Remembering Chris Andersen - 2006

As I often do at work, I google things. Events, people...pretty much anything to pass some downtime. On this day I googled my old friend Chris Andersen. I had heard he had passed a few years ago and have thought of him often. I used to surf with him back in the mid 1980's when we were in high school. He was the first guy to take me out to Sub and Ab at the Cliffs and to Big Rock in La Jolla. He had this shitty little white Chevy he used to call his vet...it was a chevet. haha. He took me to Baja Malibu when their was still the empty dirt lot...so many days at Blacks. He really opened up my surfing world. He was riding these insane blue quad boards and was always blasting Rush and Iron Maiden on our surf missions. Some of the best and gnarliest experiences I had in my high School years were because of Chris. He was like a big brother to me. 

People used to talk crap since he was a kneeboarder, but he ripped so hard, dropped in so late and got so tubed, people would stop talking and watch him surf. He alone changed the way many viewed Kneeboarding at Big Rock. He had an agressiveness that no other kneeboarders possessed. He was raw to say the least. 

After years of hanging out with him and taking pics of him at the rock, we kind of went our seperate ways. I lost track of him but always remembered him well. A few years back I ran into him at a Pacific Beach Surf shop. He said he was out of the Army and stand-up surfing. The first thing he did was proudly show me pictures of his kids. He couldn't say enough wonderful things about them. I was surfing less at that time and again, lost track of him. I was so stoked to see he was in a good place. 

The last I heard he was living way up the West Coast so he could be near his kids, post divorce. I had heard he was depressed a bit before his end. It really broke my heart to find out such a free spirit was gone. Again, I dont really know his story the past ten years, but after reading many comments on a kneeboard website about Chris, it sounded like he had finally come home to his true love of Knee riding. 

One memory that stuck with me is a talk I had with Chris about mortality back in the late 80's. Select Surf Shop owner Phil Castagnola Sr. passed away from a suspected drug overdose and It left most of us reeling. I was staying the night at Chris' parents house so the next morning he could drive us to a YMCA contest. He looked over at me and wondered out loud about Big Phil. He asked if I thought he was in heaven...he was worried that a drug overdose would keep Phil out. Something about suicide being a sin. We talked about this for awhile and talked about life and death. I never forgot that talk because it was so deep and unlike our everyday conversation. I think now Chris has the answer and is trading waves with Big Phil in a better place. 

I never would have thought it would end up the way it did for Chris and as a father of two, I can only imagine the hurt the family has had to deal with. To his kids, I would like to tell you that your father was a really good guy and you should always be proud of the man he was. For better or worse, he mattered to a great many people.

Aloha my friend...till we meet on the other side.


Ken