In Others’ Words …

Letters & Testimonials From Our Friends

“It’s a hard thing to find a good teacher,” Jimmy Buffett said in an interview on Margaritaville.com, “particularly in surfing, because everybody’s too busy surfing. It’s a pretty self-indulgent sport. And you don’t find a lot of people who have the qualities out there to give. Tim devoted the time to go out there and not go after every wave. Doing this at 53 or 54, and hopefully surfing for the rest of my life, I have a completely different take on how I want to surf. Tim was great to connect with because he has that gift of being a teacher. When you find someone like that, you stick next to them like a remora on a shark.”

Correspondences And Other Famous Friends

Links, Press, Guidebook Accolades, Interviews

Surfer Magazine Article On Tim Sherer

Maui Surf LessonsOn an overcast day about 20 years ago, a 27-year-old surfer from Long Beach named Tim Sherer was practicing his ski jumps at Mount Baldy, when an overly ambitious attempt sent him full speed into a tree. He was knocked unconscious, swallowing his tongue and completely blocking his airway.

His best friend, Tim Inskeep, tried CPR and even the Heimlich maneuver, but nothing worked. Despairing, and with Sherer’s skin turning a ghastly purple, Inskeep looked up, said a prayer and brought all his weight down on his friend’s chest. Sherer’s airway cleared with a loud “pop” and he was suddenly thrust back into the land of the living.

Sherer had spent the previous several years earning a late business degree and taking a few years off to crew on sailboats from the Caribbean clear to Greece and hitching across Europe. Up to that day at Mount Baldy, he had reckoned he was near that point in life when he should settle down and get a “real” job. “The existential moment didn’t happen until the day after the accident,” he says. “I was driving my VW bus out of my neighborhood and waiting for the light to turn green, and I just realized, I just had a major accident that should have killed me. I could go ahead and get a nine-to-five job, and eventually retire, and then what? Go surfing around the world? My number could come up at any moment. I’d heard that all my life but to really realize it experientially — that changed me. I just felt like, the world is my oyster, I should be diving for pearls.”