Benji McRoberts, one of the super talented McRoberts brothers, recently passed away.

Benji grew up on Merritt Island, Florida, and started surfing in the early 1960s, along with his brothers Guy and Tommy. All three of the McRoberts brothers were gifted surfers, and before long, their parents sought out local surfboard builder Pat O’Hare (East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame, Class of 1996). The McRoberts’ parents wanted their kids to surf at a high level, and O’Hare was just the person to make that happen.

All of the McRoberts brothers would end up excelling in the sport, but Tom and Benji were naturals and picked it up relatively quickly. Smooth and aggressive, they stood out amongst the local crowd at their home break of Canaveral Pier, where they surfed alongside legends like Dick Catri, Mike Tabeling, Gary Propper, Bruce Valluzzi, and many others. The brothers may have benefitted from a “home break” advantage — their mother came to the pier frequently to watch and cheer on her boys.

In 1968 Benji won Juniors US Open at Huntington Beach. Benji, and his brothers Tommy and Guy were quickly picked up as team riders for Channin/Diffenderfer surfboards. They later left competitive surfing to join the family business, McRoberts Pools, which is still in business.

 

 

Pete Dooley reminisces on his facebook page-

My three Benji stories…1. Living in a trailer park at the south in Cocoa Beach was pretty cool…not a very big crew…but one day coolness was upon us…Duncan Currie and I we’re walking across A1A in this Bitchin’ white Porsche pulled up. It was C.C. Claudie. He rolled down his window about 3 1/2 inches, Duncan was way cooler than me so he went up to the cracked window I think Claudie asked him how the waves were and Duncan said something and Claude nursed the gas a couple times (like all Porsche drivers are required to do) and backed out onto A1A and split…I was kind of bummed, that would be cool BUT low and behold when we crossed over the dune walkway, out in the water three little kids ripping the piss out of the place…Jimbo Brothers a grom ripper from Virginia Beach, an incredibly stylish little guy Richard Munson getting covered up and coming out smiling from these little hooks while styling beautiful rail turns and Benji McRoberts! As I’m paddling out Benji’s on this wave and he drives up to the lip and takes it to the point of ripping across the pitching out part of the wave and carving down so hard at the chunks of blown apart wave were clunking and splashing out all over the place on this classy pretty clean day…holy SJHEETAH!…#2… I was up at one of the pier contests where even on a flat day the sandbars can usually generate some sort of a little lump that breaks…Benji was out in the heat and I think he was getting a little frustrated…so towards the end of the heat this kid shot his board up so high it kind of slid below the pier fencing and landed on the pier as if he walked up on the pier and casually placed it there…not a short distance by any means then he just sort of march/splash/kicked his way onto the beach!…… #3 George Easley and I were Christmas shopping in Merritt Island mall…George knew and was friends with 99% of the surfers on the East Coast or just generally anybody actually…As we are walking along this thick kid walked up and started talking to George, he kept looking at me occasionally and then we walked away… I asked George who it was…he said ‘Oh you don’t know Benji McRoberts?’…George explained,–benji played football for Merritt Island high now…I was kind of shocked but in a way not…Benji still wasn’t very tall but he looked like a slightly thicker Mike Tyson…I could imagine him on a football field throwing kids from other schools around like ragdolls… that’s back when Merritt Island high was racking up state football championships…Classy legendary surf family and classy guy…sorry I didn’t get to chat with him all those years ago…RIP Benji