Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Photo: Dean Dampney.
Father’s Day is upon us and that means it’s time to pay tribute to all the rad dads out there who have created and shaped the contemporary surf community. You don’t need to read Freud to know the important role that fathers play in the development of their children.
So today, give thanks to all dads for doing everything from cleaning dirty diapers to getting their kids to school to teaching their children about the wonderful playground we call Earth. Here’s to all the dads who joyfully engage in early morning school drop offs, animated movie premiers and slumber parties.
Here, in no particular order, are a couple of rad dads who are doing it right:
1. Shane Dorian
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Dorian has made it clear that he wants his son to experience the world at full throttle. He encourages his son Jackson to do everything from hunt with bow and arrow to charge big waves. What else would you expect from Mr. Dorian?
2. Joel Tudor
Image: Instagram/Joel Tudor
Tudor is one of the fathers of modern day longboarding, but he is also the father of two boys, Tosh and Judah. There is no doubt he is raising a couple of style masters who will ensure that longboarding always has its place in the contemporary surf era. Tudor says that his children are his greatest accomplishment and that “nothing compares…” not even his 8 U.S. Open of longboarding wins.
3. Josh Kerr
Kerr gets special props because he manages to be a rad dad even when touring the world with the WSL. Kerr’s entire family seems to embrace his profession as a touring surfer.This is scene through his daughter Sierra, who at the age of six began to tear up the skate bowls in their home town of San Diego, and continues breaking barriers to this day.
4. Corey Lopez
Lopez demonstrated what should be considered the epitome of “rad dad-ness” in taking one of his three children, Alana along for a surf at the age of two. Lopez decided the sooner she got to experience the water, the better, and put her right on his back for a little early age surf action.
5. Shaun Tomson
If transparency was the status quo, would we continue to support and respect the industry giants in the way we do now? Photo: Jim Cook
Tomson and his wife went through an unimaginable loss in 2006 when their 15-year-old son died because of “a school boy prank gone wrong.” Tomson’s loss was highly publicized and the grief he and his wife must have experienced is impossible to relate to, except by someone who has gone through it.
“Our lives were shattered in a moment,” Tomson wrote about the day he found out his son had passed. “My friends rallied, got me a passport and ticket and put me on a plane. It was a harrowing trip back to South Africa – I was in a state of disbelief and my only thought was to save my wife. My beautiful son was gone and I knew I was close to losing my wife as well. On my arrival, Carla had to be admitted to a psych care ward and I didn’t think she was going to make it.” In a move that proves even the toughest losses can come to be accepted, but perhaps never understood, the couple adopted their son, Luke, in 2009. Read his tragic yet inspiring story here, and read a few of his powerful words on life here.
6. Doc Paskowitz
Dorian ‘Doc’ Paskowitz was a father in the traditional sense, but also in the abstract sense as he is ushered in a new era of surfing. His approach to raising his children was different, to say the least. Paskowitz definitely had his hands full with a whopping nine children, who were almost entirely home-schooled in the family’s surf camper. But, as a Stanford educated doctor working in Hawaii, Paskowitz used surfing to advocate amongst the surf community a focus on holistic health and betterment of the mind and body. Read the story of the Paskowitz’s life on the road here.
