We are lucky to call the beach our home since 1980. And we are committed to serving our customers with friendly "Island-Style" service: personal assistance, order tracking, and 24-hour response time on all customer inquiries. And we are committed to incrementally reducing our impact on the environment, one step-at-time.
Islander's Purpose:
Serve our community
Inspire others as a business role model
Grow with Islanders-type people
Islander's Values:
Focus on serving our customers - Attentive, Friendly, and Fair
Listen - Seek input from our staff, our customers and our vendors on how to better serve
Adapt and evolve - Continuously seek improvements
You can contact our customer service department via e-mail twenty four hours a day (Help@IslandSurf.com), during business hours by phone (1-800-272-2065), or by LiveChat through our website. One of our Islanders will be happy to help you.
One of our timeless values at Islanders is to Listen....so we always want to hear what you have to say - the good and the bad! Whether we've provided you with great service or you've found an area we need to improve on, our company president is happy to take your input as well through email at Presidents_Hotline@IslandSurf.com.
Our Stores
Our stores, Islanders Surf & Sport, are lucky enough to call the beach home. The stores are located on Okaloosa Island in Fort Walton Beach, Florida, and on Pensacola Beach, Florida. Islanders attracts locals and tourists with "Island-Style" service and products inspired by the love of the outdoors. We are proud to offer surf board, boogie board, and skim board rentals, as well as a laid back, surf-inspired shopping experience.
Islanders Pensacola Beach Boardwalk
400 Quietwater Beach Road, Suite 6A
Pensacola Beach, FL 32561
(850) 916-0454
Islanders Okaloosa Island Boardwalk
1450 Miracle Strip Parkway, Suite E
Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548
(850) 243-4362
Some History Of Islanders
Islanders Surf 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', www.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!!
Things We Do to Reduce Our Impact on the Planet
Because Earth is our only Island.... When our customers are choosing between making their purchases through us versus those of our competitors, we hope our sustainability story tips the balance....
We recycle our cardboard... We estimate we recycle about 22,000 pounds per year.
In October 2011, we began to ship approximately 75% of our total orders via UPS Carbon Neutral. UPS provides the shipping service, then purchases and retires carbon offsets in our behalf, effectively creating a carbon neutral shipping supply chain. This is an additional cost that we bear because we think we have a social responsibility.
We are a member of 1% For The Planet. 1% for the Planet exists to build and support an alliance of businesses financially committed to creating a healthy planet.
