Videographer Turner Gets Back on His Board at Huntington

Six months after a staph infection nearly killed him, renowned surf videographer Timmy Turner paddled into the waves Wednesday at his home break in Huntington Beach, completing the final leg of what friends and doctors call a medical miracle.

Doctors “told us he might not be able to speak again, and he’s surfing, doing roundhouses, floaters and turns, just like always,” said Jessica Turner, who, with lifeguards surrounding her, intently watched her husband step into the water north of the Huntington Beach Pier. “It made me cry for joy just to see him” in the water.

Turner, 25, became sick in December, most likely picking up an infection on one of his surf trips to Indonesia or Mexico.

The staph infection spread from his lungs to his brain, landing him in the intensive-care unit at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach for a month. Turner’s fever reached 107 degrees, he endured two brain surgeries, and he lost 40 pounds from his 185-pound frame.

In Huntington Beach and beyond, surfers prayed for Turner, whom they knew from his work featured on surf magazine covers and as an employee of his family’s Main Street restaurant, the Sugar Shack.

With a large section of his skull reconstructed with synthetic pieces, Turner returned to work at the Sugar Shack two weeks ago after months of speech and physical therapy.

Driving on Pacific Coast Highway on his way to the restaurant Wednesday morning, he saw the surf was up.

Today is the day to go get wet, he said to himself.

After Turner completed his shift at the restaurant, he returned to the beach in his wetsuit. Under his arm he carried a board that he said would be easy to paddle. Even so, surfing was “really hard. I still need to work on it,” he said.

Surfer Ralph Rodriguez, 47, of Long Beach had been waiting for Turner’s return. “I knew he would be back,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a strong kid and has too much to give before he goes to heaven.”

Turner said he was a bit unnerved before going in the water: “I thought about submerging my head and getting staph all over again.”

But after his experience Wednesday, he said surfing “is like riding a bike. You never forget.”

Turner, who shoots video while surfing giant waves, is planning a trip to Alaska in September to videotape a fishing, hunting and surfing expedition.

His 2004 film, “Second Thoughts,” chronicled a trip he and two buddies took to surf uncrowded waves on a remote Indonesian island with a limited supply of food and water. The film won Surfer Magazine’s annual poll for the best video of the year.

After Wednesday’s short surf session, Turner returned to the Sugar Shack, where he ceremoniously cut a bracelet from the wrist of waitress Angela Salinardi. The green band read: “Pray for Timmy.”

“I told Timmy that I wouldn’t take off this bracelet until he got back in the water,” Salinardi said. “Today is the greatest day.”