More than three years after Hurricane Wilma tore the roof off Island Water Sports’ building in downtown Jensen Beach, the 27-year-old surf shop is finally celebrating its reopening.

The owners are restocking kayaks, surfboards and skim boards — and slowly watching their customers return to their old location on the shore of the Indian River Lagoon.

“It was very hard,” said co-owner Chris Cea. “We lost a lot of the following.”

In the years since Wilma struck in October 2005, the business has operated out of four different locations.

The moves drained the resources of the owners, who didn’t get any assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the U.S. Small Business Administration, said Kristen Nielander, who co-owns the shop with Cea and her husband, Ted.

“We got turned down completely,” Kristen said.

And the owner of their 1,400-square-foot building, LeAnn Slafter, encountered time-consuming hurdles as she applied for Martin County permits to rebuild the 1901 structure.

Now, the shop intends to stay put.

“This is where it started in 1982, and this is where we’ll continue to be, God willing,” Kristen Nielander said.

The grand reopening is May 30.

Tags: beach, Hurricane Wilma, hurricanes, ISland Water Sports, Jensen Beach, water

This entry was posted on Monday, May 25th, 2009 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Community events, Economy, Jensen Beach, Martin County, Treasure Coast business, Weather. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.