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Welcome to the Beach
A PLACE
INSPIRING PASSION
CAPT. JOHN BLACK, a seasoned shark angler and charter boat captain, has built a life for himself sharing with others his greatest love: the Gulf of Mexico.
For 47 years, Black has guided anglers to big catches and enduring memories aboard his “proven fish catcher,” the Lady Black.
Black, while a winner of shark tournaments, is not given to boasting, and he measures success not by the pound, but based on smiles. Ask him about the catch that first comes to his mind, and he will launch into a story about a 7-foot bull shark that he helped a boy and his terminally ill father reel in just three days before the man’s passing.
Empathy and passion are qualities that Black shares with other subjects of stories in this edition of At the Beach: a third-generation outdoors outfitter who, every day, carries on his grandfather’s legacy; the operators of a waterpark who have ushered in more than four decades of family fun; and a woman who, following a devastating hurricane, helped spearhead efforts to rebuild her community and make it a place adored by locals and visitors alike.
Ask any one of them to name their work’s greatest reward, and they’ll tell you that it is relationships they form with co-workers and with people they meet, get to know and indelibly touch.
Visitors are lured here by some of the most beautiful coastline our country has to offer, but shoring up those postcard-worthy vistas are the folks who call Panama City Beach and Panama City home and are more than willing to share with you treasures that are best known by locals.
We invite you to get to know the people who inhabit paradise.
