At The Beach 2024 - Emerald Coast Magazine's Essential Beach Guide

Beach

ON, IN & ABOVE

THE WATER

Recreational activities abound where the Gulf meets the sand

DRAGGING HIS WIDE SHRIMP NET

Welcome aboard the Miss Bennie

PRESERVING CATCHES IN INK

Waterfront artist is a fish responder

*REGULAR MENU ITEMS

Fresh Seafood

Fish Tacos

Forged in Fire

Char-Grilled Oysters

PEPPER CRUSTED TUNA

BLACK & BLEU CHICKEN SALAD

RAW OYSTERS

KEY WEST SHRIMP

42 Flippin’ Awesome

Who better than a marine biologist to lead ecotourists on adventures that put them in touch with invertebrates and fish that call the Gulf of Mexico and St. Andrew Bay home.

46 Try SCUBA Diving

Breathing underwater is not as difficult as it might seem. It’s all in getting used to it.

MAKING WAVES

48 Capt. Extreme

Eddie Brochin’s bright green Scream Machine is billed as a thrill ride. See if it doesn’t give you an adrenaline rush.

50 Access Points

Move from east to west along Panama City Beach, from St. Andrews State Park to Pinnacle Port, and you’ll find that its access points have distinct personalities.

BEYOND THE BEACH

56 Pier Park

As a mecca for shoppers, diners and entertainment seekers, Pier Park has become a center of commerce on Panama City Beach.

62 Under the (Black Lights)

Miniature golf has entered a new dimension at Rainforest Black LIght Golf and Arcade. Suddenly, old-timey sunlit putt-putt courses seem quaint.

64 Panama City Murals

Bay Arts Alliance executive director Jayson Kretzer is a big believer in public art. A muralist himself, he sees building walls as canvases.

68 Jimbo Thornton

Guitar man and songwriter Jimbo Thornton entertains audiences with spot-on covers and heartfelt songs of his own. He does a great Leon Russell.

72 Nightlife

Belly up with the locals at these well-known beach bars and lounges. You can order an umbrella drink if you wish, but it isn’t necessary.

ON THE COVER Steven Wright takes to the water near St. Andrews State Park atop an efoil, an electric-powered, propeller-driven board that is equipped with a mast and wing. The board lifts up from the water after achieving sufficient speed. Unlike traditional foil boards, efoils do not need the power of waves to rise above the water. Photo by Boo Media

PRESIDENT/PUBLISHER

BRIAN E. ROWLAND

ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER

MCKENZIE BURLEIGH

EDITORIAL

EXECUTIVE EDITOR Steve Bornhoft

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Emma Witmer

EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Raemi Creteur

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Paige Aigret, Hannah Burke

CREATIVE

VICE PRESIDENT / PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY Daniel Vitter

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Jennifer Ekrut

LEAD DESIGNER Shruti Shah

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Sierra Thomas

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Gary Bogdon, Boo Media, Lou Columbus, Mike Fender, RJ Jackson, Chris Joy, Sean Murphy, Felipe Rojas

SALES, MARKETING & EVENTS

SALES MANAGER, WESTERN DIVISION Rhonda Lynn Murray

SALES MANAGER, EASTERN DIVISION Lori Magee Yeaton

DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, EASTERN DIVISION Daniel Parisi

DIRECTOR OF NEW BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, WESTERN DIVISION Dan Parker

ADVERTISING SERVICES MANAGER Tracy Mulligan

SENIOR ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE Julie Dorr

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Michelle Daugherty , Darla Harrison

MARKETING MANAGER Javis Ogden

SALES AND MARKETING WRITER Rebecca Padgett Frett

ADMINISTRATIVE & CUSTOMER SERVICE SPECIALIST Renee Johnson

OPERATIONS

CUSTOM PUBLISHING MANAGER Sara Goldfarb

CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE/ AD SERVICE COORDINATOR Sarah Coven

PRODUCTION EDITOR Paige Aigret

PRODUCTION AND DISTRIBUTION SPECIALIST Melinda Lanigan

STAFF BOOKKEEPER Amber Ridgeway

DIGITAL SERVICES

DIGITAL EDITOR/MARKETING SPECIALIST Alix Black

EMERALD COAST MAGAZINE

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ENJOY THE VIBE, THE VIEW AND BEING YOU

Cast off all your cares and woes; you’re in PCB

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN PEOPLE TRAVELED from the piney woods of Alabama to the area that would become Panama City Beach to take advantage of what were called “bathing beaches” and benefit from the medicinal qualities, real or perceived, that folks attributed to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

They weren’t wrong about that.

Over time, salt water has been credited with helping people in many ways, including regenerating skin, strengthening the immune system, combatting respiratory problems and relieving anxiety. It’s a source of salt, of course, and magnesium, sulfate and calcium.

So, yes, while here, take a daily dip and feel better. Get in, on and under the water.

The Gulf is a denominator shared by all who live and visit here. We are all made small by America’s sea. So it is that a 1-percenter and a palm tree trimmer sidled up next to each other at a bar beneath a thatched roof and surrounded by salt air, have a basis for conversation.

Becalmed far more often than not, the Gulf invites wonder and beckons us. It lowers blood pressures and sets a tone.

Years ago, Visit Panama City Beach, a bed-tax funded tourism promotion organization, adopted a slogan: Real. Fun. Beach.

Real, we will suppose, is intended to connote unpretentiousness and authenticity. Fun is the ingredient that keeps people coming back. And the Beach is the magnificent backdrop to all that happens and stays here.

It would be fitting if signs at the entrances to Panama City Beach carried an admonition: Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously. That

line speaks to the ethos of this place. Too much self-importance we can’t abide.

Relax. Compartmentalize. Be prepared to get a dab of cocktail sauce on that new Huk shirt of yours. Put your stressors on a high shelf, and forget about them.

Here you can do many things: Ride a wave; ride the Sky Wheel; stoop for shells; wear an outsized hat; deploy a metal detector; walk the piers; snorkel a jetty; see a dolphin jump; catch some rays; reach for the lidocaine spray (you know, if you’re not careful); build a castle; gig a flounder; spear a grouper; wind in an American red snapper; ask the man at the tackle shop if bait shrimp are good to eat; order your seafood blackened or grilled or you can order it fried, and nobody is going to look at you funny if you do; traverse the trails in the Conservation Park; sink a birdie; threeputt for bogey; discover that, yup, Goofy Golf is still going; dine early; watch the fleet come in; parasail; greet a parrot; encounter Parrotheads; dance to Buffett; read a book (maybe not); howl at Buster’s; howl at Schooners; howl at Whiskey’s; rehearse your proposal; put a ring on it; sing karaoke; fire up a stogie; throw an ax; bust a rack; shuck a dozen; make peace at last with your cousin; figure out yet again the exposure timer on your cell-phone camera; and make your reservations for next year.

And, why yes, that is but a partial list.

Have real fun while here, beachgoers.

— STEVE BORNHOFT

MOUTHWATERERS

Restaurants that will have you counting down to dinnertime

BY RAEMI CRETEUR AND STEVE BORNHOFT

TO SHORT-LIST the assorted fine restaurants in the Panama City Beach area to a select few isn’t easy. We have endeavored here to provide a cross section of establishments all of which fall into the must-visit category.

CAPT. ANDERSON’S RESTAURANT & WATERFRONT MARKET

The iconic Capt. Anderson’s Restaurant has been a fixture on Grand Lagoon for more than 50 years. The family-owned business evolved over the decades with the addition of a seafood market and the Flying Fish Lounge, and the sailor-themed outfits that waitresses used to wear are gone, but unchanged are its outstanding service and the quality of its dishes. Among many locals, Capt. Anderson’s grilled scamp (or scamp imperial with crab meat added) is the best seafood entree on the beach. Diners throughout much of the restaurant enjoy a waterfront view. Time your visit right, and you’ll have a chance to see charter boats unload their catches. The restaurant opens at 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday and is closed Sundays. 5551 N. Lagoon Drive, Panama City Beach, captandersons.com

SALTY SUE’S

This locally owned, family-atmosphere restaurant at Panama City Beach’s west end has been around since 2008. Specializing in seafood and barbecue, it contains a sports bar and offers pet-friendly outdoor seating under a covered patio. Salty Sue’s is a favorite among snowbirds, tourists and locals, alike. Their hickory smoked wings are packed with flavor, fried until crispy and always tender. The smoked tuna dip is a perfect shareable appetizer, too. If you’re in the mood for steak or seafood, they’ve got juicy ribeyes on the menu and fresh grouper served as nuggets, sandwiches or as a dinner entree, fried, blackened or grilled. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Closed Sundays. 17501 Panama City Beach Parkway, saltysues.com

FIREFLY

Branded as casual fine dining, Firefly definitely raises the bar for date nights. The gorgeous venue and signature dishes have won numerous awards over the years. Firefly opens at 5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, and reservations are recommended. Fine dining classics like escargot and shrimp cocktails are a great way to start the night at this restaurant once visited by President Barack Obama. Adventurous diners may be interested to try the grilled New Zealand rack of elk. The seafood menu won’t leave eager taste buds disappointed, either. And, save room for desserts that include key lime pie and pineapple cheesecake. 535 N. Richard Jackson Blvd., Panama City Beach, fireflypcb.com

GULF COAST BURGER CO.

Bring the kids along to Gulf Coast Burger Co. where they will be amazed by “Cat 5” milkshakes that are stacked high with candy, cookies and other sugary treats, all packaged in a souvenir cup. When your shakes are ready, an adorable robot brings them to your table. The burger options are plentiful and are served with sides such as fries and onion rings. The Mac Attack burger comes on a split top bun with bacon bits, cheddar cheese and — you guessed it — macaroni and cheese. Or build your own custom burger with your own add-on choices and a side. A spiked shake menu includes favorites such as mudslides and the key lime pie shake. Gulf Coast Burger Co. is open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily.

