Posted on 08/02/2015 8:48:03 AM PDT by FlJoePa
JUPITER —
From Juno Beach to Tequesta, boys like Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen congregate wherever they can get a pole in the water.
They pepper the turquoise waves aboard boats. They talk incessantly about what’s biting: snook, kingfish, wahoo.
These are pier rats, not mall rats — known for lounging and canoodling on a sand bar accessible only by water and within the gaze of the iconic sunburnt Jupiter Lighthouse. They are obsessed about the newest fishing lures rather than video games, music or sports.
“They are more fish than boy,” said Marvin Steiding, a charter boat captain at the Jupiter Inlet Marina who knows the type well.
“These boys grow up around the ocean. When they aren’t in school, they are on the water.”
Steiding calls it “good clean fun.” It’s a fairytale upbringing, a bit of sun-drenched innocence where boys forge fast friendships and families grow closer — all around the hook, leader and pole.
This is where the glitz of the South Florida metropolis fades. You don’t see many yachts at the marinas. Oh, there’s money here to be sure. Children, like Stephanos, go to private schools and have their own boats.
But it’s more about the fish than the flash.
And so it is that for many teenagers, like it is for Perry and Austin, the mangrove-lined tributaries and ocean is their playground and their passion.
And now these young men appear lost to the sea.
The Coast Guard called off the exhausting search Friday at sunset — though private boats will still scour the ocean.
In a story that captured the nation, the best friends motored their 19-foot single-engine fishing boat into a vicious storm over the Atlantic on the afternoon of July 24. The Coast Guard discovered the capsized boat on Sunday in the Gulf Stream just south of Daytona Beach.
Hope was that the boys — known for their seamanship — had fashioned a makeshift raft from an engine cover and a cooler buoyed hopes of their families who saturated the media. Former football star Joe Namath, a friend of the Stephanos family and a Tequesta resident, held a news conference and a $100,000 award was offered for their rescue. Country music star Alan Jackson, who has Jupiter ties, took to Twitter.
The mothers took to the airwaves, their tragedy the nightmare of every parent with a teenager. Their grief, their refusal to give up, played out in the spotlight from the Today Show to gossipy websites. Missing Florida teens: Full coverage
But after a Coast Guard searched waters vaster than the state of Maine, there was no sign of the teens and, before the weekend, reality had set in. They were gone. The families said the boys were supposed to stick to the Loxahatchee River because Cohen wasn’t allowed on the ocean unsupervised. Friends, though, said the two had used the app popular with their age group, Snapchat, to brag that they were going to the Bahamas.
And the parents took heat for allowing the boys on the water by themselves, but Steiding said those are non-boaters talking. There is no law prohibiting kids from captaining their own boat. “It’s not like when we were kids. Every kid has their own boat,” he said. “They are used to trips to the Bahamas. It’s like taking a car ride down to Palm Beach.”
Paula Garcia, 18, who works at the U Tiki Beach, the restaurant that pumps endless reggae music out toward the marina, echoed the sentiment
“Usually the only thing to do around here is to go the beach or go on the boat, you know,” said the 18-year-0ld who knows the Stephanos family.
“You know how everyone is saying that they shouldn’t be on the boat when they are so young, but they’ve been doing it forever,” she said. “It’s just the thunderstorm came out of nowhere.”
At Jupiter Christian School, where Stephanos attended, teachers said after at a prayer vigil that the child was simply obsessed about fishing. In art class, he drew nothing but boats and ocean life. Faith played a big role in Stephanos’ life and the vigil brought out more than 200 people who linked hands and prayed for the boys.
“You can see for yourself that we are a very close-knit community and we needed each other tonight and we needed to pray,” said Emily Walsh, an adult who attended the vigil.
And now with this tragedy for many of the boys’ peers, teetering on the threshold of adulthood, the emotions are overwhelming. At one prayer service, it was all braces and tears. The teens seemed connected in small groups at the hip, trying to make sense of it all.
