NJ surfer pulls off amazing feat that took over 5,000 miles

I don't surf. As much as one should never say never, I never will surf.

One thing I love about a surfer named Ben Gravy is that he wants to inspire people to believe in themselves whether it's surfing or anything else. A surfer whose thing is surfing but recognizes there are other things for other people. I like it.

So Ben Gravy is a New Jersey novelty surfer. He's surfed small waves and big dangerous waves. He’s surfed off every single beach in the state of New Jersey all in one day. He’s surfed off Spain, France, Nicaragua and South Korea as well as other countries. You’re getting the idea.

He’s monetized his love of surfing by maintaining a vlog and a podcast on YouTube and calls himself a semi-professional surfer.

He grew up in Longport, New Jersey, where it all started. And here’s what he recently did.

This crazy guy wanted to squeeze everything he could out of the last day of summer. Every last drop. So he meticulously planned and plotted and pulled off an astonishing feat. With the help of time zones and traveling backward against them, he managed to surf on both coasts of the United States as well as in Hawaii all on the final day of summer.

It started in the glow of that huge Steel Pier Ferris wheel in Atlantic City at 2 o’clock in the morning. Then traveling to California to hit El Porto in Manhattan Beach. And finally, with just a margin of minutes of sunlight to spare surfed the Pipeline break of Oahu’s North Shore. That sounds like something you surfers would know about. I hear it’s legendary. I’m not a surfer.

So why?

“There’s just something about these challenges that I enjoy, and my viewers enjoy,” Gravy told nj.com. “I just want to pitch new things, and I want to keep the joy in surfing. I’m just out there to get people, who might not believe in themselves, to believe, even if it’s not surfing.”

He’s the subject of the film “For The Dream.”

He’s surfed in all 50 states. He one day plans on having surfed in every country on earth and already has 12 under his belt. Ben Gravy is a cooler person than I’ll ever be.

I’m not a surfer. But I am inspired.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

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