Beach Archive

Navarre Beach Lifeguards are back on duty and looking for ways to better cover their four-mile slice of paradise.

One way the lifeguards are doing this is with an upgrade at one of their busiest towers.

If you own an Airbnb on Navarre Beach, you may be getting a knock at your door in the near future. Navarre Beach Fire Rescue District (NBFRD) is moving forward with a plan to perform fire safety inspections on each short-term rental property on the beach. NBFRD Fire Chief Danny Fureigh estimates there are 1,300 Airbnb type properties on Navarre Beach but will have official numbers once an ordinance is drawn up allowing the district to do the inspections.

Following a season that brought over a million visitors to Navarre Beach, the lifeguards who patrol the shores are back to work. Navarre Beach Lifeguards started patrolling the beach and water Saturday, March 8 and will be active each day until late October. Even though last year was extremely busy, Beach Safety Division Chief Austin Turnbull expects there to be even more need for lifeguard services in 2025.

The Navarre Beach Public Access 37A and 37B parking lot repaving is complete, and the parking lots have reopened.

The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office is back in the spotlight, this time on Fox Nation, a streaming service. The agency will be featured on a new episode of “COPS: Spring Break.”

Each year, beginning in February and ending in late summer, the Gulf Islands National Seashore provides an important habitat for several species of ground-nesting shorebirds including least terns, snowy plovers, Wilson’s plovers and black skimmers.

During the first month of the Trump presidency, more than 1,000 park employees were laid off as part of the administration’s plans to reduce the size of federal agencies and their workforces.

The Department of Government Efficiency, known as “DOGE,” is responsible for the layoffs and has been advising the president on which federal programs and budget areas to cut as a way to slash federal spending.

While Navarre Beach Lifeguards’ junior lifeguard program doesn’t hit the beach until summer, tryout registration for the program is now open.

The 2025 junior lifeguard tryouts will be held April 26, May 3 and May 26. All tryouts are at 8 a.m.

Gulfarium C.A.R.E. Center is accepting applications for their 2025 Summer Internship Program right now.

The deadline for applying for Session two (June – August) is March 15 and Session three’s deadline is May 15. Session three extends from August to October.

The Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (CAA) is excited to announce a groundbreaking collaboration between the Underwater Museum of Art (UMA) and the Florida Cancer Specialists Foundation (FCSF) that will introduce a unique addition to the UMA’s seventh annual installation. The Menina of the Reef: An Infinite Message (La Menina del Arrecife: Un Mensaje Infinito) sculpture by Spanish artist Antonio Azzato will be fabricated and deployed in the summer 2025 to raise awareness of FCSF’s mission to provide support and peace of mind to cancer patients in Florida.