Vilano Beach

9/21/2022

If there's one thing about me that I manage to talk about more than nearly anything else- it's my love for Vilano beach. It's a little city right outside of St. Augustine with 2 hotels, a pizza shop, a publix, and the beach all on the same block, and not much else for a mile or two. Every August, RDS hosts the biggest skim comp of the year there, and somehow, every year, it's more precious to me than the last. It's the type of place where everyone who matters in that moment is right next to you, so you don't need to carry a phone, and where everywhere, and everything you might need is within walking distance, so you don't need to touch a steering wheel the entire weekend. It's so refreshing and so free.

Growing up, my brother was always skimming and skating, basically anything with a board under his feet, he was naturally talented at. He started to get really into it about 5 years ago which was around the time that we started going to competitions. We'd go all over Florida to different beaches where I became friends with people who lived throughout the state, and who I'd only get to see a few times a year. 2019 was the year that things really shifted for me. We went to a comp in Deerfield in May where my friends and I spent the weekend with Tyler and JD who were guys I'd known for years, but had never been super close with up until that trip. We spent every day getting sunburnt and surfing in between heats, and every night celebrating birthday's in hotel rooms, and skating through parking garages and shell paved streets. I left counting down the days until I would see them next in Vilano.

96 days later we reconnected and it was what I would still consider to this day, one of the best weekends of my growing up. I'm sure a lot of that has to do with it being one of my first real tastes of freedom. I was 15 at the time, and my parents had always been really strict, it was the first time that I was ever allowed to stay out past my curfew. I'm not sure what made my parents so okay with me roaming the streets of some random town, hours away from home with people that we hardly knew, but for some reason, they let me. There was a huge group of us, some I'd known for years and some I'd just met that trip. The boys introduced me to their friend Ant who they'd brought with them, and we spent every second of the weekend together. I thought they were the coolest. They were 19 and they all had cars and exciting lives filled with travelling, and I just remember feeling so cool whenever I was with them, and so lucky that I got to know them. We watched every sunrise and every sunset, swam through deep blue waves, skated down hotel hallways, ate breakfast at huge tables filled with friends, and took naps on sand covered towels. We spent the last night of the trip in the hotel lobby so we didn't have to leave each other. The hotel receptionist told us "normally I wouldn't let anyone do this, but you guys look like you're having so much fun that I'll let it slide this time." I'll never forget the way I felt that night- so loved.

It was after that trip that my friends and I made a goal to see each other more than just a few times a year at skim comps. I didn't have my license yet at that point, so every couple months they'd make their way over to our coast to surprise us for our birthdays or for an impromptu weekend trip. They became family. Now, years later, there's photos of them hung in our home, and if they called right now and said that they were on the way, they'd have a bed set up for them, and buffalo chicken sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls waiting for them in the fridge. I never would have known friendship like this had I not spent a few days in Vilano Beach in 2019. We've all grown up a lot since then, and all have real jobs now, so it's a lot harder for us to find time to see each other. Our visits are now a lot more spread apart than they once were, but one tradition that I don't see us ever letting go of, is spending the third weekend of August in Vilano every year.

We just got back a few weeks ago and it was so special. After checking into the hotel, we went to our room, and opened the curtains to a rainbow over the beach. The next few days looked a lot like years past- swimming in pools lit up by neon motel signs, eating pizza from the only restaurant in town, climbing lifeguard stands for a better view of pink cloud skies, cheering on friends and watching them take home titles, and pink-burnt faced goodbye hugs at the end of it all.

I could go on and on, and most of the time I do. I love this place, and I'll probably never shut up about it. It's where I met some of my best friends in the world for the first time. It was the place where I felt my first heartbreak and where I've watched the people I love grow up throughout the years. It's the home of stories that I'll tell my kids. I spent years dreaming about moving here when I got older. It's still a distant hope of mine. There is no place as special to me as here.