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Florida Surf Museum
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Preserving Florida’s Surfing History
A bit more about us
The Florida Surf Museum preserves and documents the unique history and culture of Florida surfing. Experience the heritage and traditions of the surfing community through events, exhibits and programs.
The Florida Surf Museum (formerly the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum) was founded in 1999, inside a space so small you could barely turn a longboard around. The concept of a surf museum was a relatively new one at the time, but the community quickly latched on to Sean O’Hare’s vision, volunteering and donating much-needed funds.
For two years, boxes of stuff kept coming through the front door filled with surf magazines, pictures, trophies, and all kinds of memorabilia. Natural progression and the sheer volume of “stuff” made moving inevitable.
In 2000, the Museum made its way to Natural Art Surf Shop on A1A. The shop took the museum under its wing and helped it along. The small museum and its volunteer force grew, as did the inventory and the list of local events produced in support of the museum.
In 2003, the Museum merged with the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame and moved again into a bigger space at the Ron Jon Surf Shop watersports building. After a time, missions diverged and in November 2007 we separated from the ECHOF and returned to our roots a the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum.
In 2015, the Florida Surf Museum was created to expand the historical preservation parameters of the museum to highlight the surfing history and culture of the entire state of Florida. The Florida Surf Museum is dedicated to preserving Florida’s rich surfing heritage through exhibits, research and preservation. Physical exhibits in the museum space at RonJon Surf Shop are rotated regularly to showcase the people, places and memorabilia that make Florida’s surfing history unique. FSM has a robust online presence which includes a webpage that presents in- depth articles, interviews and images that complement and enhance our exhibits. We also have an active Facebook page and YouTube channel that features contemporary and historical videos.
In addition, the museum actively engages the community through public events, surfing contests and support ,through cash donations, to scholastic surf teams and other scholastic organizations. FSM’s signature event, Surfing Santas of Cocoa Beach, is an internationally recognized celebration that allows FSM to donate funds to local charitable organizations such as Grind For Life, a cancer victims support non-profit organization.
RonJon Surf Shop is our corporate sponsor. They graciously provide our space free of charge. Florida Surf Museum is an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
Board of Directors
Florida Surf Museum
John grew up in Cocoa Beach during the height of the space program, but his interests soon became the waves breaking at the end of the street. After coming back from a year in Hawaii, John enlisted in the Navy in 1975, got stationed in Hawaii and became a Salvage Diver and Diving Supervisor. He later worked as diving supervisor for a Navy contractor at the AUTEC range in the Bahamas (where he met his wife, Marie) and Port Canaveral for several years before going to work at the Kennedy Space Center for 20 years. During that time, he was involved with the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum, now the Florida Surf Museum for 15 years before assuming the position of Executive Director in 2015.
Bill Whiddon started surfing in 1964. Growing up in South Florida, he traveled to Brevard County frequently to surf. He fell in love with this beautiful area and now calls it home.
After graduating from the University of Miami, he went on to gain a Master’s Degree from Florida State University in Marketing.
For 40+ years he worked as Creative Director with national and international advertising as well as publishing companies. The ocean and surfing have always been his guiding Interests.
He has been participating in surfing and paddle board competitions since the early 1970s. He still holds the record for the fastest time, on a surf style board, around Key West. In 2012 he was the first person to successfully standup paddle board from Bimini, Bahamas to Miami, Florida. He is also an avid collector of vintage surfboards and surf memorabilia.
Bill was on the Board of Directors for the Miami Surf Archive Project and the Coconut Grove Art Show.
Bill Tweedie moved to Brevard County in 2006 when his daughter Morgan was attending FIT. For many years his family would come over from Osprey/Venice area to enjoy the Surf and participate in the Museum’s events long before they moved here. In 2005 after attending the Waterman’s Challenge and the Luau he was asked if would like to joined the Board. As the current President he is very honored to be working with these very dedicated Surfers and Board Members.
Bill was Partner and VP of Marketing and Sales for Myco Trailers in Bradenton, Fl for 35 years before he retired. Now he and his wife Debora enjoy the beach life with his daughter, husband and 2 grandsons. If you see a yellow longboard in the surf, it’s probably Bill Tweedie.
