Juliette Paez worked as a telephone operator and was a singer with the Roger Wagner Chorale before she married. Paskowitz and her husband opened a surf school at San Onofre in 1975. Along with their children, they were called "the First Family of Surfing".[5] In 1991, the whole family recorded a song written by son David, "It's Real".[6] A documentary, Surfwise: The Amazing True Odyssey of the Paskowitz Family (2007), explored their work and their unusual family life.[7][8][9] She also appeared on The Daily Habit (2008), a news program about surfing, skateboarding, and snowboarding. She sued Lionsgate Television and Polsky Films in 2015, for money owed from another project based on the family's story.[10][11][12]
Personal life and legacy
In 1959, Paez converted to Judaism, learned to surf, and married physician and surfer Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, as his third wife.[13] (They also married in 1964 in Hawaii.)[14] They had nine children, eight sons and a daughter, born between 1959 and 1974, and raised the children in camper homes,[15] traveling often including stints in Mexico, Hawaii and Israel, but usually based near San Clemente.[4][16][17] After their children were grown, the Paskowitzes lived in Baja California.[18]
She was widowed when Doc Paskowitz died in 2014,[19] and she died in 2021, aged 89 years, at a care home in San Clemente, California. She was survived by her nine children: David, Jonathan, Abraham, Israel, Moses, Adam, Salvador, Joshua, and Navah, as well as 27 grandchildren and six great grandchildren.[20][21]
Her son Salvador Paskowitz became a noted screenwriter. Her daughter, Navah Paskowitz, married actor Ed Asner's son Matt, and is active in autism charities.[22] Israel (Izzy) still runs Paskowitz Surf Camp, with sessions in California, Mexico, and New York.[23][24]
^Fausto, Alma (2015, Jul 31). "O.C.'s Paskowitz surfing family files suit against studios over proposed TV project: Surf icon's widow says they're owed money for rights to $20 million production" Orange County Register ; via ProQuest
^"Now, That's Love". The Burlington Free Press. 1995-04-28. p. 26. Retrieved 2021-12-13 – via Newspapers.com.
^"Dorian Paskowitz; Surfer who gave up his work as a doctor to embrace a nomadic lifestyle that included introducing the sport to Israel", Times [London, England], November 25, 2014, p. 41. via Gale Academic OneFile.