings that we can be. Local professional athletes like Joe Maloy and Matt Szczur embody everything that we as small town residents stand for: honesty (sometimes brutally honest to a fault), tenacity, hardworking personality, and determination. These two young men have achieved well beyond their goals, and continue to serve as role models to our youth on and off the field. Joe Maloy continues to routinely dedicate his time to community/charity events; and in the offseason, Matt Szczur fundraises for the fight against blood cancer with the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation. Young men and women like them that continue to do what they love, while also trying to make a positive difference in the world, is what makes us here at Kona Surf Company proud to have our headquarters in this small town of Wildwood, NJ. In the words of our owner Mike Sciarra, “We might be small, but we have a lot of punch,” and we at Kona Surf Company believe that Joe and Matt will not be the last world-class athletes to come out of the Wildwoods, as “it is our destiny”.

If you missed Mike’s Surf-Talk with Special Guest: Joe Maloy and Matt Szczur, you can can click here for either Matt Szczur or Joe Maloy.

We as Watermen & Women are Forever Tied to the Sea

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Citizens of the Wildwoods and frankly all coastal communities in the State of NJ live in a windy, cloudy, salty, wet, underpopulated ghost town in the winter, and most of us here wouldn’t have it any other way. High winds and coastal storms provide waves, and that’s a fact. For the surfers in our area, a nor’easter blowing 60 mph NNE winds and then switching to 10-15 mph WNW is music to our ears and far more important to us than a sunny day. We live for surf, and coastal storms are how we get it.

The Wildwoods have been notoriously occupied by watermen/women since the 17th century, and still to this day, our island is occupied by that same character of watermen/women. Populated as early as 1630, Whalers frequented to the Wildwoods, formerly known as Holly Beach and Anglesea; followed by the Lenni Lenapi tribe who visited for our ‘fertile fishing grounds’, and later inhabited by Scandinavian fisherman who depended on fishing for survival in the 1850s. Whether you’re looking at our town’s historical significance as an old fishing village; or as it now, a place predominantly driven by tourism, our citizens have always lived and breathed salt air – it’s a part of us. We fish, we surf, we paddle, and we work to put food on our table, pay our rent, bills and expenses to support our hobbies. For most of us that consider ourselves watermen/women, our hobbies are either surfing, fishing or both; but one thing is for certain, the history of our island and its inhabitants still remain strong, the same and resilient to change who we are.

People don’t get it. We’ve all heard these questions and exclamations before, more than once: “How do you surf in this weather?”, “Aren’t you cold?”, “You’re crazy?!?”, but what people fail to understand and comprehend is the joy that it brings to ride down that line with nothing but thoughts of pleasure. The feelings produced by riding waves with no one out but a couple of your closest friend. It clears your mind, relieves your stress and it’s good for the soul. As Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz would say, “Some of the most profound realizations that I came to about health did not derive from medicine, but derived from surfing.” Therefore, never let people bring you down, or tell you that “you shouldn’t do something” that makes you happy.

We at Kona Surf Company are proud of who we are, what we are and where we live, and we will never change. With that, I will leave you with another quote from Doc Paskowitz in saying, “There is a wisdom in the wave – high-born, beautiful – for those who would but paddle out.”

Written by Ron Simone

Kona Surf Co. Gives Back to Matt Szczur’s ‘Szcz the Day’ Foundation

Philanthropy can be defined as a desire to promote the welfare of others for a specific cause, and no cause has quite touched our hearts here at Kona Surf Company quite like the charity of local baseball legend Matt Szczur. On Friday, January 27th, 2017, ‘Be the Match’ Foundation partnered with ‘The Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation’ will host the 2nd Annual Szcz the Day Event to raise money for the fight against blood cancer. Over 5 years ago, Matt unselfishly donated his bone marrow to someone on the other side of the world of less fortune than he. In response to Matt’s selfless efforts and out of good faith to the cause, Kona Surf Company is proud to announce the donation of a brand new Kona Standup Paddleboard to be auctioned off for charity at Matt’s 2nd Annual Szcz the Day Event. Proceeds from the event and silent auction will benefit the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation and a local community member suffering from Cancer.

In further support of the cause, Matt Szcuzur and Kona Surf Company have partnered up to design a t-shirt that will be sold at the Szcz the Day event on the 27th, where all proceeds will go to the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation.

“Cancer hits home for just about everybody today, especially living in such a small community like Wildwood,” said owner and operator of Kona Surf Company, Mike Sciarra. “Kona Surf Company and I are willing to do anything that we can in our fight against Cancer and in support of the Andy Talley Bone Marrow Foundation.”

Tune in on our Facebook page on Tuesday, January 24th, 11:00am for an exclusive Facebook Live interview with Matt Szczur and owner and operator of Kona Surf Co., Mike Sciarra!

“Mike’s Surf Talk” Episode 1 Went Live!

“Mike’s Surf Talk” went live! Eposidoe 1 is about Founder Mike Sciarra and his “Original Kona Sun” logo that he had come up with in the early 70’s. This was his signature logo that he put on every handmade surfboard that he made in his factory in #WildwoodNJ. In the past year Mike has gone back to his roots to launch the “Kona Classic Collection” which has a full line of surfboards, clothing and hats that are built around his “Original Kona Sun”. Shop for this collection at the #KonaFlagship Store and Konasurfco.com.

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The Stoke

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There comes a time in every man or woman’s life when they realize the one activity that makes them truly happy; and for the lucky some, that activity is surfing. The ocean helps to produce an unexplainable feeling in the hearts of watermen/women everywhere, which can only be explained as pure STOKE. The stoke in surfing and water sports is a real, intangible emotion that one gets when there are waves, or perfect condition(s) to engage in a preferred watersport. For Mike Sciarra, owner and operator of Kona Surf Company, the stoke for surfing was realized and felt at any early age. Mike knew early on that surfing was his calling, and helping to provide that same stoke through the shaping and selling of his own boards was how he was going to make it his career. A company that once started with a couple of blanks in a beat-up garage in Wildwood, NJ, was now grown into a local steeple in the community known as Kona Surf Company. With new board designs coming out in 2017 specially engineered to ride in any conditions, Kona Surf Company will continue to provide the stoke, at a magnitude never achieved before by the local surf shop. Running in the New Year right, we at Kona Surf Company are proud to unveil our new shapes and designs that cater to any ripper’s needs:

mikeMike Sciarra Using Shape3D to Design His New Collection of Surfboards

boards-blog2017 Line-Up of Surfboards and SUPS

We are proud to announce that our new boards will be here at the Kona Board House on February 1st – 160 W Rio Grande Ave., Wildwood, NJ 08260 and on our website KonaSurfCo.com. For information on our surfboards, SUPS and/or merchandise, please follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @KonaSurfCompany, and don’t forget to “Follow the Waves” – Mike Sciarra.