Eternally thankful for the support

On June 30, my husband, Danny, our good friend Brian Lonergan and I left for what was to be a six-week surfing trip through Sri Lanka, Sumatra and Bali. Although we’ve traveled the world before, this was going to be the trip of a lifetime. We spent our first two weeks surfing for hours every day in Sri Lanka. It was an incredible and unforgettable time.

We arrived in Sumatra, Indonesia, around July 17 and spent our first week at a surf camp on a beach break in the Krui region of West Lampung. We then moved to a camp about half an hour away, on an incredible reef break called Ujuong Bocur. We had surfed this point a few times during the previous week.

At around 8 a.m. on Sunday, July 24, Danny and Brian paddled out among a dozen or so other surfers at Ujuong Bocur. The waves were eight to 10 feet, and although they were peeling perfectly across the point, the currents were incredibly strong and there was a lot of water moving on the inside, where a surfer will typically get off a wave.

Around 9:30, a local photographer approached our camp and asked me, “Do you know whose surfboard this is?”

It only took a few seconds for me to realize that it was Danny’s. The leash had snapped at the ankle. I frantically ran down to the beach, and within a few moments Brian had paddled in to see where Danny was. Another surfer, who had been out in the waves, said he had gotten tangled with Danny’s board on the inside but never saw Danny.

There is no evidence that this surfer hit Danny or that his board hit Danny’s board. We believe that after falling off a wave, Danny was knocked unconscious when he hit his head on the reef.

Brian and I spent the next four days looking for Danny. Brian paddled out to look, snorkeled and free-dived to search underwater caves in the reef. We both spent countless hours combing the inside of the break on the reef for miles.

The Indonesians sent a search-and-rescue team, which utilized all available resources on the third day of the search. There were also around 30 surfers staying at nearby surf camps who assisted us in the daily search.

On the morning of July 28, Brian and I had started our morning walk down the beach to search for Danny. We had gone maybe a mile or so when we got word that a fisherman in a village hours away had found the body of a Westerner, and the clothing he described matched Danny’s. He had drifted from Lampung to Bengkulu, nearly 100 miles, in approximately 96 hours.

It took us another week to settle things in Indonesia and to bring Danny back home. We are eternally thankful to Jason and Ayu at Damai Bungalows for their dedication, love and support in helping us find Danny and bring him home. We are also thankful to all of the fishermen, surfers, search-and-rescue teams, translators, and everyone in the U.S. who provided us with tips and contacts in order to help us with our search.

I can imagine no greater challenge in life than this experience. It is a tragic reminder that life is fragile, that we should take nothing for granted and that, as one of Danny’s tattoos read, our wealth should be weighed in spirit.