The video Ode to Jeff Stone is by Charles Landon with original music and lyrics by Phil Rockhold.
Jeff Stone adopted Ocean Beach in the late 1970s and he and his sweetheart Carole Landon raised their two sons, CJ and Cody from their house on Long Branch. Born on May 25, 1946, in New Jersey, Jeff passed on March 8.
Always the artist and intellectual, Jeff took on several personas during his OB life’s path: an oil painter, the drummer for the local punk band, “Bowling for Larva,” a photographer, a surfer, an Irish nationalist – but always the teacher. Jeff loved kids and he loved to teach them– which he did for decades. He constantly ran into former students as he moved about town and they always expressed their appreciation for him.
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Beautiful tribute! Love to Carole and the boys.
Yeah, it always comes too soon. I vaguely recognize this guy but since I lived between Longbranch and Muir on Sunset Cliffs I probably walked, skated, bicycled, and drove past him a number of times…
Good to see that who he was while on this planet is fondly remembered. May he have had those he loved who left before him help him with the transition through the curtain…
sealintheSelkirks
Jeff didn’t move to OB until 1977 – you had left by then, right?
No, I didn’t close Seal’s Ding Repair until 1987 as I was still doing work out of the triple garages down the alley between Muir & Longbranch west of Sunset Cliffs. I moved to the mountains that summer with snowboards under one arm and ‘seal team’ shaped & glassed twinfins under the other which was fortuitous with the Jackson Hole riversurfing three hours north from the university I was shifting to. You already have that story out of me…
I was the local that got run off by the jet ski guys during the 1984(?) contest when the Northside quit breaking but the left kept winding through the pilings and somebody decided it was a good idea. Big mean Hawai’ian guys screaming at me to get outa da wada. Didn’t Curren win that one?
I kind of recognize Jeff’s face from around OB but didn’t know and never surfed with him that I remember unless he was one of the guys that occasionally paddled through to Southside when it was good or I fixed one of his boards. I had contracts with Sonshine Surf Shop on Cable and the Longboard Shop on Newport (along with other shops in MB, PB, Clairemont, and even Mitch’s in La Jolla sent me overflow when Carlos was overwhelmed. South Coast had their own ding guy.
If he ever took a picture of me surfing Southside I never knew it though he might have on big days there!
I have always wondered if we get to surf when we make that transition…
sealintheSelkirks