Surfing & Boarding in Panama City Beach

By David Angier Photos by David Angier and Jeff Pitts

They fell in love on the water.  They fell in love with the water.

Justin and Karen Buxton are very rare and special people who have built a life around their loves: surfing, food and their children. Justin was working on a commercial fishing boat off Cape Hatteras, N.C., when he met Karen, a customer. “I guess it was love at first sight,” Karen said.

Karen was from Virginia, but had been interested in surfing from a young age. Justin had surfed since he was thirteen, teaching himself the sport after watching his peers on the water. Together, Justin and Karen would surf for hours in the rolling Atlantic waves, sharing the joys and adventures of a challenging and addicting sport.

These days, they have two kids, Finn and Isla, two restaurants and a catering business. They may get a few hours of surfing in here and there, but they spend more time in hip-deep water teaching the next generation of surfers.

“To surf is to understand that you cannot control your world; you can only enjoy the ride,” Justin Buxton said. So he doesn’t bemoan the changes in his life that remove him from the water. He’s just on the latest wave and he’s learning to ride this one like all the others.

Once a philosophy becomes a part of some people, those who call themselves surfers, it carries through their world on and off the water. “It’s having a more laid- back attitude toward life,” said Buxton. “It’s being able to go with the flow and enjoy the beauty of the world around you.”

Special Surf

Surfing in Bay County is unique, Justin Buxton said . The waves are not consistent like they are off the coast of California or Hawaii, or even the Atlantic. That means surfers here keep an eye on the weather report, they watch for the conditions that will bring waves and they plan for those days.

Surfers living in other places can rely on waves being there when their schedule permits because the waves are always there . In Bay County, a good surf day is an event. “‘Stoked’ is an expression that surfers use a lot,” Buxton said. “That’s what it’s like . You get stoked thinking about surfing.”

Buxton, who owns Finn’s Island Style Grub restaurants in Panama City and Panama City Beach, is one of those lucky men who have formed their world around their passions and found success. Buxton opened Finn’s on Thomas Drive in 2009. He thought a fish taco stand would be unique enough to stand out from the plethora of restaurants in the area . He loves cooking. Owning his own business allows him the freedom, on those wave days, to drop everything but a board and get to the water.

Karen Buxton said surfing for her is both a challenge and an escape. “It’s my passion,” she said . “I just knew once I started that I could surf like the guys. It’s kind of like freedom, especially since we have two little kids. I get to get out and have my own little time and express myself through surfing.”

Justin Buxton, who recently turned thirty-five, said he’s learning more about surfing every year and considers himself better at wave knowledge. For him, surfing can be a break from the demands of the world. “It’s meditative,” he said. “You can get out there and think about things, or you can think about nothing at all.”

The Surfers Menu Surf

You would think that Justin Buxton named his restaurant after his son. It turns out they were named on the same day. Buxton was working as a cook on a dive boat off Louisiana, but also fleshing out an idea for a fish taco stand he intended to open. He had the menu, but not a name when Karen, who was home and nearing her due-date with the couple’s first child, called him. “What do you think of the name ‘Finn’?” she asked. It’s a perfect name for the restaurant,” Justin said back happily. “I meant for our son,” Karen replied. “Oh, yeah, we’ll call him that, too.”

Finn’s, a place where Buxton likes to hang out, is where surfers like to hang out. Many of the bench seats at Finn’s are old surfboards. There’s live music most nights, usually a lone singer/songwriter playing a guitar. Buxton serves the food he likes to eat, prepared the way he would like to have it. It is an extension of him and that’s why it is such an inviting place. It reflects his surfer attitude: laid back, go with the flow, enjoy the beauty of life and eat good food. Because the overhead of both places is low, it allows Buxton to use excellent ingredients but still keep his prices down.

Surf Yoga

There’s a slight chop on Grand Lagoon. The water ripples under Heather Wiles’ stand up paddleboard, but she doesn’t wobble even when she presses into a headstand in front of her Paddleboard Yoga class.

Wiles has been surfing in Panama City Beach since she was thirteen and has spent years trying to teach others the sport. It wasn’t until eighteen months ago that she realized her best classroom was a yoga studio.

