Florida has more coastline than any state in the continental United States. Most people see a fraction of it.
Jackson Laurie has spent years exploring Florida's four distinct coastal regions: the calm, warm Gulf Coast with its white sand and shallow water, the wilder Atlantic Coast with its surf and sea turtles, the extraordinary Florida Keys stretching into the Caribbean, and the Panhandle's emerald-green water and sugar-white sand.
This guide is not a list of tourist attractions. It is a considered account of what makes each stretch of Florida coast worth knowing, written by someone who lives here and keeps coming back.
Florida Through Jackson Laurie's Lens
A Florida life, spent at the water's edge.
Jackson Laurie grew up in Florida, and the coastline has been the constant thread through his life. He has kayaked the mangrove tunnels of the Ten Thousand Islands, snorkeled the reefs of the Keys, surfed the Atlantic breaks near Sebastian Inlet, and watched the sun set over the Gulf more times than he can count.
Florida Coasts is his attempt to document what he knows: not the resort strips and the tourist brochures, but the actual character of each stretch of coastline. The way the light hits the water differently on the Gulf and the Atlantic. The specific quality of silence on a Panhandle beach in October. The feeling of driving the Overseas Highway for the first time and understanding that you have left the mainland behind.
Jackson Laurie is based in Florida. This guide is updated regularly as he continues to explore the state's coastline and the communities that have built their lives around it.
Full BiographyFlorida's coastline is not a backdrop. It is the whole point.
Everything worth knowing about Florida begins at the water. Jackson Laurie built this guide to share what twenty years of coastal living in Florida looks like when you pay close attention.
Meet Jackson Laurie