Sorry to inform you all. Jeff Bickerstaff aka NuclearFishin died suddenly around 8pm nz time on Sunday night at his home from a heart attack. Jeff was in his very early 50's. His closest friend and wife have asked me to notify you all on Swaylocks as we know he spent a lot of time on here and will have some good friendships with Swaylocks members.
Jeff had a great day surfing Sunday with close friends at a river mouth north of Whangarei. He returned home early evening and had dinner with his Wife Angela. Angela left the room for a few minutes and when she returned Jeff had passed away. I am also a good friend of Jeff's and own the local surf shop down the road from Jeff's home. He was a regular visitor every Friday after he finished work :)
Jeff, myself and 9 other friends did a two week surf trip to the Maldives in August this year. It comes as a shock to us all that someone so strong and alive can leave us so quickly. It makes you realise how precious life, family and friends are.
If anyone would like to pass a message on to Jeff's family please post here, pm me or email at andre@ultimatesurf.co.nz and I will make sure they get them. We will have a paddle out for Jeff in the next few weeks so I may read some out on that day
Take care, surf as much as you can, cherish your friends and family
RIP Jeff, I’m sure many on here hope the time of mourning passes quickly and your family and friends quickly turn to celebrating your time on this side. RIP from Cardiff by the Sea, California
so sad , I am in shock . It was only a few days ago we were chatting on facebook . Roy informed me this morning , prior to this post . Thank you Andre , for filling in the details . Must be so hard , losing a close surfer friend
My condolences to his wife , family , and all his many friends
He will be deeply missed , he was an integral and positive part of swaylocks and facebook , and I'm sure touched many lives. Though we never met personally face to face , I always found him , in our correspondences , to be an encourager .... kind , and friendly , and thoughtful , as well as a creative person , both here and at facebook
I didn’t really know Jeff but we were just messaging info back and fourth about a board I was working on. He was so enthusiastic and adamant about helping me out and was generally stoked about helping me and others here. Best wishes go out to his family and freinds.
That's terrible news. I'm so bummed to hear this. I was talking on the phone with Jeff probably two weeks ago. As always he called me since I suck at keeping in touch with anyone. He told me about his trip to the Maldives. We talked skateboards and about some boards we were planning. He sounded really good. He was the one that really organized the NZ Swaylocks get together earlier this year and we talked about trying to do it again.
We're all only here for a short while. Jeff was a good man and touched many people's lives. My heart goes out to his family and friends.
Thanks for letting us know Andre. A friend of mine was surfing at a "river mouth north of here" last weekend and said it was epic. I'm sure Jeff got some good ones.
Rest in peace Jeff. Thank you Andre for letting us all know.
I did not really know Jeff, but I offer my condolences to his family and friends for their loss. Life can be so fleeting.
My first and only contact with Jeff was just last week via a PM here on Swaylocks - so this indeed comes as a shock. He seemed to have a real thirst for knowledge and his friendly, helpful and positive manner was obvious.
They say that everything you do for yourself dies with you when you do. But everything you do for others lives on. Going on what his friends here have to say about Jeff, I'm betting that his influence will be felt for a while yet..
As one who lost his best surfing buddy ever - my son - a bit over 2 years ago - my heart goes out to Jeff’s family and surfing mates…
I know there’s no words to relieve any of the pain of loss but I found, for me, that the pain was/is mine - and have tried to learn to celebrate the fact that I was so very fortunate to spend whatever time I was allowed with a very special person who managed to make my life so much better…
My wish is that Jeff’s family and friends can come to celebrate such good things also - all in its own time.
NuclearFishin