> I feel a little funny using a picture of me on a Flashback Friday post, but here it is anyway…
> This will give you a good idea of what it was like to be a surfer on Pensacola Bch 50 years ago. I’m pretty sure this was the spring of 1973. Look behind me and you see no sign of a high rise building. You don’t even see the boardwalk on the sound side. In fact, if you look closely, I think you’ll see Gulf Breeze across the sound. Check out the activity on the pier. People and surfboards are everywhere. Many days the pier was closed, but open. No one manned the gate, so people came and went as they pleased. When the surf had size, surfers were jumping off the pier constantly. This pier was a little lower and shorter than our current pier. In the pre-cell phone era, the pier was kind of a focal point for our lives. We surfed there, met friends there, hung out there – occasionally even slept there (beneath it in the winter).