A familiar face is missing from the lineup at Ocean Beach. Days after veteran San Francisco surfer Sandro Ricardo Britz died following a medical emergency in the water, friends and fellow surfers continue to mourn the loss of a man many considered part of the fabric of Ocean Beach itself. Britz, 55, was rescued from the surf on May 28th after lifeguards and fellow surfers spotted him in distress during a rare late-spring swell that had transformed the notoriously challenging beachbreak into a turbulent maze of double-overhead waves and powerful currents. While the official cause of death has not yet been released, reports have indicated investigators were examining whether a medical event, including possible cardiac arrest, may have occurred before Britz became unresponsive in the water. Lifeguards found him unconscious and not breathing before rushing him to shore and transporting him to a local hospital, where he later died. For those who knew him, however, the headlines don't tell the full story.…