On Thursday May 10th our closest friend and Waterbrother , Patrick "Shep" Martin passed away while surfing at his favorite spot - Belmont Beach aka Marines. The news shocked the surfing community and has utterly devastated the entire Waterbrother family. Shepper was a real gentle soul and such a fantastic character. Im completely overcome with sadness. We lost a major part of the team , the band , the family and the shop will never be the same. I will miss him every single day
Shep had a lot of friends all over the world. These photos are for the far-away WB crew that were unable to come to Newport to say goodbye...........
The sky over Marines
This is the night we built the Shep stonehenge
It took 4 of us to move and lift the massive piece of drifwood upright. Then 3 held it steady while the 4th scrambled to find heavy rocks for a stone base to keep it from falling over.
When the tower was standing tall we piled rocks all around the base and filled the inside of the log with boulders also for extra strength.
We were the only people at Marines that night . Cooper adds some last flowers as the sun quickly disappears
As the sun set we lit flares in Shep's honor and everyone stood in silence staring at the monument.
It was incredibly surreal. All we could hear was the intense heat of the flares burning. Our candles burned so bright they turned the sand around Shep's statue into glass.
As the sun finally set we said our goodbyes to our fallen Waterbrother "Shepper" ........
R.I.P Amigo - Im going to miss seeing your outfits everyday when you walked into the shop.