Sion Milosky - RIP

I have just heard the tragic news that hawaiian big wave charger Sion Milosky is reported
to have drowned surfing Maverick’s in California.

He is the second Hawaiian big-wave surfer to drown at Maverick’s, after the legendary Mark Foo died surfing the wave in 1994. Just over a year ago, Sion become known around the world for catching the biggest wave ever paddled into. Although
in his mid 30s, Sion only came to prominence in the last few years,
when the water photographer Daniel Russo hooked up with him in some
incredible barrels at Pipeline that were seen in surf mags around the
world. If you want to know more about Sion, Surfing magazine has a
great little profile with this remarkable Hawaiian surfer that is well
worth a look.

Best wishes to his family and friends.

RIP Sion.

 

Below is the last moments of Sion Milosky's last wave and subsequent drowning. As told by Chris Killen videographer:

"**The guys have been here all week and there has been back to back storms in the Pacific and this was the week for Mavericks to break.

The size of the waves were about 18 to 20 foot, a few 40 foot faces, inconsistent and some seriously big waves coming through for sure.

When Sion went down it was like 6:30 and it was still really light out and to be honest a lot of guys went in, they thought the swell had peaked. For about 30 minutes to an hour there were only a few waves that were breaking. 

The rest of the guys were staying out to catch the last of the bombs.

I filmed Sion's last wave.

I had Ryan Sealbach on the back of my ski and we saw Sion go down on a bomb.

It looked like there was a huge jump in the swell and the rest of the evening after Sion's wave the waves were huge.

He was pretty deep on a big one and went super top to bottom and just bulldozed him and you see that a lot out there. The wave passed and his board was tombstoning.

He had an 11-foot board and only two feet of it was sticking out. Add a 15-foot leash and Sion is at the bottom of that.

 I said at that moment I have to get in there and the next wave just detonates on him right on top of where the board was.

And when that wave passed, I raced into the bowl and the board had vanished into thin air and I didn't know what to do.

Usually you see a board pop up. I got close to mushroom rock and on my way back out I saw Shawn Dollar get a bomb and get obliterated and I race in and grab in to get Dollar and he thanks me and he says the wave was so gnarly that it ripped off the spare can of air that he had attached to his suit.

Shawn Dollar had that crazy look in his eyes and I take him back out to the bowl and I run across Kyle Buthman, Ryan Chachi. No one has seen Sion and I rush back in and look for him and I wasn't really paying attention and I got caught by a wave and shot out of it on the side and I see Nathan Fletcher looking at his ski.

In my mind I think he has Sion, but he had gone back in to get another board. I ask him if he had seen Sion and I haven't seen him.

Nathan said he hasn't seen him and we go look in the lagoon and mushroom rock and look around. We can't find him and we start to panic and realize that it has been a long time and I figured Sion had gone in.

I check the inside of the rocks and hoping that I would see him and I don't see anything and I look out into the surf and realize that it is Sion.

 I run over there I could see down the break wall towards the harbor entrance and I see Nathan Fletcher waving his arms, on the front of his ski.

He has Sion on the front of his ski and he is lifeless. I started getting really sad and we raced to the beach as fast as we can and I hit the beach so hard I flipped over the bars of the ski.

We pull Sion off the ski and Ben Andrews helped us get him up there and we lay Sion on his back and his lips and jaw are blue and his eyes are bloodshot.

I started to do CPR and tell Nate to have someone call 911. As we continue to do CPR foam and blood is pouring out of his mouth and Shane Desmond comes in doing chest compressions and I am making sure his airway is clear.

And we just sat there and begged Sion to come back until the medics got there. They hooked him up to IV and put a tube into his lungs and kept doing CPR with a pretty big scene on the beach.

They cut his suit off and we find a flotation device in his suit and it freaks me out that a guy like Sion arguably one of the gnarliest big wave surfers in the world could not survive a Mavericks hold down even with a floatation device. Once they put him in the ambulance we knew he was gone.”

This was one of the hardest stories of my life to write. Sion was an amazing father, husband and friend moreover he was a water man who died doing what he loved.

Sion Milsoky leaves behind a wife and two young girls. May all the love find this family and uplift them in this time of terrible tragedy.

Sion Milosky had the performance of a lifetime at Mavericks today waiting for the biggest waves of the day and scoring. 

R.I.P. Sion Milosky  you will be sorely missed.

 

From:  http://santacruz.patch.com/articles/hawaiian-surfer-sion-milosky-dies-at-mavericks#photo-5296548

very sad indeed for the surf community and his young family in particular. 

