Surfer opened his heart and his home to others

The man of 'few words and strong action' embraced North Shore life

THE SETS at Pipeline were estimated at 15 feet by Hawaiian-style measurements, choppy with a lot of white water, when Joaquin Velilla padded out into the surf for the last time Thursday evening.

A friend saw him as dusk was falling and Velilla, 35, shouted out that he was "going to catch one more," said Jose Acosta, the father of Velilla's fiancée, Mariela Acosta.

Later that evening, after Velilla didn't return home, his surfboard washed ashore at Ehukai Beach Park, where he had parked his car.

Yesterday, friends and relatives remembered Velilla in a simple ceremony at Ehukai, a kind of surfer's send-off, and reminisced about a fellow surfer and board shaper with a heart as big as the massive waves he loved to ride.

Matt Lozano said Velilla shaped his boards and was also a friend who encouraged him to go to college at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

"He was just a great, giving guy," Lozano said. "He pushed me to believe in myself, that I could do better."

Velilla "was living his dream," said best friend Scott Perez. "He wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world."

Velilla and Acosta moved to Hawaii five years ago from Puerto Rico and embraced the culture and lifestyle of the North Shore. Velilla's shaping business was starting to take off because Velilla was a big-wave rider and designed boards that were maneuverable in large surf, Perez said.

"He pushed the envelope," another surfer said.

Jose Acosta said Velilla and his daughter opened their home to other surfers who needed a place to stay and had friends from all over the world.

He was a man of "few words and very strong action," Mariela Acosta said. "There's not much he would have said; he would have let the occasion speak for itself."

With that, about 60 surfers, some dressed in black board shorts, others carrying Velilla surfboards and purple orchid lei, walked to the beach and got into the water. Another 60 or so friends and relatives threw flowers and lei into the ocean from shore.

Mariela Acosta, who met Velilla surfing in Puerto Rico six years ago, also paddled out just beyond the break. The surfers formed a circle and splashed the water in celebration of Velilla's life.

Other surfers at Pipeline, next to Ehukai, stopped surfing during the ceremony as a sign of respect.

"This is what you do for a surfer, have a paddle-out," Lozano said.

Younger brother Omar Velilla said that when he arrived here, he was hoping to bring his brother's body back to Puerto Rico. After yesterday's ceremony in the ocean, Omar Velilla said he realized his brother is home.

"He needs to stay here," Omar Velilla said as orchids and flower petals washed up in the sand at his feet. "He's looking down on us and smiling."