By Chris Chibbaro
In September of this year, our local community was brought to its knees with the tragic passing of an incredible human being while surfing at the Sunglow Pier. The obituary for Jorge Alvarado will read 1974-2024. However, a dash between those two years doesn’t hardly do justice to what Jorge Alvarado did with his 49 years on this earth.
Jorge was an incredible father, grandfather, brother, uncle to everybody, and to me a very very dear friend. What ensued after his passing was an incredible tribute fitting of the life he led. Almost immediately hundreds and hundreds of people came out of the woodwork with stories of how Jorge touched their lives. Jorge greeted everyone he saw with a smile from ear to ear, and he never met a stranger. We all have a tendency to exaggerate a little when talking about someone posthumously, but there’s no need for exaggeration here. Jorge was bigger than life, and he was better than all of us. There’s not enough room in this entire magazine to list the people he has helped through his life, but what has been most amazing to watch as his friend, is how much actual joy he brought to others’ lives. If anybody was having a bad day, I hope they ran into Jorge because he was going to make it better every time for every person. I am truly honored to call him my friend.
When you have a true friendship with someone you give a piece of yourself to them, and they in turn give a piece of themselves to you. When they die, that piece of yourself you gave to them dies, and it hurts, and we grieve and mourn that loss. But it is important to remember that the piece of themselves they gave to you does not die! We get to keep that piece of them forever! I am going to keep my piece of Jorge Alvarado right next to my heart, every day, for the rest of my life. And I am going to do my best to #livelikejorge because the world has a big hole to fill with him gone.
A few weeks after his passing, there was an amazing celebration of life, and traditional surfer’s paddle out for Jorge. Over 200 people descended on Ponce Inlet and what happened then was truly wonderful. There were lots of tears, but there were also lots of laughs, hugs, smiles, and wildly outrageous stories of adventures past had with Jorge. Then over 200 people paddled surfboards out along the jetty and met up with over eight boats filled with people just waiting to pay tribute. The boats included the US Coast Guard, Volusia County Ocean Rescue, Sea Tow Daytona, Rare Breed Outdoors, and more. Unfortunately, I have been to several of these paddle out ceremonies and the one for Jorge Alvarado was not only the largest I have seen, but I have never felt more love than what was out there in the lineup that afternoon.
Jorge will be missed by all of us, and I look forward to the day that I can see him again.