Surfer finds redemption and purpose

  • Jason Motes teaches some young surfers. From left are Motes, Ansley West, Coral Sasser and Romie Stalnaker. (photo by Terry Hanna @surfcountry)
    Jason Motes teaches some young surfers. From left are Motes, Ansley West, Coral Sasser and Romie Stalnaker. (photo by Terry Hanna @surfcountry)

On a recent morning, Jason Motes found himself on the beach beneath the most vibrant sunrise he’d ever seen. He paused in a moment of gratitude before ushering a group of eager groms out for a morning session.
For Motes, there’s a lot to be thankful for. He’s back at the top of his game with 27 competitive titles to his credit and sharing his experience on a professional level coaching the ESA All-Star team. At home, he works to instill the passion for surfing in a new generation of kids in Jacksonville Beach.
His current student roster is a mixed group of boys and girls ages 7 to 10, all willing to get up before dawn on a school day just to get the in water. Growing up, Motes shared the same drive. He was ranked among the Northeast’s top competitive surfers with championship titles, sponsorships and travel to the world’s premiere surf destinations.
For a kid from Jacksonville Beach, the sky was the limit. By 2011, it all came crashing down under the weight of drug addiction. Motes, now 47, found redemption in the waves and rediscovered his passion for the sport.
In the water, he teaches his young students how to read a wave, strategy in the lineup, where to focus on the horizon. They paddle out together, but Motes hangs back, watching their performance and making notes to share back on the beach. The kids call it going to “school.” Like any good teacher, Motes observes each surfer for individual strengths and offers tips on where to improve.
“It’s really cool, the bond that I’ve formed with them," he said. "They respect me as a coach, but I’m their friend. It’s just a real cool relationship. They’re helping me just as much as I’m helping them. These kids give me a purpose and with what I went through, these relationships I have with these kids and that feeling looking at me not just for information but as my friend, that is my purpose. That’s what drives me day to day. It gives me a sense of worth to be able to help them. The things I do for them in the water, it’s a small piece but what they’re doing for me is giant.”
In 2006, Motes was at the top of his game when he suffered a back injury in during a contest in Mexico. He took the medication prescribed to relieve the pain.
But having unlimited access to power painkillers soon spiraled out of control.
By 2011, Motes spent time behind bars on charges related to his drug use, but even that wasn’t enough to break the cycle. He went straight back to using as soon as he was released.
“I will never forget my dad coming to see me," he recalled. "He was happy to see me, but it was a hardcore thing for him to have to come to visit me in a place like that. He told me ‘You did so much and you lost it and I don’t know how you’re ever going to get it back.’
“There’s a lot that I don’t remember about that whole time in my life, but I remember him saying that to me. I didn’t think I was ever going to get it back.”
He finally reached rock bottom and, in March 2012, Motes called his mom at her home in Hickory, North Carolina, begging for her to come get him. She left the same night and watched helplessly as her son endured a painful detox to reclaim his body and his life.
“I was there for a year just getting clean," he said. "I went through hell getting off that stuff. I didn’t want to go to a hospital. I just needed to do it on my own. It was scary. My poor mom. I felt so bad for her watching me go through this but I had to push through. I stayed there until I felt like I could come back.”
Motes relied on his faith to find his way back to himself. He made amends for his past and “prayed that I could just live and somehow support myself and be clean,” he recalled of his absence from surfing.
“Even when I got in the water, I wasn’t me. I was just going through the motions, getting wet. I’d gained a bunch of weight so it was like learning all over again, and that’s when Krissy and I connected.”
In November 2013, Motes was at his lowest point when he reconnected with Krissy Torrelli, whom he’d known since junior high. She recognized something in him and urged him to return to surfing.
“For some reason, she pushed me to get back in the water," he said. "Even if it’s flat, just get out there and paddle. Find you again. She would just do these little things and man, these little things started snowballing and these incredible things happening to me. Six years later and we’ve been together ever since. It’s been the greatest thing to ever happen to me.”
Motes returned to surfing with a vengeance, winning his first ESA title after getting clean in September 2015. Since his triumphant comeback to the circuit, he’s racked up an impressive 15 championship titles.
“I had 12 titles before my demise. Now I have 27,” he laughed. “Once I got myself back in shape, I got it back pretty quick. You get back in the zone when you were a kid, enjoying yourself out there. Things start clicking and you start reading waves again. Once I got back out there it was like I remember how to surf a heat, I know how to do this and I gained confidence. At 47 years old, to still be competing and holding my own, I’m pretty stoked.”
Three years ago, the Eastern Surfing Association (ESA) reached out with an opportunity to run its All-Star Camp.
“I coach the ESA’s All-Star Team which is the like the best kids up and down the East Coast. I do a lot of traveling with them to contests. We take them to Hawaii every February and get them out there for two weeks and push them into some really big surf,” said Motes, who will soon help assemble the 2020 team.
“I was just doing general lessons for the first year or so but when the ESA approached me, I got more into the kids that were starting to compete at the intermediate or advanced level,” he said. "All the little kids around here started wanting to work with me and its just really developed into a really cool group of kids. It’s just a lot of fun.”
Teaching does more than provide an outlet for Motes to inspire the stoke in a new crop of kids. It’s given the kids a new perspective on self-discipline and accountability.
“I started doing some early morning sessions and it’s been great with the kids. But the best part, I had a couple of the boys that were kind of doing bad in school and going through some problems, and we started doing the early morning program and their parents are like, their grades have come up, they're excited to get out of bed and go surf then they’re in a good mood going to school,” he said. “I love getting up in the morning and surfing, too. I never thought of how the kids would benefit. Just to get out there for an hour, they are ready for the day.”
Motes is just as present with the All-Star team and approaches his coaching responsibility like any other sport. He reviews video clips emailed to him of recent contests and practice runs and spends time on the phone, breaking down every element of the performance from strategy to board choice.
When he’s not teaching, Motes still competes in multiple ESA divisions including short board, senior men’s and long board. The National Scholastic Surfing Association also allows the chance to compete down from seniors to men’s where he finds himself surfing against competitors half his age. One thing that hasn’t changed is the pride his dad feels when he wins a contest. He’s grateful for the second chance to make his father proud.
“I put my family through hell. Our name at the beach was something really good and I squashed it through my drug use. Now me and my dad are better friends than we ever could have been. He’s my biggest fan … When I win a contest, he’s the first one on the phone telling me ‘I’m so proud of you’ and I remind him ‘Pop, you gave me a lot of motivation when you came and visited me and told me I don’t think you’re ever going to get it back’. It really hit home with me.”
Motes is open about his story, celebrating his sobriety birthdays on social media and sharing pieces of his past to remind himself how far he’s come and let others know it’s never too late to turn things around.
“I reach out to people, letting them know what I’ve been through because I want to help someone. When they ask, how did you come back? I say that one simple thing. I got myself into a meeting. I got back in the water and every day I prayed to God to let me stay off drugs that day,” he said. “I’ve got to keep things as simple as possible.”
He no longer feels the pressure to crash through that glass ceiling. Everything he needs is within reach, including a wedding planned for Oct. 10, 2020. Motes said he’s happy to leave all arrangements up to his future bride.
“She’s got it all worked out and I follow her lead. I tell people all the time, whatever she says, I do. It’s worked out well so far,” he laughed. “What I have now is a total blessing. If I can maintain where I’m at, I’m a happy man for the rest of my life.”