B&G's Surf Shop

Buddha and Giselle's Surf shop is on the Atlantic side of Florida right on the coast. It is about 50 miles from Cape Canaveral;^DW7 down toward Sebastian Inlet.^DW48

B&G's Surf Shop has always been a small operation since Buddha first bought an abandoned sea shell shop and little house on Florida's A1A highway (on the Atlantic side of the Florida peninsula). The shop and adjacent house sit right along the road on the opposite side from the ocean, and there's no crosswalk!

From Chapter 10 of Dawnwalker :

Crystal pulled the Olds into a sand parking lot of a small glass-fronted building with a wide porch in front. It was a touch on the shabby and weather-beaten side, with surfboards of all kinds, colors, and descriptions sitting on racks. Behind the shop, to one side, sat a small house; both were surrounded with scrubby bushes, obviously wind-beaten from the strong salt winds off the sea. The ocean was out across A1A not far away, and the surf was running, although not terribly high. In the distance, Randy could make out a lone woman in a bikini, working a wave, but she was too far to make out any details.

There were other surf shops, like in Melbourne, for posers and hodads and the like to buy T-shirts. Buddha never had to do much advertising as the hardcores all knew about him and would hang out at B&G's.

The shop itself is less prominent in the stories than the nearby adjacent beach and its excellent surfing opportunities. There is space nearby that is frequently used for tents by Buddha's friends, such as Randy Clark or Trey Hartwell.

Buddha sells surfboards, wet suits and the accessories that go with them, and has a some older stock he will rent to those he likes. He occasionally takes trade-ins if they are in good condition, and they go into his rental stock. There is a coffee pot in the back behind the showroom and it is offered to friends in their own laid back style, to be sipped or guzzled under the awning out front.

With the threat from raising real estate prices, Buddha refused million dollar offers and instead sold the land to the Nature Conservancy for one dollar and a life lease on the house for him and his family. It is his plan that after he is gone there will still be a stretch of open coast for surfers.

Real World Notes

There is a real Sebastian Inlet on Florida's A1A highway, complete with it's own State Park, located just 12 miles north of Vero Beach at 9700 S Highway A1A in Melbourne Beach, FL. Yes, there is surfing, including annual surf tournaments, both professional and amateur. The Sebastian Inlet surf report (updated daily with live HD cam stream) is here, courtesy of www.surfline.com

The web page for that park at the Florida State Parks web site is http://www.floridastateparks.org/sebastianinlet.

The Sebastian Inlet Webcam page, complete with six cameras and some weather data is http://www.sebastianinletcam.com.

The Wikipedia page for Sebastian Inlet is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sebastian_Inlet. It includes considerable history, back to 1872.