ANNIE SPURGEON

Artist

Videographer

Environmentalist

Sitting around the breakfast table in Anne Spurgeon's Pleasure Point home was always a time to reflect on the meanings of life. In this cozy wooden beach home, art mixed with politics, ecology blended with spirituality, and a sense of well being balanced the knowledge that we - as a species - have to do better. Annie had a way of putting all that into perspective.

Most of the surfers on the Point, around Santa Cruz and in the larger community knew Annie as the natural white haired beauty that was the creative force - along with her love, Michael Congdon - of Waxfoot Videos and the televised, Waxfoot Surf Show. 

Each week's show featured not only the hardcore, yeah, and softcore, surfing that Santa Cruz is famous for. Also Sea and wavesscapes with sprinkles off and onshore nature within. But it also showcased the culture of surfing life. Contests, fun get-togethers, comic and serious; all these were gist for the show. 

Many of us also knew Annie as the talented artist who created the vibrant surreal sea visions of dolphins, mer-folk, whales, turtles and birds that were her vision of the oceanic world. Because Annie was modest and unassuming, many did not know how often she helped a friend in need, was a support to her family, or advocated for the causes to bring public policies into line with Mother Earth. 

Annie was a special friend to all. She was so very well liked and is now missed by many. Micheal has been keeping himself busy by her wishes by still carrying the the much loved, Waxfoot Show which airs each Wednesday at 7:30pm on CTSCC Channel 27 Comcast Cable Santa Cruz, CA . It can also be viewed streaming live on the web during the same time at: www.communitytv.org. Click on the Channel 27 tv tube marker.

Annie was pure of heart and pure of soul. A Saint and a Wonder Worker.

We have lost a wonderful person but have gained a true and loving spirit to call on.

- Michael "Waxfoot" Congdon (September 22, 2010)

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From Annie's obituary 
in the Santa Cruz Sentinel 

Many of us knew Annie as a gentle soul dedicated to the causes of individual justice and environmental wholeness. Her humble quietness and calm advocacy always supported those in need. Annie always found great beauty and joy in her appreciation of nature. She also had stunning successes with hands on and remote healing which is a story within it's self. Others of us knew her as a talented visual artist. Whether the images were vividly colored, iridescent dolphins circling exotic mer-people or the funniest of ink line cartoons, her art reflected her love of the ocean and her joy of life.

Annie's soul mate was Michael Congdon, known in the surfing community as Waxfoot. Together Mike and Annie produced eighty six thirty minute Waxfoot Surf Shows, a community television production featuring Santa Cruz surfing fun and action. This show won the Western Alliance of Video Excellence "Wave Award" for all public access community programming in the Western United States and Hawaii. For more than a decade, Annie, along with Mike, tirelessly recorded the contests, events, big swells, sunsets, dawn patrols and all the in-between times when there was a wave, a moment, or an image to be videoed. Annie was a master video editor whose work resulted in hundreds of the most beautiful video portraits of the Santa Cruz surf community. www.waxfootvideos.ning.com.

They say: "What goes around, comes around". Just how much Annie meant to our community was apparent in the outpouring of love for her over the course of her illness. Annie's personal generosity was echoed by the generous soul of Santa Cruz surfers; an event at Surfrider Café, a mini-surf contest by Big Stick Surfing Association, and numerous donations by individuals, raised thousands of dollars to help defray Annie's medical expenses.

Annie will be missed dearly by all who knew her either personally or through her art. Heartfelt and deepest, sympathies go out to Mike, Annie's daughter Maria, her son-in-law Lynn, sister Jill, and brother Tom. Plans for a celebration of Annie's life are being discussed by Michael and members of the surf community.

- Published in Santa Cruz Sentinel on May 27, 2010