Middle pier, Cortez Beach, February 5, 2009. The pier continues to crumble. Cell phone photo courtesy of Manatee County Lifeguard Curtis Mcfee.
Cortez Beach. This is where spent my first day learning to surf back in 1974. Me and my school friend Stan Rollins spent a warm summer day getting totally blistered by the sun (no SPF 50 back then). We had a blast. Since that first day I was hooked, and spent many glorious days surfing between these piers. Sad to see them deteriorate like this. But time marches on.
From Curtis’ cell phone photo above I can see that the section behind the barricade has finally collapsed completely. Last time I took a photo, back in January 2008, it was in bad shape, but not completely down yet. Each swell takes a toll.
Middle pier, Cortez Beach, January 2008. It was in pretty bad shape a year ago when I took this photo.
Sometimes I think back and remember all the good times I had here and all the guys I used to surf with. Alex Kerr, Doug Jones, Scott Blackwell, Grant Blackwell, Richard Vaughn, (I’m really wracking my brain now trying to think back), Ricky Lease, the late great Skipper Donaldson, the late Joel Willis (kung fu master extraordinaire who totally blew me away by catching a wave and standing up on my 6′ 3″ surfboard on his first wave.) I know I’ve left out a ton of people.
Those were the days, as Carroll O’Connor used to say.
