IslandSurf and Sport was co-founded in September 1980 by high school classmates John Hambleton and Bill Neil (Bill Neil is no longer with the company). The original Islanders location was the classic two story yellow tin roofed wooden building in downtown Fort Walton Beach, now occupied by Fluid Surf Shop. Islanders now has two store locations: Pensacola Beach on the Quietwater Beach Boardwalk and our store and headquarters location at The Boardwalk on the Okaloosa Island. Additionally, Islanders has our 'Internet store', Islandsurf.com

Before Islanders was founded, Hambleton had his first experience in business when he opened 'The Snack Shack' while home from college one summer (check out the old Snack Shack sign hanging on the wall in the Fort Walton Beach store). The Snack Shack was basically a used trailer with a Sno Cone machine that he found for sale in the local paper. Every day that the weather was decent, Hambleton pulled the trailer behind his old stick shift 1965 Ford Mustang (which was kind of interesting crossing Brooks Bridge especially on windy days) and parked right in front of what is now The Boardwalk on Okaloosa Island. In those days there were no restaurants and no shops and no Boardwalk... only some concrete picnic tables. Hambleton figured out when the summer was over that he only made about as much money as he would have made if I had had a 'regular job'. But he enjoyed the experience of being his own boss.

After finishing college and moving to Hawaii with a college roommate for six months of living like an Islanders bum (At first he was a bicycle cab driver in Waikiki and also a flight instructor in small airplanes out of Honolulu International Airport), Hambleton moved back with a dream to open his own business someday. Soon after returning to Fort Walton Beach he ran into an old classmate that was looking for a partner to get into retail.. and they started Islanders in September of 1980.

The famous Islanders Beach Bacon Pig Shirts (The Original Beach Bacon, Pig Jam, Hog Wild, and Hog Heaven) are now an iconic Islanders trademark. Beach Bacon became a part of Islanders as a result of two key parts of Islanders history and one of our timeless values: Listening and Testing. During his time living in Hawaii Hambleton noticed a cool line of t-shirts. When Islanders began, he called the company and they sent their sales rep. When the rep suggested Islanders try their pig tee, Islanders listened (even though they were very skeptical) and Islanders tested this non surf shop looking design. Well this time the sales rep was right and for some reason the pig shirts sold really well. From that initial test, the character Beach Bacon eventually evolved after listening to our customer's response to the original pig t-shirt design.

Another example of Listening and Testing came later in Islanders history. Islander's long time inventory management consultant, Neal Esserman said he thought Islanders ought to try doing some business on the new Internet. That was in 1999. Late that year Islanders was up and running with IslandSurf.com website and the rest is history. That's another example of the value of Listening and Testing..and those values have made a huge difference in the history of Islanders!!