10031 Hutchison Blvd., Panama City Beach, gcburgerco.com

UNCLE ERNIE’S

This two-story restaurant has plenty of seating inside and on its open-air decks. The bayfront business occupies a site that was once the home of Ernest (Uncle Ernie) and Jessie Morris. The original house was built in the late 1800s, making it one of the oldest in Panama City’s St. Andrews neighborhood. Uncle Ernie’s serves seafood so fresh you might think it leaped directly from the water onto your plate. Entrees include sesamecrusted ahi tuna, grouper imperial, shrimp and grits and a twin lobster tail dinner. Their crab cakes are some of the best in the area. Flakey and flavorful, they are served as a starter or a meal. The restaurant has a full bar and is open from 11 a.m. until 10 p.m., seven days a week.

1151 Bayview Ave., Panama City, uncleerniesbayfrontgrill.com

NATURAL COMMUNITY

Visitors recharge on Conservation Park trails

BY STEVE BORNHOFT // PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FENDER

AT 2,912 ACRES, the City of Panama City Beach’s Conservation Park is a sprawling natural asset that has been set aside for the preservation of the ecosystems represented there and for the enjoyment of bikers, hikers and nature lovers.

More than two-thirds of the park is wetlands, meaning that boardwalks and bridges make up more than a mile of its 24plus miles of trails. The bridges, themselves, are something of a marvel and invite wonder about how people managed to get the equipment necessary to build them in and out of the blackwater swamps from which they protrude.

The Conservation Park lies within the 1,156-square-mile St. Andrew Bay Watershed, which according to a report of the Northwest Florida Water Management District, “supports a wealth of biological diversity reflecting a mosaic of natural communities.” Among them are expansive seagrass beds; tidal marshes; karst lakes and streams; springs, upland and wetland forests; coastal dune lakes; and sandhill lakes.

It’s not the Real Florida as it existed before paper mill interests felled the Southeast’s longleaf pine forests, but it’s the next best thing.

The watershed hosts some 3,643 species of plants and animals, according to an inventory compiled by the St. Andrew Bay Environmental Study Team. Many of those species, less those that frequent salt water, are present at the Conservation Park, where the local chapter of the Audubon Society conducts bird walks, and visitors can expect to see fauna ranging from red-bellied woodpeckers to whitetail deer.

Boardwalks and trails wind throughout the 2,912-acre Conservation Park, top. Steve Harmon takes his dog, Sugarbear, for a walk in the park. Their hikes are a daily ritual. Opposite page: A dragonfly takes a break.

If you don’t spy as much wildlife as you think you should, it may be that you don’t know precisely where to look.

Lenny Zacher knows.

A bicycling enthusiast, he estimates that he has logged an average of 50 miles a week at the park for 10 years.

Zacher could easily be tapped to conduct guided bicycle tours of the park, and he has done so informally for years. He figures he has introduced 100 or more people to the park — guests at the hotel where he works, members of his tennis circle and others. He and a brother-in-law used to ride logging roads in the area of the park before it was created.

Board a bicycle and permit Zacher to introduce you to the park, as I did, and he’s likely to take you first to what he calls the Walking Tree, a nod to ents, tree-like beings that inhabit J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in The Hobbit and fall in behind their leader Treebeard.

PARK STATS

2,912 ACRES 908

UPLAND ACRES

2004

WETLAND ACRES

24-Plus MILES OF TRAILS

1.3 MILES OF BOARDWALKS

PARK RULES

Rules are enforced to ensure that the condition of the park is maintained and that visitors enjoy an experience consistent with its character. They include:

Trails are open daily from sunrise to sunset, only.

No motorized vehicles of any kind are allowed on the trails except for battery-powered chairs for handicap accessibility.

Dogs are permitted but must be kept on leashes and controlled at all times.

Visitors must stay on the trails at all times.

The walking tree in Lenny’s World is stationary. It is made up of two cypress trunks that are separated by just a couple of inches for much of their lengths and then fuse together about 15 feet above the ground.

Visitors are prohibited from removing artifacts or vegetation from the forest.

“I love the green of the cypress leaves when they are new,” Zacher said.

In the course of riding 9 miles, we never much got up to speed, what with Zacher stopping about every half mile to inspect spots where he had seen gators, hogs, otters and rattlesnakes in the past.

On this cloudy, low-humidity and slightly cool day, wildlife was not visibly about, but Zacher kept things lively by furnishing me with ample stories about critters that growl, snort, cavort and hiss.

He is fascinated by gators. He recounted having seen seven “baby gators,” no longer hatchlings but still together on a bank bordering open water. He scrolled through videos on his phone until he found footage of the “congregation,” as groups of gators are called.

“I felt so privileged when I saw them,” Zacher said. “It was as if they had presented themselves just for me.”

I regaled Zacher with a story of my own about gator hunting on Deer Point Lake, a reservoir that serves Bay County as a primary source of drinking water. I described how my guide produced baby gator cries and mating calls that caused a big bull to charge our boat and come within harpoon range.

Zacher didn’t react to my tale much. I think he felt sorry for the gator. In any event, my story was to be topped.

Most of the trails in the park are hardpack and easily traversed, even following a heavy rain. There are some, though,

The habitat, much of it wetlands, is well-suited to gators.

“I LOVE TO BRING PEOPLE HERE. I WANT THEM TO KNOW THAT WE ARE MORE THAN JUST THE SAND.”

— LENNY ZACHER

that flood, and Zacher finds them irresistible when submerged. He’s like a kid who cannot resist hopping into a puddle.

On this day, we passed by the Baxley Homestead trail’s intersection with a trail that leads to Cypress Pond and was underwater owing to a drenching thunderstorm from the night before. Only in deference to me did Zacher not head down the trail turned tributary.

Zacher may be the only park visitor ever to have run into a gator with his bicycle. A dip in a trail was filled with water to a depth of more than a foot. Unfazed, he plowed into the spot and was stopped short by a reptilian obstruction.

“That had my heart going,” he conceded.

I asked Zacher what he would call the park if he had the chance to rename it.

“Ooh, that’s a hard one,” he said.

I suggested Restoration Park as an alternative in that the unspoiled acreage serves Zacher and countless others as a restorative. He liked that all right, also noting efforts at the park to restore the longleaf pine forest.

“Do you notice how everyone here smiles?” Zacher asked a moment after a bicyclist approached us from the opposite direction.

Next to come our way was a father-and-son team. Dad looked like Dick Butkus on a bicycle.

“That guy won’t smile,” I challenged Zacher.

Moments later, I was proven wrong. Restoration Park? How about the Park of Smiles.

“I love to bring people here,” Zacher said. “I want them to know that we are more than just the sand.”

Lenny Zacher of Panama City Beach has undoubtedly logged more miles at Conservation Park than any other bicyclist. He often posts photos of the park’s flora and fauna on his Facebook page.

Aboard the MISS BENNIE

For FRED HUNTER, life has never been a drag

STORY BY STEVE BORNHOFT PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOO MEDIA

For the uninitiated, the rigging aboard a shrimp boat may appear random, tangled, even chaotic. But for shrimpers like Fred Hunter, the gear is as orderly and regular as the letters on a writer’s keyboard or the pigments on a painter’s palette. There is an art to what he does.

“You can’t just look at one marker; you gotta look behind ya,” Hunter advised, smartly but not angrily. In such a way, he reminded Adkison that a marker and the bow of a boat in a strongly running current do not a straight line define. While the bow remains pointed at the marker, the current may slide the boat right out of the channel.

Adkison could be forgiven. While he toiled aboard shrimp boats as a young man, he has worked for most of his adult life running framing crews for concerns including Taunton Truss Inc., in Wewahitchka and now as a subcontractor for his homebuilder wife, Pam Palmer, a former educator who owns Hive & Home Residential Construction.

But for Hunter, who resides in Overstreet, shrimping has been a living and a way of life. His father, George Hunter Jr., introduced him to the work.

A Massachusetts Yankee, George Hunter Jr. was in the U.S. Navy, serving aboard the USS Antietam out of Pensacola, when he met Fred’s mother, Bennie.

His military service complete, he remained in Northwest Florida, landing a job at the St. Joe paper mill in Panama City, where he worked for 13 years. As a sideline, he ran a bait and tackle shop in Highland View in Gulf

County and had a small boat used to catch shrimp used by anglers. It was on that little boat that Fred, then a boy, had his first net-fishing experience.

In 1966, Fred recalls, his father moved his shop to Mexico Beach at the site today of the Shell Shack, which deals in souvenirs, sundries and seafood. In the early ’70s, George built Bennie’s Tackle Box and Boat Marina, which offered wet and dry boat storage.

“It was a big thing for Bay County at the time, but he didn’t hang on to it for very long,” Fred said. “We did sea shells for a few years, and then we got back to shrimping. We bought another shrimp boat, and we started retailing shrimp out of the store, and it grew after that.”

Hunter said about his father that he was a great fisherman from whom he learned a lot. Then, Hunter went to what amounted to graduate school. He ran away from home, all the way to Land’s End, and got jobs on big Gulf boats.

“I was blessed to get hooked up with the people I met when I went down there because it was a fine bunch of fishermen,” Hunter said. “They traveled from Key West to Texas every year. I learned how to sew nets and splice ropes. You had to work hard, though. You had to do the job.”

IN THE

Imprinted in Fred Hunter’s mind is a map of the seasonal movements of shrimp, the product of 43 years spent on the water and cataloging successes and empty nets.

Fred Hunter relinquished the wheel of the Miss Bennie to Gary Adkison but kept a close eye on him, resisted for a time the inclination to coursecorrect his double cousin, and then could wait no longer.

George Hunter commissioned the building of the Miss Bennie, named for his wife, in 1979. The boat, with its fiberglass Linsey hull, was finished late in 1980. The old man turned its operation over to his son when Fred was 17. A few years later, Adkison joined him on board as a greenhorn mate.

For years, the Miss Bennie was deployed not just in pursuit of shrimp.

In the winter, Yankee George might strip the vessel of its rigging — no small job — converting it to use as a snapper boat.

“It was a lot easier to take it off than it was to put it back on,” Adkison recalled. Indeed, with its system of outriggers, stabilizers, winches, ropes and pulleys, a shrimp boat is an elaborate affair, bewildering to the uninitiated. About it, Rube Goldberg might have said, “You’re off to a pretty good start.”

