About Me

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Sacramento, California, United States
so salty pieces of coral from surfing Hawaii in the 60's and 70's getting reef pounded living in my body fall through my skin from time to time!

sailing to Oahu

Jimi Hendrix was playing on Oahu. I had never sailed. Surfed Mexico, California, Hawaii! Aw, how hard could it be to sail 90-110 miles from Kauai to Oahu? Piece of cake, right? Remember it was the 60's! This is so bad. We thought we were looking at Kaiena Point,Ohau, knowing we weren't going to make the concert! But at least we were in site of Oahu-wrong! Coy, who had never sailed before, me,who had never sailed before, jeff and Abbott etc. We were looking at the sleeping giant on Kauai! We had done three-sixty's in the night! We sailed on the only tri-marran I've ever sailed on ( except later ) in my life, missed the concert! It was at the Waikiki Shell Ampitheater ( Moon eclipsed . We finally made Nawilwili Harbor! The Skipper tried to give us his boat saying, " It's trying to kill me"! We watched him go stark raving mad not even realising that had we got caught in the channel current we were on our way to Japan! Remember it was the 60's and we were going to see Hendrix. I left out some of the good stuff but I will make up for it later!

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Power Trippers

Just as every surfer manifests his total identity, reveals his very nature, tells someone with a discerning eye, who he is and what he is about while riding his wave, so do all who drive their vessels on our water highways! It doesn't matter if it's a sailboat ( tri-marran, catamarran, or mono-hull ), powerboat, jet-ski, surfboard, canoe, kayak or sailboard! We tell each other a lot about ourselves by the etiquite we demonstrate while launching, using and picking up our vehicles. we are being scrutinized every step of the way by the curious and the furious! Why do stink-boat captains hate sailors? Why do sailors hate powerboats? Why do mono-hull sailors dispute with multi-hull sailors? Why do blue-water sailors have a hard time rubbing elbows with racing sailors? Why does everyone hate jet-skiers? We all know why, don't we! I'm a blue-water sailor who doesn't enjoy racing but my wife is a racing sailor. She enjoys blue-water. I enjoy power boats with my friends, and even though I prefer mono-hulls have had great sailing experiences on multi-hulls! The point that I would like to share with all people who use water for pleasure is to share it. The gracious skipper gladly follows " the rules of the road ", not because he has to but they come natural to him. In the course of upcoming posts I'm going to share with you good and bad stories, good skippers and good skippers making bad decisions! Ha! On this latest canoe journey I was thankful for the few arrogant stinkboat drivers who relished showing me the size of their rooster-tail! Some stretchs of The Sacramento River are not only tedious but hynotically monotonous. The timed stroke repetition mixed with the heat would have been maddening save for the occassional ego-centric, power mad, big-waking, engine screaming, powerboat trippers!!! Little did they know as they roared by, peddle to the metal, knowing they were showing canoe-boy who the " River " belonged to! I turned to dance with the beautiful waves they sent this ancient surfer, gleefully riding naturally what I have been doing my entire life, laughing at how divinely poetic God is! What they thought they were sending me was a devastating wake with a definate possibillity that I might be swamped! But what they couldn't see or know was God laughing at how he had used their ignorance and rebelious arrogance to give his friend ( me ) some bitchin waves to play on! Ain't life grand?http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tf71tBYXbmk

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