Editor’s note: After 41 years on Siesta Key Beach, Ruberg announced his retirement in September 2025.

Anyone who has spent time at Siesta Key Public Beach has had some introduction to Scot Ruberg, 56, known by his beach name, “Scooter.”  His long beach-bleached hair, tall coconut palm frond hat, perennial tan and sunniest of dispositions put you right in the mood for a beach day.

From snowy Canada to just around the corner, more than 20,000 people follow his Facebook video posts to get a glimpse of the ocean, hear the sounds of the waves and seagulls, and watch his beach report near his perch at the Magical Green Lifeguard Tower.

Many of these followers have never been to Siesta Key, or perhaps they’re once-a-year visitors, but his cheerful morning reports of blue water and white sand connect them to something restorative.

“It’s absolutely beautiful this morning,” he posted one day last winter. “Get out here before the rain starts. Get yourself a walk, go for a bike ride, just come and sit and drink your coffee and absorb the absolute beauty the mornings bring here. The sun’s coming up. Birds are singing. Have a great day.”

“His outlook is so refreshing,” says Sarasota resident Raymond Grimaldi, who remembers when Scooter started the page three years ago. “It’s little wonder that his vibe has caught fire.”

Originally from Illinois, Ruberg spent 10 years in Daytona Beach, attending college and lifeguarding. He came to Siesta Key back in the late ’80s for a lifeguard tournament, stepped on the sand and…

“My jaw dropped,” he says.

The white quartz sand, friendly people and beautiful blue water were just what he was looking for, so in 1994, he signed on as a Sarasota County lifeguard.

Jean Luc Provost comes down to his home here each winter, but Covid-19 has left him and his wife, Denyse, in the chill of his hometown of Montreal. The short minute or two daily videos on the Scooter of the Beach Facebook page warm his heart, if not his toes. He met Scooter, like many Siesta Key tourists do, at his green lifeguard tower.

“I took a picture of him with my granddaughter,” says luc Provost, who looks for the videos every morning. “We miss the place this year, and the videos keep us in touch with the beach.

In the world of professionally shot video, voiceovers and cleverly positioned advertising, Scooter of the Beach page stands out for its one-man-show approach. His videos are too short for Facebook advertisers, and despite the desire to monetize the page, he is resistant.

“It’s real,” Scooter says. “It’s impromptu. I make mistakes, and people laugh.”

The videos have a Garrison Keillor or Charles Kuralt feel to them, says Grimaldi.

“There is something significantly magical about the beach,” Grimaldi says. “I feel it. The various people I run into, they feel it as well. And Scooter is the perfect spokesperson for it.”

Scooter’s towheaded 9-year-old son, “Little Finn” (not his real name but one they use for the videos), sometimes pops up with his dad’s same happy disposition and wide smile. His wife, Mandy, tends to stay away from the videos, but is a big supporter of the page.

He travels from Casey Key to Longboat Key to give a beach report and loves to give shout-outs to Siesta Key businesses that he frequents. “It could be a lifeguard, a bartender, the guy renting bikes or renting boats,” he says.

The beach vibe extends to his house in Osprey. His yard is filled with colorful native plants and a tiki bar adorned with license plates from all over the world, given to him by his many fans, whom he calls “a tribe of people that just love Siesta Key.”

Eventually, he’ll retire and travel to beaches along Florida’s coasts to give reports on each beach with history, interesting facts and interviews. He hopes to make his travels into a coffee table book.

But for now, Scooter enjoys making his daily videos, knowing somewhere out there, someone is watching and smiling. More and more people stop by the Magical Green Lifeguard Tower to wave hello, having met him on the page.

“People come every year, and they say, ‘That old blond lifeguard is still here,’” he says. “I’ve been sitting in the same place for 25 years. I’ve watched families come each year; I take pictures with their kids. Now, their kids are bringing their kids.”

 By Stacey Altherr 

https://www.facebook.com/share/1BSE1hz3DT/

A Sarasota restaurant and tiki bar billed as “world-famous” and known for its stoner-friendly vibe and menu — featuring items like the Dankalicious Nugz, Legal Greens, and the Wake & Bake brunch special — along with a memorable national television appearance, has apparently closed.

When the sun set on Munchies 420 Cafe, located in the restaurant- and bar-rich Gulf Gate neighborhood just east of Siesta Key — home to the tourist mecca Siesta Beach but still recovering from last year’s hurricanes — it appeared the once-thriving business had shut down for good.

The Munchies website still lists its hours as daily from noon to 3 a.m., but when this journalist pulled up at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 30, the spacious parking lot at the corner of Superior Avenue and Gulf Gate Drive was empty. A couple hanging out nearby said their friend, a cook at the 420 Cafe, had recently learned his workplace had permanently closed.

 I also visited two other prominent restaurants on Superior Avenue in Gulf Gate, and both confirmed they’d been told Munchies had shuttered. 

 A GoFundMe campaign titled "Help Save Munchies 420 Cafe: Support Needed Now" said the business had suffered financial hardship due to the "perfect storm" of last year's hurricanes Helene and Milton, the economic impact on busy season, and "a multitude of major unforeseen equipment and facilities repairs that have drained the operating capital during slow season." 

"We know how much the community loves Munchies and we have tried to go above and beyond to bring it back to its glory by investing in all new equipment, TVs, food quality, table service, amazing musicians, festivals and so much more," a statement attributed to Munchies Ownership and Staff read. "Ownership along with investors have exhausted all other available forms of funding, so we are now asking for the community's help to keep this legendary part of the local culture alive."

The statement claimed that without those funds, Munchies would have "to close its doors permanently in the coming weeks." As of 9 a.m. Sept. 30, the campaign had only raised $250 of its $50,000 goal.

