Florida Panhandle Report

[rmf]

I see you are in Mississippi. There is a really nice public beach in South Walton County called Inlet Beach. It is located at the Walton County/Bay County line. You can stay in a PCB hotel and take a very short drive to it, it is just off of Hwy 98. There are no hotels near this beach, only vacation homes and condos, and there is some parking, not a lot, but enough for a non holiday week. I hope you get a chance to check it out, I really liked it. I prefer the public beaches not near hotels, it is quieter and more relaxing. I will report the rest of my findings in another post.

Inlet is a great beach if you can find parking. Beyond that, you would have to go all the way up to Seagrove on 30A to find parking since CU is still an issue in Walton County so between Rosemary beach to Eastern Lake - you will have a hard time trying to park and squeeze yourself into the public access points. Grayton State Park is also nice beach to check out and has plenty of parking. We vacation on 30A each year and Seagrove is where we stay. As it was in years past, this summer I was the only one wearing them but I think the regulars now are getting to know me and a few said hi as we walked onto the beach.

[geauxboi]

The first day was so cold and overcast, I did not go to the beach, hardly anyone went on the beach, at least near my hotel no one did so the beach stayed mostly empty. The second day the weather warmed up so the beach started filling up, so I went out about 11:30 am. The next day I checked out of the hotel near the beach, and then went to a public beach a few miles away called Inlet Beach. Spent about 5 hours there and checked into another hotel off the beach for 1 night then left friday morning to drive home, but stopped at Navarre Beach for one more day on the beach. There was hardly any people, so it was very nice and relaxing. The water was cold and murky, all 3 days. The recent hurricanes darken the water, but everyday it got clearer. Well that is the beaches I went to. So now the speedo report......Not one speedo or square cut of any kind was worn by anyone on any of the 3 different beaches! I was the only one wearing a swim brief. I saw 1 guy wearing what might have been running shorts, they were very short. But that was it. Every guy had long floppy board shorts. I don't think I saw any 5 inch inseam shorts, even Walmart sells those! Absolutely nothing but long shorts. There were many cute young guys who would have looked good in a swim brief. Swim suits to most men is just another piece of clothes that you have to have, and nothing more. This part of Florida is just not a place you will see many speedos, that is just how it is.

[Thom]

This part of Florida is just not a place you will see many speedos, that is just how it is.

It's pretty conservative up there. Southern Florida is better. Visit Ft. Lauderdale and go to Sebastian ST beach. You'll have speedo company. And South Beach of course.

[packedspeedo]

I visited Miami South Beach many years ago. I loved being able to wear my smallest speedo pretty much everywhere and no one cared.

[rmf]

Swim suits to most men is just another piece of clothes that you have to have, and nothing more. This part of Florida is just not a place you will see many speedos, that is just how it is.

This part of the panhandle has been hit with several hurricanes and tropical storms this fall and the water just hasn't had a chance to get really clear again. We were there during one of the hurricanes too and for the second part of our stay our kids couldn't go into the water due to the rip tides.

Agree about the sightings..... Walton County is one not only conservative, it's also very rural. You are not seeing the locals hang out on those beaches as much as you are seeing the out of town folks. The people who visit 30A have traditionally been from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. I think in the past few years it been getting slightly better and It's starting to change and a wider mix of people are going there now that more flights are arriving flying direct to the two airports from the Northern East Coast area but it's still very southern dominant.

[geauxboi]

This part of Florida is just not a place you will see many speedos, that is just how it is.

It's pretty conservative up there. Southern Florida is better. Visit Ft. Lauderdale and go to Sebastian ST beach. You'll have speedo company. And South Beach of course.

Yea you are right about south Florida for sure. I am just a short 3 to 5 hour drive from Louisiana to Pensacola Beach to Panama City Beach, and many places in between, so I can visit there beaches a lot. I do plan on vacationing in South Florida, Miami, Fort Lauderdale one day. It will be a different experience that's for sure!

[52dno98]

Agree about the sightings..... Walton County is one not only conservative, it's also very rural. You are not seeing the locals hang out on those beaches as much as you are seeing the out of town folks. The people who visit 30A have traditionally been from Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. I think in the past few years it been getting slightly better and It's starting to change and a wider mix of people are going there now that more flights are arriving flying direct to the two airports from the Northern East Coast area but it's still very southern dominant.

