My Brother was now married and his first Daughter had recently been born. He was now working construction with my Step Father’s company and I was off at my final year of Military school. On my school breaks we would go to Daytona or Cocoa and my brother BG was starting to get really good at surfing, while I was still trying to get better.
On our trips to the beach we started to notice a change in the line up, as the short board revolution was really gaining momentum. A little earlier Paul Eaton had opened Ron Jon’s West in College Park Orlando, in a little strip mall right next to Edgewater High school. It quickly became a hang-out for most of the small crew of surfers in the Orlando area. At the same time Taylor Surfboards started up and all of a sudden Orlando had a growing surf population. We were inland, but both Daytona and Cocoa were only an hour’s drive away. With Ron Jon’s and Taylor surfboards making the transition to shorter boards, our crew started to slowly do the same.
That summer Paul talked a shaper into coming to Orlando from California, he was trying to start his own label Universal Wave Machines and wanted a quicker way to get us the newest short board designs. This really accelerated the area’s transition to shorter boards. We knew Paul’s new shaper as only Greco, and that summer changed so much for so many. Greco was “California Cool” and he was pretty far ahead of most of the local shapers in design. Only a select few of our tight crew knew that he had brought more than his shaping skills to Orlando. Soon a good supply of Mexican herb began to show up within our circle of friends and we were soon a part of the “Hippy Revolution”
This was all happening as Disney World was under construction and Orlando soon found itself on the Rock Concert circuit. Part because of the area growth, a good venue in the Orlando Sports Arena, but mostly because Gary Propper was getting into booking concerts through his connection to Bill Graham. Wow, what a special time that was, Surfing, Rock concerts, weed and more!
Comments