"It is a sad day for the world when it takes the life of an absolute legend!"
It was, in some ways, a freak accident but it still didn’t come as a hell of a surprise when news broke that a recreational surfer had busted his neck and died at Teahupoo on Thursday.
As reported yesterday, French Polynesian news outlets said the man, identified as daddy of two Patrick Phillips, fifty six and from La Jolla, California, hit the reef and busted two vertebrae in his neck in a wipeout.
Another surfer resuscitated Phillips on site before he was taken to the nearby Taravao Hozzy and, later, to the more sophisticated CHPF (Centre Hospitalier de la Polynésie Française) as he hovered ‘tween life and death.
The rescue was made “more complex by the language barrier,” according to Taiarapu-Ouest fire chief Haamoe Hoata, noting that the victim and some of his relatives did not speak any French.
Phillips sure had some friends, with a paddle out at La Jolla yesterday well attended.
Chris Cote, whom you know well, described Phillips as a “gem of a man.”
On Facebook his pal Greg Sinclair wrote:
Patrick Phillips, a longtime friend from San Diego passed away earlier this week while surfing in Tahiti. At the current time I have no information about what happened. My heart goes out to his wife and two sons, his family and to his friends who are now sharing their love. Patrick and I lived under the same roof for almost a year with his older brother Pepper and mother. I’ll always remember him as a good natured kid approaching grommethood. It was never hard to get a smile from Patrick. Rest in peace my good man!
For the below the line dweller, how often do you reflect on your own mortality?
Do you live each day as if it’s your last, inhaling the sweet morning air when you wake up, saying hello to your friends the birds and the trees, or do you find existence an excruciating bore and can’t wait to visit the next world?
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Hard working family man that provided a great life for his wife and kids in a pricy area. Solid local surfer dedicated to the Reefs. I surfed with him quite a bit had some good conversations.
Tough way to go a long way from home.
Dad dies living his dream on Fathers Day weekend.
Heartbreaking for his kids.
RIP. While there are worse ways to go than doing something you love, 56 is way too young. I have never needed that level of adrenaline to be satisfied with my life, but I’ve known a few that don’t seem to feel alive unless their hair is on fire.
I had a serious illness a year ago and nearly died. I certainly think about my mortality more than I did prior to that. My mom is in the late stage of dementia. I’d rather get hit by a bus tomorrow than go out like she is.
I’ll add a practical note. Get your affairs in order: will, trust, POAs, advance directive, passwords, etc. Losing a loved one is bad enough. Don’t add to it by leaving a mess behind. Fortunately, we had all that in place for my mom before she became incompetent, so I’ve been able to manage her life for her.
Took me a long time to get around to that because it felt like I was sealing my fate.
But now I am glad that I did.
Reading through the archives of BG it’s quite incredible how many of us have had major health issues or setbacks, including being severely bitten by a shark in south Africa. And one or two have passed on over the years because of cancer, etc.
As for dementia/Alzheimer’s/late-stage Parkinson’s, I’ll put a bullet through my brain before I subject anyone to taking care of me for that. Seeing it in front of me, with family members, is scary and horrible and confusing.
I’ve said the same, but dementia is tricky in that the sufferer doesn’t usually know they have it (anosognosia). In the US it’s currently difficult to plan for handling it legally.
RIP Sir. As I have now reached the landmark of 50 I have a question I have been wanting to ask the mature members on here for a while. Why am I now growing clumps of long hair out of my ears, nose and eyebrows and is it of any use and why is it happening? Thank you in advance for your helpful responses fellas
Happy Birthday, SC. Hope that you have a good one.
I think that the loss of hair in the good places and the appearance of it in Strange, new places is supposed to be a good thing. I think that it’s meant to teach us to slowly let go of vanity; something that me might never do otherwise.
A case in point is all of these ghouls who run the world now. They’re all injecting blood and taking stem cells to try and look the same and live forever. And they just end up looking like ghouls. Both they and the women they choose.
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Spend all that money to look worse. Wild world we live in.
Have a rad experience and tip a few in!
Xox
Na sorry brother theres a misunderstanding and I turned 50 November last year, just don’t know where all this strange hair has started coming from haha
Ahhhh well, tip a few in for all the well wishes haha.
Xox
Wait today is your B day?
Nice.
A
Same – no fucking idea. It just starts showing up. I’m just a couple years older – it gets worse too. I’m yanking 20 nose hairs a day it seems. Aging is not for the weak.
It’s the long, whit ear hairs that are getting to me, why the fuck do they happen and what is their use? hahaha
Bummer. I think I might have surfed with this guy at the Kelly tub five years ago, unless that was some other balding goofy from La Jolla. Can’t be sure though.
Lots of them.
With all due respect to the man having just passed, I was surprised to hear he was surfing teahupoo. I remember seeing him go for it, but nothing that screamed teahupoo level skill. I question the discernment involved but at the same time respect the tenacity to be going after waves that don’t even enter my imagination (massive pussy here). Really unfortunate and wishing the best to his family.
I’ve talked to former QS guys that want absolutely nothing to do with that wave.
Looks like a battle of instinct. Turning down the face on your outside rail(if you get that far) while in the tube as everything warps. No thanks.
But at head high to slightly overhead, though. Looks fun.
I had a bad surf related injury in my 20’s and it really changed how I look at risk.
My injury happened at a spot with a rocky shoreline and a narrow keyhole exit. Waves were overhead so there was a bad longshore current. I was with two childhood friends who put their own ass on the line to get me out. Even though I was conscious it took about 2-3 passes on the keyhole before we finally made it out. I have no idea how long I was drifting in the water, could have been as short as 5 min, could have been as long as 40. I ask my friends and they both give different answers, one says 15 the other said closer to 40.