Malia Bowman knew the towheaded Cohen as a classmate and he would brag to her about the fish he had caught. “Perry would talk about it all the time,” she said. “It’s just a really sad situation.”
Out on the pier and the marina, the missing boys were the main topic of conversation. Many had fished with the boys at one time or another.
Tanner Stephanos, a cousin, was out on Juno Beach skim boarding on Tuesday. Striking a very Sean Spicoli-like vibe with long sun-bleached locks, the 17-year-old recalled how he played hide-and-seek with Austin when he was younger. Salt still coated his skin from a day in the ocean.
“We are a very active people,” Tanner Stephanos said. “Austin has been around boats since he was in diapers. He was the first kid I ever fished with.”
The family of Carly Black, Austin’s mom, owns Grand Slam Tackle in Jupiter. While Cohen was supposed to stay within the confines of the river, Stephanos was allowed on the ocean with his boat and was implicitly trusted by his parents.
“His father Blu and I, we both grew up on the water and obviously when we met, of course, we were going to have children that loved being on the water,” she said. “He’s a water baby. It’s in his blood.”
Austin wasn’t known for his school smarts but for his quick-thinking on the water. His mother called him a “modern day MacGyver.”
“He researches and knows so much about the things he loves. He loves fishing. He loves being on the boat,” she said.
“He can be on Survivor and win the whole thing.”
Head to the Jupiter Beach Park Pier and you can find Austins and Perrys all over. At the bait shack, three of their fellow young anglers take a break from catching snook, looking at their smart phones at lures they want to buy. Kevin Estevez, Skyler Sparks and Ricky Denti fill their Instagram accounts with pictures of fish they caught.
Meg Robinson, who works at the pier shop that sells T-shirts with slogans that say “Fight Stress With Grouper Therapy.” She calls the wharf rats her “boys.”
“They’re the regulars. They come out here every day,” she said. “It’s a Florida way of life especially here in this area of Jupiter.”
The threesome about to be sophomores in high school could have been forged in a Sunshine State version of the buddy movie Stand by Me. They find the mall scene too crowded and “annoying” but sometimes forget that not all of their peers are as passionate about their sport.
“We start talking about fishing to them and they are like, ‘What are you talking about,’ ” said Sparks, who knew Stephanos.
Estevez said Stephanos and Cohen no longer look like the kids in the photo, that they matured and are known for being strong young men.
But Estevez said he would never go out on the ocean alone without an adult, calling it “sketchy” in case an emergency comes up.
But teenagers are hard-wired to take risks.
Sparks added, “I went offshore on my boat alone before, but it was scary. It was fun though. I did catch a kingfish on a dead sardine.”
There’s hardly a pier or breakwater in Michigan that doesn’t have some kind of memorial to those who lost their lives.
Usually two teenage boys and the older man who tried to save them.
The inland lakes in Michigan take plenty of lives. I lost a friend in the Liberty Mill Pond a few years ago and that’s less than 100 yards across at its widest point.
The technology is absolutely amazing. You can have an epirb and strobe light all on a lightweight vest
I read in another forum these kids not not just fish, they did free diving and spear fishing .... If so that opens up other scenarios as to what went wrong
Failed to anchor boat, drifted too far, one kid got in trouble the other tried to help
Horrible awful thing for the parents
I grew up in a similar fashion in northern Michigan so I can sort of relate.
If the parents had the trust in their kids to allow them access to the boat on the ocean then that's fine with me, I'm in no position to judge.
When I was 14 and lived on Lake Charlevoix, a close friend of mine who lived on the other side of the lake drowned when he slipped off his inner tube while swimming alone off a marina.
And just the day before, he, my friend Dave and I were tubing together way out in the lake closer to town. Evidently Danny didn't know how to swim, and Dave I never knew it......
Yes it is. Thanks for posting. My nine year old grandson can already name more of the local fish displayed at the local manatee center than the docents can.
It is only speculation that they were going to the Bahamas.
I’ve heard of 14 year-olds going for joyrides everywhere I’ve ever lived—and that almost covers the country. The fact that they were in a boat is the only major difference. Teenage males think they are invincible, and no law is going to change that.
