“Balsa Bill” Yerkes

“Balsa Bill” Yerkes 

It’s hard to pin any one talent to “Balsa Bill” Yerkes, a true renaissance man if there ever was one.

And it’s equally hard to avoid attaching the adjective “legendary” to each of his numerous accomplishments.

Bill, a trailblazing pioneer of ’60s surfing, graduated from New York’s Ithaca College with a filmmaking degree in 1969 after making two, now-classic surf films, the best bits of which have been edited down to make up the recently released “Summer of ’67,” which is a classic in its own right. He proved to be a strong force in a string of surf contests during his halcyon days, and was instrumental in co-founding the East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame.

If that weren’t enough, Bill is also renowned for his shaping skills and earned success with his Sundek surfwear line in latter years, and he still draws acolytes to the surf shop he keeps in Satellite Beach, where his additional skills as a surfing historian and engaging raconteur are always on display.

But it’s as a musician that he seems the most comfortable these days, and he’s recently been added to the Heidi’s Jazz Club roster every Thursday night from 5 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.