The other night, I went to the Life Rolls On Night By The Ocean gala. If you don’t know what this is, it’s basically a big gala party that raises funds and awareness for spinal cord injury research. You can go to liferollson.org to get more info, and you should because it’s an amazing cause and the science that is happening in that area is truly fascinating.

Anyway, I am an asshole. I ran into a friend of mine named Chris Bailey who is an ambassador for Life Rolls On. Chris was paralyzed at derby Skatepark in Santa Cruz in 2006. He’s an epic guy, always positive, always psyched and ready to go shred whenever he can. So the reason I am an asshole—I saw Chris and we started talking. He asked if I had been surfing and I said, “I can’t, I hurt my knee.” As soon as I said this, Chris laughed and kind of waved his hand down to his wheelchair. I felt like an idiot. Here I am complaining about a sure knee and saying “I can’t” when the guy sitting in front of me is so psyched to surf and get in the water that nothing, not even a broken neck could stop him from surfing. I said sorry and in his true spirit he just laughed and we went into the party.
I hurt my knee again surfing this weekend, and I felt a tinge of pity for myself, then I thought of Chris Bailey and Jesse Billauer, then I felt thankful and slapped the pity right off my own face.
Those guys are heroes.
And we should all be thankful for every wave we catch.

Check out Chris Bailey at http://www.myspace.com/santacruzsoulsurfer