TAMPA, Fla. — Hubbard’s marina, a Pinellas County fixture and staple in Florida’s fishing community for more than fifty years, was severely damaged hurricanes Helene and Milton.

Owner Dylan Hubbard questioned if they would ever recover.

But now, eight months later, Hubbard said his deep-sea fishing charters are seeing record high numbers and day cruises are booked. Just one more sign that Florida’s coastal communities are ready for the summer.

On a recent busy Thursday morning at Fort DeSoto. one ferry has just left for Egmont Key State Park, a secluded barrier island about an hour's ride away and the ferry to Shell Key was quickly filling up.

And it was no different back in John’s Pass.

While people gathered for the deep-sea fishing charter that was about to head out, employees prepared the baits of shrimp.  

Both the Hubbard’s ferry and the fishing charter are operated by Hubbard’s Marina, a fixture in the tiny fishing village.

“You can see a lot of these videos on our YouTube page,” Hubbard said scrolling through hundreds of videos on the Hubbard’s Marina YouTube page.

It’s easy to tell by looking at his office that family life and the ‘salt life’ are one in the same.

HURRICANE AFTERMATH

“They were coming up and above our windows,” he said pointing to the crashing wave on the computer screen.

Looking at video captured the night Helene hit is a reminder of just how far things have come.

 “You can see the waves break across the parking lot.”

The morning after Helene struck Dylan grabbed some of his crew and headed to the marina.

“The sun started to come out and it was like scenes out of the walking dead, he said. People were coming out of their homes. We had people standing on their seawalls. We had families crying.”

Dylan walks over to the upper boardwalk. At 6-foot-5, he can easily reach it.

“The water height was about here. And there were 4 to 5-foot waves hitting this. So much of that boardwalk was damaged.”

The dock he was standing on was destroyed too.

“We lost all our inventory. All our hardware. All our freezers. All our ice makers,” he said.

Hi eyes are hidden behind by his sunglasses, so it’s hard to see the emotion in his eyes, but you can hear it in his voice.

“I won’t lie there was a point there that I thought, where do you go from here?”

Fourteen of his 82 employees lost everything. There was only one answer.

“When someone is in that position you need something to keep busy and you need a way to make income,’ he said.

So, they got to work.

The sand was removed. The floors and walls were dried. Inventory was replaced. Then plank by plank the pier was rebuilt. 

“I would say the majority of businesses were back open by around December,” he said. “By the time we hit Spring Break, a couple weeks ago, Johns Pass was pretty much back full force,” he said.

Hubbard’s Marina, which serves more than 120,000 fishing enthusiast, shell collectors, and dolphin watchers is back in business.