(This story was updated to accurately reflect the most current information.)
Joe Roland, a Beaches surfing legend who at 17 became the East Coast Surfing Association’s first men’s champion and then traveled to compete in two world championships, died Thursday after he was found washed up on the shore with his surfboard still attached to his ankle.
Ponte Vedra beachgoers found him and began CPR, as did rescue personnel when they arrived, but he did not survive, according to a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office spokesman, who said the surfer was 73 years old.
Another spokesman with St. Johns County Fire Rescue said as far as officials there know, he was alone and was found in the surf zone behind the 400 block of Ponte Vedra Boulevard. The department received the call about 8 a.m.
It’s unclear what happened.
Mitch Kaufmann, a Beaches surfer who has chronicled the local surfing scene for decades, said Thursday afternoon that he had spoken with Roland’s family, which confirmed that he had died.
He said Roland lived in Ponte Vedra and surfed that same spot anytime there were waves, surfing “like a teenager,” on a board shorter than himself, even into his 70s.
“He was the happiest, nicest, mellowest guy,” Kaufmann said. “He’s a Christian, and this is what everybody says about Joseph — he walked the walk. When it came to being a Christian, he was the real deal.”
Roland was retired from the city of Jacksonville, where he had been a computer programmer. He grew up in Atlantic Beach, where he began surfing at age 13, joined by his younger brothers Vincent, Brad and Paul. His father, Mat Roland, founded a seafood company in Mayport bearing his name.
He was elected to the East Coast Surf Legends Hall of Fame in 1998 and later was worthy of an entry in Matt Warshaw’s 700-plus-page “Encylopedia of Surfing,” placed between “rogue wave” and “roller coaster.”
The entry noted the achievements of “the slender and easygoing Roland”: that upset win at the 1968 East Coast championship over much better-known competitors; a repeat East Coast win the next year; and trips to compete in World Surfing Championships in 1968 (in Puerto Rico) and 1970 (in Australia).
Kaufmann said Roland was a modest man who rarely competed past the 1970s but would surf in an occasional EPIC Surf Ministries contest as he got older, still beating much younger competitors.
He said the local surfing community is already planning a traditional paddle-out ceremony for Roland to mark his death. “We’ll have a paddle-out when the family is ready,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Joe Roland, 73-year-old surfer, found on Ponte Vedra Beach shore, dies
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