About this time last year, we stood on our favorite vacation beach and waved a wobegone goodbye to Sumatra Sammy, our toy surfer dude who we allowed to drift beyond our reach and float out to sea. Sammy, as you may remember, had endeared himself to us in the way he could right himself on crested ocean waves and returned to us with amazing consistency. Being that none of us knew anything about surfing, watching him recede from view to a mere dot on the horizon was sad in the way one would watch a pet canary fly out a kitchen window.
It has now been a year since the undertow pulled Sammy with oceanographic magnetism beyond the sight of our binoculars. While we pleaded with NOS and the Coast Guard to form an international rescue party, Sammy the Surfer was just a toy, and given that his size from tip to stern was only fifteen inches, he did not qualify for an all-out search and rescue party. To quote from that episode (June, 2023) a year ago, “…but the instant when Sumatra Sam finally disappeared from our binocular view, we could not muster any humor from the situation and had to accept that he, like us, had to face the horizon sometime.”
And, so we did, until this week. While others were settling down to the Kentucky Derby or Cinco DeMaio, Sumatra Sammy had rather unremarkably plonked back down on the beach, a bit sunburnt and missing an arm, but otherwise wiser for his travels. We met up with him in his cabana for this exclusive interview, which we will air now in its entirety. These are the words and wisdoms of Sumatra Sammy, surfboarder extraordinaire, miracle navigator lost at sea, and humanitarian for an ocean dying to live again. His seaward sagacity and perspicuity need no further introduction. Listeners and readers, welcome back to Knee Deep, episode 73 titled Heart to Heart with Sammy Surfer Dude: Miracle at Sea. As always, you can find more on IG @authorjeffbender or on my website at Jeffmbender.com…uh don’t forget the M as in more please! Now welcome please, our favorite toy and my guest, Sumatra Sammy!
Me: Wow! Sammy, Sammy, Sammy! I can’t believe it! What is going on? You are here, aren’t you? Really here!
Sammy: Yea, man, it is me! Still trying to get my land legs underneath me, but I am here!
Me: Amazing! One year at sea, after being tossed out there to wander alone. Let’s just start right there. At the beginning…what happened? I mean, what was going through your head when you looked back to shore and realized the waves were taking you out to the great beyond, not back to shore. Talk to us…
Sammy: Yea, I mean, like, I don’t even know, the headspace I was in was so bizarre. I’m born to surf y’know, like the surf is my home. I just did what I always do. I kept looking out in the scrawl for that magic wave like I always do, waiting to ride the waves back in.
Me: Never happened, did it?
Sammy: Never happened. I just sat, like, on my board and chilled, rolling with the rhythm of the sea, y’know? It’s all good, I mean, until the night set in and the darkness. Darkness like I’ve never felt. At first, like, I couldn’t breathe, and then it hit me. No one was coming for me. No one. I froze like a plastic statue. Of course, I am plastic, but this was a different kind of stiff. I was afraid to move, and all I could see was the stars in the sky and nothing else. It was like an out-of-surfer experience.
Me: Were you angry no one came for you?
Sammy: No, not at my owners. I was angry at the sea for not returning me!
Me: What do you mean?
Sammy: You guys put me in the water, but the sea is where my soul lives. Dude, we all think of returning to the sea, right? But the sea is what returns me, refuels me. And really, the sea and the earth are truly what returns us all. For the first days out there alone, I lost touch with how the sea had always given me a sense of support and like, shaka, man.
Me: Did you think you were going to die?
Sammy: Well, I did after I lost my arm.
Me: I know for a long time you couldn’t talk about the loss of your arm. Can you tell us what happened?
Sammy: It was so sudden. I was asleep and woke up next to this massive oil tanker. It was cranking out an awesome bow wave, like crazy big, out of hand.
Me: What’d you do?
Sammy: I had to surf it, no doubt, man. I was flying man, like in the sneaker zone, but got caught in the tube and couldn’t get out… snapped my arm right off. One minute I was waving goodbye to the ship, and the next minute, my arm was waving goodbye to me.
Me: Wild, so wild. Any pain now?
Sammy: None. Plastic is like that. I’m good to go. Like, charged dude.
