There isn’t a day that goes by that Mike Barden doesn’t think about surfing. A Wilmington native, he’s been on a board for 35 years, and as the owner of Wrightsville Beach’s iconic Surf City Surf Shop since 2003, Barden has been influential in supporting the area’s surfing community. Still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that the industry needed something a little different.
So in 2013, he opened Annex Surf Supply. “I wanted it to have the same feel as Surf City, but with brands the community hadn’t seen, and in a place that brought people together,” Barden says.
At Annex, you’ll find locally made leather wallets and turquoise jewelry, T-shirts and beachy dresses, surfboards and iced coffee, plus a comfy space to talk about weather and wave conditions.
“Annex’s DNA is in surf culture,” Barden says. And so is Barden’s. “It’s innate,” he says. “Whenever the waves are good, I make time to surf.”
Annex Surf Supply
530 Causeway Drive
Wrightsville Beach, NC 28480
annexsurfsupply.com