About
Guy Daniels
Guy was a Surfside Beach surfer and lifeguard who died in 1999, aged nineteen. His friends remembered him with a surf contest that lasted twenty five years. That contest has ended, but the work it paid for has not.
After Guy graduated from Socastee High School, he guarded Surfside Beach and worked at a local surf shop that summer. Then he headed to the College of Charleston.
He had already helped create the Socastee Surf Club. Surfer Magazine ran a photograph of him, and Javier Vega drew the club shirt. The foundation may hold the only one that survived. Its work carries forward something Guy had already started.
In June 1999, while he was a rising sophomore, Guy collapsed on a jog. An undiagnosed heart condition took his life at nineteen.
How his friends said goodbye
After Guy died, his friends paddled out at the Surfside Beach pier and threw roses on the water. That was how they said goodbye in 1999.
Waikiki beach boys started the paddle-out tradition in the early twentieth century. It is not an ancient Hawaiian practice. Read the history of the paddle-out.Opens in a new tab
That paddle-out became Guy's memorial, and the memorial grew into a surf contest. It helped local students and lifeguards pay for college.
Who carried the Surfoff
Guy's neighbor Mary Lynn Stalnaker started the Surfoff in August 1999 and ran it for over a decade. As the board puts it, she "did an amazing job." Mikey Pruitt, a foundation board member, took over for another decade.
From 2021 through 2024, Jacob Simmons ran the Surfoff. He owned Eternal Wave Surf Shop in Surfside Beach. Declan Riley took the last turn, running the final Surfoff in 2025.
The Eastern Surfing Association sanctioned the contest and helped all along. Guy's parents are Jim and Rhonda Daniels, and Jim was the through line. He helped each person who ran the Surfoff and stayed through every change.
The contest lasted a quarter of a century. Over those years, the foundation gave more than $150,000 to 100 or more students and lifeguards from the Grand Strand. Volunteers ran every bit of it, and nobody has ever drawn a salary from the foundation.
What changed
The contest has ended. A two-day event on a public beach needs a crew, a permit, sponsors and a season's worth of volunteer hours. The foundation reached a point where the event no longer made the best use of its resources.
The purpose did not change, and the scholarships continue. The camera carries them now.
The camera
For years, the beach camera at 13th Avenue South has quietly served anybody who wanted to look at the water. It turns out a lot of people do. Tens of thousands visit every year, mostly through bookmarks and habit rather than search.
That audience is now the foundation's engine. People donate to keep the picture on. Local businesses sponsor it because it puts them in front of the exact people who visit Surfside Beach. The margin from a shirt does the same job the contest entry fee used to do.
How the money is handled
The Guy Daniels Memorial Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit registered in South Carolina, EIN 20-8687570. The foundation files a public Form 990 every year and has no employees. People who knew Guy make up its board.
Sources
Grand Strand MagazineOpens in a new tab reported Guy's school, surf club, college years, death, and Mary Lynn Stalnaker's role. The foundation supplied the later custodian history and Jim Daniels's role.
Grand Strand MagazineOpens in a new tab also reported Guy's work as a lifeguard and surf shop employee.
Twenty five years of support from
