The close-knit fraternity of big-wave surfers is a deeper state of mourning Thursday as realization takes hold that Sion Milosky is dead at the age of 35.
The personable surfer from Hawaii, who was coming into his own as a top-level big-wave charger, presumably drowned after a wipeout at Maverick's near Half Moon Bay, Calif., on Wednesday at dusk.
Conditions were not ideal, with bumpy storm surf and reduced visibility, and wave heights measuring perhaps to 50 feet. Milosky fell on what might have been his last wave before calling it a day.
He reportedly was held down by that wave and another without being able to surface between the two waves, and it proved overwhelming. His friend, Nathan Fletcher, found the body while cruising back toward the lineup after giving another surfer a ride from the offshore break into Pillar Point Harbor.
Milosky, while it will be said that he died doing something he loved, leaves behind a wife and two young daughters. He was not a top-level pro and held a real job, but had begun to attract the interest of sponsors.
He was recently named North Shore Underground Surfer of the Year, and was paid $25,000 by Vans, which sponsored that Hawaii competition. Milosky used some of that money to pay for his trip to Santa Cruz, where he stayed with fellow surfer Ken Collins and was among a dozen or so surfers to greet the arrival of a big northwest swell at nearby Maverick's.
Said Collins to the Santa Cruz Sentinel: "Sion was dominating it. Everybody was like, 'Who is that? What are you doing letting Hawaiians take over your wave?' That's what blows my mind the most, is that he was doing all that, and then he drowned."
Surprisingly, given the raw power of Maverick's breakers, Milosky is only the second person to have been killed there while surfing. The other was Mark Foo, also from Hawaii, in 1994.
This has been a tough winter for Hawaii's surfing community, which is still struggling to get over the death last November of three-time ASP world Tour champion Andy Irons.
News of Milosky's passing began to spread Wednesday night on social network websites. Most of the posts were heart-felt condolences, including this one on a friend's Facebook page: "Sion Milosky ... so sad to hear that we have lost you ... another great brother from Hawaii. Our deepest sympathy and aloha to your family."
-- Pete Thomas
Photo courtesy of Cestari / ASP
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