Hank Warner/Pensacola Bch.
This is probably December 1973.
It was so cool to have a great surfer/shaper like Hank spending time in Pensacola. It was even cooler to see him catch a good swell here. San Diego is such a wave rich place with a deep history of surfing. Pensacola wasn’t even on the surfing map until Yancy and Bzr Turner started getting recognition (mostly on Hank’s boards), along with Dave Skelton / Tony Caruso getting local photos published around this time.
I think Hank had a lot to do with giving Pensacola surfers confidence on a broader scale – outside of just surfing Pensacola. He brought talent here. He brought stories of California, and surfboard design ideas. All of this helped to elevate us from a back water, gulf coast beach town to something more.
Just my opinion.
Photo by Dave Skelton