There was a time when it was lawful to drag for scallops. Family members would gather round No. 3 washtubs to clean the catch, discarding the guts, saving the meat and turning the shells over to Bennie, who would fashion dolls, chickens and frogs and such from them for sale in the store. She was kitschy before kitschy was uncool.

“It was anything to make a buck,” Hunter said. “I’m glad those days are gone.”

On this warm July night with near-calm seas and patchy rain about, the Miss Bennie dragged a channel in East Bay. It was less a serious working trip than it was an excursion, carried out for the benefit of two guests — a writer and the photographer. Hunter dressed up for the occasion in a new Shell Shack T-shirt and a spotless pair of dungarees.

As a product of experience, Hunter learned long ago that it is effective to first work the bottom of a channel and then double back and run along its lips. Shrimp disturbed but not caught on the first pass tend to resettle on channel edges, he said. Here, then, is knowledge of a sort that cannot be pulled up with a Google search. And there is no Shrimping for Dummies book.

Hunter recalled his early days as a shrimper spent before he would learn unanticipated lessons the hard way.

“It was exciting; it was a way of being independent,” Hunter said, jettisoning chew into the drink. “A lot of people were doing it even though they didn’t make much money. To me, it

The Miss Bennie was an early fiberglass-hull boat when it was built in 1979. Such boats were not immediately popular. “Fishermen wanted either wood or steel,” writes Robert P. Jones in A Culture Worth Saving. “A bumper sticker popular at the time read, ‘If God wanted fiberglass boats, He would have made trees out of fiberglass.’” (Right) “Shrimping is a dangerous profession, going out in rough seas with heavy gear and winches,” writes Jack Rudloe in Shrimp: The Endless Quest for Pink Gold. “Deckhands have fallen overboard, drowned, been eaten by sharks, or had their brains knocked out by blocks falling on their heads. Cables and winches can cut off a sleepy man’s arm, or worse.” Fred Hunter is ever aware of the risks of his profession, but a life of freedom, he says, makes taking them worthwhile.

FEWER SHRIMP, FEWER SHRIMPERS

In November 1994, 70% of participating Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment that outlawed the use of commercial entanglement fishing nets of more than 500 square feet in state waters. The law became effective in July 1995 and precipitated an exodus of many captains from a shrimping fleet that had numbered hundreds of boats in Bay, Gulf and Franklin counties, alone, according to veteran shrimper Fred Hunter of Overstreet. Other shrimpers including Hunter, whose boat, the Miss Bennie, will turn 43 in December, made adjustments and carried on. “You put a shrimper’s back to the wall, he’s gonna find a way to survive; that’s what we do as commercial fishermen.” Hunter has found that even as shrimpers have become less numerous, so have shrimp, and that, too, has made his livelihood less attractive. He discounts the belief, held by some, that the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is somehow to blame. The biggest factor, he said, is the deterioration of estuarine environments due to development, the hardening of waterfronts and the use of fertilizers and pesticides.

was about the hunt and catching them — and having my freedom, that was probably the primary thing.

“When you get older and go to start a family, then it’s all about the money because you got some mouths to feed, but in the early days it was about catching ’em.”

Shrimpers never much calculate the risks they run.

“There was adventure on the water, and you were playing with your life, but I didn’t really think about that,” Hunter said. “It was all about just being here like we are tonight.”

Still, Hunter has had his close calls. One occurred when the Miss Bennie, which Hunter described as “the first brand new thing my family ever bought,” was just two years old.

“My old man turned me loose with her, and I went to Tampa Bay, and that’s a long, long reach,” Hunter said.

“I was trying to get back to St. Petersburg to my berth where I tied up,” Hunter began to recount a story. “Down under this ice hold, I have a mid-shaft bearing because the shaft is like 14 feet long. The bolts vibrated out of it, and when the bearing slid down the shaft, it knocked a hole in the hull. I was by myself, and I’m bucking those seas to get back to St. Pete and the engine starts surging. I said, ‘Damn, I must have run out of fuel or something.’ Then I lifted the hatch and all I could see was water.”

The Miss Bennie was sinking.

“Me knowing the boat was financed, I knew that if I lose this boat, everything is gone,” Hunter said. “The boat was about $75,000 — in 1980. It was expensive. My thought was I could never go home without it because the old man would have killed me. He was a mean bastard, pure Yankee. That’s just the way it was.”

Displaying grace under pressure that Hemingway would have admired, Hunter succeeded in converting a 12-volt wash-down pump to use as a

bilge pump. He managed to get two more bilge pumps working.

“The water level was starting to go down. I was overcoming it, and I sped up and got on into the dock,” Hunter said.

With the boat tied up, Hunter could hear the water running into the hull and could pinpoint where it was entering the boat. Fortunately, he had dive gear on board.

“I got a bolt and two pieces of plywood, and I dove under there,” Hunter said. “I had a friend of mine hold the bolt on the inside while I put the nut on and tightened it.”

The patch worked.

Hunter recalled, too, a time in Tampa Bay when his father insisted upon shrimping despite a bad weather forecast and his son’s pleadings.

“I told him all of those boats over there are tied up for a reason, and he told me he had a boat payment to make,” said Hunter, who believes the Miss Bennie survived seas that night that would have claimed lesser shrimp boats. “She’s got nuts,” he said.

From 1988–95, Hunter worked as a merchant mariner and spent time on a supply boat off Iraq during Operation Desert Shield. It was his only hiatus from shrimping.

“I was wanting to do the Merchant Marine as a career, but the kids at home were getting to be teenagers and hard to handle, so I had to quit my job and go back to shrimping,” Hunter said. “But that was probably for the best because I really blossomed as a shrimper in the past 25 years. I’ve done well for myself.”

Hunter has a son and a daughter, Matthew and Sky, and a granddaughter, Amelia. He does a lot of babysitting, confessing that he “can’t go long without having a look at Amelia.”

There are drags when the nets, raised from the water, contain almost exclusively shrimp. This night was not like that. The bycatch included hardhead and gafftopsail catfish, mantis and milk shrimp, gars, blue crabs, skates and more. The biomass was spread out on a sorting table, Hunter and Adkison picked 50 pounds of keeper shrimp from the pile and then scraped the unwanted life forms into the water off the stern where dolphins had gathered.

Thankfully, there were no sharks, but Hunter said that increasingly they are tailing shrimp boats and tearing into gear.

“They are worse than ever. They will eat the damn nets right off these doors,” Hunter said, referring to the large wooden trawl boards that keep the nets open during a drag.

“They’re like a threshing machine. I don’t see them bad off of Panama, and I don’t see them as

bad off of St. George Island, but in between, they are awful. Their numbers are up, and if someone tells you they’re not, they are lying.”

The shrimper, Hunter concedes, is a dying breed.

“Boats are thinning out every year. There is only a handful of us left, and we’re getting older like myself,” said Hunter, who is 63. “I’m gonna be phasing out in the next couple of years, and there isn’t anyone coming up behind. Mine will be one more boat gone, and it’s going to get to be where the public won’t be able to get fresh shrimp caught in their backyard. It’s gonna come from Mexico or South America. It’s gonna go through a fish house, it’s gonna be washed and frozen three or four times and it’s gonna be treated with preservatives.”

Hunter carries his catches to the Shell Shack, which is operated by his brother, George Hunter III.

“We have the finest shrimp because of the way they are taken care of,” Hunter said.

Our exercise complete, the Miss Bennie heads in. The in-dash depth finder registers less than five feet of water, and while the boat’s draft is four feet, Hunter registers no concern.

“I know these waters like my front yard,” he said.

As we near the dock, the Miss Bennie’s lights cut out. Hunter figures that the fuel line to his generator may be kinked.

Maybe, it’s as simple as that.

One hopes it wasn’t a sign.

This story first appeared in the October/November 2022 edition of Emerald Coast Magazine.

Fred Hunter delivers most of the shrimp he catches to the Shell Shack, a business operated by his brother, George Hunter III.

CANVASING THE FISH WORLD

Destin artist’s paintings are to scale

STORY BY STEVE BORNHOFT

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SEAN MURPHY

Harley Van Hyning earned a marketing degree at the University of West Florida after a high school guidance counselor told him that artists don’t make any money. He is proving that counselor wrong.

HARLEY VAN HYNING IS A FISH RESPONDER.

Along the waterfront in Destin and in nearby communities, Van Hyning is known as that tall dude who practices the Japanese art of gyotaku — an aesthetic means by which fish catches can be documented.

When the fishing is good, Van Hyning is effectively on call. Captains dial him up — his ring tone is a screaming cat that interrupts the deepest of thoughts — on their way to the docks when they have a fish that is printworthy.

There was that time, for example, when Jordan Whiteman, the mate aboard restaurateur and chef Emeril Lagasse’s sportfishing yacht, Alente, notified Van Hyning that they were headed in with a big tuna on board.

Van Hyning, with canvas and paint, sped to the Sandestin marina to meet the boat. He knows that he has little time to make a good impression.

“Most people are late these days, but you can’t be late,” Van Hyning said. “Guys don’t like to wait around. I don’t want to inconvenience the client or the deckhand who has been fishing and working his tail off for 12 or 24 hours. Plus, the acrylics I use dry quickly; I’ve gotta work super fast.”

Van Hyning won’t disclose specifics but said his process basically involves prepping a fish, slathering it with paint, covering it with a sheet of canvas and rubbing the material into the fish’s every nook and cranny. When the canvas is removed, Van Hyning has a print of the fish that he may choose to leave in raw form or enhance with detailing work.

There are times when Van Hyning’s gyotaku becomes performance art. He tends to draw onlookers — the bigger the fish, the bigger the crowd.

Lagasse closely watched as Van Hyning made a print of both the hefty yellowfin and a mahi-mahi. The day was hot, and the chef offered the artist a Yuengling. He was impressed by the impressions.

