2022 has been a year of transitions for the SMA. Our fearless leader for the last decade, Mary Showstark, PAC stepped down from her role as executive director and is being replaced by Kure beach heavy, Deric Weiss, MD, currently residing in Wilmington, NC. Mary helped transition us into the digital age and navigated us through the worst of the COVID pandemic. She revamped our website, started and almost singlehandedly maintained our Blog, and was vigilant in maintaining financial oversight of the organization. As a result of Mary’s dedication and hard work, the SMA is stronger now than it was before she took the reins. The job was not always easy, but Mary successfully duck-dove us through some sneaker sets – Thank you, Mary, for a job well done!
Deric is in the midst of putting together a crew to assist him in the Sisyphean task of corralling and organizing the freewheeling surfers that make up the SMA. Chief among those will be Alexandra Myers, DO, who is formally stepping in as Treasurer, and Dani Vinn, in charge of Membership. Among his many goals are to expand membership, increase our visibility on social media, and revise our mission statement. Members in good standing (pay yer dues) with an interest in assisting Deric can contact him at SurfersMedicalAssociation@gmail.com.
On a sad note, longtime SMA Big Kahuna, Bill Jones, PhD, passed away on August 3, 2022. Bill was an SMA stalwart, acting as executive director for many years, editor of this journal from 2008-11, and organizer of numerous conferences in Tavarua, Galapagos, mainland Ecuador and elsewhere. He also helped formalize and distill the concept of “Surfiatrics”, holding a conference on the topic in Punta Mita, MX in 2019, and truly lived by its principles. Despite numerous medical issues he was charging sizable surf into his 70’s, wearing an insulin pump, with a candy bar tucked into his wetsuit – just in case.
For those who knew Bill, he was a hardcore surfer, upbeat and stoked until the very end, and was a warm and generous man who helped the less fortunate around the world through the SMA and Rotary International. A paddle out in his memory was attended by his many friends and SMA members at his home break in Monterey, CA on September 17, and personal remembrances of Bill are included in a memorial article in this edition. Bill, your spirit lives on….
With Much Aloha,
Andrew Nathanson, MD