Cocoa Beach Pier: an old name and a teenager who won twice
Compiled by Surf Haunts · Updated 2026-09-20
At Cocoa Beach, the pier gives the long Atlantic shoreline a clear point of reference. From the sand you can follow its line of supports out towards the water. It has appeared in beach photographs for decades, though older postcards may give it a different name.
When it was Canaveral Pier
The City of Cocoa Beach's historical timeline dates the pier's construction to 1962 and records a cost of $150,000.
It was originally called Canaveral Pier. A period postcard in the University of Central Florida's RICHES collection preserves that name, and the collection's history dates the change to Cocoa Beach Pier to 1984.
So if you've got a family postcard with "Canaveral Pier" on it, you're looking at an earlier name for this landmark. That small detail makes the old images easier to place.
Two wins, no prize money
One of the better stories from the beach concerns a local teenager. The Florida Surf Museum's account of Kelly Slater's Cocoa Beach childhood describes him winning both the boys' and professional divisions at a surf festival at the pier when he was fourteen.
According to the museum, he turned down the professional prize money so he could keep his amateur status. Two wins, then a decision not to take the cash: it's a more revealing local detail than another list of titles from later in his career.
The museum's account still calls it Canaveral Pier, a reminder that the old name outlived its 1984 replacement in everyday use.
What changed in your photographs?
The long deck and repeated supports make the pier easy to pick out, but details around it have changed. An old photograph might show a different building, sign or stretch of beach from the one you remember.
Do you have a pier postcard, a contest memory or a correction to add? Let us know. We'll ask before publishing your contribution and agree with you how to credit it.
Our Cocoa Beach Pier print
Our illustration keeps the long pier and its supports, with warm sand in front and the Atlantic beyond. Buildings are simplified rather than copied as branded venues. You can see the Cocoa Beach Pier print in the collection.
Compiled from public historical sources and fact-checked against them at the time of writing – not a first-hand or local account. Corrections and memories are welcome; we verify before publishing anything sent in.