Van Hyning would sell the rights to the tuna to Lagasse, who used the image on T-shirts sold at Emeril’s Coastal seafood restaurant at Grand Boulevard. And, since 2019, Van Hyning has been the event artist at an annual sailfish tournament hosted by Lagasse in Fort Lauderdale.

The artist is a member of a small, international gyotaku community. Via Instagram, he stays in touch with artists in Hawaii, California, the Eastern U.S., Italy, South Africa and Australia.

Van Hyning first became aware of what he calls the “first form of fish mounting” in middle school and high school art classes. His mother, Anna Salter, is an artist — a realist — who studied art at the Royal Academy in London and made a point of taking her son to art shows and galleries when he was young.

Harley Van Hyning chills in his Destin studio. A print of a blue marlin is over his right shoulder. Other prints are a French angelfish, top, and a Spanish hogfish.

Harley Van Hyning displays a tarpon print. In the photo on the opposite page, he works on a marlin print amid the commotion at the Emerald Coast Blue Marlin Classic.

“She encouraged my interest in painting, and I thought about going to the Savannah School of Art and Design,” Van Hyning said. “But a guidance counselor (at Fort Walton Beach High School) told me that artists don’t make any money.”

Van Hyning instead went to the University of West Florida, where he earned a degree in marketing and public relations, thinking that the field would afford him creative outlets. He got into podcasting and thought about creating a lifestyle brand.

In 2015, he started experimenting with gyotaku. That exploration turned into an obsession.

“The first fish I painted were fish that I caught,” Van Hyning recalled. “I told my mom that I was going to paint fish and transfer them to shirts. She told me in her British accent to ‘Screw the bloody T-shirt’ and to do more of what I was doing.”

In 2016, Van Hyning, at the encouragement of a friend, participated in a space reserved for local artists at the Destin Seafood Festival and sold his first painting.

“One of my best friends, Justin Lyons, is an artist, and I used to go to his shows and hang out at his little studio and watch him paint,” Van Hyning said. “A few hours before I was supposed to have my work set up at the Seafood Festival, he showed me how to stain wood and make frames. But I never once thought about becoming an artist, myself.

Commissions account for the lionfish’s share of the work Van Hyning does, and he has entertained some odd requests. One client wanted a psychedelic triggerfish. He did a Grateful Dead snapper. He’s not a taxidermist; he’s an impressionist. He can choose to make a redfish blue.

“Almost everything I have been doing has been about somebody’s fish story, and it’s great to be preserving memories for people and to give them something they can reminisce on,” Van Hyning said.

But he has stories of his own he wants to tell. He grew up fishing inshore waters for trout and redfish. Without much prompting, he will tell you about catching his biggest flounder ever on a 6-pound test line and a bucktail jig he made himself. He’s a surfer. A short stack of books in his studio includes William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life. He made a surfing trip to the Maldives and painted a few fish there.

“I am a lover of the oceans, and I want to create work in which the oceans tell their story,” Van Hyning said.

He painted a warsaw grouper at the Destin Fishing Rodeo, the first that had been seen there in 10 years. He hears captains talk about diminished cobia numbers and other disturbing trends.

“A couple of buddies of mine from Utah and I went fishing and kept a 40-pound amberjack,” Van Hyning said. “We had plenty of fish for three big guys and three women. I see people at the dock with four or five 70- to 80-pound amberjacks, not to mention

all the other bottom fish. Do people really need that much? Are people even thinking about sustainability?”

Van Hyning is working toward exhibitions that he may call “Ocean Speaks.” He plans to add new elements to his paintings, to somehow infuse paint with vibrations that reflect a fish’s story. One such show might focus on the Indian Ocean, another on the Pacific.

They are sure to be the product of Van Hyning’s passions.

“My mother says I have two mistresses,” he said. “When the surf’s up, I don’t paint. When the surf’s not good, I paint.”

“I DIDN’T PURSUE ART.

Panama City is just minutes from the beach, but we’re far from the typical coastal getaway. On our shores, you’ll find calm and clear waters, excellent fishing, and lots of boating opportunities, too. Our city’s laid-back vibe, locally owned restaurants, and artsy shops are sure to leave your whole family wanting more.

THE MEMORIES THAT LINGER MOST ARE THOSE THAT STAND OUT FROM THE REST THEY PAINT OUR SOULS WITH VIBRANT HUES AND CAPTURE TIME THAT WE INVEST

SURF, BAY AND OLD FLORIDA

One park offers many environments

BY HANNAH BURKE

WITH OVER a mile-anda-half of beach that is ideal for fishing, snorkeling and swimming, and 1,200 acres of pristine land bursting with biodiversity, St. Andrews State Park is an outdoor enthusiast’s playground. Bike, boat, birdwatch or hike — there is much that makes the park worth exploring.

The jetties at St. Andrews State Park are part of a system that fortifies the pass to St. Andrew Bay. The jetties also form a protected shallow water inlet where families with children splash around and many youngsters have learned to swim.

ACHIEVING LEVITATION

PCB eFoils, founded by military veterans Steven Wright and Rob Younkins, conducts lessons in Panama City Beach’s Grand Lagoon area and along the Gulf beach from St. Andrews State Park to the Wharf Restaurant. PCB eFoil staff choose the best locations based on the weather on a given day to provide the best possible experiences for their students. Ninetyminute lessons are $341 for an individual or $493 for a buddy lesson. Students often succeed in getting “airborne” within a half-hour. The business also sells both carbon and fiberglass efoils. People seeking the ultimate in performance will likely opt for carbon models. Those who don’t mind a slightly heavier board and prefer a more financially accessible setup tend to prefer fiberglass alternatives. Further information is available by contacting PCB eFoils at info@pcbefoils.com or (850) 801-5999.

CAST AWAY

Situated between the Gulf of Mexico and the rich estuary that is St. Andrew Bay, the park attracts redfish, mullet, speckled trout, Spanish mackerel, flounder and other species.

The Grand Lagoon Fishing Pier, located on the bay side of the park, is home to a boat ramp and a concession shack stocked with fishing gear, bait and sundries.

The Gulfside Tiller Pier and neighboring West Jetty are both fish magnets. Sheepshead feast there on barnacles but find bite-size bits of shrimp irresistible. Flounder, too, like structure, and it’s not unusual for a speckled seatrout or Spanish mackerel to cruise by.

And, if you’re truly looking to cast away, Shell Island, the 7-mile barrier island at the south end of St. Andrews

State Park, offers diverse fishing. Anglers might catch a trout on the bay side of the island and then reel in a pompano on the Gulf side.

TAKE A DIP

St. Andrews State Park’s west-end beach isn’t just for fishing. Framed by the jetties is the “kiddie pool” lagoon, a clear, shallow swimming hole ideal for safely splashing around with your little

ones. Along those jetties, snorkelers encounter sea urchins, sponges, rays, octopi and countless fish species.

If you’re without gear and the FOMO kicks in, the park’s Jetty Store has fins, snorkels and paddleboards. Scuba divers touring the deepwater side of the jetties meet up with crabs, goliath grouper and the occasional manatee or dolphin in 20 to 75 feet of water.

Available at the park’s Camp Store are canoe and kayak rentals. From the boat ramp, paddlers can spend a day in Grand Lagoon, or cruise across the pass to St. Andrew Bay to Shell Island.

HIT THE TRAIL

Hikers and wildlife enthusiasts have two, half-mile nature paths to discover at St. Andrews.

The Heron Pond Trail is a 0.7-mile loop through a pine forest. Along the way is the Old Cracker Turpentine Still, a replica of equipment used by resin distillers in Bay County in the 19th century until the demise of the industry in the 1930s. Tourists are free to inspect and take pictures of the exhibit while learning about the distilling process and Bay County’s history.

Another trail winds through scrub forest to Gator Lake, a pond that resulted from the dredging of the St. Andrews Channel in 1934. It is aptly named, as visitors often spot gators from the boardwalk and overlook, as well as turtles, lizards, wading birds and raptors such as hawks, bald eagles and owls. Popular among wildlife photographers and

picnickers, it’s an easily navigable path through an area representative of what locals call the “real” Florida.

Wildlife watching and history lessons aren’t the only ways to pass the time. St. Andrews State Park is also a prevalent geocaching hotspot. Using GPS and smartphone apps, treasure hunters play hide-and-seek with small containers stashed throughout the trails. You’re encouraged to (safely) venture off the beaten path to discover a cache, and take home a trinket commemorating your outing.

CAMP OR GLAMP

If sleeping beneath the stars, s’mores and fireside sing-alongs are your thing, the park is primed with campsites and amenities designed to facilitate get-togethers with Mother Nature.

The West Loop Campground was restored following Hurricane Michael in 2018 and is now open with around 65 campsites boasting picnic areas and grills, running water, electricity and sewage hook-ups for trailers. Welcoming all from tenters to luxury RV owners, the campsite offers a scenic view of Grand Lagoon and is within walking distance of bathrooms, the beach, the boat launch and concessions.

If you’re just not the outdoorsy type but still wish to spend the night among unspoiled surroundings, St. Andrews now offers anything but rustic glamp sites. Reserve a luxurious, air-conditioned tent complete with a queen bed and additional cots, electricity, cooking gear and a waterfront view at standrewsshellisland.com/eco-tents.

Trails at St. Andrews State Park pass by Gator Lake and Buttonbush Marsh, where spectacular wading birds and the state reptile hang out.

Snorkelers who approach the jetties at St. Andrews State Park are likely to encounter myriad fish including lookdowns, tangs and blennies, along with schools of mullet that graze on the algae that coats the rocks. Construction of the jetties, using rock carved from quarries, was accomplished by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers beginning in 1933.

FLIPPIN’ AWESOME ADVENTURES

Capt. has fun promoting conservation ethic

BY HANNAH BURKE // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOO MEDIA

ASK CAPT. CHRIS FARLEY, “How’s work?”, and he will tell you he’s “livin’ the dream.”

In saying so, he’s not offering the flippant, bored response you might get from a corporate coworker by the coffee pot on a Monday morning but a genuine declaration. As the owner and operator of Flippin’ Awesome Adventures — marine wildlife and snorkeling tours that he conducts in the Gulf of Mexico and St. Andrew Bay — the marine biologist and lifelong aquaphile is right at home.

