From Surfing the Internet to Surfing the Inlet

Reprinted from the January 1998 issue of Vero Beach Magazine:

Back in the ’60s, the songs of the Beach Boys said it all. The surf was up, the boards were waxed and the kids were out there looking for the Big One. Hair was long, tans were mandatory and you needed a phrase book to understand what they were talking about. They called each other “dude” and “bro,” but disapproving parents had another name for them: beach bums.

For most of us, that image has never changed.

So where does 36-year-old Ben Tench, chef-owner of upscale Tangos restaurant, fit into the surfing scene? Or 37-year-old Scott McGuire, president of the Knight, McGuire civil engineering firm located a quarter-mile west of Tangos, on Cardinal Drive?

Or buttoned-down professionals like Dr. Eric Kurtz, 41, medical director of HealthSouth, and Merrill Lynch vice president Lawrence Brashears, 47, and the granddaddy of them all, 49-year-old Rev. Malcolm Murchison, the chaplain at Saint Edward’s School.

You could hardly call these men beach bums, so how come they’re out there catching the waves at Sebastian’s Monster Hole on a workday evening or heading down to the Fort Pierce Inlet for a few hours’ surfing off the north jetty weekends?