Mikala Jones, Professional Surfer, Dead At 44
Hawaiian professional surfer Mikala Jones died Sunday following a fatal surfing accident in Indonesia’s Mentawai Islands. He was 44.
Isabella Jones, the athlete’s daughter, announced his death in an emotional post on Instagram.
“I’m not sure how to put this in words, but my dad got into a bad surfing accident and didn’t make it,” she wrote. “I’m happy he was doing what he loved the most. Life will never be the same without you. I miss you so much, I would do anything to get one more moment, even if it was us arguing and then laughing our asses off.”
Mikala Jones pictured at the Panasonic Shockwave U.S. Open at the Huntington Pier in Huntington Beach, California, in 2000.
Mikala Jones suffered a 4-inch wound to the inside of his left groin, reported Surfline. “All signs point to a severing of the femoral artery, likely from a surfboard fin,” said the website.
Jones was taken to a local hospital but declared dead.
The outlet remembered Jones as a pioneer of surfing imagery who “helped reimagine how it could be photographed.”
On Instagram, surf icon Kelly Slater hailed Jones as a “legend.”
Apparel company Reef, for which Jones had been an ambassador, praised him as “arguably one of the most barreled surfers on the planet,” a “surfing savant” and “an artist ahead of his time painting his canvas on waves like no other” who “lived with gratitude, grace, wisdom and most importantly kindness for all.”