As a marine biologist, Capt. Chris Farley is a highly qualified candidate to lead waterborne eco-tours. He is well-versed in the creatures that inhabit St. Andrew Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, critters that range from invertebrates to fishes.

“I WANTED TO BE AN UNDERWATER TREASURE HUNTER AT AGE 6, BUT WHEN I TURNED 7, I DECIDED I WOULD BE A MARINE BIOLOGIST.” — CAPTAIN CHRIS

FARLEY

Though he claims on his website that he was raised by Poseidon and a pod of dolphins, Farley concedes that might not be wholly true.

“I wanted to be an underwater treasure hunter at age 6, but when I turned 7, I decided I would be a marine biologist,” said Farley, who launched Flippin’ Awesome Adventures in 2022. “I’m from the middle of nowhere in New York state, where there’s one stoplight and more cows than people. I think the fascination began when I started catching crayfish in the creeks. I became obsessed with all things aquatic and started taking biology classes and immersing myself in marine science.”

Studying abroad, Farley really dove into his passion. In pursuing his bachelor’s degree in marine sciences, Farley’s studies carried him to the waters of Australia and Belize. Before going to work as a water sampler for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Farley studied salmon in Washington and Alaska and oversaw shark tagging projects in the Bahamas.

Then, driven by a desire to raise awareness of the importance of marine conservation, he created his own charter tour business.

“I feel like there is such an opportunity for education that’s just missed out on in the private sector,” Farley said. “I thought, why not share my knowledge with others and

Living sand dollars are brown, unlike the bleached white specimens sold in shell shops as souvenirs. The aptly named ghost crab, often seen darting into burrows in the beach, blends in well with white sand.

especially with the young people who are the future? There are so many kids we get aboard these tours that are total sponges, and I encourage them, if they’re really interested, to pursue the field.”

Farley offers several packages at Flippin’ Awesome Adventures that give participants the chance to explore diverse ecosystems through the eyes of an expert. Based on his initial, 200trip season in 2022, Farley is confident his three-hour tour is the best option for first-timers.

Carrying up to six passengers, Farley’s vessel heads for Shell Island, stopping along the way for snorkeling and dolphin viewing sessions.

“Critter Corner is always the biggest hit of the tour,” Farley said. “No day is ever the same because you never know what you’re going to find. I’ll safely bring some of the creatures we end up finding and do a show-and-share. You may get to hold them and do some hands-on learning with urchins, crabs, snails, sea squirts (a popular favorite,) sand dollars and sea stars.”

Farley has been an open-water diver for over 15 years and has hundreds of local dives under his belt. He knows the best snorkeling spots.

His most unusual find? Farley considers it to be egg cases known as a “mermaid’s purse.”

“Mermaid’s purses are common among sharks, but we don’t actually have any egg-laying sharks in our area,” Farley explained. “What we do have are egg-laying skates (similar to rays). I didn’t find one at all last year, and then somehow found two a couple of days ago!”

During Farley’s four-hour marine biology excursions, guests identify and record various observations, document environmental information and evaluate species distribution throughout the region. It’s a fun way to play marine biologist for a day that Farley likes to top off with a dialogue on local conservation efforts and the value of scientific research.

But it’s not as buttoned-up as it sounds. The captain, perhaps owing to the name he shares with the late comedian Chris Farley of SNL fame, is all fun and games, silly costumes and bad dad jokes. I asked him to hit me with a few of his favorites:

“When we spy a pelican, I tell people it’s the most optimistic bird in the area because it’s a peliCAN, not a pelican’t.”

“Seagulls living in St. Andrew Bay aren’t seagulls, they’re bay gulls.”

You get the idea.

“I haven’t been at this for long, but I’m happy to already be making a splash in this industry,” Farley said. “Last week, I just had a young couple get engaged during the tour. I’m getting to create these experiences that bring more of the local community into what I do.

“I really am living my dream.”

Capt. Chris Farley squeezes water from a spiny boxfish, a species that inflates itself with water as a defensive measure.

More information on Chris Farley’s marine tours is available at FlippinAwesomeAdventures.com, or by calling (850) 276-4796.

TRY SCUBA DIVING

Entry-level experience is open to

BY HANNAH BURKE // PHOTOGRAPHY BY FELIPE ROJAS

JOINING LOCATIONS IN KEY WEST; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Honolulu; and Los Cabos, Mexico, Panama City Beach is the latest home of Try Scuba Diving, a scuba and snorkeling service that offers novices an opportunity to experience life underwater.

Ricky Shube, part owner of Try Scuba Diving, said the business has been operating for nine years and bypasses the many hurdles of a traditional scuba certification.

“Within the diving industry, there is a very big barrier to entry,” Shube said. “Open-water certification alone requires a lot of time, energy and money that people don’t want to spend. What we give guests is more than an hour of basic scuba diving. We don’t go very deep, and we’re a shore-entry tour.”

Departing from a public beach on Thomas Drive, experienced diving instructors and guests embark on an adventure exploring a reef and its inhabitants. Certified divers will acquaint themselves with everyone’s comfort levels and give a brief scuba skill demonstration before leading an underwater tour where, depending on your preferences, you’ll descend 15 to 40 feet underwater.

Popular among tourists, the service also attracts local divers looking to immerse their partners, friends and family

members in the world of scuba. Felipe Rojas, who manages Try Scuba Diving in Panama City Beach, said tours have consisted of people ranging from 10-year-old children to folks old enough to be on their second bottle of Tabasco sauce.

“Some people are afraid of the ocean, or they may have experienced some sort of trauma involving water,” Rojas said. “Our instructors are experienced and prioritize your safety. We even help non-swimmers enjoy their first encounters and make sure everyone is confident and comfortable before taking you underwater. It’s impressive to see people overcome their fears and emerge with these big smiles on their faces.”

Scuba diving tours start at $99 per person, and all necessary equipment is provided. Tour guides are equipped with GoPros; dive videos are available to purchase at the end of the day.

“I have found that it’s a really beautiful way to change lives,” Rojas said.

“I hope it has inspired people to get into scuba diving; the world needs more divers and people who respect our planet and its beautiful marine environment. I want to create as many as possible.”

all

I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM

Captain Extreme supplies rip-roaring adventure

BY HANNAH BURKE

AMID THE MANY fishing charters, pontoon boats and sunset cruise catamarans that meander about Panama City Beach’s waters, a red-eyed, neon-green menace cuts through the waves with a sinister grin.

The roar of her twin diesel engines barely drowns out the shrieks of passengers as the 30-foot vessel spins, soars and nosedives at 50 miles per hour.

She is the Scream Machine, a white-knuckle, aquatic rollercoaster ride that has become one of Panama City Beach’s most unusual attractions.

It makes sense that she’s owned and operated by Capt. Eddie “Extreme” Brochin, a colorful character who has been piloting jet boats most of his life, and has served as a professional hunting and fishing guide for over 25 years.

He’s also a retired professional martial artist, who has over 500 matches under his fifth-degree black belt, and is a master falconer and archer. He has produced a variety of documentary film and television projects, and he recently led a fighting bull hunting expedition in the Sierra Madre mountain range.

“I’ve always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie,” Brochin said. “Martial arts were the big thing for me, but I retired in 2003. Since then, I’ve applied the discipline I learned from it to everything else I ever touched. If I’m going to touch it, I’m going to master it.”

Since 2020, he has been keen on conquering the Panama City Beach tourism scene with his Scream Machine Jet Boat Tours, a ride he says, “that isn’t for the faint of heart.” When you book a tour, you’re promised turbo speed, power slides, fishtails and hair-raising hairpin turns that add up to a ride resembling one you might find at Six Flags.

Brochin said he often ran rapids with jet boats while operating fishing

DOIN’ THE WAVES A boatload of excited customers say goodbye to solid ground as they embark on an adventure aboard the Scream Machine, piloted by Capt. Eddie Brochin.

charters along river systems but never thought about getting into the commercial jet boat business until he was able to purchase the Scream Machine.

“The Scream Machine was a miracle find,” he said. “The previous owner only had it for a season before he lost his business due to a devastating hurricane. He was in a world of hurt and knew he wasn’t going to have any more tourism for a while. I was able to buy it for the amount of money he owed on it and decided to start my own business and give it a shot.”

Brochin set up shop in Louisville, Kentucky, where visitors at Waterfront Park could wander up to Brochin’s Airstream Bambi RV, buy a ticket and jet off across the Ohio River.

Despite the business becoming an immediate hit, Brochin, along with his wife and two sons, decided to relocate to Florida, given its year-round tourism season.

“We loaded up the Airstream, the Scream Machine, two fishing boats and three trucks, looking like the Beverly Hillbillies going down the highway,” Brochin laughed. “And we’ve been here ever since.”

Currently, Brochin offers three different adrenaline rushes aboard his 23-passenger vessel.

“The big breadwinner is a 60-minute thrill ride we run four times a day,” he said. “That’s nonstop action, with all the special maneuvers. At 7 in the evening, we do a scenic sunset tour that’s part thrill ride and part slow ride through the Gulf to watch the sun go down and count dolphins.”

Then, there’s the North Lagoon Sunset and Skyline Tour. It’s a full-speed ride to glimpse the remainder of the sunset, then a peaceful float back to the docks. “People play music, and we watch as the Panama City Beach skyline slowly comes to life,” Brochin said.

The Scream Machine has thrilled passengers of all ages and from all walks of life, but children must be over 38 inches tall to ride. You’re required to brace yourself using your feet, and handlebars are installed along each row so you can hang on tight.

Despite boasting 800 horsepower, the Scream Machine doesn’t exceed 50 miles per hour. But Brochin said that doesn’t mean you won’t experience that same, stomach-dropping excitement you feel plummeting down your favorite roller coaster.

“A lot of people like the 360 spin,” Brochin said. “You’re going full speed ahead, you turn the boat hard over and the whole back end just kicks out and makes a donut — that, and the nosedives. People love getting wet, and it’s guaranteed you will.”

