Through Tropical Storms and Bad Economies, Suncoast Surf Shop Thrives

It's pretty easy to pick out Joe Nuzzo, the guy who founded Suncoast Surf Shop in Treasure Island 45 years ago.

Walk into the place and amid the twentysomething college-aged workers, you'll run into a friendly man with well-tanned skin and sun-bleached hair, looking and acting much younger than his 67 years. Nuzzo fits the part of a surfer dude. He walks around in sandals, shorts, a T-shirt and shades. It's his office uniform.

It's hard to get a word with Joe. He has friends from all over the country calling him, famous musicians even. If he's not chatting with friends who plan to come to Treasure Island to visit, he chatting it up with his employees.

"Look, look at this, isn't it beautiful?" Nuzzo said holding up a pair of paddles that were artfully designed by one of his employees, Allison Shirley. Part of the reason he's bragging about the paddles is because Shirley is nearby, and Nuzzo knows it.

Shirley beams as Nuzzo brags about the artistry to a stranger. 

But it wasn't bragging that got Nuzzo to start open his store. It was actually desperation.

"I got fired because my hair was too long," Nuzzo said. Nuzzo was an aircraft mechanic for National Air Academy in 1966.

Remember, this was another time, another age. America was in the throes of the Vietnam War. Air conditioning was still something of a novelty. Jim Crow hadn't quite left Florida just yet. It would still be two years before Willie Jackson and Leonard George would become the first African-Americans to play football at the University of Florida and a full decade before Bobby Bowden arrived in Tallahassee to build a dynasty at Florida State.

Nuzzo, whose locks may have been "down to my shoulders," Nuzzo said, was unacceptable for him to work. Rather than get a haircut, Nuzzo decided to walk away.

Not knowing what he would do, he decided to do something he loved: Start a surf shop.

"I had no idea," Nuzzo said of the success of his store. A son of Treasure Island, his mom owned a grocery on the island that was forced to close when a Winn Dixie opened nearby. Nuzzo expected a similar fate.

Instead, his store soon became an institution on the island, a haven for surfers and one of  the oldest surf stores on the west coast of Florida.

The stories he can tell, many of which are pictured on his walls. Jimi Hendrix once popped in as did Bob Crane, better known as Col. Hogan of "Hogan's Heros" fame. Of late, Paris HIlton, famous for... reasons that aren't quite clear, visited Nuzzo's place and he has a picture near the front door to prove it.

The recent harsh downturn in the economy was one of Nuzzo's roughest times but as can be expected, he and his shop have survived. "Things are getting better," Nuzzo said.

Whether it's a place to buy a wetsuit, a new board, a skateboard or some other surf gear, or just hang out and chat, Suncoat Surf Shop is the coolest place to be on one of Pinellas County's hottest beaches.