Family, Surfers Gather for Sion Milosky Paddle Out Memorial in Half Moon Bay

On March 16, 2011, shockwaves ran through the international surfing community when Sion Milosky, a 35-year-old big wave surfer from Hawaii, under a two wave hold-down during an early evening surf session at the Mavericks break in Half Moon Bay.

On Friday — the one-year anniversary of Milosky's — family, friends and fellow Mavericks surfers gathered under cloudy skies not far from the break to commemorate the surfer with a paddle out and prayer circle memorial ceremony modeled after the Hawaiian tradition.

"It's a sad day when you take a moment to remember our loss," said Mavericks veteran surfer and Half Moon Bay native , who wore a black "Live Like Sion" baseball cap and watched the paddle out and prayer ceremony from shore alongside wife Cassandra Clark and Milosky's brother Remy Milosky, aunt Cathy Gomez, uncle Dennis Milosky, stepmom Debbie Milosky and cousin Michael Gomez.

The twelve surfers who participated in the paddle out memorial included fellow surfers who rode Mavericks' big waves alongside Milosky, including longtime Mavericks surf contest competitor and Santa Cruz resident Ken Collins. Youth from the also participated.

The one-year memorial ceremony was originally out at Mavericks Beach less than a mile from the surf break, just like the which took place a day after Milosky's death at the beach in 2011. But blustery winds, rough waters and strong rain Friday afternoon brought the group to calmer conditions at Princeton Harbor instead, a location just north of Half Moon Bay and less than a five-minute walk from Clark's at .

Cathy Gomez, who drove to Half Moon Bay from Livermore with son Michael, was somber as she reflected on the past year.

"It's still really hard for my brother," she said of Milosky's father. "It hasn't hit yet — the full reality hasn't set in. Since Sion and my brother's family lived over on the islands, we didn't see them much...we didn't realize just how big Sion was," she said of the surfer who was born and raised on the Hawaiian island of Kauai before moving to Oahu, where he lived with his wife and two children.

Milosky grew up surfing from a young age, according to Gomez. "His family had him out on the beach two days after he was born, and I have photos of him on a surfboard at three years old," she said.

Just a few months before his death, Milosky was recognized by Vans and Surfing Magazine's North Shore Underground program, which granted him $25,000 in travel funds to surf anywhere he chose. Milosky used part of that money to fly to Half Moon Bay in March 2011 to catch one of the last big waves of the 2010-2011 Mavericks season.

"Sion was so humble," Gomez said. "He would never brag. And it took his passing to let everyone know how great he was. He was always looking out for everyone else."

Like many other friends and colleagues of Milosky, his aunt remembered him as "such a family man...his wife and daughters always came first."

Gomez smiled when she recalled how Milosky's wife Suzi Olaes told her that he treated her and daughters Awakea and Suriyah like princesses.

"All of Sion's friends in Kauai tell me that they looked up to him because he was so humble," Gomez said. "They all wanted to be like him," she said.

Milosky's aunt and his cousin traveled to Kauai for Milosky's paddle out in Kauai.

"After Sion's body was flown back home, he was cremated in Kauai," Gomez said. "The community paddled out on surfboards while Sion's dad, wife, and daughters were on a boat."

"They scattered his ashes in the water, and a helicopter flew overhead and dropped flowers in the water," she said.

In 2011, Milosky was also remembered at a at the Banzai Pipeline big wave surf break off Oahu's North Shore, a spot he often frequented.

And just like in Half Moon Bay, Milosky's family, fellow surfers and friends gathered again at Pipeline in Oahu and PK Beach in Kauai on Friday for paddle out and prayer circle ceremonies.

"It's just really great to see everyone get together and remember Sion," Michael Gomez said of his cousin. "He was so loved."

After the ceremony, the rain picked up again, and Milosky's family, friends and fellow surfers walked over to a nearby establishment to warm themselves through music, barbeque and trading remembrances of the surfer and family man.

Beyond stories, though, the first anniversary of Milosky's death reinforced lifelong surfing lessons for Jeff Clark, well known as the first person to ever surf Mavericks in 1975, and often described as being more familiar with the treacherous break than anyone else in the world.

"It's a good day to remember," he said. "You need to remember so as not to forget that you always need to watch your brother's back out there, especially in the ocean — it's dangerous."

"Today we remember how valuable and precious life really is," he said.

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