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Opened on Nantucket in 2021, STOKE ACK is more than just a surf store. Surf/Ski/Skate culture isn’t one thing and should be accessible to all from kooks to Kelly, bunnies to Mikaela, groms to Tony, and everything in-between and that’s what STOKE ACK is about.
It is the foundation for what we see as a wholly new look at a lifestyle brand and retail environment that’s all about authenticity, inclusion and sustainability. We are a tribe of like-minded people with varied interests who come together because what we represent isn’t just about sport, it’s about a way of life; style, music, books, vintage, first waves/tracks and time spent doing what you love with the people you love.

On June 7th, the Founder and driving force behind STOKE ACK, Dwight Fenton, passed away unexpectedly. He was the voice of STOKE ACK. STOKE ACK was him. We are here this summer to honor Dwight's legacy and keep his vision alive.

"Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, California and Hawaii seemed like unreal, magical places that only existed on the other side of the TV screen or in the surf and skate mags which I read over and over until they fell apart. I’d mail out sticker requests to every brand in them and be euphoric when a few weeks later an envelope would arrive with a bunch of stickers that I could plaster my board deck with, slap on the back of stop signs and stick on the door to my room, but I still basically felt like a poseur. These guys were ripping at Trestles and Backdoor or sailing off half-pipes in Venice while we worked on our ollies and ground down our rails in the parking lot of the local grocery store. I even listened to their bands, Black Flag, Surf Punks, Circle Jerks, Germs, all these bands making what sounded like risky music, I’d draw their logos in my notebooks and imagine what they looked like (had to be mohawks and doc martens I guessed). But at The Brunswick School, where I spent a chunk of my elementary and middle school, my bluchers, cords and tweed blazers were as far apart from that scene as the actual distance between CT and CA. So I obsessed and did my best long distance imitation, but it wasn’t until my sophomore year of college that I finally made it to Southern California.

From my tiny liberal arts college in New Hampshire, I was transported to the University of Santa Barbara where I felt every inch of that distance when I noticed everyone was wearing flip flops and riding around on bikes, sorry, cruisers, or skateboards in wetsuits with their boards tucked under their arms, so close I could touch it, but I didn’t even own flip flops (just their dorky cousin, Tevas) let alone a wetsuit. We were only there for 10 weeks, but at least now it was real, I could prove it.

Other ages, stages, obligations and fixations took over in the intervening years (among others, Grateful Dead, the mountains. jobs, marriage, kids) but surf and skate culture always remained part of the helix and after the 6 years I spent in California post-college, I did finally add surfing to my skillset too. But that still didn’t mean I was ever pondering opening a surf shop of my own, that took Covid and the need for a change of scenery. What did I reeeally want to do and where? There was no list, no weeks of contemplation, no reality stress-test, a surf shop on Nantucket opened and closed the bidding. That was January of 2021, by May we were open for business albeit without the coffee shop or any surfboards, but we cracked the doors and have been doing our thing since (lots right, some wrong, all progress).

So whether you’re pro-grade, a grom, a kook, a wannabe or a don’t-wannabee, we hope you’ll join us, follow along and grow up with us, we’re just getting going. Find more stoke."

DEF