Ha ha, the best way to tell where people are from when you're at a panhandle beach is what college sports team their umbrellas or flags are from. It used to ONLY be the nearest teams in the SEC (Georgia, Alabama, and Auburn) but these days you're just as likely to see Ohio State as you are to seeing Ole Miss.

30A is practically devoid of people compared to the Miramar/Sandestin area... there are some huge buildings at Seascape (where we go) and on a busy summer weekend day, there are thousands of people on the beach. And of course not one of them is wearing a speedo, much less any shorts that are shorter than mid thigh.

This is from this summer (at the height of the pandemic, for the rest of the guys on the board who look on us Americans with shock and horror):

beach.jpeg (80.96 KiB) Viewed 11617 times

[rmf]

This is from this summer (at the height of the pandemic, for the rest of the guys on the board who look on us Americans with shock and horror):

beach.jpeg

Wow, I knew it was crowed up there (from what our friends have told us who have a house up that way) .... and this is during Covid, I can't imagine what it is like during a regular season or holiday. That's is crazy. Small beaches and Southern's love to take their stuff and set up 'house' on the beach - which I never really understood. Generally speaking - having mostly SFH and no big condo buildings on 30A, the beaches tend to be somewhat less crowed.

[swimsharkau]

That's interesting seeing all the umbrellas along the waters edge. I've never seen that in Australia.

People here tend to sit much further back from the water, and there is not a lot of sunshades.

[52dno98]

Wow, I knew it was crowed up there (from what our friends have told us who have a house up that way) .... and this is during Covid, I can't imagine what it is like during a regular season or holiday. That's is crazy. Small beaches and Southern's love to take their stuff and set up 'house' on the beach - which I never really understood. Generally speaking - having mostly SFH and no big condo buildings on 30A, the beaches tend to be somewhat less crowed.

In keeping with our conversation about non-southerners coming to the corridor between Pensacola and Panama City, one of the deaths from hurricane delta occurred when some kids from Illinois swam in the high surf:

https://www.nwfdailynews.com/story/news ... 966093002/

Two red flags means "don't go in the water. Period."

[52dno98]

That's interesting seeing all the umbrellas along the waters edge. I've never seen that in Australia.

People here tend to sit much further back from the water, and there is not a lot of sunshades.

The beach can be owned as private property up to the high tide line- about where the umbrellas are in that photo. So there are lots and lots of condominiums that rent umbrellas to their guests right along that property line, meaning if you're staying in the condo, you get the option of a private umbrella as close to the water as is legal.

And per what RMF said above, it's pretty common for people to bring a LOT of gear to the beach, including additional umbrellas, chairs, beach toys for the kids, etc. The one that drives my wife and me the craziest is the common practice of bringing an outdoor speaker/music system to the beach and blaring music all day long. Invariably they play "bro country." ( https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. ... %20country )

[Thom]

The one that drives my wife and me the craziest is the common practice of bringing an outdoor speaker/music system to the beach and blaring music all day long. Invariably they play "bro country." ( https://www.urbandictionary.com/define. ... %20country )

That would drive me to distraction. Why don't they just stay home and listen to it? (A rhetorical question, to be sure...) The point of going to beach is to hear the surf, feel the wind, enjoy the water. Fortunately, that doesn't happen that often down here in SoFL, at least not at my favorite beach, which requires a longish, zigzag, uphill trek through a heavily vegetated area to get there.

[rmf]

Panhandle is definitely unique. I've lived on both East & West coast beaches and Hawaii and even spent time in Eastern Florida and no one really sets up commercial chairs like this. It's all the County's doing. It's in part due to the small beaches in this part of the Florida coast. They use to plow down the dunes to make the beaches bigger but then in the 80's realized that when a hurricane hits, the dunes provided a natural barrier to the homes inland so they stopped. This area has now become the hot spot for development over the past 20 years and the beaches continue to get more crowed and there is less places to sit. People pay $250 a week for those 2 chairs and umbrella so they want to be as close to the water as possible. The chair service hire kids to get up at 7:00 AM to set up those ghost chairs and it's all allowed by the County. It's a gambit that and a constant battle between locals and the county but money always prevails. Politics and money.

Knee high is too high with double red flags and when we were there in August, there were tons of people ignoring the flags. There were 22 saves in a day after Hurricane Laura. Rip Currents are no joke especially after a hurricane. I have been teaching my kids how to recognize rip currents since they were little and they are finally beginning to understand when and how to identify them in the surf/ocean. It's crazy but the out of town visitors who come to the Panhandle seem very entitled - I hear them complain about not being able to go in when we sit on the beach and think that the ocean looks ok but then I see them with their little kids in their hands - stresses me out because I know with one wave they can loose footing and both go under and get swept out......