I found this picture of Sion and daughter. What an image.

 

Milosky caught at least six waves before he fell when the lip of a wave he was riding collapsed on top of him.

The fall happened during low tide, when the water depth at the break averaging 15-20 feet deep. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GRBqTI_i4I

 

He was apparently charging deeper then anyone on a very heavy day. 

Our thoughts go out for his wife and two children, and the friends that

will pull together to help them get thru this tragedy.

this is sad news

best wishes to his family and friends

god bless

Its a sad sad thing.  These guys are playing Russian Rulette though with their lives.  I'm actually surprised given the risks people are taking at Jaws, Mavericks and Tehoopo that more aren't dieing.  They are playing with something that is beyond any level of skill and beyond the human body's ability  to survive if you get held down. When its that big its just a numbers game.   If you're gonna play that game you better have your life in order for here and the here-after.  So sad for his wife and kids.

Always sincerely sad news to lose a member of the surf community no matter how big or small… RIP Sion, thoughts go out to your family and friends.

    Howzit Paul, Sion grew up in Hanalei and like so many other young surfers I knew him and watched him grow up and become an awesome surfer. I am sure the once again Hanalei is mourning another death of one of our young surfers. Dang Hanalei surfers are not having a good year. RIP Sion. Aloha,Kokua

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_17653296?source=rss&nclick_check=1

http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_17642400?source=pkg

Sion was a Childhood friend of mine, and grew up on the south shore of Kauai, Lived in Lawai. We all surfed together from hanabata days and on into high school. I remember when he and Braden really started to charge! But I never thought he would be this kind of a mad man! but he was always charging everything we did. He will be missed for sure… I only hope his dad, wife and children come through this alright… 

 

     Howzit dutch, And all these years I thought he lived on the Hanalei side of Kauai, Maybe because he spent so much time there and had a lot of friends there also, My bad on where he lived. Now I wonder if I know you, did you ever surf in any of Charlies Surf Co contests or the Pine Trees LongBoard contest? If you did then you most likely met me since I took all the entries and posted the heats. Aloha,Kokua

Last rides

http://vimeo.com/21177211

That’s cool. Do you have any stories from back then that you could share with us? It would be nice to hear more about the guy. Someone that was taken in the prime of his life, doing what he loved.

 

Yea had some stories about Sion. He was a guy who seemed to had bad luck in a way! always getting hurt or crashing something… But he was crazy there was the time when he ran around a shopping center with only a paper bag on his head and a pair of shoes for a hundred bucks! in the middle of the day! or the time he and Braden glued all the the locks in our high school shut, so we could go surf… . by the way the waves were junk that day so we sat and watched all the teaches lose it…  we all had great times in my back yard on a rope swing into the water, mud fight in buffalo land as we called it, which led us all to get paint guns! 

  But yea he spent alot of time on the north shore of Kauai and at the bay. I did compete in a few longboard contest up in Hanalei but i was a bodyboarder back then mostly. and losing to Sion all the time was not cool. He was an amazing longboarder. I could be wrong but i think he got to second in the world at one time. He had a very progressive longboard style, alot of tail work with big turns and floaters and helicoptors. It did not sit to well with the cali judges how prefer classic longboarding. 

 

tend to agree. if one is single and want to go all out, go for it. however, when there are kids and a wife involved it seems these hell chargers should take a little more responsibilty with what they are doing. not fair to those they leave behind in my opinion.

i agree, as these guys push the envelope, there needs to be better safety systems in place. these guys are pushing the limits of paddle in waves every year…

 

but, i think it’s good to teach your kids how to live life to the fullest, grab it by the horns, challenge your fears, LIVIN’!!!

while this is a terribly sad story especially for who he left behind but, how much sadder is someone who only lives the rat race and dies driving to work without experiencing half as much as they could have?

RIP Sion

 

“So sad for his wife and kids.”

 

 

As far as watching out for you family, there are those of us who wont even step into a private plane(joy ride or what not) out of fear and respect for our families–too much risk–we dont want to leave widows and orphans. I hope he had ‘term life insurance’ thats what its for if you are going to play like the Wallendas.Speaking of collections as one has arisen, when you play like the Wallendas you shouldnt be using the surfing community as your safety net (term life insurance). I sure hope the collection being started up is based on knowledge of no term life insurance in this situation. Collections for families get started up, many times spontaneously,  by well meaning people who in many instances dont have the direct knowledge of need and the need doesnt actually exist. They are just used to ‘passing the hat’.