Learning to surf is hard. You fall off the board a lot. Learning to surf in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., is particularly hard, because when you fall off, you might get bitten by a shark, in the waters off the self-proclaimed “shark bite capital of the world.”
All of that was good training for Raheem Mostert for his future NFL career. As a teenager, he learned to get back on his surfboard. To get back on his skateboard. To stay away from the biting sharks. To pick himself up and try again.
“When you fall off a skateboard, it’s like life,” Mostert said last week. “When life knocks you over, you get back up and fight. If you want to execute an Ollie or a tre flip, it’s going to take you multiple times. But when you land that trick, you feel accomplished. Like you’ve done something.”
In the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 19, Mostert landed a trick, four times. He scored four touchdowns and made history with 220 rushing yards in the 49ers’ victory over Green Bay.
Since then, the sports world has been captivated by the story of the young man who was cut by six NFL teams before he finally landed with the 49ers. Who turned himself into a special teams standout before he ever got the chance to carry the ball.
And who, when he got the opportunity, made NFL history.
“It has been so awesome watching his success,” said Evan Geiselman. “Everyone is hyped on him.”
Evan and his older brother Eric are professional surfers, still based in New Smyrna Beach, though they spend nine months out of the year traveling on the surfing circuit. They’ve become fairly famous themselves and are relishing the sight of their old friend making his own headlines.
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Evan was friends with Mostert in middle school.
“We had P.E. together and he was miles above everyone in terms of athleticism,” Geiselman said. “He was a freak of nature.”
After eighth grade, Evan was home-schooled so that he could pursue his sport. But he still kept in touch with Mostert and surfed with him.
“I learned a lot of my skills from them,” Mostert said.
He and Evan are both goofy footed (meaning they ride with their right feet forward on the board).
“He just kind of had a knack for it,” Geiselman said of Mostert’s surfing. “I love how he celebrates his touchdowns.”
Mostert lies in the end zone, mimes paddling out on a board, then leaps up into a surf stance.
When Mostert was in high school, the story goes, a Billabong representative approached him, intrigued by his talent. The contract would have allowed him to participate in surf competitions and make some money. But Mostert wanted to eventually play college football and be the first person in his family to go to college.
Billabong has been thrilled to see its brand linked to Mostert and is sending him gear.
“New Smyrna is a hotbed for East Coast surfing talent and Raheem was one of a handful of local kids with real potential,” said Evan Slater, Billabong’s vice president of global marketing. “Even then, Raheem was clearly a gifted athlete who would likely achieve an elite level in whatever path he chose.”
When he was young, Mostert frequented Quiet Flight, a surf shop in New Smyrna. But the manager of the store, located 250 miles north of Miami, the home of Super Bowl LIV, isn’t an NFL expert. He only learned about Mostert this month because he received some phone calls from media.
“Are they in the playoffs?” he asked.
Dude.
Like many surf breaks, New Smyrna holds to a certain stereotype. Seeing an African American surfer paddling out is rare.
“Definitely,” Evan Geiselman said. “That’s what makes it even cooler. He didn’t care.”
Geiselman, who was bummed he missed picking up Mostert on his fantasy football waiver wire during the season, isn’t surprised that his friend has continued on his path of self-determination, even when the NFL kept telling him he wasn’t good enough.
“I think that’s his personality,” Geiselman said. “It shows the type of man he is. He didn’t take no for an answer.”
Though surfing is creative, and football is more regimented, Mostert has applied some of the tools he honed on his board.
2019-20 Regular season
|
G |
Car |
Yds |
YPC |
TD |
|
16 |
137 |
772 |
5.6 |
8 |
2020 postseason
|
G |
Car |
Yds |
YPC |
TD |
|
2 |
41 |
278 |
6.8 |
4 |
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“Having balance, focusing on the little things,” he said. “When you’re on a surfboard you really have to focus on your footing and technique. So, it just helped transition over to what I do today.”
When Mostert took his future wife Devon to New Smyrna for the first time, on spring break from college, he said she was bitten three times by sharks in the space of about 30 minutes. The sharks in the area, hammerheads and tigers, are relatively small.
“Not like the Great Whites here,” Mostert said.
He doesn’t surf anymore, and not because of the sharks. The activity is forbidden by his NFL contract.
“But I still like to go to the ocean,” he said.
Mostert has a new skill to master: playing running back in the NFL. After falling off rosters several times, he’s finally up. And riding the wave of his life.
Ann Killion is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. Email: akillion@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @annkillion
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