A message from Erick Piper (a good friend of Jim's):
Chris, Lauren and Dana,
I am at a complete loss of words and can't even begin to understand how difficult this time is for you. What I love about Jim the most is his sense of wonder and his ability to relate to kids. I always knew he would be a wonderful father and once he was, his life revolved around your girls. I have many stories about their extraordinary father that I could share with the girls, but this is one of my favorite memories.
To Lauren and Dana – Your Dad learning to surf.
Your Dad and I have been friends for more than twenty years and have shared many adventures. He is the most astonishing man I have ever known and I am sad that we will not all have more great adventures with him. He loved to try new things and would always drag me along. Sometimes it didn't work out the way we expected. Here's the story about the time your Dad learned to surf.
When he lived in California, he decided that he should learn to surf. He went out and got some surfboards and told me that we would be surfing the next day. So we went to bed expecting a very, very exciting day. We got up early and went to the beach nearby.
I think we were both a little nervous, after all we had always seen huge waves at this beach. We picked up our boards and carried them to the car and drove to the beach. When we got there what do you think we saw? Giant waves pounding the sand on the beach? Waves moving a hundred miles an hour?
Nope. The ocean was almost flat. The waves weren't even a foot high. This was not going to be a great day for surfing. I wanted to go home but your Dad wouldn't quit – he said the waves would come because we had surfboards. He just wouldn't give up.
So we sat down and waited. And then we waited some more. Finally, your Dad said our attitude was wrong and we needed to be ready when the waves came. He said we should put on our wetsuits - which we did-and then we waited some more. He was completely optimistic which was, as always, convincing enough for me.
As we were sitting there we felt something. What was it? Could it be? Yes, there was some wind and with wind there usually came waves. There they were!! We watched the waves grow from 1 foot to 18 inches to 2 feet - to a whole 2 and a-half feet high! We were ready to go! We grabbed our boards and headed into the ocean.
Once we were out there your Dad went first. He started riding the wave into shore lying down and then tried to stand up. He got to his feet and the board went sliding out under him and he fell into the ocean. He looked so funny crashing I had to laugh which made me slide off my board.
He paddled back out and tried again-by the second time he was riding the waves all the way into shore-boy did he learn things fast. Here are some pictures of your very great ad surfing and also a picture of your Mom and Dad at Newfound Lake after they first met.
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