Ron Jon Surf Shops Owners Are Full Timers In An Awesome Woody

Ron Jon Surf Shop Owners Are Full Timers In An Awesome Woody!

When Ron DiMenna and his wife Lynne decided to hit the road as full-timers, they didn't expect it would be for such a long time. They have been full-timing for 17 years, with only a six month stay over at their Florida house in all that time. They're also the owners of Ron Jon Surf Shop, a popular business with humble roots. Jon DiMenna is the second half of the company. Their firm is run from Woody, a highly modified Monaco, with the help of lap-tops, fax machines, cell phones and sat and land-based telephones.

"We thought it would be great to travel in Australia full-timing, but they have problems with our electricity," Jon said. "So we got a rig there and stayed 7 years. It's an interesting place."

The unassuming Ron is so shy that he doesn't allow pictures to be taken. "At our headquarters, the picture of the Founder is me when I was 7 with Mickey Mouse. Kind of an inside joke," and he laughed.

Speaking of Mickey, the Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa, Florida has more visitors every year than Disneyworld or the Space Center. Last year the shop had 2 million visitors, with sales of over $30 million. It's open 24/7 with 210 employees. "We like to keep our employees motivated, so they know the sales of last week, last month, last year. The accountants kept telling us we were expanding too quickly, but we must be doing something right."

Ron and his dad had a supermarket in New Jersey 45 years ago and a big chain squeezed out their business. So, Ron got three surfboards from California, sold two and kept one for himself. Ron said, "My father said, 'sell five'." He then moved the operation to the attic of his house in Long Island Beach, NJ. Then he took off for a year and a half. While he was surfing on the beach in Florida, while living in a pickup truck, he began to build the big shop in Cocoa.

Ron's still surfing, but he has redefined the idea of the Woody. He wanted a Prevost, but wanted the room for full-timing and managing his business. So he ordered a high line coach and had it extensively customized.

Chrysler recently came to Ron with an idea for the Ron Jon Cruiser, based on the PT cruiser, but Ron thought the idea wasn't quite right. Instead, he had another vision and showed them how to do it. "They just didn't get it. Surfing is about having a Woody." So, he gave the car to his son Jon, a restauranteur in Colorado. Jon doesn't use a tow vehicle; thinking that if you have to get your clothes washed, drive to the laundromat. "You can get these things anywhere," he noted. Don't expect to see the Woody at any campground, however, as Ron and Lynne are die-hard dry campers.

"We were going up a hill in Australia and it was getting muddy, you know, and you could smell the transmission going out. So, we had to back down 1/2 mile off the mountain. Since we had to cut the branches along our way up hill, it was tricky getting back down. You had to be careful," added the quiet-spoken surfer.

The Woody was painted by John Stahr of Stahr design, of Eugene Oregon, who is so pleased with the Mustang and Corvette-based custom color scheme he uses it on his business cards.

Of course, the coach gets a lot of looks wherever it goes, and newspapers and television stations can't resist covering the movements of the Woody. "ABC wanted to do something and followed us around for a couple of days. They got some shots of my legs and stuff," Jon said, and went with that.