SURFSIDE BEACH, Texas-The surf was flat Saturday morning, but the paddle out was significant as the Old Guys Surf Reunion team and supporters gathered for the fifth year to remember surfers who had "gone before them."
The Facts reports members of the team stood on a travel trailer attached to a sound system and read the names of 238 surfers and friends of the community who have died. More than 100 people watched as they unveiled a granite bench and monument in honor of them all.
Some names, such as Bonnie "Miss Kitty" Smith, garnered a large cheer from the crowd.
Melody McCarty met her husband, Kim, on "Easter Sunday 1970, right here at Surfside Beach," she said. She's proud of the Old Guys Surf Reunion team and supporters for raising enough money to get the permanent monument in place. It memorializes Kim, who passed away in 2013, she said.
After the monument was unveiled, Austin Campbell, Surfside Beach resident and enthusiast, led the paddle out. Surfers hopped on their boards and dropped flowers into the Gulf. Those without surfboards threw flowers from the shore.
Campbell was asked to lead the paddle out because his father and fellow surfer, Steve Campbell, passed away before the first reunion.
"It's an honor because I know my dad would be doing this if he was here," Campbell said.
The team always has donated money back to the Village of Surfside, he said. Now that they've purchased the monument, he said, virtually all of the money raised by the reunion will go to help the community.
The event began as a small gathering of friends, Campbell said, but became much larger after news of it spread on Facebook.
Bouger Bellymon is one of the attendees originally enticed by social media before the first event. He usually surfs in Crystal Beach, but said since he first attended and met people who were so polite, he has come back every year.
Some newcomers enjoyed the tradition this year. Surfside resident Jim Hall met neighbor Linda Thompson when he moved to the island. He said, before her passing, she was a nice friend to many. Hall and Thompson's friends watched as paddle-out members scattered her ashes in the Gulf, in accordance with her wishes.
The Old Guys Surf Reunion is a time to remember all who have been a friend of the surfers in Surfside, Campbell said. The list of names even included Buddy Schuester, a homeless man who hung around Surfside but who also maintained friendships with the surfers.