The first time Darryl Virostko surfed waves as tall as three-story buildings at Mavericks, the legendary surf spot some 50 miles north of here, he was high on acid.
It was not the only drug Mr. Virostko, 37, would take during his surfing career. Even as he was earning a reputation as one of the most fearless surfers in the world -- wining the Mavericks competition, the Super Bowl of big-wave surfing, three consecutive times -- he was also becoming an alcoholic and methamphetamine addict, dependencies that propelled him to success at surfing but eventually crushed him.
"With meth, you're moving a million miles a minute," said Mr. Virostko, whose nickname is Flea. "You're psyched to catch any wave you can."
By 2005, during a peak in methamphetamine use in Santa Cruz County, more than half of the drug-related arrests by the sheriff's office involved methamphetamines. In a survey of 500 counties across the country completed in 2005, 87 percent reported increases in methamphetamine-related arrests in the previous three years. California counties reported a 100 percent increase.
"Meth was gigantic," said Josh Pomer, 36, a surf filmmaker from Santa Cruz who has known Mr. Virostko since elementary school. "Everybody had sores all over their faces."
Mr. Virostko has been sober for a year, and this month he started a program called FleaHab in collaboration with a local drug rehabilitation center. He will teach surfing and other sports to patients undergoing supervised alcohol and drug rehabilitation.
Read the rest from source...New York Times
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