GoFundMe hits sixty-five k of hundred gee goal…
The great Pat Curren, just turned eighty-eight and living in an Encinitas carpark with his wife and special needs kid, has addressed surf fans who’ve so far contributed sixty-five gees of a hundred k goal via GoFundMe.
But this is a story in three parts.
In part one, New York shaper Paul Schmidt bumps into the wife of big-wave surfboard design pioneer Pat Curren in Encinitas carpark. Is introduced to the legend, who also happens to’ve fathered a three-time world champ, and the pair hit it off. Moved by the family’s plight, which includes living in two vans in a carpark along with their special needs kid, New York shaper gets legend’s approval to launch a GoFundMe with a goal of a hundred gees.
“You can help raise funds to get a more permanent roof over their heads, room for them to breathe and get some much needed rest, health care, food, and space for Pat to work,” wrote Schmidt.
A common theme among comments on IG was, why aren’t his kids Tom and Joe helping the old man out.
In part two,
Pat’s second-most famous son Joe Curren responds on Instagram.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions and reading stories about a go fund me campaign recently set up for my dad asking for $100,000 to help him with financial issues. Yes, it’s true he’s struggling financially. The truth is, this has been going on for a long time.
We don’t know the person who started the go fund me. We first heard about the campaign Sunday morning on my dad’s birthday, after it was launched. We were surprised and disappointed that we were not notified about the campaign beforehand.
Comments revealed a friction between the family and GoFundMe organiser Paul Schmidt.
joecurren: @paul.surf We’re all having a difficult time understating why we weren’t contacted before this was launched.
paul.surf @joecurren I don’t think you are, I fully understand, and have explained in my past correspondence with you that this was a gesture made on behalf of your father and Mary, who are my friends. I was given permission by them to create the campaign and to post the story. They have had a hand in every step of the process. It was not my place to contact you, as I do not know you. If either Pat or Mary wanted to contact you, I imagine they would have. 50k and counting 🙂 we are excited for Pat and Mary to received some no-strings-attached help from all of the people in the community who support and care for them. 🙏
paul.surf @joecurren I’ll be sure to pass that message on to Pat and Mary for you.
joecurren I speak for the entire Curren family when I say, it would have been the right thing to do
paul.surf@joecurren not sure why you deleted your original comment, but again, I’ll be happy to pass that message on to Pat and Mary.
A few other readers turned on Schmidt, one writing, “Gag me with a spoon.”
Part three is the still-burning friction between Curren’s extended family and good samaritan Paul Schmidt.
Under Pat’s message, you can read,
“Unreal that you’re so blind to the damage you’re doing to this family as a whole.”
From Tom Curren’s kid, Nathan, “My dad has been helping and loving his father and his family so much it’s very painful for us to read those negative thoughts about him. You should have contact them before create the gofund.”
Schmidt, meanwhile, has remained pretty dignified throughout the thing.
“Let me just again say simply, we here at @paul.surf apologize for any unintended hurt the rest of the family may have felt in relation to the post and GoFundMe, which we made public on behalf of Pat and Mary. Our objective was to help our friends out of a tough situation.”
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Actually, if Pat had wanted to, he could have used California’s Indigent Parent Law to force his kids to help him out. All fifty states have statutes that obligate certain adults to care for or financially support certain other family members. But that’s not something Pat would do. Since the kids didn’t do it on their own, there’s nothing wrong with someone else stepping up to the plate. And there’s no need to get their permission; Pat’s an adult.
This whole thing is a lie. Nobody can find parking at Swamis.
yeah, that’s wrong too. part of the psychosis I think.
With a pretty Seppo move I f ing posted this to the White Shark story like a bloody kook yesterday … Bullocks, Aiiiyaaaa:
“Pat actually looks amazing on balance, had not seen him in so long. He, and a few others, started all this for us and that is simply true — perhaps if they didn’t someone else would have, but would that someone’s best friends be Noll, Gebauer and Black Butch? Would Tom Wolfe have written a book about them? Hard to say if a WindanSea kid had an actual choice, but, once becoming a surfer some of the actual pioneers, like Hollinger and Buff, become fireman and soldiers and get a pension [they live in the US where we starve our elders if possible] … others flame out like Butch, and the two who literally started it all, Pat and Paul, the wonder haole boys, end up like this … meanwhile Rabbit gets by on residuals from playing Native Americans, just like Duke before him did … we do what we have to do surf, I surfed the Country with all these guys, thought they were indestructible, they were not … a warning, from one, old surfers don’t necessarily age well, and I do not mean crows-feet … Pat does though, hope he and Tommy are well too …”
Someone should check NY shaper’s social to see if they are a self-promotional type of person just for additional context etc.
Yeah check his social – looks like he just is empathetic (wrote about being essentially homeless himself) so Pat’s situation hit a nerve.
Joe Curren is right that this random guy should have contacted the extended family before setting it up.
It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think of a scenario where Pat Curren is the one in the wrong. I’ve got an uncle who is a layabout problem gambler who burnt every bridge conceivable before permanently estranging himself from the family. Of course i’m not even insinuating that Pat is in the same boat, just that families can be complex and what happens behind closed doors may not be what’s portrayed to strangers.
hmmm, f ing glaucoma medicine and ooops must have posted wrong, again … got to fix that maybe but despite kissing Pat’s a$$ in my other comment I have to separate family from sport [wow so many sports legends, across all sports, are often bad parents] and remember the FACT that we used to see Joe and The Champ in the front yard of their [single] Mom’s old old house in SB, the one that EVERYONE passing by, surfer or not in the small community that so includes Rincon, could see from the freeway, impossible to miss, and impossible to miss that a Father was missing from that picture … but, Younger Currens, the Malibu Therapists all tell me you have to forgive your parents not for them, but for yourself, sounds a bit off at first than it works after you figure it out …
Doesn’t take a lot of imagination to think of a scenario where Tom/Joe are in the wrong… Especially since they’ve been mostly silent or have deleted all their comments… 🤔
Also wonder why Pat didn’t contact his own extended family? They mad at the messenger but not just calling their dad on their own?
