Coronado
Surf & Lifestyle
Museum
The area known as New Smyrna Beach was once called Coronado Beach, a name used from the late 19th century when developer Foster G. Austin built cottages for hunting and fishing retreats.
The center of activity shifted to the Flagler Avenue area after a bridge connected the island to the mainland in the 1890s, and the name New Smyrna Beach became prominent over time.
The original NSB North Causeway Bridge
Coronado Beach was later annexed by New Smyrna, which had its name changed to New Smyrna Beach on August 1, 1937.
What sets New Smyrna apart isn’t just the surf, it’s the culture that rises around it.
It’s in the mom-and-pop surf shops, the old locals with stories of hurricanes and hurricane parties, the parents who taught you to surf and paddle out next to you, and the younger groms who remind you where you came from.
New Smyrna Beach shapes how you move through the world—with patience, confidence, and knowledge of tides, timing, and the thrill of the drop. It’s more than a sport. It’s a lifestyle—woven into every sunset session, every dinged board, and every wave you chase.
This online surf museum hopes to tell the surf tales from way back to the time before the North Causway Drawbridge, to the time when New Smyrna Beach was Coronado Beach all the way to the present day.
The Coronado T-Shirt
Available at Nichols’ Online Store!
Custom Design by ©Chuck Carter, owner of Nichols Surf Shop