Brochin said it’s not uncommon for people from all over the world to tell him they’ve built their vacation to Panama City Beach around experiencing his thrill ride.

“We’ve done everything from children’s birthday parties to laying people to rest, where people rent the boat, watch the sunset, say a prayer and scatter ashes. It’s somber, but at the same time, what an honor that they’d choose the Scream Machine.

“You see a little bit of everything on that boat. And, I mean everything. There’s nothing quite like it.”

Greta, the short-haired pointer at left, and her son, Linus, keep watch at Capt. Eddie Brochin’s kiosk, located at the Grand Lagoon Bridge not far from Capt. Anderson’s Restaurant. On the water, there is no mistaking the Scream Machine for an ordinary vessel.

THIS WAY TO THE BEACH

With over 100 access points, Panama City Beach has the right spot for you

BY HANNAH BURKE

WHO ARE YOU? Many attempt to answer this question by providing their government name or job title. Let’s move beyond the obvious and wade into a pool of introspection. A single label can’t summarize your complexities; rather, a series of them add up to the concept of self. Think really hard about your innermost values and spiritual leanings. Reflect on your experiences, and, most importantly, what your behavior at the beach says about you. It’s the latter consideration that can be the most daunting. Please consult the following stereotypes to not only avert an identity crisis, but to find among the dozens of public beach access points scattered across Panama City Beach the right fit for you

THE SUN WORSHIPPER

You’re cold and dead inside, but a steady dose of Vitamin D recharges your batteries. You find a cozy, sandy spot and are content to bask in sunshine and solitude for hours on end. If you can’t tell whether I’m describing a bearded dragon or you, then look no further than the beach access points along Spyglass Drive. Away from the hustle and bustle of central Panama City Beach, the community’s easternmost beach access points (1, 2 and 3) provide all the quiet, convenience and solar power you require.

BEACH ACCESS 1, 4723 Spyglass Drive

THE AQUAPHILE

You’re a shark in the water who can’t stop moving. For you, a day at the beach shouldn’t involve sand unless you’re launching a kayak or eating it on a skimboard. At St. Andrews State Park, over a mile of shoreline along both Grand Lagoon and the Gulf beckons snorkelers, surfers and swimmers. A popular camping ground, St. Andrews’ store is stocked with gear and offers seasonal water sports equipment rentals.

ST. ANDREWS STATE PARK, 4607 State Park Lane

THE NATURALIST

For you, going to the beach is an opportunity to study the local ecosystem, catalog how many critters you encounter and snap some landscapes with your Nikon D500. You likely already have Camp Helen State Park on your meticulously curated itinerary — after all, it’s surrounded by both the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Powell, the largest coastal dune lake in Florida! But, after a long morning spent hiking nature trails, the half-mile of beach beyond the scrub oak forest is the perfect place to picnic and enjoy your vegan hummus wrap and trail mix.

CAMP HELEN STATE PARK, 23937 Panama City Beach Parkway

Making Waves

THE TREASURE HUNTER

Beachcombers can scavenge the sands at any number of access points, but the Indiana Joneses of Panama City Beach will point you toward Shell Island for the real spoils. Accessible only by boat or the official Shell Island Shuttle, the undeveloped, 7-mile barrier island transports its visitors to their own private Shangri-La. Go shelling for sand dollars, conchs, moon snails and whelk, or, go ahead and be “that guy” with a metal detector. It’s OK, there’s another fella with one over there. Go say hello.

SHELL ISLAND SHUTTLE, 5709 N. Lagoon Drive

THE ANGLER

You ain’t here to sunbathe or splash around; you’re here to hook that whopper. At the Russell-Fields Pier and M.B. Miller Pier — commonly referred to as the City Pier and County Pier, respectively — salty, weathered bait soakers who live and die by the rod and reel and fledgling fisherman alike seek cobia, mackerel, redfish and more. Both are prime fishing spots, but couples are encouraged to seek out the City Pier: When Mama says it’s time to pack up, slip her some cash and send her on back across the street to the Pier Park shopping center.

CITY PIER, 16201 Front Beach Road; County Pier, 12213 Front Beach Road

Making Waves

THE MILLENNIAL

In lieu of children, you and your partner have Billie. Billie is what you call a “fur baby,” and the first thing you tell people about Billie is that she’s a rescue. No, you didn’t name her after Billie Eilish — it’s a family name, thank you — and, yes, you did plan your entire vacation around dog-friendly restaurants and attractions.

For some adorable, sandynosed Instagram photos, you’re going to want to head just west of RussellFields Pier to Dog Beach, where a 400-foot section of shore is a place where dogs are welcome.

THE IMPOSTER DUDE, YOU DID YOUR RESEARCH

I don’t even need to tell you that the west end of PCB is where the locals beach because as far as they know, you’re one of them. You refuse to put up one of those tacky canopies, and you keep the country music blaring from your boom box to a minimum. Heck, you even talked Bubba into exchanging his signature “Roll Tide” T-shirt for a less conspicuous, solid white one. When you run out of brewskis, you know that Carousel Supermarket is just across the road selling Grayton Beach Blonde Ale and, despite Brayden and Brandon’s protests, you will not be picking up any Pabst Blue Ribbon.

BEACH ACCESS 77, 19987 Front Beach Road

SHOP, DINE, PLAY

Pier Park serves Panama City Beach as its downtown

BY PAIGE AIGRET

PIER PARK, EXTENDING FROM THE GULF OF MEXICO to Back Beach Road, is a center of commerce and good times that welcomes anyone looking for good eats, souvenir and beachwear shopping, and activities to keep the vacation vibes going. Pier Park is located across Front Beach Road from the Russell-Fields City Pier — one of the Gulf Coast’s longest fishing piers at 1,500 feet.

HY’S TOGGERY

PHOTOS BY EROICA WAKSTEIN (HY’S TOGERY) AND COURTESY OF SIMON/PIER PARK (THE FLORIDA HOUSE) AND VISIT PANAMA CITY BEACH (JEEP)

SHORELINE SHOPPING

Known as a shopping destination first, Pier Park delivers with more than 120 retailers. Beach Shops like Coastal Casuals, Latitude 29 and Ron Jon Surf Shop are hot spots for beach gear, attire and souvenirs. Boutiques offering unique finds and trending looks are peppered throughout the property with shops including Lizard Thicket, Brooklynn’s by Emma, Dahlia’s Boutique, Pink Narcissus and Hy’s Toggery. Department stores including Target, Dillard’s and Marshalls offer easy, affordable shopping for vacation necessities. Pier Park is home, too, to popular and familiar stores such as American Eagle Outfitters, Old Navy, Loft and Forever 21.

Beyond the Beach

BEACHSIDE ACTIVITIES

Board the SkyWheel, and enjoy a spectacular view of the Gulf and Panama City Beach. Riders at the attraction’s apex are 200 feet above the ground in comfortable, enclosed cabs. Back on the ground, sister attractions include a minigolf course and two ropes courses.

For indoor entertainment, try the XD Dark Ride Experience, an indoor interactive motion ride, or try your hand at breaking out of the Royal Escape Rooms. More fun and challenges await visitors at Axe Throwing PCB, Emerald Coast Mirror Maze & Laser Craze, and Pirate’s Quest Laser Tag. The restaurant, arcade and bowling alley at Dave & Buster’s add up to a food and entertainment center. The Grand Theatre 16 screens the latest blockbuster hits on GPX, RealD 3D and IMAX screens with luxury recliner seats and in-theater dining options. If you dare to enter, finish the day off with a scare at Pier Park’s latest attraction, the Fear at the Pier haunted maze featuring animatronics and seasonal live actors. Be prepared for jump scares courtesy of undead, mutated monsters and stalking skeletons.

THE GRAND THEATRE

SKYWHEEL

Patriotic Restaurant Serving

American Favorites

Grill and Tavern

850.238.8340 | Americancharlie.com

Steak | Seafood | Sushi Dessert | Cocktails

Private Rooms and Full-Service Catering Available 850.249.3359 | Fireflypcb.com

Handcrafted Sandwiches, Sushi, and Bakery

Open 10:00 a.m., Mon.-Sat. 850.249.2740 | Ontheflypcb.com

Beyond the Beach

EVENTS CALENDAR

MARDI GRAS AND MUSIC FESTIVAL

Annually, during the weekend before Fat Tuesday, Pier Park hosts a two-day Mardi Gras festival. The event offers a series of parades, costume contests, live music, kids activities, fireworks and a 5K run.

STAR SPANGLED SPECTACULAR INDEPENDENCE DAY

Panama City Beach hosts three nights of fireworks displays as part of Fourth of July celebrations. The Star Spangled Spectacular closes out the festivities on July 4. Pyrotechnicians shoot fireworks from the M.B. Miller County Pier, and Pier Park is the ideal vantage point.

PIRATES OF THE HIGH SEAS & RENAISSANCE FEST

EATS AND TREATS

Mall classics like Auntie Anne’s Pretzels and Nathan’s Famous Hotdogs and order-up options like Chipotle, Five Guys and Jimmy John’s serve convenient quick bites. Or consider sit-down options including Red Robin, Buffalo Wild Wings or Dickey’s Barbecue Pit.

Add flair to your fare at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, the only location outside of Nashville for this famed honky-tonk and restaurant. Enjoy live music, a daily happy hour and a full menu of bar-food classics, oysters, burgers and sandwiches. At Dick’s Last Resort, employees with cheeky attitudes serve Southern-style food in buckets.

But let’s not forget what the Gulf Coast serves up best — seafood. Pier Park is home to Jimmy Buffet’s well-known Margaritaville restaurant as well as several locally owned fresh-catch spots — Hook’d Pier Bar & Grill, The Back Porch Seafood & Oyster House and Pompano Joe’s Seafood House.

To satisfy your sweet tooth, pop in to I Love Sugar and fill a bag from their wall-to-wall display of candies and treats, or choose from their selection of novelty sweets, snacks and goodies. Somehow, there is always room for cookies at the Great American Cookie Company.

