![]() ![]() He died of cancer in Pennsylvania in 2012 at age 68.ĭear Call Box: I have a large quantity of assorted mosaic materials that I would like to give away. Hixon moved to the Northeast when his second wife, Beth, went to seminary to become an Episcopal priest. His shop became part of the busy eating and drinking corner at First Street and Atlantic Boulevard. Times got tough with competition from department store surf fashions, parking problems and road construction in his increasingly yuppifying location, he told The Times-Union. ![]() But he closed his Neptune Beach shop in 1990 shortly after shutting his other two shops, Soergel said. Hixon went on to teach math at Fletcher High School, get an MBA at the University of Florida, open several other businesses and become a commercial real estate appraiser.Īt one point, he opened surf shops at The Jacksonville Landing and in Arlington. His surfboards came from top California companies, and his surf teams competed in contests along the East Coast and in California. He even became known as the godfather of surfing, Soergel wrote. Friends said he became an institution, and his store became a refuge when the surf was flat. Hixon was a canny businessman who became a mentor to hundreds of young surfers over the years. and opened up a surf shop, where he and his first wife, Betty, slept on a mattress and showered with a garden hose behind the store while building up the business, Soergel wrote in a 2012 story. ![]() I know it’s gone now, but what has happened to the surf shop?ĭear B.W.: Bill Hixon came from Daytona Beach to Neptune Beach in the spring of 1964 with 25 surfboards inside a panel truck, according to the Times-Union’s Matt Soergel. Dear Call Box: Hixon’s Surf Shop was either at Atlantic or Neptune Beach back in the 1960s. ![]()
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