Sweet Benny

[Tex]

Last Wednesday, my middle brother Ben passed away from aggressive melanoma...he was only 36.

Not only was he the best brother a guy could ever hope for, but he was one of my favorite guys to surf with. We started surfing together in 1990 and we both fell in love with it. At the time we were living in Seattle so we would road trip out to Wesport and the Oregon coast. Surf trips were always an adventure in our toyota van.

We would either camp or park off of 101. Sometimes we would try and crash in the St. Peter's church parking lot but the nuns usually busted us.

Ben took a couple of years off but picked it back up again back in 2008. This past fall we got to spend two weeks down in Costa Rica. We surfed Ollies and Witches and a couple of other really cool reefs. Anyway, it was down there that Ben discovered Oakfoils SurfBoards. When he got back to LA, he promptly ordered three custom boards from Wayne. Wayne just posted an RIP for Benny yesterday and you can see it here: http://oakfoils.blogspot.com/

We cremated my brother yesterday and he wanted his ashes spread off the Oregon coast. I know he will be sending solid swell to all of us.

Tex

[grizldoldfk]

i offer my most sincere condolences to you tex. to have a brother must be wonderful. i never had one. i'm sorry for your loss.-griz

[bluesilver]

Indeed, condolences. I too lost 2 freinds in the same week two weeks ago.

[Spent]

Condolences Tex. Next sesh is in Ben's honor.

[Friend Of The Hawk]

Tex,You've done your brother proud by posting your loss and sharing a small bit of it here...Im sure he is as proud of you as your are of him....
I had a great morning session today...I will give thanks to your brother Ben for sending it my way.....Thank You Ben...Long may you ride....

FOTH....

[Wilbur Kookmeyer]

Tex....I am sorry for your loss.
Words escape me.

[Gazsurf]

Tex... you have the use of my paddleboard if you would like to take his ashes out to the rock for burial. Cheers. g.

[Ceedog]

Sorry to hear it Tex, 36 is way too young!

[Tex]

I can't tell you how much each of your messages helped me get through my first day back in Portland.
The power of this group is inspiring especially given the fact that I have never met any of you face to face yet I felt I could share the passing of my brother (a fellow surfer) with all of you and I got back way more than I could have ever imagined.

Gaz, the paddleboard offer blew me away...I think we will do it in June when the swell drops...my father wants to paddle out too so it will have to be a really mellow day =)

Blue, I cannot imagine losing two friends in a week, you are in my thoughts and prayers.

Spent, Benny will hook you up with some sick waves.

Hawk, "Long may you ride" might be my first tatoo....really appreciate your thoughts and well wishes for my brother

Griz, I can feel your sincerity from here and believe me it is helping.

Wilbur, your response basically said it all as words to truly capture my brother generally escape me too.

Ceedog, you got that right, thanks for taking the time to reach out.

I wont go on and on about my brother Ben as I easily could but I will leave this group with one final note:

About 2 years into his fight with melanoma, he decided to do a stair climb in Seattle to raise money and fight lukemia. He joined the fundraising process with about 3 weeks to go and ended up being the second largest fundraiser for this group. I think he raised about $15,000. Anyway, my youngest brother made a 3 minute movie about the stair climb and if you want to, you can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoIEFj6NxuQ

Thank you all.

Tex

[Spider]

so very sorry, tex.

[Down The Line]

Very sorry to hear this. May i suggest a paddle out?
Tim

[Tex]

Benny definitely wants a paddle out. I am waiting for a board we worked on together to be completed and then we will do it. I will keep all interested OSP'ers notified. Thinking June, North Coast.