Funny thing about the music because we bring a small speaker ourselves but prop it in our umbrella facing down towards the ground from above. We always do the test of - if you can hear it a step beyond the umbrella, it's too loud. And we rarely get to use anyways it because most times there are other people around us that have their big sound system up really loud playing their 'bro-country' music. Not that I have anything against the music itself but it's just not my taste and I hate that I am forced to listen to something I don't like.

I will admit, we try to get to the beach early to get a decent spot so we can watch our kids as they play in the ocean. We set up our stuff and I take off my shorts and I am walking around in my suit. My son might be in his too - depending how he feels that day or if the suit is dry or not from the previous day. We tend not to get a lot of people crowed around us so who knows... maybe my choice of swimwear helps keep the crowds away from our set up!... lol

[52dno98]

This area has now become the hot spot for development over the past 20 years and the beaches continue to get more crowed and there is less places to sit. People pay $250 a week for those 2 chairs and umbrella so they want to be as close to the water as possible. The chair service hire kids to get up at 7:00 AM to set up those ghost chairs and it's all allowed by the County. It's a gambit that and a constant battle between locals and the county but money always prevails. Politics and money.

I know 30A is much less crowded (as you have noted) and I know people who have abandoned the Pensacola-Panama City corridor altogether and go to St. George Island near Apalachicola. 30A and St. George Island have prohibitions on certain size buildings, which really cuts down on the number of people who come to the beach.

And we're definitely part of the problem, ha ha. We usually rent an umbrella...

[Steven2b]

Pensacola Beach, East Park, near the National Park sign, is where you'll find the speedo crowd. At one time it was dubbed the gay beach. Nowadays, it's a mix of gay and straight. Although thongs are not legal on Pensacola beaches, you'll see men and women in everything from board shorts to micro bikinis.

[geauxboi]

Pensacola Beach, East Park, near the National Park sign, is where you'll find the speedo crowd. At one time it was dubbed the gay beach. Nowadays, it's a mix of gay and straight. Although thongs are not legal on Pensacola beaches, you'll see men and women in everything from board shorts to micro bikinis.

Only seen speedos and even thongs at LGBT celebration on the beach on Memorial Day weekend, which I have been to many times. I guess I will be on the look out in that area of the beach, going to Penscola Beach in 2 weeks!

[solar55]

I've worn a Speedo on Miramar Beach and at Henderson Beach State Park. A Speedo Solar in fact. I've gotten looks but no comments.

[geauxboi]

I meant to post this the week I got back, but better late than never!
Just got back from Panama City Beach vacation, and I have a report. I had arrived at the hotel around 5:00 pm on Memorial Day May 31 to check in. Our rooms were not ready and was told it will be an hour and a half longer until we could check in, even though check in time is 4:00 pm. It seems there was a shortage of housekeeping staff. This hotel was not on the beach, but on Panama City Beach Parkway. So feeling frustrated we decided to go to the beach while waiting for our rooms. So we went to the beach right accross from the busy Pier Park Shopping Center. As I was people watching on the beach, all of a sudden I spot a guy standing next to a woman, dancing around and acting silly wearing a US flag design speedo! He was probably his late 30's early 40's, had a pretty nice body and tan, and was cute too. I could not believe it! I never ever see another guy in anything but shorts on all my other trips to PCB. This beach was near the high rise hotels and condos so it was very crowded. So I looked all around the area of that beach hoping to see more, but no one else, he was the only one. And at this time I was still in my clothes, and was not in my swimsuit yet because we had just finished the 6 hour drive, and could not check into the room, so I was not able to change. So needless to say he is the only speedo wearer there, there would have been 2 if I had a chance to change!

[52dno98]

I’m back in NW Florida. It’s as crowded as ever, and I’m the only Speedo wearer I’ve seen.

I did see a Central American family yesterday with two boys (I’m guessing 7 and 10) wearing sungas, so I figured that was as good a spot as any to put down a towel and sunbathe.

E8851F20-ECE7-4B2F-9455-12F7F435BF5B.jpeg (165.39 KiB) Viewed 8838 times

[rmf]

We will be down that area again in a few weeks. I have no doubt it will be the same except less crowed since the schools in the South will be back in session.