Malibu surfing legend Randy “The Craw” Miod passed away in the Los Angeles fires earlier this month. He was 55.
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While speaking to PEOPLE, Miod’s mother, Carol Smith, confirmed the surfer was among the people who perished in the Palisades Fire, which started on Jan. 7 and continues to spread outside of Los Angeles.
“He would always call me anytime there was a fire coming,” Smith shared. “He was almost in tears on Tuesday when I talked to him, and he said, ‘Mom, there’s another fire in the Palisades. I can see the smoke.’ I said, ‘Randy, grab your cat and go to a shelter. Don’t make me worry.’ ”
Smith said she worked about her son so much because he has been through multiple wildfires. The surfer refused to evacuate any of the fires.
“He always stayed,” she continued. “He always felt that he could hose the house down with his hose.”
Hours after their phone call, Smith said her son called again and left a voicemail no mother ever wants to hear.
“The last thing he said to me was, ‘Pray for the Palisades and pray for Malibu, and I love you,’” she recalled. “He called me at home, and I wasn’t here, and he left a message on my phone, the same thing we talked about when he called me on my cellphone… And I have that message, and I will keep it forever.”
Randy Miod Died While Trying to Protect His Home From the Fire
The grieving mother said fire officials discovered her son behind his Malibu home. He had passed away on Jan. 8 while trying to protect his residence from the blaze.
“I don’t think that he ever really knew what hit him,” she said. “The detectives said that this kind of a fire, or any kind of a fire, just sucks the wind out of you… They did the autopsy, and he had enough lung tissue left to determine that he died from smoke inhalation and thermal heat.”
Remembering her only child, Smith said Miod was an avid surfer and skateboarder in his younger days.
“He used to cut classes in high school to go to the beach,” she pointed out. “I had to hide his board at one point because he was spending more time at the beach than he was spending in school.”
Miod moved to Malibu and rented a studio apartment attached to a home that he purchased. The residence became the “Crab Shack.”
“[Miod] had kind of an open door policy there,” Smith revealed. “He had so many friends that came and went from there, and you know, he partied a lot, and that was the lifestyle that suited him perfectly. He was the party.”
Smith said that her son was a beloved member of the Malibu community and a “people magnet.”
“Everybody in Malibu knew him. I mean, he’s beyond a legend there,” she added. “He’s almost iconic.”