You can either try to teach them how to operate things safely, or you can be sure they die when they take something out without permission or knowledge. I had my first gun when I was six and was driving on the farm at 12. Lived in the desert, so we didn’t boat, but I guarantee that I would have been in one at 14 if there were any water around. We drove and rode everything we could get running, and most folks would be amazed how much dangerous machinery we were able to scab together.
>>I’ve heard of 14 year-olds going for joyrides everywhere I’ve ever lived—and that almost covers the country. The fact that they were in a boat is the only major difference.
And that is a huge difference. Joyriding in a car means that you can always stop, get out of the car, make a call, and wait for help to come get you if you get in over your head. Joyriding offshore in a boat is a life and death decision. The parents of these “half-boy half-fish” boys did not instill a proper respect for the sea before allowing them to roam free on the ocean. I’m sure the parents thought of themselves as “best friends” with those boys. Most of these type of situations begin with “best friend” parents.
In my hometown ‘White water rafting’ was the big deal.....adults were always present...even so “something happened” and our community lost an experienced father rafting with his family.
These kids were on the ocean storms happen unexpectedly....no matter how close or far from land.
More teenage boys wrap themselves around telephone poles than die in boats. I’m not even going to look it up. Even after they get their “Nanny State Approved” driver’s license, they die—many of them on on joyrides. Everyone dies—it’s the only thing you can count on in life and teenage boys do so more often than anyone else.
You don’t know these folks, but you are surely willing to condemn them. I pray your children never do anything wrong and, if they do, that others are a bit more compassionate.
Once again, you know nothing about these families, yet you continue to bore us with your psychoanalysis of them as if you’ve known them your whole life.
You do fit right in to Free Republic 2015 though, I’ll give you that.
>>You don’t know these folks,
Do you know them?
>>Once again, you know nothing about these families
Do you know them? They’ve been on the local news here in Jacksonville every day for over a week.
Actually I do know them. You’ll find out a lot more about them in the coming days.
One kid is an heir to a construction fortune. The Joe Namath connection is a strange one, all things considering. Steroids/HGH and MLB will be mentioned. More divorces and marriages than can be kept track of on a chalk board.
They aren’t my favorite people by a long shot. But they’re not bad parents, and nothing you can say can change that imo.
No, I don’t know them. I do know 14 year-old boys though, having been one myself and having raised nine of them. Each one was vastly singular and dangerously stupid in different ways. I thank God that they all lived—personally, I take no credit.
Obviously, you have all your children under lock-and-key at all times, and I’ll not condemn you for that either. I’m pretty sure that these folks didn’t tell their boys to go to the Bahamas on their own. If they did, then I would have another response, but for now, I can only pray that the family is comforted in this time of loss.
>>But they’re not bad parents, and nothing you can say can change that imo.
I’m not saying that they are bad parents, by today’s standards. As you pointed out, they are quite wealthy and divorces are an issue, so they try to curry favor in the kids by being the bestest friend. People who try to be real parents these days become pariahs in the gated community setting because real parents say no and the other divorced parents don’t like to see that because the only time they tell their kids no is when they can blame it on the other parent.
But I really hope that I don’t see more of it in coming days. Their kids are gone and they need to get out from in front of the cameras.
Any debris in the Gulf Stream is headed out to sea off Cape Hatteras, NC by now. If found on land, it’ll probably be Ireland.
Yeah, either all that or an unexpected bad storm came up. One of the two.
>>Obviously, you have all your children under lock-and-key at all times,
Discipline them at an early age and you don’t need to keep them under lock and key as teenagers. They’ll still do stupid things, but they will know that there are consequences—not just when they get home, but real consequences that can hurt.
Actually, keeping them under lock and key (i.e. gated communities, play dates, concierge service for drop off/pick up at school for 12 years, etc) is why kids do not know the real consequences of stupid actions these days. They never get to learn any valuable life lessons until they are old enough to do truly deadly things.
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