There was a minute there where surfing was going to save the world, and at the heart of the action was Encinitas bodysurfer Mark Drewelow. A lover of the water in the purest sense, after a life well lived, and sadly cut short, Drewelow passed away on March 1, 2025, at the age of 60.
Son of a military man, a swimmer and water polo player at Dana Hills High School in Dana Point, Drewelow went on to play water polo at UC Irvine before setting out on an adventure that would change the course of his life. In 1984, him and a friend went surf tripping around the Mediterranean where his affinity for working on the ocean took hold.
Taking odd jobs on yachts, Drewlow worked his way up to captain, but was just getting started. In 2003 he launched his company C2C, which provided support to yachts around the world. And we’re not talking little yachts, we’re talking like the owners of Google kind of yachts. Over the years his business would service over 300 yachts in 25 countries.
Mark Drewelow (front) with friends and family at the 2015 Maui Channel Swim.
What Drewelow did best was help people, and in 2006, he launched the nonprofit YachtAid Global. His vision, which he quickly realized, was to use the boats that he was already transporting around the world to move humanitarian aid and disaster relief supplies to hard-hit areas. One of the Before his passing, one of Drewelow’s most recent projects, Operation Soni, involved evacuating women and children from Ukraine while delivering food, medical supplies and other necessities. That’s the kind of man he was.
Along the way, Drewelow fell in with Jon Rose at Waves For Water and together their organizations collaborated on providing water filters and clean-water solutions to areas in the South Pacific and Caribbean. And that’s where Drewelow came into my life. I had been helping Rose with social media for Waves For Water at the time, and with our shared swimming and water polo background, Drewelow and I connected right away.
In 2015 he invited me to join him and his family on a 10-mile channel swim from Lanai to Maui. “All you have to do is get to Maui,” he said.
Just keep swimming.
The Maui channel swim had been a lifelong dream of his and collectively, with his brother, sister and a Navy SEAL friend, we splashed across the channel and didn’t get eaten by sharks. I was broke as a joke at the time and Drewelow took care of everything. For that I’m forever grateful. His love and generosity made him such a special person. On the island he regaled me with stories about walking through the streets of San Francisco with suitcases full of cash (because that’s how his clients, yacht owners, roll) and we talked a lot about bodysurfing. The man loved bodysurfing more than anything. A supporter of the emerging USA Bodysurfing organization, featured in films and various other media pieces, Drewelow absolutely loved the purity of riding waves unencumbered.
We ran into each other at the beach awhile ago and got caught up on life. It had been awhile since I’d seen him and it was good chat and soak in the sunshine. Same great guy out there doing great things. If I’d known it was the last time I was going to see him I would have hugged him a little tighter. You never miss your water til your well runs dry, I suppose.
Drewelow is survived by his wife Cristina and daughters Julia and Lucy.
Next wave’s all yours, Mark.
