“The Catholic Church teaches that God is bigger than ourselves, and the ocean is a perfect symbol, because it is ancient and ever new,” said Matt Schaeffer, Loyola’s director of Campus Ministry. “God is love. Let us pray, and thank God for the gift of light and love that was Braun. We ask for His help, in living like Braun.”
Several of Braun’s friends, who identified themselves as his brothers, reiterated the same theme in different forms. “There was never a sad day,” said one, “when Braun was around.”
He was around on Sunday. At least two hundred paddlers honored him, paddling into a circle, flowers floating in the gap between them. The Levi family had just moved to the South Bay after losing their Pacific Palisades home to the fires in January, but Braun’s larger-than-life presence had preceded their arrival. He already had hundreds of local friends. On Sunday, his yellow surfboard rested on the beach, and many of those friends signed the board and repeated the vow, “Live like Braun.” ER
