Oh yeah the forum was WAYYY more popular back in the golden years of like '99-2004

Social media eroded alot of that away, but it was and still is a great way to communicate and find information, especially since threads on here will actually show up in Google, but anything you bother to write on Facebook just floats out into the abyss never to be seen again.

There were alot of people on the forum back in the early 2000s. The surf forum seemed like it updated every 30 seconds. There was little to no fighting back then I recall. Just on rare occasion.

Of particular note was the 2004 hurricanes. We are kindof used to them now, but back then it was the first real good smack in many years, and the first ones I ever went through. People were shocked they were coming right at us. I remember that Longboard House didn't even have shutters for their windows, so they boarded up with plywood boards and spraypainted "PITBULLS INSIDE" on them. That photo made its way to the forum and there were some funny jokes about it i recall.

It was a good source of hurricane information and all kinds of other things, since you could post a question and alot of people would chime in. Its still like that, but it was more active then.

I think around 2003 it crashed and everyone had to re-sign up. I was able to get the same username, but alot of them changed at that time.

Can you even join the forum still? I've had people tell me over the past few years that they tried to sign up, but it never worked. Maybe thats the problem?

I've been part of this forum for a long time. I think pretty much since it started. In its hey day there was ALOT more posts on the surfing forum. The first big decline in activity happened after the site was hacked and it took Chuck quite awhile, maybe weeks/months to get it back online. Not his fault this is a sideline (important Sideline!) but after that it never recovered and there have been one or two similar episodes since that put a couple more nails in the coffin. I'll always fondly remember the 2ndlight parties at Tables meeting people for real which lead to more respect online. I still enjoy the site and value all the friendships its lead to including Dave and Chuck. That's my take on it.


-------------------------
Replace turf grass with native plants that don't need irrigation and synthetic fertilizers or chemicals that can go into our waterways and ocean

Edited: 05/25/2020 at 04:39 PM by daner

Times are a changing. When the site stood up getting reliable surf reports was a little more challenging. Now anyone can access magic seaweed or any number of other on line tools and any number of cameras. The on line relationships was all still growing. I still like to lurk around for a connection to the treasure coast.

-------------------------
Even a blind hog finds an occasional acorn