What a crock. The family is just pissed because the story exposed them as the assholes they are. The man is 88. Who gives a shit what the situation is or what got him there. Make the last years of his life somewhat pleasant no questions asked.
What about that early 90’s skateboard: the Schmidt Stick?
Anyone remember them?
Any relation?
wrong spelling.
http://www.selectsk8.com/sc…
If you live on the coast of California it kind of does.
surfads already touched on this but the real reason this has turned into such a saga is because America is a psychotic country that doesn’t allow people to age or get sick or be poor with any safety net or dignity. Take a stroll through gofundme and look at the countless people with crippling medical debt, or without the funds for lifesaving medical procedures… let alone frivolities like overdue dental work or a bedroom for a special needs daughter. Add to that the all-American shame that comes with seeking any sort of handout, and you get a situation like this. And Pat is at least lucky enough to have enough clout in the surf world that he’ll actually get some money out of this.
Just a sad situation all around, and worst of all preventable.
“America is a psychotic country”….
A pretty bad generalization from a nation that has less people than L.A. county. Obviously we have our problems, but guess what? It’s complicated!
My question for you is mate, If we are so “psycho” then why does Australia try so hard to be so ……..American? I spent 3 months there and it reminded me very much of the midwest/South Florida USA, minus the cultural and ethnic diversity. Just a white-bread, Beaver-Cleaver suburbia with a funny accent.
Great waves out west though.
I’m from New York. Can’t comment on Australia but would love to visit someday.
yup. thats amerika.
Curren played every single one of you rubes. Hook, line and sinker. Schmidt set the bait. Another brilliant GoFundMe scheme.
Last I knew Pat and Mary were living in Teton Valley Idaho. What the hell happened?
He checked Surfline and saw Swamis was in the green and loaded up his Mercedes Sprinter van to snag some corners.
I’m in a tough situation–married, with kids, and shit waves. I also get bombed by Otto, GOAT, Bex, and a few others on the regular. Derek also consistently ignores my emails and tells me my writing is pish. And since he’s hot, I can’t complain. I think I need a GoFundMe. Wiggs, will you start one for me?
I think, with Derek, no matter what, you have those 360s, all 193 of them, and that is just on one wave … Hynd sometimes does 3-5 just on the take-off alone it sometimes seems …
Surprised Chaz hasn’t hiked down to the lot for a couple Greyhounds with the legend and talk story.
He don’t want to be mistaken for the special needs child!
You have never been poor
You have never had the joy of a welfare Christmas
money buys pills
Hey @paul.surf, I’m also struggling for cash and I’d love some free money too. I’m a local legend round here. Ok, maybe not a “legend” but I am a local. Fine, more of a “blow-in” then.
I don’t have a special needs child but if you ask my wife and she’ll tell you that I’m demanding, needy and have very low emotional intelligence.
I’m not saying “set up a gofundme campaign” but I’d like to put it out there that if you did set one up you wouldn’t get any push back from my extended family. In fact my parents will be rather grateful not to have a son in his late 30s still borrowing money from them.
They do your laundry, too?
It’s quite a far drive for laundry.
We’ll already be taking care of you when you’re 88. It’s called social security, dumbass.
I Fkn hate do gooders
Here’s a thought. GoFundMe is an extension of the corrupt American tipping system, whereby the onus is placed back on the individual to provide a safety net for those who most need it.
Imagine if you worked in an economy where employers were forced to pay you a decent wage, and you could sacrifice a tiny part of your income so as to provide basic universal health care and support for all.
Oh wait, that would be communism.
No, that’s the lucky cuntry
Used to be a killer pub with comprised internal structural integrity. Now it’s a mish mash of post modern pub design and hotel lobby, no soul.
We Mericans’ don’t like no hand outs. So why don’t you talk to me and my family before you try to help one US.
That would be the right thing to do.
if we included the tip in the cost of goods in the state, folks wouldn’t get cheap shit anymore. but that is our right in America.. cheap shit and as much as we fucking want it.. especially if it is plastic!!
tipping has pros and cons though in my mind.. sometimes I think a waiter sucks donkey balls and I don’t want to give him or her shit with that condescending bs.. or a beer man gets a buck a drink these days for fucking pouring a tap on a 7$ micro/kraft/snobbie/farmhouse/artsy brew and that just burns my ass when he has been down the other end just licking another cunts nipples for half an hour because they know one another from some sort of soccer club they play for.. so in some ways.. tips are good
The Harry Potter way of running things. Just waive your faget wand, and presto it all works out…
Just clean ALL of the plates off the table, and make sure the salt/pepper shakers are full.
Is Koby Abberton American? Remember when he burnt his house down in Bali and wanted hangers on to pay for it?
I think the american tipping culture is totally fucked, and I think crowdfunding is generally shit, but I don’t think they are the same thing either.
Malibu is BOTH communist AND a corrupt tipping system … and that is just out of the water … First Point is the safety net, well, maybe the Pier is actually …
What’s uncle Sam’s cut?