Pandemic doesn’t stop private beach crowds

Nicole Bozkurt
Sarasota, Florida
12 p.m. Monday, April 13


Pandemic doesn’t stop private beach crowds

It was a Tuesday morning and Jupiter, Florida, resident Austin “Cole” Davies rolled out of bed and shuffled into his boardshorts.

 Like any other morning, Davies filled his mug with coffee and a splash of milk, threw a towel around his neck, grabbed his surfboard from the shed and stumbled down the rocky path from his house to the beach.

Once he emerged from the overgrown brush that suffocated the perimeter of the beach, his mood changed abruptly.

The private beach was packed; the ocean filled with bobbing heads and floaties.

People swarm the private beach after public beaches have been shut down.

“I have lived here my whole life,” Davies said.  “I practically grew up on this beach and I’ve only ever seen one person here at the same time as me.”

He searched for gap in the crowd so he could put his board in the water and paddle through the swimmers to the offshore waves.

“It was like spring break, but with old people,” Davies said.

The beach is privately owned, with access from about six houses. With more than five miles of beach, there was no way all of these “spring breakers” could have lived there.

All of Jupiter’s beaches have been closed due to coronavirus since Monday, March 16, provoking the beach fanatics to break the rules.


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