Melody DeCarlo fell in love with surfing when she was fourteen. She moved to Brevard County in 1972 and started surfing the pier and later competing. While on the Natural Art team, she often saw Sean O’Hare at the shop where he had started a small Museum. In 1999, she helped Sean at a contest across from the shop. Shortly after, Sean assembled a Board of Directors for the Museum. Melody has been on the Board in many positions including President and Vice President since. In 2010, she hosted the first Florida Women of the Waves with East Coast Hall of Fame surfer, Sharon Wolfe Cranston and Marie Hughes. This event has continued to bring women together to share their love of surfing.
Melody worked as a radiology technologist for thirty years. She retired in 2020 and continues to surf when the waves are good. As Vice President of the Museum, she is working with the Board to bring the Museum to bigger and better things in the future.
Marie is a Florida native from Fort Lauderdale. She was drawn to the ocean at an early age and was SCUBA certified in 1975 with over 300 dives logged. In 1981 she accepted a job at the Navy AUTEC range in Andros Bahamas, working as a mathematician in the Computer Control Center. She met her husband John Hughes there. Afterwards they moved to Brevard County where she worked for the Air (Space) Force in the Range Safety Office monitoring flight safety for rocket launches. Marie has been involved with the museum from the beginning and is currently the treasurer and secretary.
Sean O’Hare is the son of legendary shaper and East Coast Hall of Fame member, Pat O’Hare. Sean was raised with the legends of surfing from the 60s (Dick Catri, Claude Codgen, Mike Tabeling etc), as well those he grew up with, such as Kelly and Sean Slater, Matt Kechele, and Todd Holland.
In 1999 Sean followed his vision of honoring Florida’s surfing history by founding the Cocoa Beach Surf Museum. Over the years the museum has grown with the guidance of Sean and the many volunteers who shared his vision. Today the Florida Surf Museum is the premier source of our amazing surfing heritage.
Christine Ryba was born in New Smyrna Beach and raised in Florida . She graduated from Astronaut high school and the University of Central Florida.
Christine has three grown sons and three daughter-in-law‘s and four grandchildren.
She recently retired from teaching for Brevard County Schools where she taught middle school science for 20 years.
Christine loves to surf and will be a great asset to the surf museum.
Braxton Carlisle is the Technical Recruiting Lead at GoPro. He grew up on the gulf coast of Florida in Indian Rocks Beach and has been surfing since age 12. He graduated from the University of Central Florida where he competed in the NSSA with the UCF surf team. He relocated to the Space Coast in 2014 and currently resides in Indian Harbour Beach.
-WQS North America Head Judge World Surf League
-USA Surfing Head Judge East Coast
-Vice President Space Coast Board Riders
-Board Builder
-Husband and Father
Steve Casanova has been surfing since the 1960s and has lived in Brevard County for over 50 years. His involvement with surfing runs deep. He worked for Dick Catri in the famous Shaggs Surf Shop in Indialantic Florida in the early 1970s. He was a photographer for Surfer and Surfing magazine and has been published in the Surfers Journal magazine. Additionally, Steve has been the major sponsor for the prestigious Easter Surfing Contest, The National Kidney Foundation Surf Fest, The Melbourne Beach Pineapple surf contest as well as a sponsor for the Space Coast Board Riders Club. He has surfed not only up and down the East Coast of the United States, but he has extensively surfed in Hawaii, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and some spots in between! Steven is currently a practicing local attorney who enjoys offshore fishing when there are no waves to surf….
Casey’s first trip to the beach was in September ’58 at Picnic tables since his family lived across A1A in PAFB north housing. A year or two later they moved to South Housing next to the soon to be built Satellite Beach, a stone’s throw from RC’s.
Casey got his first board in ’63 when they moved to their new house at the end of Grant Court on the grand canal in SB. It was the first house on the entire canal. The board was a 9’6” Flying Dutchman popout for $102, while my older brother got a 9’6” Hobie Phil Edwards model.
