The stories on this coast are worth telling. Help keep telling them.
First Coast Lineup is independent and free to read — funded by local partners who believe these stories belong to the whole coast. Here’s how to join them.
The First Coast has the talent, the community, and the stories. What it hasn’t had is somewhere to tell them with the depth and care they deserve.
Every issue is built around long-form features paired with original photography — the surfers chasing the next level, the volunteers on the sand before sunrise, the shapers who still build by hand. The work takes time, and time is what most coverage of this coast never gets. The magazine grew out of four years photographing this stretch of coast — long enough to know the people in these stories before they were stories.
The model is deliberate: no paywall, no clutter, free to every reader. Partners are what make it work — the way local underwriters keep public radio on the air. Backing the magazine isn’t charity. It’s a direct line to an audience most channels can’t reach without wasting half the spend getting there.
A small audience — exactly the one you want.
First Coast Lineup reaches the surf community of this coast: surfers and their families, coaches and competitors, shapers, conservation volunteers, and the local businesses woven through it — from Atlantic Beach down through Ponte Vedra and on to St. Augustine. You’re not buying impressions against a whole city. You’re reaching the few thousand people who actually live this, with almost none of the waste a mass channel would cost you.
& Jacksonville Beach
U.S. surf states
coverage in between
Presenting Partner
Back a full issue, cover to close. Your name stays with the work for the life of that issue — on the site, in the credits, and anywhere the issue travels.
Department Partner
Stand behind something ongoing — the events calendar, the gallery, or a recurring beat — and stay attached to it across issues as the coverage grows through the season.
Founding Partner
Come aboard with the first group to back the magazine, and be recognized as a founding partner for as long as it runs. A standing the later arrivals can’t buy.
In-Kind Partner
Some partners add product, services, or space to what they give — useful for surf shops, shapers, and local makers. The magazine runs on financial support first; this rounds it out.
Event Partner
Artwalk, contests, cleanups, festivals. If your business belongs in the local scene, be part of how the magazine shows up in person on the coast.
Conservation & Community
For mission-aligned organizations and causes — a natural fit with the conservation work the magazine already covers, and with grant support.
Recognition fits the level of support: placement on the site, issue credits, recognition in the newsletter and on social, and a presence at events. Visible without ever cluttering the reading.
Every partnership funds the next issue: the site and tools that keep it live, the print and event materials that carry it across the coast, and the reporting and photography behind each story. It’s one person and no overhead — support reaches the work directly.
Partners make the magazine possible. They don’t shape what it covers. The stories stay the surfers’, the volunteers’, and the readers’ — always.
Let’s talk
Tell me a little about your business and what you’re hoping to do. Partnerships are built to fit — from small local support to backing a full issue — and the first step is just a conversation.
Start the conversation → Or email directly: msmith@firstcoastlineup.com