And The Yard Milkshake Bar serves up overflowing jars of specialty milkshakes that are as Instagram worthy as they are delicious. If you’re looking for a classic scoop with style, visit Marble Slab Creamery or Kilwin’s Ice Cream & Fudge shop.

Coinciding with Columbus Day weekend in early October, the Pirates of the High Seas Fest is one the area’s most popular events. Celebrating the legacy of pirates who once roamed the Gulf of Mexico, the event relives the tale of Dominique Youx and his krewe of loyal buccaneers through staged pirate battles and storytelling. Enjoy live music, parades, a treasure hunt, costume contests and a fireworks display.

OPTIMIST CLUB CHRISTMAS PARADE

Festive holiday floats flood the streets of Pier Park and are accompanied by parade walkers passing out candy. Come cheerily dressed in your best Christmas sweater, or go low as Scrooge or the Grinch.

NEW YEAR’S EVE BEACH BALL DROP

Pier Park’s New Year’s Eve celebration delivers a ball-drop experience unlike any other. As the beach ball descends from an 80-foot tower, 10,000 inflated beach balls are released at the stroke of midnight. Enjoy live music and a fireworks display.

POMPANO JOE’S SEAFOOD HOUSE

Countless diners visit Panama City Beach seeking seafood; the fresher, the better.

INDOOR BLACKLIGHT GOLF

Jungle-themed course engages all generations

BY RAEMI CRETEUR // PHOTOGRAPHY BY BOO MEDIA

DURING SPRING BREAK, my sister and my four nieces and nephews came to visit. In an attempt to entertain her four children and my son, a group ranging in age from 4 to 12, we visited Rainforest Blacklight Golf & Arcade. This indoor miniature golf course was the children’s first putt-putt experience and a nostalgic activity for my sister and me — we’ve been sending balls toward clown’s mouths since we were kids.

My 10-year-old dreams of being a video game developer one day, and it is all but impossible to pull him away from small screens. I hoped that the arcade would entertain him even if golfing wasn’t his thing. My worries were unfounded. Not only did he have a great time playing golf, he nearly beat me!

Panama City Beach and miniature golf have long been associated with one another. Goofy Golf, the area’s senior-most course, is still in operation on Front Beach Road. Rainforest Blacklight Golf & Arcade has brought the game indoors and to a new level.

“Mini-golf is one of the few sports that a 5-year-old grandson and an 80-year-old grandma can play together and both have a blast,” said Russ Brown, owner and operator of Rainforest Blacklight Golf & Arcade. “We have three to four generations of a family come in to play together, and everyone has a good time. You can’t find that anywhere else.”

Brown, as it happens, has long been a member of the church that I and my siblings attended as kids. During a child-focused portion of Sunday services, Brown would mix Bible stories and stories with morals with balloon animals and ventriloquism.

Brown started in business with a balloon kiosk in the Panama City Mall and worked solo from open to close, six days a week. Brown made a name for himself crafting everything from balloon animals to balloon decor for events such as anniversaries, birthdays and weddings.

He moved on to start a bounce house business in the mall. Jungle Jump stayed busy for five years before Hurricane Michael closed down the mall for good.

During that time, Brown also opened Purple Penguin PuttN-Glow. This third mall-based business was a homemade indoor blacklight golf course and a precursor to Rainforest Blacklight Golf & Arcade.

“I attended an entertainment convention in Orlando, and I saw vendors that produce indoor blacklight golf on a highend, high-quality scale,” Brown said. “I loved the concept.”

His 18-hole course is rainforest themed, complete with projection mapping, gimmicky holes and blacklight details, of course.

The front nine is themed as a modern rainforest featuring custom-built structures. Tigers and gorillas adorn the landscape, standing in the way of holes in one.

“I wanted to create some structures that were unique and challenging,” Brown said. “An indoor place is all flat, but we wanted to add some height. One of our most interesting pieces is the stump.”

Our party was definitely stumped by the stump. Putters take aim and shoot the ball into a hole in the stump. A mechanism inside ejects the ball from one of three openings. Meanwhile, a projector supplies the scene with distracting, scurrying ants.

The back nine is set in the Jurassic period. Dinosaurs adorn the course, and the blacklight pathway leads you to the final hole.

My sister’s family was ahead of me and my son, and from the next room, I heard her exclaim, “Oh no!”

I assumed that she broke something or lost her ball, but instead, she had been excited by the 18th hole’s surprise ending. Without

spoiling things, I say that a projection video plays depending on where you sink your ball.

“We hear it every day — someone will yell, the whole crowd will shout and it’s one of two things,” Brown said. “Either someone made an incredible shot that they will never make again, or they just barely missed that shot. Either way, they’re having a good time.

“Everyone that comes in the door is in a great mood; they have the day off, and they’re with family and friends. I love my job.”

THE BAY ARTS ALLIANCE PAINTS THE TOWN

The Bay Arts Alliance brings art to the public with its ongoing mural project

BY EMMA WITMER

Perhaps the most notable of Summers’ contributions is a postcard-style mural commissioned by the alliance that lines the Bay County Chamber of Commerce. The mural, which features Summers’ characteristic limited color palette and mod lettering style, pays homage to the historic post office across the street as well as several notable landmarks throughout the city. Hidden among the letters in “Welcome to Panama City” are depictions of the Hathaway Bridge and the Martin Theater, sites that hold significance to both Panama City and Summers, herself.

“My favorite little detail is the facade of the Martin Theater,” Summers said. “It’s got a very distinctive logo in there as an Easter egg. I used to do talent shows and dance performances there, and they have been working on

MORGAN SUMMERS, a lettering artist and muralist inspired by the sign painters of the ’60s, is leaving brush strokes all over Panama City Beach as part of the Bay Arts Alliance’s mural project, an ongoing push to expand the presence of public art in the city.

Among the murals new to downtown Panama City is one created to mimic an old timey postcard.

restoring it since the hurricane came through, but that has taken a lot of time. The view of the bridge is from a little park that I used to go to as a kid.”

Jayson Kretzer, the executive director of the Bay Arts Alliance, floated the idea to develop a mural walk in Panama City many times over the years, but there simply were no systems in place to get the idea off the ground until late 2018. The devastation of Hurricane Michael in October of that year instigated efforts from multiple Bay County organizations to not only repair the city’s damage, but to beautify the area’s urban spaces and invest in community-sourced talent.

“In a time like that, people wanted to see color,” Kretzer said.

It was no surprise then, that Kretzer found overwhelming support from organizations like Destination Panama City, the St. Joe Community Foundation and the Downtown Improvement Board. Grants help cover the cost of materials and pay the artists for their work.

To learn more about Morgan Summers’ work, visit UhBeautifulMes.com

Morgan Summers

Jayson Kretzer, the executive director of the Bay Arts Alliance in Panama City, is a huge proponent of public art and a muralist, himself.

PHOTOS BY MORGAN SUMMERS (PAINTBRUSH), BOO MEDIA (KRETZER) AND LOU COLUMBUS (MORGAN)

Beyond the Beach

“Our mission is to help creatives,” Kretzer said. “We want to make sure artists get paid for what they do; it’s really a win-win. It’s good for the business that gets the mural, it’s good for the artists and it’s a nice thing to look at when you are walking around.”

The murals are not, as Kretzer emphasized, advertisements. He and the board at the Bay Arts Alliance carefully select each artist for their unique style and personal connection with the area. The vast majority of muralists to contribute to the project have called Bay County home for more than eight years, though it did not start out that way.

“There weren’t a lot of muralists in the area at the time, so we brought in Cameron Moberg, who has been televised for his work, to paint our first mural,” Kretzer said. “Then we figured

we would pay him to do a free mural workshop for our local artists to help get their chops up.”

Summers grew up in Panama City but fled to design school in Orlando to pursue an artistic career. Once there, however, she found the city’s arts community to be uninspiring. When she heard about the mural project happening in her hometown, Summers packed her bags and moved back, starting her first mural project, Small Town Walls, a series of murals dedicated to her favorite small towns around the country. This project, which began in Summers’ home studio, Uh Beautiful Mes, helped to hone her skills and prepare her to work with the Bay Arts Alliance.

“It was exciting for me to see that having a creative career in a small town is possible because I was looking to get out of the city,” Summers said. “It was

an absolute joy to get in on that project and work with Jayson and Bay Arts.”

Today, dozens of murals decorate Panama City and Bay County at large. Many of the works, which depict natural scenes, animals, historical figures and a few recent abstract additions, are a product of the Bay Arts Alliance’s Mural Project, but not all. The efforts of Kretzer, his board and band of artists have inspired a wider movement among the community to invest in public art.

“Public art is important,” Kretzer said. “Our vision is to put art on every corner. We want to make art accessible to everybody regardless of their socioeconomic status. You may never notice that brick wall on your commute, but put art on that wall, and it can speak. I just think that those things are important to a community. It builds pride. It brings community itself.”

Jayson Kretzer hopes to install art on every street corner in downtown Panama City. An especially imposing example is a larger-than-life hammerhead shark.

Jimbo Thornton and his wife Dale had loaded their belongings onto a rental truck and were about to head for their new home in Panama City Beach when Hurricane Michael hit Bay County. The storm delayed their departure from Nashville, but Jimbo is glad now to be a coastal dweller.

THE MEASURES OF A MAN

Jimbo Thornton colors memories with music

STORY BY STEVE BORNHOFT PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE FENDER

IN MAY 1966, Jimbo Thornton had a band called the Strange Bedfellows on St. Simons Island where it had come out on top in a 23-entry Battle of the Bands and attracted the attention of Mercury Records. Under contract, it recorded a song about pills, Mother’s Little Helper, that had been written by Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones and was getting airtime.

Folks lined up to see the Bedfellows who, wearing pajamas, would pop out of a bed as the stage lights came up. Thornton was on a good roll. Then, he learned that he had been drafted by the U.S. Army. Mercury pulled the song back in, the Stones themselves recorded it, and it topped out at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles charts.

Thornton went to Vietnam.