Multiple attempts to reach the restaurant by phone, social media and email were not immediately returned.

Munchies 420 Cafe opened in 2002. According to a 2017 Sarasota Herald-Tribune story for the restaurant's 15th anniversary, the idea for Munchies came when owner J.D. Chester, then 23 years old, wrapped up a night of drinking and couldn’t find any restaurant in Sarasota that stayed open in the late hours.

However, Munchies was best known for its “Fire in Your Hole” challenge where, after signing a waiver, participants had to eat 10 wings doused in a hot sauce using ghost chili extract within 20 minutes. The challenge appeared in a 2009 Sarasota-set episode of Travel Channel's "Man v. Food," which also featured The Old Salty Dog and Yoder's, with then-host Adam Richman proving unsuccessful. (Richman would later say it was the most painful challenge he attempted on the show, claiming restaurant staff covertly added "the whole bottle" of ghost chili extract, during an episode of the popular web series "Hot Ones" that features celebrities answering questions while eating hot wings, ironically.)

In 2024, Munchies announced that it was under new ownership, with "exciting updates to come."

Wade Tatangelo and Jimmy Geurts, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Tue, September 30, 2025 at 10:13 AM EDT

 Father and son rescue man on Siesta Beach 

On the Monday evening of the long Labor Day holiday weekend, Jackie and Rob Eberley, who live on Midnight Pass, went to Siesta Beach with their 27-year-old son Gray who was visiting from New York City with his girlfriend. The group decided to take a quick early evening swim.

Jackie decided to stay on the beach. Rob and Gray went into the water for a swim.

Lifeguards had ended their patrol day at 5:00 p.m. and had left the beach.

The water, both Rob and Gray recalled, was choppy and conditions were windy. Rob, a marathon swimmer and member of the Siesta Beach open water swimming group “Meet Me at Blue,” named for the blue lifeguard chair on Siesta Beach, began swimming toward his son.

Suddenly, Rob heard a man yelling and flailing his arms in the air. “I quickly realized that he was in trouble and going under. The water was not clear, and it was hard to see.”

By the time Rob reached the man, whom both father and son believed to be in his 20’s or 30’s, he was, according to Rob’s estimation, about three feet under the water. “He was dead weight and in deep water” said Rob, who was not able to stand in the water himself.  “I pulled him up in a cross arm carry and started swimming to shore. He wasn’t breathing.”

Gray, a certified rescue diver, looked over and saw that his father was making his way back to shore with a swimmer in distress. He quickly swam to his side.

“I thought to myself, that guy isn’t fooling around,” said Gray. “When I got to them they were both just about at standing level in the water. The swimmer’s head was rolled back, and his eyes were open. My dad kept telling him stay with me, stay with me.” 

Without hesitation, Gray began to give the swimmer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. “He came back to life after I gave him the rescue breath,” said Gray. “He spit up water.”

Still shaken days after the incident, Rob recalled his days as a lifeguard and said, “I never had to give anyone mouth-to-mouth. Gray saved his life.”

“It was all my dad,” Gray said. “He saw the guy first. Then, I saw him make a bee line for him. When we got to the edge of the beach, the guy tried to walk out of the water, but then he collapsed.”

“The lifeguards came with the paramedics on a Polaris, a beach ATV. They gathered around him, checked his pulse, and then took him away.” It happened so rapidly that both men as well as Jackie who was watching the event unfold, agreed that the lifeguards appeared in what seemed like moments.

“We were so relieved to see those lifeguards. They got there so quickly,” said Rob.

Jackie recalled seeing two young men on the beach as the event unfolded but it is unclear who called 911 for help.

According to a statement released by Sarasota County, “Sarasota County Fire Department personnel responded to a medical emergency on Siesta Beach around 5:42 p.m. on Sept. 2. One patient was transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital.”

The next day, Jackie, who grew up on Siesta Key, returned to the beach and asked the lifeguard on duty at the blue chair if there was any news about the young man’s condition. She was told that due to privacy regulations, the lifeguards could not discuss his status. “Everything in life is just about the moment,” said Jackie. “We all got to the beach at just the right moment.”

Swimmers, Rob said, call rough water conditions like that Labor Day Monday evening a “washing machine.”  Looking back, he recalled that although there were not rip tide conditions, the current was what he called “decent.” He said that it’s easy to understand how a less than strong swimmer could get scared and panic. “I recommend that bigger signs announcing the hours when there are no lifeguards on duty be posted,” he said.

“Be really aware,” Rob said, “no one’s strong forever. It’s important to respect the power of water.”

A week after the incident, Gray looked back on that day. Echoing his mother’s thoughts, he said, “God saved that man. It was just an impromptu visit to the beach, and we were all in the right place at the right time.”

 Chamber hosts Safe Treats for Kids 

Families can bring their little monsters trick-or-treating on Siesta Key at the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce Annual Safe Treats for Kids event on Oct. 31 from 3-6 p.m.

This free event provides a safe venue for children to enjoy trick-or-treating at participating businesses. Simply look for the businesses displaying festive balloons and go on in.

Businesses wishing to participate need to register at the Chamber of Commerce website. Families and children wanting to participate, need not register.

Happy anniversary!

. 

The Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce is celebrating the one-year work anniversary of Visitor Center & Volunteer Manager, Brittany Stokes.

An announcement released by the Chamber said, Brittany is a great asset to our team and does an outstanding job recruiting and training volunteers and overseeing the visitor center. Her motto is “how can I help” and goes above and beyond to enhance the guest experience.

Certainly, sounds like recognition well deserved. Thank you, Brittany – we appreciate you!