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  Filmmaker Timmy Turner to

Press release:

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. – Timmy Turner, the filmmaker and modern-day inspiration who overcame a virulent staph infection to return to the water and his craft, is among the honorees being inducted to the 2014 Surfers’ Hall of Fame on Friday, August 1st at 10 a.m.  Rick “Rockin’ Fig” Fignetti and David Stanfield will emcee the event while Huntington Beach Mayor Matthew Harper will provide a special welcome to attendees.

Huntington Beach’s favorite son Timmy Turner is a living miracle.  Born in 1980, Captain of the Huntington Beach High School surf team and busboy at his family’s restaurant, The Sugar Shack, a surf trip to Indonesia at age 17 became the catalyst for a burgeoning filmmaking career.  Over the span of three years and numerous trips to an uninhabited Indonesian island, Timmy documented three surfers conquering epic waves on a dangerous reef, braving the elements and struggling to survive.  “Second Thoughts” won Movie of the Year at the 2004 SURFER Poll and Video Awards, putting Turner on the map.

His next film, “The Tsunami Diaries,” which documented relief efforts in Indonesia, may have contributed to an aggressive staph infection that attacked the Turner’s brain in December 2005; friends and family say that he was acting crazy for three days.  Timmy underwent six different brain surgeries, losing most of his skull and spending more than a month in the intensive-care unit of Hoag Memorial Hospital.  Forced to wear a helmet for protection before his skull was rebuilt, Timmy survived, but was forced to recalculate his life.

A subsequent film, “Cold Thoughts,” was a tribute to his journey: hospitalization, rehab, recovery and lifestyle changes to ward off future infections, including a ban on trips to tropical climates.  Six years in the making, Timmy and crew sought surf in remote and frigid spots in Canada, Chile, Iceland and Alaska to film “Cold Thoughts”.  While filming in 2006 in Vancouver, he hit the rocks, broke his ribs and cracked his protective helmet  Had Timmy not been wearing that helmet, doctors said he most likely would have died.

In late 2013 the father of five was finally allowed by doctors and family to make his return to the place and the waves he loves so much: a dry left hander in Indonesia.

“Born and raised in Huntington Beach, Timmy Turner is a great soul surfer, amazing movie maker and has become one of the city’s most famous sons,” said Surfers’ Hall of Fame founder Aaron Pai.  “He’s brought so many precious memories to all of us through his surfing out at the Pier, movies at Huntington Beach High and seeing him serving breakfast at the Sugar Shack!  We are stoked and excited to induct Timmy into the Surfers’ Hall of Fame this coming Friday!”

Turner joins Rusty Preisendorfer, one of the industry’s most prolific and forward-thinking shapers/entrepreneurs and whose iconic R-dot boards are ridden by the world’s elite surfers, in the Friday, August 1st ceremony.  Carissa Moore, this year’s other honoree, was inducted in a special ceremony held in her honor on July 25.

The nation’s first imprint collection of legendary surfers, the Surfers’ Hall of Fame celebrated its first induction in 1997 inside of specialty retailer Huntington Surf & Sport where several slabs remain.  Four years later with the blessing of the City Council and a stunning bronze statue of the sport’s spiritual leader Duke Kahanamoku serving as a backdrop, the ceremony moved outside to the corner of PCH and Main, less than 100 feet from the famed Huntington Beach Pier, site of the Vans U.S. Open of Surfing.

The Surfers’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony pays tribute to those individuals who have made an indelible mark on the sport, industry and culture of surfing.  Annually, tens of thousands of visitors travel to Huntington Beach’s downtown area and literally walk in the footsteps of surfing superstars and legends from several eras including Laird Hamilton, Andy Irons, Jack O’Neill, Robert August, Bob Hurley, Sean Collins, Kelly Slater, Lisa Andersen, Pat O’Connell, Al Merrick, Shaun Tomson, Rob Machado, Skip Frye and Rabbit Kekai, who are already immortalized in cement.

The Surfers’ Hall of Fame induction ceremony is open to the public, free-of-charge.  Further information is available at https://hsssurf.com/shof/.