“I didn’t run,” Thornton said. “Boys were coming home in body bags, not on foot. Who would sign up for that? I said that if they wanted me, they were gonna have to draft me, and they sure did. Draftees were running to Canada. The guys in the band encouraged me to shoot myself in the foot. I told them no. I was going.”

He served on the front lines as a member of the 173rd Airborne Brigade, known to people close to it as The Herd. He was an infantryman and paratrooper who came to be surrounded by young men who were convinced that we were going to die in that country. They were right, mostly. Early on, they had been told that the Army needed “bullet stoppers.”

“Not me,” Thornton said. “I told ’em I was going home.”

Thornton made it out physically intact. His tour of duty in Vietnam complete, he flew into Seattle at night. The hour notwithstanding, he was greeted by anti-war protestors who spat at him and called him a baby killer.

Thornton has written a song, Prisoners of War, inspired by his time in Vietnam and its aftereffects. You can find it on Spotify or on YouTube where it is accompanied by Thornton’s painting of the Hamburger Hill battle site.

The song is not intended to be just about America’s failed fight against North Vietnam and the Vietcong but instead to speak to a universal truth: The experience of war leaves combatants in all conflicts with images and memories and questions that don’t much go away.

They trained me to kill a man they called the enemy, But I don’t know him and he sure don’t know me.

One thing for sure, just trying to endure this place where we don’t want to be.

We are prisoners of war trying to close an open door.

Prisoners of war, in our minds stuck on a foreign shore.

In a photo that he keeps on his phone, Thornton is seen feeding a child of about 4 or 5 in Vietnam. The boy had approached an American camp and gestured, pointing first to his stomach and then to his mouth.

“Sometimes, they would send kids into camp with explosives strapped to them,”

Thornton said. “But this boy had been checked out. I wish they had put that photo on the cover of Time magazine. Maybe then, perceptions would have been different; maybe people wouldn’t have called us baby killers.”

Saw three old soldiers living on the street downtown today. Dressed in dirty old fatigues. As I handed them a twenty, I wondered just how many were lost in the wars of yesterday. Lookin’ tired and worn, but somehow still goin’, It took me back to a troubled time in history. Much to my surprise, when I looked into their eyes, I come to realize one of them was me.

Thornton has attended classes for Vietnam veterans with PTSD. Teachers decades younger than he have told him that it should be possible for him to compartmentalize his thinking, tuck thoughts of Vietnam away so that he no longer will be bothered by them. One counselor suggested that he take a folding chair into the woods and sit and look at kudzu vines as if he might win a staredown with the vegetation and cause the jungle to recede from his consciousness.

“I wanted to tell them that they had surely lost their minds,” Thornton said. We are prisoners of war trying to close an open door.

Prisoners of war and in our minds still stuck on a foreign shore.

Misshapen by trauma, the door cannot be shut.

“I wish no one would have to go to war,” Thornton said. “But war just seems to be inevitable.”

Inescapable, too, was Thornton’s emergence as a musician.

He was born in Colquitt, Georgia, in the southwestern corner of the state, and moved a few miles up State 45 to Arlington at age 5. Three years later, the family moved again to Albany where Thornton went to school with Paula Hiers, later TV personality and restaurateur Paula Deen, and with Eddie Middleton, a founding member of the Christian band NewSong.

“Dad was a guitar player, mom was a singer and I had an uncle who played guitar and mandolin,” Thornton said. “We didn’t have a TV until I was in the ninth grade, didn’t even have a phone. So, after supper, we used to get on the front porch at Grandma’s house and play guitar and dance and sing.”

He studied music for two years at Kennesaw College on the GI bill after returning from Vietnam but is otherwise without formal training.

Thornton, 74, lived in Atlanta for more than 40 years. His wife, Lady Dale, whose mother owned a real estate company, was born there.

“I married way up,” Thornton said. “Way up.”

In Atlanta, Thornton’s band, Kudzu, played the city’s hottest 1970s nightspots — Funochio’s, the Agora Ballroom, The Headrest, Richard’s. At the time, the experimental musician/ songwriter and free-speech advocate Frank Zappa, he of the monster soul patch, was cruising those clubs looking for players.

“He had flipped out over the Allman Brothers,” Thornton said, “and he wanted to play some Southern rock and blues.”

Zappa liked how Kudzu played in odd time, 11/4. When his bass player broke a finger, he snapped up Birdlegs Youmans from Kudzu. Not long thereafter, he convinced Thornton to join him and play slide guitar.

Thornton admired Zappa, but the relationship was short-lived. Zappa wanted him to move to Los Angeles, and Thornton was unwilling to move his family across the country.

“Zappa carried around a collapsible coffee pot, grounds and creamer and a cup in an old violin case,” Thornton said. “I never saw him smoke a joint or

Jimbo Thornton was a front-lines sergeant in Vietnam in 1967 when he was photographed feeding a hungry child.

snort anything, and coffee was the only thing I ever saw him drink.”

Countless times, Thornton has bumped up against music greats.

Strange Bedfellows opened for Roy Orbison. Later, Kudzu opened for acts including ZZ Top, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steely Dan, Little Feat and the Atlanta Rhythm Section. In 2002 and 2003, Thornton toured England and France with a band, Rats In The Attic, and recorded a live double CD at the Cavern Club, home of the Beatles, in Liverpool, England.

In Atlanta, Jimbo and the Peachtree Posse, as the house band at the Rainbow Music Hall, warmed up audiences for an all-star lineup of performers: George Jones, George

Strait, Mel Tillis, Waylon Jennings, John Conlee, Con Hunley, The Judds, The Marshall Tucker Band, David Allan Coe, Johnny Lee, Delbert McClinton and John Anderson. The list goes on.

Thornton was inducted into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame in 2013.

He appeared in a 1978 film, They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way, a comedy written by Tim Conway and featuring a cast that included Chuck McCann, Ben Jones and Richard Kiel.

After 5 ½ years as lead guitarist for Restoring Hope Church in Nashville, home of the Crabb family, Thornton

and Lady Dale moved in 2018 to Panama City Beach.

Thornton moves about the beach as a performer. He has entertained crowds at Dat Cajun Place, the Salty Goat, Sharky’s, Barracuda Beach Bar & Grill, House of Bourbon, Bayou on the Bay, Alibi and other music-friendly places. On Sundays, he plays guitar at Gulf Beach Baptist Church.

“This place is just right for us,” Thornton said of his home on the coast. “Lemme play one more for you.”

It’s a song about a wild woman who’s never gonna change.

At times, sadly and at times thankfully, some things never do.

“If a messy desk is a sign of genius, I must be off the charts,” Jimbo Thornton said. His man cave/recording studio contains souvenirs and memorabilia from his lengthy career as a musician and a founder of bands, including the Peachtree Posse and Rats in the Attic.

This story first appeared in the February/March 2022 edition of Emerald Coast Magazine.

FUN AFTER SUNDOWN

Throw down like the locals at beach bars, music halls and more

BY HANNAH BURKE

WHETHER PLANNING A BOYS’ WEEKEND, bachelorette party or a romantic retreat with your S.O., pinpointing your destination’s chief nightlife and entertainment avenues is a must. The former “Spring Break Capital of the World,” Panama City Beach may no longer be the rowdy party powerhouse it once was. Still, its bevy of dance scenes, watering holes and adult-centric venues provide all the makings of a good time. Check out our top gathering spots to get your groove on, responsibly imbibe and make some memories.

Originally a drive-through liquor store turned bar, Ms. Newby’s struck gold upon brewing its first batch of Hunch Punch, a fruity, boozy and oh-so-addictive concoction that has for decades been the impetus of many impulsive decisions and fast friendships in Panama City Beach. Ownership has kept Hunch Punch’s recipe hushhush, preferring you experience the magic itself by bellying up to the original lounge or Newby’s Too, featuring karaoke, dancing and pool; Newby’s End Zone Sports Bar, a game day favorite with over 20 televisions, darts and virtual sports games; and Newby’s Other Bar at the Back Door Lounge, where there’s a little something for everybody.

MS. NEWBY’S, 8711 Thomas Drive, Panama City Beach

BY BOO MEDIA (SCHOONERS) AND RJ JACKSON (MS. NEWBY’S)

MS. NEWBY’S

SCHOONERS

Ask a Panama City Beach native about Schooners, and they’ll likely regale you with stories of canons sounding off at sundown, first kisses in the sand and heated weekend volleyball tournaments. Opened in the late ’60s and renowned as “The Last Local Beach Club,” Schooners is one part seafood restaurant, one part classic hangout, with direct beach access, daily sunset celebrations, local musical performances and year-round special events. An extensive craft beer and signature cocktail menu will warm you up for the dance floor, as Schooners’ rotating lineup of live, local talent is always laying down the tracks to another perfect night by the sea.

SCHOONERS, 5121 Gulf Drive, Panama City

Beyond the Beach

NO NAME LOUNGE

A self-proclaimed “local landmark” since 1980, the No Name Lounge is located just across the Hathaway Bridge in Panama City. Laid back and boasting all the cool you’d expect in a popular gathering spot, No Name Lounge is beloved for its panoramic views of St. Andrew Bay, live band performances and affable staff who keep the drinks flowin’ and the good times rollin’. The main draw is the expansive Party Deck, which serves as a venue for themed social nights, community-sponsored events and annual holiday bashes. When visiting during Independence Day, this is your go-to spot to celebrate, chat up the regulars and observe as fireworks light up the bay.

NO NAME LOUNGE, 5555 U.S. 98, Panama City

PATCHES PUB & GRILL

With live music, costume parties, comedy shows, game day bucket and pitcher specials and annual frozen turkey bowling tournaments, you never know what a night at Patches Pub & Grill will bring, but you can bet on a weird, wild and outrageously fun time. Chow down on classic pub fare from spicy wings and burgers to loaded nachos and made-to-order pizzas, and enjoy daily happy hours from a full liquor bar with over 31 beers on tap. Then, get on your dancing shoes — at 6 o’clock every evening, members of Patches’ eclectic roster of musicians take the stage at the Party Patio and showcase the area’s best and brightest talent.

PATCHES PUB & GRILL, 4723 Thomas Drive, Panama City Beach

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