Kirk Passmore, 32, a big wave surfer from Carlsbad, California who has lived on the North Shore of Oahu for the past two years, died surfing Wednesday, November 13, 2013 after getting held down while surfing Haliewa’s Alligator Rock, according to a story on CNN.
Jamie Sterling, a surfer who saw Passmore wipe out, told KHNL, “He was seen swimming down with his feet up above the surface, and we think he broke his eardrum because what happens when you break your eardrum is you have complete loss of balance and you have vertigo.”
SurferMag.com has a Daniel Russo photo sequence of Passmore’s last wave along with a statement from his family in which they said:
He was not new to big wave surfing, having surfed most of the well-known big wave locations, including Waimea Bay, Sunset Beach, Pipeline, and outer reefs on the north shores of Hawaii. He was a familiar face at Todos Santos off Baja California. He also surfed Maverick’s in Northern California and Puerto Escondido in Mainland Mexico. He spent 3 years in the southern coast of France. He moved to the north shore of Hawaii full-time in the spring of 2012.
Our thoughts are with Passmore’s family and friends.
