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| Surfing Magazine April 2011 cover |
From Surfing Magazine's April 2011 issue where these guys and Vans scoured Hawaii's North Shore for the best underground talent to be named North Shore Underground Surfer of the Year plus 25k travel bonus from Vans. The eventual winner was 35-year old Sion Milosky, a family guy who went through various occupations just to support traveling and indulging his surfing lifestyle. In order, they are "... Dishwasher, cook, pizza delivery, busboy, window screen repair, carpenter, commercial fisherman, boat repair, auto repair, waiter, bartender, welding and fabrication, gate builder." Besides regularly surfing, he owns and operates a welding company while raising a family at the same time. In fact, one of his pictures in the feature showed an amazing shot (a dream shot of mine, really) of him working the waves.
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| Sion Miloski, a few minutes after dropping his kids off at school |
The caption for this photo reads: "A few minutes after dropping the kids off at school, Sion Miloski emerges from the pipeline mist." How's that for living the life? In fact, "he keeps his schedule flexible to match hours with the North Shore swell pattern - fast, fleeting and unpredictable." Here's the thing that killed me.
"My program is to get up in the morning, look at the waves, and decide: am I going to work today, or am I going to surf?" says Sion. "If it looks like a good day to skip work, I skip work, and I surf. Life's pretty good right now." You got that right Mr. Miloski, my man.
Now, while trying to get a copy of that picture I was talking about on the magazine's site, I stumble across this on the associate editor's column (my bubble burst, literally):
I was shocked. I mean I was just reading about him two nights ago (since I picked up my copy from Booksale, hence I get these a few months late, but nevertheless, I couldn't believe I'd find a gem among Booksale's stacks and at only Php 35.00), and then I read about this. Really sad. The sport is exciting, exhilarating, a dream as hell, but I guess many loved ones are lost as well. But as long as they've lived a full life, I'd bet they'd never been happier than where they were at that time. Rest in peace to all these surfers who I get to read about only to find out they've passed on.
Looking forward to my next foray in Booksale. Who knows, I might be able to snag the July 2011 issue next:
... Surf's up. And I'm not in on it yet.
Credits: All photos by different amazing photographers are taken from the Surfing Magazine website. Quotes from the article North Shore Underground by Stuart Cornuelle
