Steve Parkin
Steve was the first surfer I met in Fernandina Beach. I walked into his surf shop on a cold, dreary, Tuesday in January and asked him if he rented surfboards. He was the only one in the shop. He looked at me with an inquisitive look on his face and said, “Is there surf out there?” meaning, its a cold, windy, dreary, Tuesday in January, are you nuts! I get a different look now when I go into the shop. It says, “I want to know if there is surf out there, but I also don't want to know because I’m working.” Okay he doesn't really say that, but that’s how I would feel in his shoes.
It was my first trip to Fernandina Beach. I was staying at the Seaside Inn on the beach across from Driftwood, the Parkin family surf shop. I was looking for a new town to live in, a new warm sunny place to call home, a new way of life. If it was going to work, I needed to test the surf before I committed to the move. It didn’t have to be good, I told myself, I just had to catch one wave. So into the local surf shop I went. I asked Steve for some information about the local conditions and forecasts, where and when to surf. I wasn’t expecting much, being as where I came from people tended to be tight lipped about local surf spots. It’s a bit of an irony because the local spots usually have 50 people on them and there are very few secret surf spots anymore. But Steve was gracious and very willing to talk local surf. I left with a board and headed over to the beach. The conditions were way less than ideal, but I managed to catch three waves and satisfy my stringent requirements to move my entire life all the way across the country. “Is there surf? Yes? okay I’m there.” Driftwood surf shop has a long Parkin family history. Founded in the seventies by Mama B (Billie) Parkin as Driftwood Beach Shoppe. She sold screen-printed tees, beach accessories, and shells. By the mid-90’s her son Pete had taken over what had become a full fledged surf shop. They had moved two doors north to the old Sunny’s Mart where the shop currently resides.
Steve was literally born on vacation while his parents were in Espanola New Mexico and hasn’t been back since those first two weeks of life. I can’t think of a better way to start off life than on vacation, a true surfers story.
Later in life, Steve found himself living in Santa Cruz California where he and I were probably in the same surf line-up on occasion, trying to pick off a few waves from the local hierarchy. He had moved from Boulder Colorado to California after an 11 year stretch of snow boarding and witnessing the free spirited lifestyle of Boulder’s mountain culture. In California, after that 11 year hiatus from surfing, he rode his bike down to the beach in Santa Cruz and caught the first wave for long, 50 yard, point break ride and said “Holy shit, I’m back!”
A few years later and Steve was back in Florida for Graduate school at FAU. On the academic career track for experimental psychology, he began to wonder if he was on the right path. Having been on that same path of a possible future of academia, I could relate to Steve’s decision to find something more stable and predictable. That’s when the offer came from his Uncle Pete at Driftwood. Come work at the shop. Steve said, lets do it!
Steve has been in Fernandina for 9 years now and manages the surf shop. In the early days of running the shop, he would close up at the end of the day and go surf with friends on a regular basis. I asked him if he ever shut the store for surf and he said “Once”. There had been a hurricane season awhile back that had produced some seriously heavy swell and every surfer around was waiting for the right conditions. The wind finally turned offshore and the call went out. With nobody to cover the shop, Steve hung the “Gone Surfing” sign on the door and headed out. These days, the shop requires more time as Fernandina has become busier year round and the days of casually shutting the doors are long gone. From my perspective the shop is thriving. Its rare these days that I drive by and there are no cars in the parking lot, but when the cars belong to local surfers, I’ll pull in just to hear the stories about how good or bad the surf was that day. Steve loves that working at Driftwood allows him to be involved in the center of the local surf community, and we love that he provides us with an atmosphere that is mellow and enjoyable, a place to share exaggerated surf stories, a true surf vibe.