oregonsurf.com

Been going around social media circles, but our brother Gazsurf a true legend and ambassador of stoke needs help. He's been diagnosed with some form of cancer and has a kick starter going to help with medical costs. I'll edit with link later today.

Respect to Gaz, a true water man. Hopefully, the malignancy was caught in early stages.

i was just about to start a thread for gary -

here is the link

https://www.gofundme.com/gary-gregg?utm ... onor-share

Thanks for the heads up on Gaz.....will definitely be checking out the link.

Thanks for posting link Spider.

just got news that gaz lost his battle with cancer.

Dang I heard that as well. Sad news. Many good memories of sessions with Gary over the years. Have several stories, but one comes to mind about 10 or more years ago. I was staying at his place (I think SlimVest was there too)? After a night of talking story and a few beers, woke to a fresh pot of coffee but empty house. Gaz was gondo? Turned out he was up at dawn and ON IT. No wake up call for the bros Found him at the turn around lapping an epic right hand bank I have yet to see go like that to this day.

Found this still exists!

https://cedarwalls.blogspot.com/

An epic time capsule and some great words and pics from Gaz and the blogger days of old.

Speaking of blogs, cribbed this from doc's-- although I'm guessing he cribbed it from the OSP, so maybe this is a homecoming of sorts? Anyhow, my heartfelt condolences to Gary's family and friends. In his own words, an origin story:

[My] first memories are swim lessons around the age of four in the salt water pool, from a guy that was still teaching kids their first swim strokes 15 years later. I swear he was wearing the same khaki hat with sun flaps and the same sunglasses he had on when he was teaching me.

My father had a swim regime on Saturdays, so I tagged along to the Olympic sized pool at the Racheal Finlayson Baths, another salt water pool. After he was done with his laps, but before leaving for home...I got to dive for change. He would reach into his pants pockets and make a big deal of whether he had brought enough then toss a small handful into the deep end, 10' down was my "pocket money" for the week, all I had to do was get my 7 year old @ss down there to get it.

No fins...because he thought they made a swimmer lazy, and no goggles just because that would have made finding the coins too easy. Free money being free money, I scoured the bottom till I had collected them all, great conditioning for wipe outs. There were also other old guys in the pool and seeing me dive for cash cracked them up, so on their way out they started tossing coins for me to get, I scored heavily some days and lost my fear of getting under the surface. Money talks, I guess.

Piggy backing while he swam out to the backline was the first foray into the ocean. I can remember the blue glass surface of the sea to this day, of what was probably a small day at South Beach. The shoreline seemed to have shrunk when I next looked back and then I felt him reaching around behind him to pull me, a very unwilling me, I have to say, off his back. Frantically kicking with my legs while he held my arms he told me to bodysurf the next wave in and not to panic. No matter how much I begged and pleaded he wouldn't take me back onto his shoulders, and at some point swam away leaving me to drown I was sure!

Soon a wave came and those lessons and the pool diving all came into play as I swam into my ride, desperate to get back to somewhere shallow enough to stand and escape from the sharks that I was certain were homing in on me. After that terrifying intro, I was mat surfing within months and at 9 got my first glass board. The Wave Master. Orange speckles over a clear top deck with a green/white resin swirl on the bottom and a hatchet fin on the back complete the picture.

~gaz

http://surfinoregon.blogspot.com/2006/1 ... s.html?m=1

I remember at one point here on the OSP, I would spend hours just waiting for Gaz to respond to some thread or another. He had such a unique perspective on all things surf related and life in general. He is one of the Great OSP contributors, I was always happy to read his posts. Wish I could have met him in person. That goes for all of you except for Spider who I got to hang out with one day at Kennedy school.

RIP Gaz.... Cancer can go f@#K itself