Joe Surf: Life Rolls On touches thousands

Last Sunday was like many Sundays this summer, my son Cade waking me up in a hurry to get ready to take him surfing. We were in the water at Goldenwest by about 9 a.m. and it was already warm, sunny and crowded.

But as I paddled out, it started — a shooting pain that starts in my neck, goes down to my right shoulder blade and then to the back of my right arm. A pinched nerve, I thought. I’ve been battling it for almost a month, but it hurts most when lying on a board in prone position, lifting my head and paddling.

I tried to suck it up, and caught a couple of waves. But after about 45 minutes in the water, I couldn’t take it anymore. I motioned to Cade that I was going to catch the next one in, and within a few minutes we rode a wave in side by side.

I was done, but Cade, a ripper in the making and a member of Dwyer Middle School’s surf team, was just getting started. Of course, he wanted to surf at the pier, so we drove south a few blocks and parked in the northside lot.

Cade hustled to the water and I sat in the car, for two hours, watching from a distance, feeling sorry for myself.

Then on Monday morning I got smacked again. This time, though, I was hit with perspective. I learned that this Saturday at Ninth Street in Huntington Beach, the Life Rolls On Foundation will put on “They Will Surf Again,” an event from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. where people with spinal cord injuries can experience a day of surfing.

Life Rolls On was founded by Jesse Billauer in 2001, five years after he was paralyzed in a surfing accident at Zuma Beach in Malibu.

The foundation’s mission statement says Life Rolls On is “dedicated to improving the quality of life for young people affected by spinal cord injury. Believing that adaptive surfing and skating could inspire infinite possibilities beyond paralysis, Life Rolls On began as a venture into the unknown on Sept. 11, 2001, achieved 501(c)3 nonprofit status in 2002 and now touches the lives of hundreds of thousands every year.”

Billauer was 17 when he had his accident at Zuma in 1996, a potential professional surfing career crushed.

“I pulled in backside, but it was kind of a closeout,” Billauer recalled in an interview with Surfline.com. “I tried to take the doggie door out, but the wave hit me in the back.”

He went headfirst into the sand and suffered a C-6 complete spinal cord injury, causing total loss of movement and feeling below the point of injury.

“Every other injury I ever had healed, so I thought maybe this would be just a short time,” he said.

But he was wrong.

Confined to a wheelchair a couple of years later while attending San Diego State, Billauer reached out to pro surfer Rob Machado, whom Billauer had met before the accident. He told Machado that he wanted to get back in the water. Eventually, with the help of many others, it happened.

“On your stomach, every wave looks huge,” Billauer told Surfline. “I remember just going straight, gliding with the wind on my face, smelling the salt water and seeing my friends hooting and hollering.”

Sessions with Machado were recorded and used in the film “Step Into Liquid.” The reaction was overwhelmingly positive. It spurred him to create Life Rolls On, which holds surf events on both coasts.

So far this year, events have been held in Santa Monica, Jacksonville Beach, Fla., Carolina Beach, N.C., Wildwood Crest, N.J., Rockaway Beach, N.Y., and Venice Beach. Another will be in La Jolla on Sept. 12.

Each event requires help from hundreds of volunteers. To volunteer for a future event, go to liferollson.org.

*Simpson in Tahiti

Huntington Beach’s Brett Simpson was knocked out of the competition in Round 3 of the Billabong Pro Tahiti, the seventh of the World Surf League’s 11-contest World Championship Tour.

Simpson went up against Kelly Slater and Brazil’s Jadson Andre in Round 1 and finished with a two-wave score of 4.70 for third place. Slater won the heat and advanced directly to Round 3, while Simpson and Andre went into Round 2.

Simpson faced Australia’s Taj Burrow in Round 2 and scored a big 9.17 on one of his waves and had a two-wave winning score of 16.50, advancing to Round 3.

But in the third round, Simpson was eliminated by Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, 16.97 to 12.50.

Simpson placed an equal-13th in the contest for 1,750 WCT points, but he isn’t likely to improve much on his No. 36 ranking.

JOE HAAKENSON is a Huntington Beach-based sports writer and editor. He may be reached at joe@juvecreative.com.