If I were surfing a spot with a big, broad sandy beach I could have gotten in by myself. But because of factors that had relatively little to do with the wave or what was underneath the spot I was surfing was significantly more dangerous than an identical wave with an easier exit. If you look at accidents as a chain of events that go wrong, a lot fewer things would need to go bad for you to die at a spot with a sketchy exit compared to an easier one.
Another one is what would need to happen for me to get to the lineup into a first world medical facility.
These are things that I used to ignore that I now pay a lot of attention to.
Also I need to call those dudes. They did something for me that you can’t buy.
Give em a call. Send them around a bottle of wine, or their local wine store does delivery.
Everybody loves a thoughtful gift, no matter how simple.
Gut-wrenching to put a name and face to it.
Yeah definitely the only anti-depressive bit about this – being 56 and still seriously committed to getting barreled. Though his family might not see it from the same angle.
If anyone here knew him – hats off.
RIP … on the one hand, gone too young. On the other, we all have to go eventually , so checking out while chasing barrels at chopes is not the worst option , by a long shot.
seems like the yin / yang of life comes into more focus the older you get. On the one hand , fear seems to grow more distant , as the end gets closer death simultaneously withers in your mind, ironically growing less and less ominous.
On the other hand , logic would suggest you should probably be more fearful , since your skills are eroding even faster than you realize.
And then there’s that voice in your head that gets louder and louder w/ each passing year , telling you that you better do it now or you never will.
sifting through all the competing voices and shifting perceptions is a pretty wild ride.
Godspeed to this guy and his family and all the others like him still chasing it as the decades whip past
I’m just at the point in life where I don’t enjoy that black out set and the chase to the horizon or a real wave of consequence that could do me in. Enough unkowns in life as there is. I really just enjoy being in the water and getting away from it all. Washing off the day. Seeing old friends that you only really see in the line up/car park. I’m a pussy I know….but I’m ok with that. RIP to Mr. Phillips.
Preface: no disrespect to the loss of lajolla charger, but I offer this soft take on Raglan and Negs.
Aside, and really aside from the tragedy of shark attack victims and the fall-out of the Bondi murders, the agony of a perpetual war on Iran from the IDF, there can be a moment or two where what is out-of-mind becomes a glorius “This is it!”
Browsing BG comments on finals day there were some comment/captions that really blended well and Negs hit it early: “By afternoon the swell will start showing and by the finals the wind will be perfect for throwing cutbacks into the wind . The height of the spray may determine whose riding the best waves, or something. He called it early on.
By bowing out of the BG presentation, and inability to watch&comment at the same time which has never worked for me (and finals are not on youtube ever,) I resorted back to S_Line real time static cam. By god, indeed the outer point was firing. Blue green yellow lefts that boggled the mind racing with rippers tossing insane late bottom turns, and unlike the main break there were few sprays but ultimately insane down-the-line double overhead racers. The entire swell into the bay arranged with the capabilities of the coastline to form them.
The layout became clear: when Rag’s is firing the further outside waves are the place to be: not every wave is perfect and not every wave was ridden. By the longview and now in the contest area, waves were smaller and peeps were ripping.
For a moment the magic of Raglan transformed into an epic visual that left a lasting impression and this AM it still lingered. All kidding aside, for about twenty minutes a stone cold reality of what a awesome place it is. Sure we have the Pipeline left and much hype to watch an entire day of surfing that leaves us exhausted and wanting the same the next day. However, have never watched a brief, albiet, view from a mile away that engrained and will linger for some time. Sure its a world class wave that chose to show itself to those lucky on the beachGrit and the few of us that waste money of a pay-per-view wave watching.
“A forth year of the Raglan Corona Cero contest in on today,” on BGer wrote. Yeah most of the ‘testing was tedious to watch. But every great spot has its days, hours, or even minutes.
Strictly for Dino Andino fans, or people that grew up around him and that area.
I saw big waves in France, had my gun and everything, had an odd feeling and listened. I am more about listening to the world than raging against for the moment. Had the same feeling two months ago at home on a random Wednesday off, big lefts and no one around, said no, turns out my mate fully suited up early that morning and about to enter saw a GW chasing something aggressively on the take off zone. So for now, tapping in.
Xox
Gay
Feels super gay now, but it was gnarly and shifty. Like Sunset into a shorey.
Xox
Still there? Hows the heatwave treating you?
Nah returned and sad, apparently it is brutal from all reports.
Xox
Gnarly wave to take on at 56. Delayed muscle twitch, reflexes etc….
You never know unless you go…….I guess
Thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of our fallen brother.
As for me, I live each day as if it’s my last, waking up angry and scrolling over to BG to post bloody poop pics to piss everyone off while making them feel good about their life and dietary choices.
A good dose of anger and contempt for all of you gets the blood pumping and gives me motivation to make it to tomorrow so I can do it all over again, editing for grammar, spelling, and clarity as I go.
Fucking antidepressive amiright?
True (Beach) Grit right there!!
” ah love to pop the whistle down her bottom cheeks”
Robert Duvall ‘ a shot at glory’
Evening Dez I have something to say on this topic but am short on time this evening so just have a quick quezzy for ya. Is our dear fellow Strayan and bum hole fingering legend Dogsnuts really our new Mod bruz?
Modsnuts
Negsnuts
I’m correct in assuming C4 sucks the heamaroids of dead people
What has C4 done?
Tasmania is a freezing cold inbred cult
hahahaha fuck those sister fucking cunts.
Angry that I got him and Andy C mixed up and said he likes talking about his wive’s bum hole. Hard to keep track of all you degenerates. Not the greatest thing ever to discuss live thread stuff on a person’s memorial page.
R. I. P. Him
f u c k you
Hahaha fuck yes, and admitting faults, A+
Xox