St. Augustine residents mourn surfer

On the morning of Oct. 22, I drove past the pieces of a downed motorcycle on Highway A1A in St. Augustine. The police tape and investigators milling around weren't a good sign, so I figured there would be bad news in the paper.

The St. Augustine Record reported the next day that Chris Wint, 37, had died after failing to make a sharp turn at high speed and colliding with a tree. The 1 a.m. accident was the second fatality at that spot in recent years.

Since then, I've watched a makeshift memorial grow around that tree and chanced upon a LiveJournal user who attended his funeral.

On Sunday, the Record covered a surfer's memorial for Wint that took place in the ocean and reprinted a remarkable photo: Six weeks ago, the paper ran a front-page photo of Wint enoying the kicked-up surf caused by Hurricane Isabel.

2003/11/03 · 0 COMMENTS · Link