No one needs to be reminded that the sea is a dangerous place, and nowhere more so than where it meets the shore. Sion Milosky, one of the world’s great big wave riders, died last week at 35 while surfing off the California coast.

Sion Milosky

At the time of his death Milosky — a “goofy-footer” (that is, he stood on the board with right foot forward) — was visiting friends in California, where he wanted to surf the notorious Maverick’s break at Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, which has killed or maimed surfers in the past.

On the evening of March 16, he decided to round off his session by barrelling across a big wave on his bespoke 10’ 5’’ board. According to his close friend Nathan Fletcher, he caught the wave “with a big smile on his face” — but the wave’s lip pummelled him into the ocean and a following wave covered him like an avalanche.

Fletcher immediately commandeered a jet ski, and found Milosky’s body 20 minutes later, a mile from where he had disappeared. His lightweight life-vest had proved inadequate against the might of a “two-wave hold-down”.

A fellow surfer who saw Milosky’s body taken ashore said: “He looked perfect. They’d removed his wetsuit, his eyes were closed, no apparent damage of any kind. Just a perfectly peaceful, healthy person. You felt like you could just jolt him back to life.”

Milosky, whose wife and children survive him, said in a recent interview: “It’s not about making a big drop. The ultimate aim is to get barrelled [to get in the hollow of the wave]. Powering into the biggest wave and the biggest barrel. That would be a nice feeling — for people to say, ‘Hey, Sion, he caught some of the biggest waves ever ridden’.”

Thanks to Alaric Bond for passing the story along.