Apr 11, 2017
Ed Romer, a fixture in the surfing lineup at the Jacksonville Beach pier for almost 40 years, died Monday in an accident in Ellijay, Ga. He was 77.
His eldest son, Joey Romer of St. Augustine, said he went missing Monday while riding a golf cart to check on a neighbor’s property near his mountain cabin. A hunting camera in the woods showed that the left front wheel of his golf cart slipped off the edge of the road while Mr. Romer was making a turn, sending him and the cart into a ravine.
After his girlfriend, Geri Wainscott, looked for him in vain, rescue crews found him a few hours later in a creek.
Joey Romer said a medical examiner said his father was probably killed instantly when his head hit a rock.
Mr. Romer, who sported a full beard and an often gruff manner, was known to generations of Beaches surfers as “Dangerous Dad.” That name came about because he would invariably wait for waves well past the crowd of surfers at the pier, and when the right one came he would stand up straight and steer his big board through the pack of younger surfers, who quickly learned to scatter out of his path.
He surfed at the pier so often, and for so long, there were rumors that he lived under the pier, though he actually lived in a house just a short drive away.
In a 2010 Times-Union interview, he said he’d been surfing for 55 years. As a teenager in Gilgo Beach, N.Y., he decided then and there, he said, that he wanted to surf every day possible for the rest of his life.
In the early 1960s he surfed while stationed with the Navy in Panama, introducing a few locals to the sport. A Panamanian surf magazine later called him “the father of surfing in Panama,” Joey Romer recalled Tuesday.
He became a regular at the pier when he moved to Jacksonville Beach after retiring from the Navy in 1977. He then delivered newspapers for 28 years, finishing up his route each day before dawn — just in time to go surfing again.
Joey Romer said his father surfed until last summer, when he took a break because his knees were hurting him. “I hope to be surfing in my 80s, to follow in his footsteps,” said his son, who’s 55, retired from the St. Johns County sheriff’s office.
For the 2010 Times-Union interview, Mr. Romer, then 70, showed up at the pier at dawn in a Jeep Cherokee with his board strapped on top. His license plate read “CWABNGA” — shorthand for cowabunga, the old celebratory surfing cheer — and the frame around it said “Old Guys Rule.” He was shirtless and fit, and wore just a pair of flowered surfing baggies.
He was pretty disconsolate then, as his wife, Lee Romer, died a few months earlier after a long battle with cancer. He apologized for crying when he spoke about her, saying “this is the worst ordeal of my life.”
The waves weren’t very good that day and he didn’t feel like surfing. But as the sun came up, he found himself drawn to the waves again. “I’m here already. I think I’ll paddle out,” he said. “You coming?”
Joey Romer said his father found great happiness again after meeting Geri Wainscott. “Geri uplifted his life,” he said. “He was ecstatic. He would tell us how much he was in love with her ... Geri stepped in and really helped him to lead the rest of his life.”
Mr. Romer is survived by eight children: Joey Romer, Kathy Scott, Cindi Platt, Jessica Roy, Kimberly Romer, Luke Romer, Saralee Peters and Eddie Romer, as well as 16 grandchildren.
A service was held at Ponte Vedra Valley Cemetery, where he was buried next to his wife. “He’s already got everything planned out and paid for,” Joey Romer said.
Friends are also did a paddle-out memorial Sunday at 9 a.m., on the beach at Sixth Avenue South. It’s the site of the now-gone old Jacksonville Beach pier, where Mr. Romer spent so many hours surfing, creating the legend of Dangerous Dad.
Above informatioin provided by Ed's Shipmate Bob Hester
|