Wiles teaches “Yoga for Surfers” at Studio by the Sea on Thomas Drive. She also has the paddleboard yoga class every Sunday in Grand Lagoon . But it is in the studio, on mats that double as surfboards, where Wiles can break down the specifics of surfing and train those areas of the body.

“I have a lot of people who take the class, then when they get out on the water they’re like, ‘This is no big deal,’” she said. In a one-hour class, Wiles takes students through a series of moves that not only mimics the motions of surfing – pop-ups, for example – but works key areas of the body to optimize the performance of those moves. The workout incorporates traditional yoga positions but often moves through them quickly to elevate the heart rate, then into stretches to bring things back down again- all to the sounds of Bob Marley coming through the speakers.

Wiles finishes with a set on the balance board. “I really wanted to incorporate the Rolo Board, to get the feel of surfing,” she said . “No one else was doing that.” She ends the session by lowering the lights and stretching out in the “corpse pose” for a few minutes of “picturing your favorite sandy beach and catching that perfect wave.”

Wiles teaches several classes in the area, including classes at The Studio at Zen Garden, and has a following of about one hundred students. “It’s hard to say exactly how many,” she said. “They kind of come and go in waves.” Wiles is part of a small, but growing population in Panama City Beach: the surfer To be a part of this community, you need patience and persistence in dealing with challenging and irregular waves. But if you can be a good surfer in Panama City Beach, you can surf anywhere.

Gnarly Surf

Heather Wiles spent her youth modeling and promoting events across the country. She recently took that experience and put it to work locally, spearheading the first “Gnarly Charley Surf Series” contest in Panama City Beach on May 10.

“I thought, ‘I can do that here and with something I love,’” Wiles said of promotions. She reached out to “Gnarly” Charley Hajek, who tours the state setting up surf tournaments, and convinced him to come to Panama City Beach. She then spent a month on the road, personally visiting dive shops along the Gulf Coast trying to drum up interest.

“I wouldn’t have come here if it wasn’t for Heather,” Hajek said. “But it’s been great. We had about sixty kids sign up.” Unbelievably, the weather was perfect the day of the tournament, with a south wind driving four-foot swells toward the beach. “I know!” Hajek said when he was asked about the conditions. “I’ve been surfing all my life – I’m fifty years old – and I never come to Panama City Beach . There’s never waves.”

When asked about his first time surfing in Panama City Beach, ten-year-old Ben Wingate of New Smyrna, a surf contestant, said: “It was kind of weird . It was fast and sort of bumpy.”

Growing Rep

Tony Banks, owner of Into the Blue Surf Shop on Thomas Drive and creator of fine, specialty boards, said Panama City Beach has been known mainly for skimming- skipping over the inch-deep water that washes across the beach. But lately, there has been a surge in all board activities. “I sell more paddle boards than I do T-shirts,” Banks said.

Banks makes custom boards, mainly paddle boards. Customers are able to select style, size, markings, colors, and features and they watch the process throughout with Banks sending them photos of the progress. He said he uses a wide variety of high-quality materials and his boards are more rugged, better handling and longer-lasting than the major brands.” It’s personal,” he said. “It was created for them. It’s like buying a gift for yourself.”

Fifteen-year-old Cassidy Skipper is riding the next wave of surfing through Panama City Beach- the swell of young female surfers. Heather Wiles said this was the first year Panama City Beach has had enough young female surfers to have a competitive division. Skipper was one of those competing in that division May 10 at Gnarly Charlie’s. She rode well and won her division with several smooth and artistic rides but, more importantly, she enjoyed herself in the rolling waves.

She said she hesitated before taking up surfing and only got into the sport a year ago. Few of her female friends surf, but the sport is huge with the guys, she said. “I was scared. I didn’t think I’d be able to do it,” Skipper said. “But then I got out there and I loved it.”

[author image=”https://www.panamacityliving.com/media/2014/07/David-Angier-.jpg” ]David Angier has lived in Panama City for the last 16 years and spent 12 of those as a reporter for the News Herald. A graduate of the University of Florida’s School of Journalism and Communications, he was a daily newspaper reporter for 18 years before authoring his first book in 2010. He has written two nonfiction books from about this area and is working on his third.[/author]