His mom would take them to the O’ Club weekends where I learned to surf. Otherwise, Casey and his brother would lash their boards on a homemade dolly and pedal up Grant to what was the Hamburg house and that is where they surfed through the 60’s. Their dad in ’59 bought an old wooden house on US1 in Eau Gallie and had it moved 2 miles north of Sebastian Inlet about 100 yards north of Whiteys and put it right next to the dunes. The north side of the inlet was just a sand road not too far beyond the beach house and a dune buggy (old car with no body and airplane type tires) was needed to get down to the inlet.
Now, 60 years later a lot has changed but surfing still thrills all of us. The foresight of a number of these ancient surfing gods have gathered an excellent tribe of Florida surfers into the Florida Surf Museum Board of Directors with the goal of keeping the history of surfing in Florida retained for those who follow.
Casey considers himself to be very fortunate to be included with this group and look forward to keeping the stoke alive.
Dalton Smith is a surfer, adventurer and film maker that grew up right here in Brevard County. Since 2011 he has built his company, NPI Productions, into one of the premiere media teams in Florida focusing on commercial advertising and of course, lots of adventure and surfing!
Over the course of his career Dalton has had the opportunity to document some of the long time legends
alongside up and coming talent coming out of Florida. Many of the opportunities have arisen through tourism efforts here on the Space Coast introducing Dalton and his team to Surfing Santas, the Florida Surf Museum and much more.
The surf community has been an instrumental part to the growth for both Dalton and his company and the opportunity to serve on the board for the Florida Surf Museum is a blessing and dream come true.
Advisory Board
Florida Surf Museum
American professional surfer from Cocoa Beach Florida, widely considered the greatest surfer of all time. He earned the title of world champion an unprecedented 11 times, including a record five times consecutively (1994–98), and he was also the all-time leader in event wins. The son of a bait-store proprietor, Slater grew up near the water, and he began surfing at age five. By age 10 he was winning age-division events up and down the Atlantic coast, and in 1984 he won his first age-division United States championship title.
Slater turned pro in 1990. In 1992 he secured podium (top-three) finishes in three of his first five events before winning his first professional tour event, the Rip Curl Pro, in France. His win in that year’s prestigious Pipeline Masters in Hawaii secured his first world title, and at age 20 he became the youngest surfing world champion ever.
During his years off the world tour, Slater appeared in assorted surf films, television shows, and video games. He returned to the world pro tour in 2002, finished a close second in the world rankings in 2003, and won his first post-hiatus championship in 2005. He won his 11th world title in 2011, thereby becoming both the youngest and the oldest surfer to have won the championship.
Inducted into the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame 1998, the New Jersey Surfing Hall of Fame and the Puerto Rico Surf Legends. He appears in Duke Boyd’s book “Legends of Surfing from Duke Kahanomoku to Kelly Slater”.
Bill was born in 1947 and rode first wave in Lavallette, NJ 1952. He started board surfing in 1959 and later worked at Keller’s Surf Shop.
Bill gave up a career in show business to work for Gordon & Smith as a worldwide traveling sales rep. Calling on shops East Coast, West Coast, Puerto Rico and Hawaii.
His photography has appeared in Surfing East, Surfer, Surfing, Waves and Tracks (Australia). Bill produced and toured with the first East Coast Surfing Film “The Summer of ’67”.
Bill has been honored as a Surfing Pioneer by the Action Sports Retailer Tradeshow for his surfwear brands: Wavewear, Sundek, Hang Ten and Balsa Bill.
Currently owns Balsa Bill Surf Shop and is apartner in Tropical Design Screen Printed T Shirts.
80s wonder kid, one of the most recognized names of his era, winning numerous amateur and pro events and an ASP Eastern Pro circuit title. “Kech” was the leading force in the earliest moves toward aerial surfing maneuvers. Also a leading board builder, his surf team consisted of many this coast’s most recognizable figures including his young protégé Kelly Slater.
Matt organized the prestigious King of the Peak competitions at Sebastian Inlet and was a six-time coach, as well as the winningest coach for the ESPN X Games. Matt continues to build boards and remains a major influence on up-and-coming young surfers.
Non-profit Partner
Space Coast BoardRiders Club
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of the Florida Surf Museum
