After moving to California in 1991, Roger Jeffrey attracted sponsors and began to climb the competitive ranks when Multiple Sclerosis hit. Photo: Elizabeth Jeffrey
In 1998, Roger Jeffrey was surfing his semifinal heat in a National Scholastic Surfing Association (NSSA) contest at Oceanside Harbor in San Diego, Calif., when he realized something was seriously wrong. With just five minutes remaining, he could barely paddle back out to the lineup. He could barely stand up. “I remember just being on the inside, kinda floating around going ‘Oh man, I’m so drained, this is scary.’” Jeffrey (then 23) was experiencing some of the first symptoms he can remember of an autoimmune disease that would take another nine years to conclusively diagnose.
Jeffrey, now 35, has multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. Multiple sclerosis, (which means “multiple scarring”) sporadically destroys the protective covering on the nerve cells throughout the brain and spinal cord, and when the cells’ protective covering (known as a myelin sheath) is damaged, the brain and spinal cord struggle to send messages to the nerves in the rest of the body. MS affects people differently; some go through life with few symptoms, while others become permanently disabled. MS is also notoriously difficult to diagnose. Jeffrey’s symptoms include extreme fatigue, headaches and numbness, but he still surfs when he can and strives to stay at a competitive level, regardless of whether or not he’s actually competing.
Hailing from New Jersey, Jeffrey says he won at least 20 Eastern Surfing Association (ESA) contests while growing up. After moving to California in 1991, he attracted sponsors and began to climb the competitive ranks when multiple sclerosis hit. In his early 20s, Jeffrey says he experienced numbness from the waist down. Initially, he thought it was due to old injuries or a pinched nerve. He thought it would get better so he kept competing, but the symptoms lingered. “I was having a little trouble; I had to be walked off the beach in some contests because I overdid it,” said Jeffrey.
Years later, his symptoms progressed, causing numbness from the chest down whenever he touched his chin to his chest. He wasn’t diagnosed with MS until he was 32 in 2007, just after the birth of his son, so for the two years prior to being diagnosed, Jeffrey feared a partially fractured vertebra and didn’t surf at all to avoid potentially making it worse. After seeing an orthopedic surgeon, he learned his vertebrae were fine, but an MRI revealed damage to his spine. It wasn’t until he saw Dr. Frishberg, a neurologist at Scripps La Jolla, that he received the correct diagnosis in 2007. Jeffrey said the diagnosis was a shock, but despite his fears, he set out to learn as much as he could about the disease.
Jeffrey also started looking for other surfers who lived with MS. After searching the Internet and asking around, he only came up with only one name: Robert “Wingnut” Weaver. Weaver, who goes by “Wingnut,” is perhaps best known for his part in Endless Summer II. “Wingnut has MS, but you don’t hear about it,” Jeffrey said. Indeed, there hasn’t been much media coverage of Wingnut’s disease. A Google search turns up only a short article about him published on Surfermag.com, which briefly mentions his MS diagnosis. The surf media cannot really be faulted for this void, because Wingnut got lucky: he’s been completely symptom-free for 11 years, and he was diagnosed a little over 13 years ago.
“I just hope I can surf and make people smile and maybe create a little awareness for MS through surfing," says Jeffrey. Photo: Maggie Yount
In the beginning, symptoms of MS plagued Wingnut’s life and he, like Jeffrey, was scared of what the disease would do to him. “There was a point where my balance issues and my leg drag made surfing almost impossible,” he said. “I would be sitting there, almost falling off my board from dizzy spells and I’d be standing and then I’d have to go to my knees and I was like, ‘What if I can’t surf anymore?’ That was really the darkest part of my symptoms,” Wingnut said.
Wingnut said he started taking better care of himself after his diagnosis, doing things like drinking green tea in the mornings instead of coffee. He is also a firm believer in the benefits of Vitamin D and a positive attitude, both of which he gets from surfing. “A positive attitude is good for everything in life. Eat healthy. Get your Vitamin D. Put a smile on your face, and go get some waves,” he said with a grin. Vitamin D is created in the skin with exposure to UVB rays, one of the types of UV radiation from the sun that is blocked by sunscreen. In fact, studies have shown that occurrences of MS are much less common closer to the equator than in colder, more temperate climates.
Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom at the UCSD Multiple Sclerosis Center in La Jolla, California acknowledges there may be a correlation between MS and a person’s Vitamin D levels. “There clearly is an association with low Vitamin D and the prevalence of MS,” she said. “We often check the Vitamin D levels of patients with MS but we don’t always know what an association means so it’s not necessarily a cause and an effect.”
While many with MS say the heat, which may deter them from getting in the sun, exacerbates their symptoms, Jeffrey says this year’s colder-than-usual California weather really bothered him, too. While Dr. Corey-Bloom says this is much less common, she has heard patients report feeling that way as well. Jeffrey said he didn’t get in the water much at all during the chilly months, but now that warmer spring weather has arrived, he’s able to get back in the lineup. Just a few weeks ago, he described the experience in a Facebook message:
“Pulled up at beach with the fam, looked fun, got suited up. suit was tight and i felt stiff… got to the waters edge, took a running start, and then as i hit the water and felt the board under my chest it all came back!! I took my time to paddle out and get in position… 1st wave was like a warm knife cutting butter… 🙂 felt great… got a few more, then met my boy and wife on the beach… can it get any better???”
Jeffrey says he misses the confidence he had in his health before he had MS, but he still expresses a positive attitude despite the obstacles he faces. “I have a great life, to tell you the truth. I can go surfing and I can go surf any time I want. It’s not like I’m going to be on the couch, yet! I can get barreled still, that’s always great.” He also says MS has given him a confidence he doesn’t think he would have ever had otherwise. “Before I had MS, I was always worried, ‘Am I good enough?’ or ‘Is my style good enough?’ Am I on the right track?’ Once MS happened it sorta loosened all that up and gave me a confidence that I didn’t have when I was younger.”
Now Jeffrey is keen to raise more awareness about MS. “I just hope I can surf and make people smile and maybe create a little awareness for MS through surfing. That’s my goal, to take my MS and make something positive.”
On May 1st Jeffrey is participating in the National MS Society’s “Walk MS” in Carlsbad, California. Click here to donate to the MS Society in Roger Jeffrey’s name.
Footage of Jeffrey surfing:
