Local massage therapist Josh Coats has just the right touch
Ifirst met Josh Coates through my wife. She came home one day and was raving about this new massage therapist she found. She likes deep tissue massages and with Josh working for the USC football team for eight years, he had the skills. I eventually went to him myself and we started running into each other outside of Bert’s or out on Center Street. Eventually he was referred through our newspaper email as someone to interview, so it was easy for me to reach out and get his thoughts on Folly living.
FOLLY CURRENT: Where were you born and how long have you been tied to Folly ?
JOSH COATES: I grew up in Columbia, SC. We would do day trips here growing up. My Sister and Cousin lived here in the late 90s and early 2000s. So I would crash on some couches and occasionally the beach. My wife, Emily, and I both started working down here about 6 years ago, her at Folly Dental and me as a massage therapist at Folly Medi Spa and at Tides Acupuncture on Folly Road. We finally got a small long-term rental here about a year and a half ago.
FC: What’s your favorite thing about Folly Beach?
JC: The community. It is still, at its heart, a funky, small town, where everyone looks out for each other.
FC: Share a story you are fond of about Folly Beach.
JC: We had a family celebration here in 2000. I have a big family and we like to celebrate. The party had gotten separated, and my mom called me; in the mania, she had somehow lost her brother, my Uncle Gary, on Center Street. She said he was in a ‘rough-looking bar’ and she was worried about the riffraff that he was hanging with. So I went to get her and him at the Sand Dollar. I had to pay a buck to get on the register and when I got in, they had had a few drinks and didn’t want to leave!
It was my first time there. Oddly, my friend’s band called Throttlerod was playing over the speakers. There was another band setting up and they all had long hair and were ready to rock. Out front there were about 10 Harleys and choppers. I immediately felt comfortable there. We stayed there for a while only to come home to find my other Uncle, Mike, dancing on the kitchen table. Folly has a way of allowing those great memories to happen. It’s part of why I fell in love with It.
FC: In your opinion, what’s the most important issue facing our community today?
JC: I guess how fast this place is growing and changing. That we might lose the Funky and be like some ‘other’ beach towns.
FC: If you were in charge, how would you fix it?
JC: No one wants to see me in charge, but I guess I’d just keep letting the island draw the Kooks, Artists and Healers here. I’d make sure they felt at home. How would I do that? I’d make the people arguing about the short-term rental cap sit down and come up with a plan they both can agree on. I know there’s some of that going on now, and I encourage that to keep happening. I think we can all say we are saddened by the divisiveness, so let’s move forward on a coexistence plan. Politics in general needs to go back to finding ways to work together rather than name-calling and fighting. And maybe find a way to help the people who live and work down here get affordable housing/rent.
Pat “Wiggy” Hiban interviews a different “Face of Folly” for this column each month. If you have an idea of someone you think Pat should chat with, please send suggestions to editor@follycurrent.com.
