Legendary Uruguayan surfer Jordi Rossi passed away early this morning, Wednesday, January 20, a victim of cancer. He was 62 years old, family members told DUKE.

The Uruguayan Surfing Museum considered him “perhaps the Uruguayan surfer with the most years of experience”. Rossi began surfing alongside his father, Omar “Vispo” Rossi, the father of Uruguayan surfing, at Pocitos beach in the early 1960s.

He was a lifeguard in Montevideo from 1979 until a few years ago, when he retired, taking advantage of the opportunity to spend more time in the water, also to be in La Paloma, a key place for his family and for the birth of the Uruguayan surfing culture. He also took advantage of the opportunity to produce a documentary about his father and had also planned to write a book.

His contribution to the historiography of national surfing was enormous, being a passionate spokesman for his father's life, always willing to give notes and present details about his biography, sharing anecdotes and presenting the spirit of unity and drive that Vispo Rossi gave to national surfing; around the lifeguard booth on Pereira street first and then in his house in La Paloma.

With his passing, one of the biggest sources of information in Uruguay about the birth of surfing and especially about his father, Vispo, is gone. But, above all, as one of his friends, a lifeguard and surfer, told DUKE, Jordi was a lifeguard, an educator, a friend and a soul surfer.

The wake was held at the Martinelli company, his coffin was covered by a colleague's lifeguard jacket and the cover of the film The Endless Summer.