Saying Goodbye to a dear friend, a fellow surfer/photographer, and brother veteran. Ed O'Connell.

I am having a hard time dealing with the sudden loss of local legend Ed O'Connell. I guess I was just not ready for this. I knew he was sick. But I was secretly hoping that he would make it. Ed O'Connell is gone from this earth forever.

And writing these words right now seem so surreal to me. There is just so much to say and write about Ed. So much in fact, that I initially thought about dedicating this entire week's blog to Ed and his amazing work. It only seems fitting to me. But then along came Hurricane Arthur. And I thought. What would Ed do?

He would shoot! Dammit he would shoot. So I shot the shit out of this swell and I swear I felt his presence. I did. And at one point I looked up and saw a cloud with a GIANT "O" and thought is this a sign? Is the "O" for O'Connell? I think it was. I mean I really think it was.

So I shot HURRICANE ARTHUR and thought of other things to honor Ed. First there will be a paddle. Sunday July 13th, 2014 at 5:00PM at the ROCKS. I want to design a tee shirt the shows Ed taking photos and have it simply say. "ED'S SHOOTING".

And finally, I will create a new section of this blog starting this week called ED'S CORNER. In that section there will be a photo from the thousands of photos I have from Ed featured each week. He will remain a part of this blog, until I am no longer doing this.


Here we are on 11/11/11. Veterans Day November 11th, 2011.
At the Wall shooting the action. I remember this like it was just yesterday. Andy Rogers from England took these photos.



People must know the true story about this gentle man.

What most of you do not know is that Ed was a bona fide hero.
That's right, he was not just some surf photographer. He was in my honest opinion, a hero. In 1968 in the jungles of Vietnam Ed O'Connell was an Army Medic.

A combat medic to be precise. In other words, he went into battle without a weapon to save the lives of young grunts horribly wounded. He saved so many young kids who were dying and crying for their mothers. And the ones he didn't save, he was the last comforting voice they heard. As they clung onto that last breath of life. Ed was there, helping them make that transition.

He went from being on the ground with the grunts to being in the dust-off Huey helicopters flying into hot landing zones pulling young grunts off the battlefield and racing back to the field hospital. His whole tour was about saving young Americans.



This young Ed O'Connell saved more lives in 1968 then he would ever let any of you know. But I'm letting you all know now. Ed O'Connell was the real deal hero of that war. And as a former grunt on the ground, we had more respect for those guys who flew into the face of battle to save the wounded. Every time I hear a helicopter flying overhead, I remember. And now with Ed's passing, every time I hear a chopper flying, I will think of Ed O'Connell.

That young Army Medic with a knot in his stomach looking out that side door on that slick, peering through the green smoke looking for a place to land and getting ready to jump out of that chopper to load some scared kid on board to turn around and fly him back to safety. Only to turn around and repeat the action. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month until his one year tour of duty was up.

One of the first things Ed ever said to me when we first met was "I'm glad you made it back Ralph." I nodded my head and shook his hand and said," I 'm glad you made it back too Ed."

And if Ed didn't make it back, we would of never seen photos like the one below. Thankfully we have thousands of images that Ed shared with us over the years and I will make it my mission to keep them coming. Week after week. Month after month. Year after Year. Until my tour here on planet Earth is up.




"Surfing Heals All Wounds"

*THIS JUST IN. LONGTIME NEW HAMPSHIRE SURFER JOHN "JT" TAYLOR PASSED AWAY. THERE WILL BE MORE TO FOLLOW THIS WEEK.

Losing two ICONS in the same week? This is unprecedented. I don't ever recall anything like this ever happening in our small surfing community. I will be posting more in the next blog as this is all still fresh coming in today.

First Ed O'Connell and now John "JT" Taylor. Just incredible losses
to our surfing community. If we are truly a tribe, then we need to step up and show it in these next two weeks.

The residue of yesterday's waves and the tears of losing Ed O'Connell have not yet dried, and now this. I don't know how much more we can handle. We all need to be strong and step up when we have these paddles for these two legends. We need to show our
true New England colors.

"Surfing Heals All Wounds"