My name is Brian Davidson.
We lived up on the circle at 217 Continental St. and during school break, I would race down to the railroad tracks to make it to junior lifeguards classes right below the Cocoanut Grove!! Those classes were the dream of every ocean loving kid growing up in Santa Cruz, Calif on the west side in 1975. The back drop of the Boardwalk almost seemed like another place that we were all supposed to be with, like a protector…We didn’t see the place like the tourists did (and rightly so!), we saw it like it had always been there and deserved to be there, just like the wharf and the lighthouse alike……We all lived a special kinda living dream. This was a time when Santa Cruz was fair minded, reasonable and people of all sorts and types, from every walk of social, political, and faith were happy to live with each other…..A time when disagreements could end with agree to disagree and life would move on peacefully for them ….Beach Street was a 2 way street back then with its assorted events and problems, some famous! The junior lifeguard program was a godsend for hard working parents who could be secure that their wonderful kids were being taught some valuable skills for peoples who live, work, and play in the powerful Monterey Bay. Those classes not only taught me the value of core strength but also the essential fear of the mighty ocean…..This experience led to many years of surfing all the beaches and coves from Davenport to Carmel but especially from Steamer’s Lane to Cowell’s beach…middle peak was my favorite location due to the fact that it didn’t have many surfers to work around….We had to climb down the rocks back in those days to hit the water and catch a wave as fast as possible…Back then, we didn’t have people living out of their cars on West Cliff Dr but there was the skate board CRAZE. Every manner of kid was testing out their new skate board up and down the sidewalks of Santa Cruz……My uncle and I hitched up a couple of our great danes and grabbed a couple ski poles each and jumped on our SANTA CRUZ skate boards and took off behind our skate hounds…..We were quite the spectacle!! Meanwhile, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk was always there like it should be, like it has been and like it still is to this day of our lord 2026…..After many years of living between Santa Cruz and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, we finally sold our last residence in Aptos and now live in wonderful Grants Pass, Oregon…..Thank you so very much to the Canfield family and the many years of employees who have kept that wonder, famous, lifechanging Attraction going for all to experience…..As a personal note, I went to school with the daughter Jenny and hope she has made a fun and happy life since those days…..Respectfully and cordially, Brian T Davidson
Voted the World’s Best Seaside Park
