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Eastside Surfblog past entriesRead 07/02/09 entry Useful linksWarp 11, Grady’s new favorite bandVideo of the bigger skate bowl Nosara Wildlife Jupiter Inlet Juno pier IOP pier surf cam Favorite surf forecast site Click here to e-mail the Surfblogger.
| 07/09/09 Man, that was a hot July Fourth weekend. The thermometer didn’t get beyond anything that I would regard as unusual; it just felt hot all the way around. That, plus the fact that the surf was nonexistent. I sorta missed my forecast, didn’t I? I went out and hit it a couple of times because … well, actually, I have no idea why. It mostly had to do with being afraid I’d have nothing to write about if I didn’t. So what I thought would be waist-high and rideable was shin-high and laughable. Thankfully, Tuesday delivered some pretty decent surf, although the tide was on it pretty good by the time I got out after work and it was mushburgers. But I did hear reports that Folly was breaking well all the way up to dark. So it was good to work out some of the pent-up, no-surf frustrations. Even in mush. Going out to my spot on the IOP, I did have to stand there for a while and mourn the loss of an old friend. And I don’t mean the man or beast kind. No, this was the loss of another old island house that has been there for almost my entire life. My great-aunt and uncle built their house across the street from the one I’m speaking about in the very early 1960s, and I pretty much have gone to this same spot ever since. The house, with its striped awnings, was a marker for every surf session I’ve had at the spot. When I rolled up the other day, I was saddened to see the house had been demolished. I already knew something was up, because a few weeks earlier, someone had put some stakes and some of that “do not cross” yellow tape around the perimeter of the property. It still was a shock to find something that I had seen my whole life completely gone. I understand that the demolition of the house was most likely a financial one. And that is what gives me such a sense of sadness at its passing. I don’t really know the story behind the ownership of the house beyond remembering that it belonged to Sen. Fritz Hollings for decades and I assume he sold it many years ago. But the fate of the house was sealed when it stopped being a home and became just a house. Because what’s happening at our beach communities is that more and more homes are becoming houses. And once the homes are gone, they are replaced by soulless, towering behemoths that make sense only from a financial perspective. Gone forever is the love and caring that makes a house a home and a street a community. It’s all about occupancy rates. The other thing that has me really worked up about this is that the speed at which the demolition took place leads me to believe no attempt was made to salvage anything from the old house. Having been in many of them over the years, I know almost all of them had this beautiful knotty pine paneling. If you’ve ever been in one of the architectural salvage places around here, you’ve seen how brisk the business is. So I know all kinds of stuff from this house would have been appreciated. I know I would have loved an awning or two. I’m sure every bit of the house is now in the landfill. This wasteful culture we have has to stop. So enough kvetching already and on to the surf forecast for this weekend. I always write this column on Wednesday night, so the models can change between now and Saturday, but I’m seeing a NE swell direction on Sunday with offshore winds. So I’m thinking that a dawn patrol on both Saturday and Sunday would be the plan. Of course, I’m always optimistic. I might even go buy a new bar of wax. |
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