Wonder and amazement!
We, each of us, know that this surfing life, while very fun, is otherwise worthless. Getting up, paddling out, bogging a cutback, paddling in, rinsing, washing, repeating, though I rarely rinse or wash. The salty crust that builds up is one of the great, albeit worthless, surfing life pleasures.
Magic, on the other sleight of hand, is not worthless as it brings great joy to many. Groups of children, Las Vegas convention goers, people waltzing down Santa Monica’s 3rd Street Promenade etc. Smiling faces alongside general amazement and let us learn the completely inspiring story of Hawaii’s Mycah Muranaka,
The young man lived a very active life in paradise, hiking, camping and surfing. One day in January, 2016 he was out at a well-known spot when his back started hurting and his knees became weak. He quickly paddled to shore but by the time he got there he could no longer stand up.
After being transported to the hospital and examined, the doctors declared he had suffered surfer’s myelopathy, a very rare sort of paralysis when blood vessels leading to the nerves in the back become restricted.
Paralyzed from the waist down, he was told he would never walk again and became very sad but he did not give up and focused his attention on what he could do, including mastering the art of magic.
He is now president of Hawaii’s Society of American Magicians and works for the Honolulu Magic Company, inspiring many and bringing joy to many more. He says he hopes others facing difficulties can learn from him by finding something that absorbs them too.
Completely anti-depressive.
Commented on Disqus? Log out, tap the Disqus button, and your old name and comments come back. The box is ours.
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Who’s the Kook writing this article that thinks Surfing is worthless as entertainment, but yet think’s magic and magical card tricks are more entertaining than surfing, and that magic is more intriguing from a Street Magician to kids than surfing is to them being on the beach watching big waves get dominated by Surfers??? Idk about that one… As a kid I couldn’t of been enamored more by anything than I was by the art of Surfing!!!
Your list is wack. Michael Jordan #2 behind gretzky. Labron is a loser. Has too many nba finals losses. Jordan 6/6 and carried his teams.
He has myELOpathy?! Thought for sure you were giving us the ol’ Chaz jive, but lo that is a real thing. Poor chap. I seen a lot of VAGS (vulnerable adult gender-neutral sup-ers) moving to the beach here in CA that gots that disease. They also make magic too. You think maybe they are surfers, and then they pull a paddle out of their arse.
The only issue may be, the others are all well known sport athletes, while no one else seems to give a rip about surfers, except a few other surfers.
But hey, I’m good with that.
I don’t rinse either.
My manager likes to lick the salt off me
I have a magic trick request for you, Chas: an article for The People (TM) that is actual surf journalism and not a rehashed repackage of some random surf adjacent web article.
But…..that would interfere with his wife’s plan for him to transition to the snowboard world (or whatever the hell he has been doing with/to himself instead of writing for BG).
I go through phases!
The People are your muse. Phases aren’t an excuse. Be that writer for us every 4 articles you dreamed you’d be, back when you were scribbling waves on desks in high school in bumbfuckville, Oregon.
I hear you!