Whalebone Surf Shop - Nags Head - Nags Head NC

Business Overview

There wasn't a street sign, traffic light or lawn in Nags Head, North Carolina when Jim Vaughn set up shop. But this little town on the Outer Banks - 130 miles of barrier islands south east of Virginia Beach, Virginia - had pristine beaches and perfect, peeling Atlantic wind swell. That was all a young surf-retailing pioneer needed. A 1964 photo of Jim Vaughn Vaughn and his business partner rented an 800 square-foot house from a Catholic priest who had converted the dive bar next door into the Holy Trinity church. Vaughn carpeted the attic above the shop and called it home. After-hours, the neighboring church played host to an array of surf films. "Jim Plimpton used to make surf films and, for beer he would play really outstanding Super-8 movies for us," Vaughn recalls. Plimpton eventually retired from the movie biz after breaking both his heels while hanging upside down from a homemade kite that his brother, "Berzerko Bob," was pulling behind a boat. In the winter of '76, Vaughn bought out his business partner and changed the name to Whalebone Junction Surf Shop. Throughout the early '80's, Whalebone stood strong in the face of numerous hurricanes and torrential Nor'easterly winds, while simultaneously enduring the vicissitudes of a regional market that, according to Vaughn, garners nearly all its yearly revenue on weekends from March through June. "I was in this seasonal area with absolutely no shoulder season," Vaughn says. "In the slow years I would ask myself, 'What am I doing wrong?' and I would sit there in the middle of winter, literally banging my head against the wall." In the lean years, his head aching, Vaughn drove back to Florida and puddle-jumped to Puerto Rico to surf. In the good years, he closed shop in mid-November and took of for Hawaii. Regardless of whether he was retreating to the Pacific or the Caribbean, each February Vaughn returned to be met with a pile of bills, letters and jury duty summonses. In 1983 he married April Clough, who prudently pulled the reins on his surfing safaris. That same year, the business expanded to include a 1400-square foot location in the Outer Banks Mall and, according to Vaughn, "That's when Whalebone really got serious." Vaughn convinced his bride to quit her real estate job in 1984 to come onboard as his partner in Whalebone. Vaughn and friends hang out in the shop in 1978 In 1985 closed the Nags Head shop and moved north into a 1400 square-foot spot in the Kitty Hawk Mall. He then opened a third shop near the beach in Rodanthe, south of Nags Head, which proved to be the hot shopping destination for female tourists. Around 1987 Vaughn closed both the Rodanthe shop and his mall location and built a 3800 square-foot freestanding shop in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. "I wanted to build a surf-shop with a good atmosphere where employees would like to work - it was an important milestone in my life," Vaughn says. From there, Vaughn charged toward Whalebone's manifest destiny, opening another 3800 square-foot freestanding shop, circa 1991, back in Nags Head. Since then it's been business as usual, with Whalebone continuing to sail under clear and optimistic skies. "With things going so well, I figured I would conserve my energy with fewer stores, work less and make more, so I sold the store in Kitty Hawk," Vaughn says. "But then I realized I have to keep busting butt - I have a daughter who needs a car and two kids looking at college." In 2001, Vaughn opened a 4000 square-foot location in Virginia Beach. He now employs about 40 people.

Leave a Facebook Comment