Florida's last beach bums, Dana and George Brown, aka the "ZZ Top Guys" will forever be remembered in Florida surfing circles and beyond. They lived the life that we have all dreamed of- living out of the van and surfing every day.
"For 15 years, Brown and his dad, George, had been fixtures on Florida's surf scene. With their distinctive look — clear blue eyes, deep tans, and white beards that reached their chiseled chests — they were hard to miss. Locals in Cocoa Beach affectionately called them the ZZ Top Guys. The pair lived in a white Ford Econoline van parked at the same beach access point every morning, spending their days trading small talk with beachgoers and, in Dana's case, surfing and skateboarding. They hewed closely to their own interpretation of the Bible, refusing to cut their hair or do anything on Saturdays, their Sabbath.
George Brown died eight months before his son, in March, at age 87 in Cocoa. Lonely and lost in his dad's absence, Dana had set out at age 60 to fulfill a long-held dream: surfing in California. But he had always planned to return home. His death meant the abrupt loss of a throwback to surf culture from Florida's younger and wilder days, when the beaches weren't filled with luxury condos and when surfing, to many, was a way of life." (Miami New Times)
Photos courtesy of Bob Brown taken from the Miami New Times
Learn more about the epic lives of George and Dana Brown, 60s surf culture via the Miami New Times