Shore has been around for over 25 years now. Simon Crawford - then a 23-year-old student with a passion for water sports, who just wanted to live the beach lifestyle, first established Shore in the spring of 1982.  A small hut at the end of Shore Road in East Wittering, Sussex was found and £500 was scraped together to start what is known today as the UK’s premier surf shop, comprising of sales from two stores and an online worldwide mail order branch. Shore.co.uk currently boasts the UK’s widest range of surf fashion and hardware on the Internet.

The business started by hiring out surfboards, windsurfers, surf kayaks and a Hoby cat. At this time windsurfing was the new sport that everyone wanted to try so tuition was also given. To cater for the massive interest in windsurfing (the mid 80’s fastest growing sport) gradually items were sold. Simon Crawford and all the other guys on the beach used to run the beach in the summer during the day, party on the beach at night and then move to the canaries for the winter where the surfing and partying continued.

The business grew quickly and by 1984 a proper shop in the village centre was established. All the profits were ploughed back into the business to buy more stock because sales and the hire business on the beach were growing from strength to strength. In the late 80’s a new retail site was found opposite the Shore Inn in Shore Road and then the business branched out into wetsuits in a big way.

Simon Crawford saw an opening for volume sales in wetsuits, at this time wetsuits were very hard to find so Shore sold wetsuits nationally at often half the price that they could be bought elsewhere. Hard negotiations were done with suppliers to purchase a Extended volume of wetsuits at bargain prices but super payment schedules were also agreed and so Shore as the UK’S No 1-wetsuit retailer was born. Massive volumes of wetsuits were sold from a 300-square-foot shop with customers travelling from the other end of the country to buy wetsuits at the best price from the biggest choice. Simon Crawford purchased the cottage next door just to store the wetsuits and it was packed from floor to ceiling with thousands of wetsuits.

Mail order started with windsurfing kits. At this time windsurfing was moving into custom boards and all the guys on the beach were making all their own boards and so there was an opening for mail order custom board kits, which were shipped round the UK. This was the start of mail order and the kits proved really popular for some years.

The first mail order brochure was in 1992 and this was an A4 folded leaflet showing the extensive range of products that was available nationwide with wetsuits topping the bill. Shore were buying more wetsuits from Gul than Gul were exporting to all the European countries combined. And all this organised from only a small shop crammed full of stock in East Wittering. Also at this time a second store was taken over on Hayling Island from the established Peter Williams. This catered for the Extended demand in windsurfing equipment and wetsuits and Shore were steaming ahead.

A big break for Shore came in 1993 when they took over an old Saab showroom - a flash 3000-square-foot showroom. This created the largest UK surf shop with a massive range of water sporting equipment that opened the way for volume mail order sales. The same ethos applied then as it does today all the guys that ran the business were water sport enthusiasts and sold the right gear with proper advice.

The brochures were now coming out twice a year and growing with each season with a bigger and bigger range of stock. This was now the first time that surf fashion was available nationwide at the time you could not buy any of the big names such as Quiksilver and Billabong on the everyday high street. Shore were breaking new ground again with the first mail order surf fashion brochure.

First registered in 1994 Shore now joined the world-wide-web. Over the following 10 years they have pushed the site forward to offer a massive range of surf fashion and water sporting hardware. Shore has always made the site as simple and easy to use as possible while providing an incredible choice. Shore are now pushing the boundaries even further with over 10,000 items on the website providing a service that is second to none with virtually all products going out the same day.

All the staff have a passion for the surf and are not satisfied with less than 100% achievement and will do there absolute utmost to get customers the right product at the right time. In 2007, Peter Youell was recruited as Web Development Manager to take Shore to new levels and he now has his own web team to ensure that Shore stays at the top of the ladder. Shore.co.uk is going from strength to strength, currently achieving phenomenal growth shipping up to 400 parcels a day.

 2010 saw the launch of the new Shore.co.uk website, the new site boasts a range of new functionality and usability enhancements to keep Shore.co.uk the leader in online Surf Fashion, Hardware and Wetsuits. We owe a lot to our amazing customers throughout the years and would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their continued support and custom, we all really appreciate it.