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ABOVE: The passing of Jay Moriarity at the young age of 22 sent shock waves through the Santa Cruz community. At his June 26, 2001 paddle-out, his longtime girlfriend Kim put his ashes back into the ocean where he spent the majority of his waking hours surfing, diving and paddling. Other scenes from the memorial are featured below and at the bottom of the opposite page. PHOTOS: HOWARD "BOOTS" MCGHEE
“AT THAT MOMENT I KNEW HE WAS TRULY FREE.” —KIM WILDEY-MORIARITY turned out in a beautiful display of love and loss. Three rings were needed to include every last soul who gathered that day to honor the brave young man who embraced the warmth of aloha throughout his short life. For his wife Kim, now Kim Wildey-Moriarity, the full force of this cathartic moment hit her as she spread her best friend’s ashes. “At that moment I knew he was truly free. I could genuinely feel all the love and thoughts everyone had for him and our special surfing community. The ocean magnified all this energy in that moment,” she shares. “It was pretty surreal and heavy, but also amazing, healing, and heartfelt. We got to honor his life and the impact he had made on the rest of us and this was the natural way for us to say goodbye. I knew he was there with us in spirit.” The occasion was immortalized in the 2012 film Chasing Mavericks, which celebrated Moriarity’s life through a Hollywood lens. Filmed in and around Santa Cruz, an integral scene involved recreating his paddle-out. The production released
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