Me: Do you get stares from people? How do you deal with the disability?
Sammy: Dis-a-what? HA! There ain’t no “dis” in “ability.” Good, good vibrations man! I’m up on the board every morning, still cracking the foam, deucing the coupe! This arm thing ain’t no hill for a climber.
Me: Amazing attitude. A model of positivity. Love you, love you like a brother (crying and hugging). I gotta know your secret, I mean what is your take-away from all those hours at sea by yourself.? Did you reach a new spiritual place? Did you see the face of God?
Sammy: Well, kind of, because quiet has a way of bringing everything right up square in front of you. So, like man, I had this time when it had been weeks since I’d seen any signs of life at all, no fish, no nothing, just waves and the blazing sun. I sat down on my board, and believe me, that ain’t easy when you’re a toy, and I began crying, sobbing and begging God for someone to talk to me. I opened my eyes and looked up and saw a cloud shaped exactly like Mickey the Mouse.
Me: You saw Mickey?
Sammy: Yes, seriously dude, Mickey!! And he was smoking a stogie, and smiling at me, like he was saying “chill dude, relax, I got you.” I started laughing hysterically, so hard I fell off my board, and I never fall off my board, ever, because I’m like a one-piece factory flow. That’s when I knew I was going to be fine, all was cool with God and me. There is a Mickey watching us, and he smiles a lot man, like his smile is wicked big!
Me: So cool, Sammy. Like a got chills now hearing it. It’s like you’re saying everything out there is a lot bigger than we think it is, but a ton simpler too.
Sammy: Exactly, ever widening, and always personal with God. Mickey’s got big ears, remember, he hears it all.
Me: So, are there any other wisdoms you gathered from your journey out on the wave highway?
Sammy: Like I said, its’s simple. Breathe. Surf. Eat whole foods. Surf. Pray a lot. Surf a lot, sing a lot. In fact, I have a favorite song I’m singing all the time in my head. It’s by my friend, Neil, Neil Young. It’s called Old Man. You know it…
Me: You mean that one that goes, “Old man look at my life, I’m a lot like you, I need someone to love me the whole day through…yea, classic! But I gotta ask, how did you get back to us here? How did you end up back home?
Sammy: I saw a storm brewing, like fierce winds. I woke upside down, exhausted, nothing left in the tank, you know. An eye appeared next to me, a soft eye, and it was a dolphin. It rolled over next to me and looked at me, kinda sideways, like it wanted to have its belly scratched, like a dog. I reached out, man. At first, I thought I was having a vision, but it was real. I started to rub its belly and it flipped over and I grabbed its fin, and it pulled me through the water. First it was just a few feet, then we picked up speed and I dozed off. The next thing I knew you picked me up off the beach, and I knew I was home again.
Me: (sobbing). So beautiful… What a story! Love you brother! (small sobs) And as we close out here, now that you are home, what is next? Any plans?
Sammy: Strangely enough, I miss it out there in the drink. Once you’re out there, land begins to feel constrained and temporary. I do miss my surfing friends and catching a good curl. They are all out there waiting for me, this new family, a new purpose, and I want to take my message everywhere.
Me: ...and that is?
Sammy: Take care of your world. Love all the small parts and the big parts too. I met a seagull out there one day – his name was Jonathon Seagull – Jonathon Livingston Seagull – and he taught me about freedom and how to fly above your problems, towards your big calling. Jonathon knows things we don’t know, like where the tidal pools gather and what lies hidden in each one. He knows the boy who knows where the shark’s teeth lie. He knows how to stop the commercial liners from snarkin’ on the ocean’s bounty. So, I’m off again to meet my friends and clean up the surf…shaka, shaka my friend!
Me: (hugging)…Well, Sammy thanks so much for the exclusive and making time for us here at Knee Deep!
Sammy: Hey, pleasure’s all mine, dude. I’ll be back and until then keep throwing my friends out there in the surf. I’ll be out there waiting for them, you know, like, it’s hard to keep a good surfer down!
Me: Speaking of which, you got time to catch a barrel before you head out into the open water again?
Sammy: Pura vida man, fer sure! Let’s go!!! (footsteps running towards the waves…)