The Narragansett Surf Shop was opened by Bill and John Spicer in 1966, and operated at a location right across from the sea wall on Beach Street. It was an exclusive dealer for Hobie, Greg Noll, Bing, and Phillips. When Corky Carroll came to visit the shop, in the summer of 1967, he attended several contests as a judge, and also to recruit new members of the Hobie Surf Team. At that time, he recruited Peter Pan, along with Jimmy Perkins. During the following summer, the Spicers offered Pan the opportunity to run the shop, while attending the University of Rhode Island. Peter managed the Narragansett Surf Shop until it closed, as a result of the urban redevelopment in the early 1970’s. At that time, he continued to do business with Hobie Surfboards and had them ship his personal boards to his house.
Since there were virtually no surfshops open by 1974, Pan began to have stock Hobie surfboards ship directly to his house on Othmar Street in Narragansett. Soon, he was selling wetsuits, skate boards, and surfboards out of the garage. When he wasn’t around, his friend Dave Levy would sit in the garage on weekends, and wait for customers. Pan called this business “Gansett Surf Supplies,”a continuation of the Narragansett Surf Shop.
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