Surfer:

Sitting in jail has given him time to think, he said as he sat on the other side of a plate glass window holding a black phone to his ear.

Joey Ray Hawkins had tears in his eyes when he began talking about what he has been going through.

“I just feel like I embarrassed my family and friends,” Hawkins said.

The 39-year-old Huntington Beach resident was a surf world champion, but quit competitive surfing after getting low-balled by judges, Hawkins said. The surf champion was dealing with unemployment, homelessness, fighting over the custody of his daughter and battling a drug problem leading up to his arrest Nov. 5. Hawkins said he was a “basket case” and would hide in sewer drains.

“I started praying for an intervention, and I got it in the most roundabout way,” he said.

Hawkins was found under the influence near a local youth shelter with a loaded firearm and drugs. He was charged and originally pleaded not guilty to possession of a controlled substance with a firearm, being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of controlled substance paraphernalia. The charges were dismissed, and Hawkins pleaded guilty Monday to sale or transport of a controlled substance.

The night Hawkins was arrested, he had been in the area looking for a skate park. High on methamphetamine, he parallel parked between two handicapped spots to walk around the shelter’s atrium to check out some mosaic tiles.

Hawkins said he thought it was a day shelter with no one there and spend what felt like an hour looking at the tiles.

He was back in his car making calls and texts when a flashlight shined in his face. Police were called by a local shelter employee about 9 p.m. when Hawkins was wandering around the place, said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Russell Reinhart.

The officer pulled a meth pipe with the drug inside out of his pocket and then a bag of the drug out of his other pocket, Hawkins said. The officer also found a gun with a clip inside under the front passenger seat, he said.

Hawkins will have to serve 90 days in jail before doing six months in a treatment house and three years of formal probation, Hawkins said. The experience has left him sober for the first time in 20 years. He has gained more than 20 pounds and said he feels happier than he has in a long time.

“It’s like they saved me,” Hawkins said of his incarceration.

His friend and ex-girlfriend Jana Czarnecki said she hopes he doesn’t take the situation lightly. She said it’s been difficult watching his descent and hopes that it was his rock bottom.

“It’s been frustrating on my side,” Czarnecki said. “There’s nothing you can do if he doesn’t want it — isn’t ready for it.”

Czarnecki said right now, Hawkins is doing great and she didn’t even recognize him the last time she visited him in jail. She is praying he will turn things around.

“Anything he sets his mind to, he succeeds in. It’s irritating,” she said.

Hawkins has set his mind to answer his life’s calling: helping kids and spreading the word of God. He also wants to get back into surfing and plans to enter the U.S. Open of Surfing this summer.

“I’ve had all these crazy ambitions to return to surfing since I’ve been sober,” he said.

Surf photographer John Lyman said Hawkins was very good and used short board techniques on the longboard.

“He was actually ahead of his time. He was a progressive longboard surfer,” Lyman said.

Lyman said he thinks Hawkins will be well-received back into the competitive surfing world, but Hawkins’ old problems might not have changed. His progressive moves didn’t score well with traditional judges, a fact that frustrated him. Lyman said the competition is looking for more traditional surfing techniques, and Hawkins might have to change his attitude on the style.

Despite the long absence from the competitive surf world, Hawkins is still going to be a threat, Lyman said

“I hope he really does good,” he said. “We’re always rooting for him.”