The Guide For South Walton Beaches - Message Board Forums, Activities, Festivals, Blogs, Virtual Tours, Beach Vacation Rentals, Real Estate, Dining, Shopping, Golf, Fishing, Biking, News, Maps, Reviews, Opinions, SoWal Beach Gear, and More.

SoWal.com stats for July 2008 - 3,409,448 page views!
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What are your SoWal favorites? -Here’s your chance to get into the next Beaches Of South Walton Visitor Guide.
What’s your favorite meal in SoWal?
What’s the most family-friendly activity in SoWal?
Where’s your favorite place to unwind?
Which art gallery most inspires you?
Where’s the best place to find an interesting handmade accessory?

This Weekend!!! Alys Beach will host a unique festival on Labor Day weekend. “Digital Graffiti at Alys Beach” was created to celebrate and promote the world’s most talented and innovative digital artists. But the event has a very unusual twist. “We’re inviting digital artists from around the world to project their original artwork onto our town’s famous white walls,” said Kelli Arnold, Alys Beach’s Events Coordinator. “Our entire town will literally become their blank canvas.” more...

Traditions!? What things do you do each time you come to SoWal Beaches for vacation?

Tourists in SoWal - welcome or not? My family has been vacationing along the Gulf, from PCB to Destin since the late 1950's. Primarily in SoWal, starting with the Butler Cabins at Grayton Beach, and most recently at Orange Beach, Alabama. We’re always, always, always looking for a rental place that is not jammed up with umbrellas, massed people, associated beach trash, loud radio's, etc etc. more...

A summer squall rushes Alys Beach

A children’s charity event may seem the last place to recreate an eerie underwater scene … but then again, what’s more fun than sliding down the tentacle of the giant octopus that is eating your submarine?
Architecture firm Archiscapes LLC and builder CJB Construction have partnered to create “Fury from the Deep,” a playhouse for the 2008 Cottages for Kids charity event. more...

Driver waves gun at cyclist on Scenic 30A - This morning at 6:30am I was riding my bike with three friends down 30-a heading west. There were absolutely no cars on the road and we were passing through WaterSound where they have the medians in the middle of the road. A mid-sized pick-up truck honked and then violently swerved around us passing us very closely. more...

July 2008 Real Estate Sales Summary for South Walton and Freeport - After two fairly good months of home sales (single family detached, townhomes, and condos) in South Walton, quantity of sales tapered off by about 20%, with 82 closed sales reported for the month of July 2008. That is coincidentally about the same drop in quantity of sales compared to July 2007. more...

Read a firsthand account of the sudden dangerous beach breach of Draper Lake outfall (with photos) - I happened to be walking on the beach and came upon the breach at Draper Lake shortly after it started. Apparently a few children were digging a trench between the lake and the Gulf when all of a sudden the lake breached. The pictures I have enclosed show the force of the break. more...

Call To Artists - Back to Nature Festival Poster Contest - Enter the South Walton Community Council's Poster contest for their seventh annual Back to Nature Festival to be held October 17 - 19, 2008. The Festival is a weekend of hiking, kayaking, birdwatching, and other outdoor activities all around South Walton County. This year's Back to Nature Festival has been expanded to include a Family Fun Day in Seaside, with hands-on environmental fun for kids of all ages. Deadline is August 29. more...

Join us as we launch our inaugural YOLO Board Stand Up Paddle Series. The inaugural YOLO Board Stand-Up Paddle Series race event will kick off on Thursday, July 17th at 6 pm at Oyster Lake in Santa Rosa Beach. The four-member teams will compete in three heats as race paddlers vie for the champion title "YOLO Board Cup Series" to be awarded after the final race in September. YOLO boards will be provided for use at each race event. Additional race divisions will include individual men's, individual women's, and parent/child to name a few. At least 12 four-member teams will compete in a series of five races (three heats per race) that will take place at different locations spanning two months. more ... 
Update - See photos from the event.

Panama City International Airport Update - The project is well underway and a substantial amount of work has been completed in the last five and a half months. The entire 1300+ acres of the airport development site have been cleared and grubbed. This means all trees, roots, and vegetation have been removed. more...

My son and I were in my kayak, while my brother and his son and step son were in another at the beach at Grayton Beach State Park. People on the beach were pointing, and someone shouted and warned us that 'an animal' was in the water. My first thought was that describing anything in the water as 'an animal' was quite peculiar. I mean 'fish' would seem more appropriate. I saw a shadow under the water and suspected it to be a large manta ray, but when the nose of a Manatee surfaced for air, I knew that an unexpected pleasure was found. more...

Matt & Vanessa Cassidy of Ride On Surf School were one of the many participants at International Surf Day conducted by the Panhandle Chapter of Surfrider International - Official ISD Site | Discuss | Photos

Local Blog - This afternoon I got to enjoy one of those great simple pleasures of living in SoWal. I dropped by the beach to get some fresh sea air, chat with some friends, and watch the sunset. It was one of those afternoons that makes me cognizant of how lucky I am to live here.
It was a good evening, which is why the first twinge of a not immediately identifiable emotion took me by surprise. Walking on the beach, I saw three tourists excitedly setting up chairs, opening a bottle of wine, and getting set to watch the sunset. They were at rapt attention, not glancing over as we had been. I envied them a little bit, but I wasn't sure why. more...

Looking for free SoWal stickers? If you’re not lucky enough to be at the beach, send us the number of stickers you want and a self-addressed stamped envelope to SoWal.com, 174 WaterColor Way #114, Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459.

30A on $30/Day Ideas - with the high cost of gas, rising food prices, high rental rates, and expensive restaurants, what are some of the best ways to stretch a dollar in SoWal? more ...

Why we visit SoWal - Less crowded beaches. Sometimes, during the week, you can sit on your blanket, with only one 'row' of beach goers and each family might be 10 feet apart. We went to Myrtle Beach with family a couple of times. You can barely lie down. Can't believe how crowded the east coast is. more...

What is your take on the public/private beach issue? I understand the point of the landowners. They purchased, in good faith, and were sold, what they felt is a private beach. They paid very good money for that land and continue to pay way too much money in taxes, if you ask me for the land. Now most of the beach has been sold to one concern or another and access is starting to be an issue. more ...

It’s sea turtle nesting season and there are ways to help our flippered friends have a successful hatching this year. Find out more info at South Walton Turtle Watch. There is also an active petition to ask local businesses to stop selling oversize toy sand shovels. Large pits left on the beach are a danger to turtles and people - sign here! Find out more and discuss on the forum.

Save Our Beaches - In a place that it celebrated around the world for its sugar-white beaches, it has become apparent that we are neglecting our most precious amenity that is of utmost importance to our local economy. As a resident of Miramar Beach for the past six years (and having lived along the Emerald Coast since 1984), I have sat back and watched with disgust every year as our beaches suffer from the ignorance and blatant disrespect of our visiting neighbors and/or careless locals...more