Yancy Spencer III and his faithful dog, Blackie. This was in front of the original Innerlight Surf Shop, in Gulf Breeze.
I guess this would have been 1974-ish.
A few things come to mind when I see this:
YS has his beanie on so it must be cold. YS is at the shop, but he probably didn’t want to be there. Maybe the surf was flat, so he figured he’d save some money and work the shop himself. It was a simpler time, but harder in some ways. His rent was $50 a month, but then again he’d have entire days when he’d sell nothing. This was before Harbortown, the Publix Shopping Center, the GB Hospital, the Andrews Institute, Chic-Fil-a, etc. There was much less development, cars and people, but it was also hard to make a living – especially in surfing.
Yancy’s board is a Hank Warner shape.
I don’t know who took the photo, but I’m glad they did.

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