Ramon Brockington: A Eulogy

I only met Ramon Brockington three times. “Damn,” I said to myself. "He is accomplishing all of my goals without the sarcasm and irony."

I first met him when he popped into the Inter-Island Surf Shop on Kapahulu Avenue promoting a surf film festival he was to be holding at the Kapolei Regal Theaters. He was hoping to sell Barry Morrison some ad space in the festival program or, at best, get Barry to buy or sell some tickets. I mentally rejected his efforts but wished him the best. I had been committed to the granddaddy of Hawaii surf film festivals, the Honolulu Surf Film Festival held at the Honolulu Museum of Art for over fifteen years. I had become a videographer fixture at the event only because no one told me to take a walk. I filmed many of the heavyweight dinosaurs of the surf community in post film discussions in the hopes of establishing a small group of archival films on YouTube for future researchers.

I found myself at the soft opening of a new surf museum on the North Shore in Waialua. Darrick Doerner had a dream to establish a museum. (Many surfboard collectors have started museums as a nonprofit method of storing their surfboard collections and sharing the collections at the same time. The biggest such collection can be found at the Surf Heritage and Cultural Center that has just moved from San Clemente to Laguna. Dick Metz is the father of this collection.) I arrived at the new museum to find Ramon Brockington with his 4K mini camera interviewing the main players at the event.

Several days later I found him again at the museum. I stopped him in the parking lot and asked if he wanted to play the surf trivia game for a prize. He exclaimed, “I know you. You’re the surf trivia guy. Yes, I want to play.” After he played, he said, “Now I have Hawaii’s Own Surf Coin. Thank you.” He exuded the most positive vibe one might ever find from a stranger in Hawaii where many people start with a guarded approach.

After our first meeting, I searched his Oahu Surf Film site on YouTube. The guy had a footprint of over 900 videos from interviews to beach surfing footage. Thirteen days ago he dropped a brand new video of Darrick Doerner and Shaun Tomson discussing the nature of the surf world as it progressed through the infancy of professional surfing in the 1970s.

One must remember that we videographers are first committed to our craft only with the hope that our efforts might lead to a financially rewarding career.

I last saw Ramon two months ago on the sidewalk fronting Publics surf break in Waikiki. He said he had been filming da boys at Ala Moana/‘Bowls’. He was now looking for the next spot to capture before the swell died. We shook hands, said very few words, and gave each other that vibe of recognition for our minuscule contributions to the surfing community.

I heard this morning that Ramon had passed away. Young guy. A small giant has gone. I just want to honor his passing with this small eulogy.