Folks who yearn for fun despite the heat find ways to enjoy summer at its most bearable: after the sun goes down.
By TOM ZUCCO
Published June 19, 2003
[Times photo: Lara Cerri]
A member of the group that inline skates around St. Petersburg on Thursday night rolls past the Pier toward North Shore Pool. Most of the skaters are single and in their 30s, 40s and 50s.
[Times files: 2000]
With the Sunshine Skyway bridge lighting the dusky sky, an angler spends an evening fishing from the pier that was part of the old bridge.
It is a well-documented meteorological fact that summer in Florida, which officially begins Jan. 2 and runs through Dec. 30, can be on the warm side. The heat index (temperature times humidity divided by the number of letters in your last name) usually can be expressed only in thermonuclear terms and would fill an entire blackboard.
Suffice it to say that savvy residents who have lived here longer than 20 minutes know to limit their outdoor activities to the coolest time of the day.
Which is 2:59-3:01 a.m.
Hey, you've been outside lately. You know what I mean.
And yet under the cover of darkness, as the rest of us relax inside with our remotes, there are hardy bands of normally right-thinking individuals that venture out for leisure activities. And they live to tell about it.
The calendar says Sunday is the First Day of Summer, but we've been thinking for months about fun out of the sun, sports you can do after sundown or in the cool comfort of air-conditioning. Last Thursday evening, we set out to find examples.
The Bay City Rollers
That's not their real name. They're not that formal. If they had a name, it would be The Thursday Night Inline Skating Group That Meets Around 8 o'clock In The Parking Lot Outside The Tavern At Bayboro On The USF Campus in St. Petersburg. Unincorporated.
Most of the skaters are single, in their 30s, 40s and 50s, and to say that they're not looking for companionship would be untrue. Mark Zornes and his wife, Carole, are one of at least six couples who met through the group.
"Honest, I didn't come here to meet anybody," Zornes, 42, said as he laced up his skates. "It was the last thing on my mind.
"It just kind of . . . happened."
The group leaves the parking lot about 8:30 p.m., just as the sun is setting and the sky is usually alive with a hundred shades of orange and purple. It is, well . . . romantic.
"It's also great exercise and great fun," said Kevin Goodson, 46, who sells custom window treatments and has been skating with the group for about four years.
The skaters number anywhere from 20 to close to 50. They skate about 10 miles. And they're usually back at the parking lot by 10 p.m.
Tonight, a man nicknamed The Breeze is the master of ceremonies. After a few brief announcements, he shouts, "Go skates go!" and leads the group out of the lot and toward the U.S. Coast Guard station. Then it's on to Tropicana Field.
Later, The Breeze, a.k.a. 44-year-old Rick Ivory, said that even though there is safety in numbers and St. Petersburg is very much a skater-friendly city, almost everyone wears helmets and reflectors, and no one has been seriously hurt. "It doesn't cost anybody anything, and we don't leave anybody behind," he said. "We only go as fast as the slowest skater."
Bad knees? Weak ankles? You won't get much sympathy here. Ivory, a retired computer engineer and Persian Gulf War veteran, said the group includes a woman who is blind. "She's tethered to her husband or her guide dog," he said, "and they have a great time."
Groups such as this are showing up in increasing numbers in cities and towns across the country. They are usually loose organizations with no officers, dues or rules. Which is another reason they're so popular.
There are several other inline skate groups in Tampa, Clearwater and St. Petersburg. To learn more, go to www.skatetampa.com
Driving with the air conditioner on
Matt Sniff watched his tee shot sail down the range. A few yards more to the right and the ball would've nailed Osama bin Laden square in the forehead. "It's not easy getting him," he said.
Not the first time that has been said.
But on this night, Sniff, a 23-year-old server at a Ruby Tuesday, is concentrating more on his swing. He's standing inside one of 20 air-conditioned tee boxes at the All-In-One Golf Practice and Learning Center on 66th Street N in Largo. Drop in a $1 token and for the next 30 minutes you can practice your swing (or take pot shots at bin Laden) in air-conditioned comfort.
Gail Wetherell, who owns All-in-One with her husband, Bruce, said that this is the only practice range in the country with air-conditioned tee boxes. How do they know that? Bruce holds the patent.
"He knew the Florida heat and humidity was a big problem," she said. "So he came up with the idea to put in a cooling system."
For the more adventurous, on the floor above the air-conditioned stalls are 20 more tees that are open. The breeze you can never find on the ground? It's up there.
"My dad and I played nine holes at East Bay this morning, and he was too exhausted from the heat to make it here," said Mark Kelley, who with his brother Brian, drove from Kenneth City to hit some balls. "But the breeze up here is great. Especially at night."
Brian, who three weeks earlier had graduated from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa., was having a rougher time. "I'm dying down here," he said. "Even now, it's like walking in soup."
Bait and Itch
Dave Sauer had parked his dusty red 1992 Toyota pickup toward the end of the Sunshine Skyway fishing pier. He is a short man, with thick arms, a stained T-shirt and hair that's too gray for his years (30). He tugged on the bill of his aging L.A. Dodgers baseball cap and said that he was there for the duration. And he had the cooler to prove it: sandwiches, sodas, frozen squid, grapes, frozen shrimp and potato chips.
"Don't reach for the wrong bag," he said, grinning.
And being a seasoned pier fisherman, he also brought his lawn chair, flashlight and insect repellent.
"The bugs can get bad when the wind dies down," he said.
The Sunshine Skyway fishing pier is billed as the world's longest. It's actually two piers, the 3/4-mile North pier (Pinellas County) and the 11/2-mile South pier (Manatee County). Admission is $2 per person, $3 per vehicle, and no fishing license is required.
Three well-used poles were leaning against the guardrail, their lines disappearing into the black water below. From a portable radio held together with duct tape, Sauer listened as the Devil Rays lost to the Cincinnati Reds a few miles up the road. He swore under his breath, changed the station and somehow picked up the Atlanta Braves. The reception was poor, but the Braves were winning.
"Best place to be in the whole damn world," he said as he cupped a match to a Marlboro Light.
He grew up in Tampa, lives in a two-bedroom house in Pinellas Park with his wife and two children, lays tile for a living and goes to the pier "every chance she lets me."
Every 10 yards or so, someone else has set up camp for the night with pretty much the same gear. When someone hooked a fish, there was mild excitement. But mostly, the only sound was Skip Carey calling the Braves game.
"It's different out here at night," Sauer said. "You forget about things that are bothering you. Even if you don't catch nothing, it's still better than sitting at home."
It was approaching midnight when one of his lines sang out. "Got somethin'," he said as he leaped to his feet, grabbed the pole and gave it a yank.
His rod bent like a question mark, and for a few seconds, he fought with . . . something out there. And then his line went slack.
Sauer took off his cap, pulled his forearm across his brow and shrugged.
"Guess I needed to work up a sweat tonight," he said.
He wasn't the only one.
If you go:
The Thursday night inline skating group meets at about 8 in the parking lot outside the Tavern at Bayboro, 121 Seventh Ave. S., St. Petersburg. Bill Jackson's Shop for Adventure also organizes night inline skating events on both sides of Tampa Bay. See www.billjacksons.com or call 727 576-4169 for details.
All-In-One Golf Practice and Learning Center, 12700 66th St. N., Largo. Open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. $1 for 30 minutes. (727) 507-8911.
Sunshine Skyway fishing pier, North Pier, St. Petersburg, (727) 865-0668; South Pier, Palmetto, (941) 729-0117. Open 24 hours a day. Access either end from Interstate 275. Admission is $2 per person, $3 per vehicle, and no fishing license is required.
