Because my little Shearwater headed out for Catalina yesterday and I wish I could follow.
Band: Yuk; Song: Middle Sea
For the Ears
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Category Archives: My Crew
LA County Junior Lifeguard Championships (Taplin Relay)
1,200 stoked parents, 600 competitors from 10 LA County JG programs, fierce Taplin relay. Daniel’s Venice competition finished 6th, but it hardly captures how hard the kids, instructors, and lifeguards work to be the absolute best in the surf.
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- The Crowd
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- Start Line…10 teams
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- DST pulling anchor
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- Out through a few small sets
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- Feet up
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- Got some wave love on his finish
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- Rescue awesomeness
Schadenfreude
Your day is in the crapper. It’s hot, you itch like there is no tomorrow, and Mom is going to give you a cold oatmeal bath outside. The only thing that could make it worse is for someone (or something) to come over and mock your very dog existence. Enter Borrego, stage left…
Sound familiar? Of course it does. FarandaWey is here to remind you that there is also a German word for stoically accepting one’s temporary misery. That word: Tohellwithit.
A Considerate Place
I need a place for all of the great images and videos that came out of the weekend. For all the sadness and heavy emotions that came in waves, there was also laughter, smiles, and the warmth of a community of lifeguards that is like a second family. The video below is simply mindblowing and gives just a partial sense of how big the celebration of life was for Ben. Amazing.
5341, 5342, 5343 all departing (top)
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- Same as it ever was
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- Alan, Kristy, BT all photobombed by paddlegirl
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- Kucera, BT
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- Robb Wyatt, BT Saturday’s Pier2Pier Swim
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- Water crowd
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- 53 Units at center
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- Est. 3,000 people
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- Closing
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- 5341, 5342, 5343 all departing (top)
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- Memorial speeches
R2R Race Recap (The Real One)
Superhero pose
It happened again.
One of those moments during a race when I realize, with utter clarity, why I choose prone paddling as sport, if not a lifestyle, and it happened during the 2014 Rock 2 Rock. This post doesn’t get all fluffy about being a ‘waterman,’ but it certainly foregrounds why the men and women with whom I paddle ARE the sport. Not the gear, or the times, or the crappy trucker’s caps—it’s the handshakes before and after races, and the paddle-battles that make the character of paddling a misery stick so great.
Last year’s race was perfect for breaking records. This year, not so much. The wind didn’t want to cooperate, the water was pissed off, and everyone struggled. To put it into context, first place finisher, Max First (the joke writes itself), was 40 minutes off his time last year. Similarly, I went 30 minutes slower than last year…and I was part of relay with the most excellent Ruth Parish. All things the same, we should have gone much faster this year, but it was not in the cards.
Ruth put in an inspired paddle, starting, finishing, and switching out with yours truly every 30 minutes. We passed some strong competition and duked it out with Pete Bagoye for the better part of an hour (the man is a hammer). We crossed the finish in 5:16 and patted ourselves on the back for choosing this year to do the race as a relay.
The real race story, however, happened out in front of us some 45 minutes and defines the nature of the sport. Reno Caldwell (“The Redondo Rocket” – below, on the blue 14’) humbly and succinctly described his paddle-battle with two other amazing sportsmen:
R2R 2014….. Battle paddle. Mid channel. One of the most memorable paddles that I’ve ever been a part of. Pulled the guys all the way across, then they caught me and passed me in the kelp beds just off Cabrillo Point… they felt bad that they drafted me the whole way, so they stopped right before the finish line and they let me catch up. We then paddled in together… great sportsmanship and one heck of a race…!!!
Go turn on your TV. Flip to ESPN, or your favorite sports channel, and I challenge you to find another sport where the elite athletes check up at the line to wait for a fellow competitor that showed the heart of a lion. It’s just not going to happen. Cyclists, triathletes, marathoners…hell no; in fact, it’s their goal to put you away at the finish, even if they’ve been sucking off your draft since 2009. I repeat: it’s about the character of the people with whom I paddle that makes the sport and racing worth it—they have character and they are characters.
What more can I say? My Father’s Day was brilliant, with DST cheering us on as we grinded out the miles and our skipper, Mark Urkov, simply nailing race strategy. In the course of the last year, Mark has become such an invaluable part of my race program that I can’t even begin to thank him enough; but, if I ever have to paddle against him, I’m totally crossing the line in front…no quarter 😉
(Photo credits go to Joel Gitelson, Mike Jackson, and Ruth Parish — amazing images)
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- R2R
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- Herbie in transport mode
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- Ruth enjoying a morning snack in Newport
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- Parliament of Dunces
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- The Rough House
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- Father’s Day!
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- Literally, “a smile that lights up a room”
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- DST paddling the Flying Matoe
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- DST pre-race interview
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- Superhero pose
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- R2R race meeting and bbq
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- Chris lookin’ hard
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- Rocket
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- Even if the sun is not out…the guns are out
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- Killer shirt
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- …and some dude wearing the same one…
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- …for the second week in a row.
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- Dawn light
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- Race chatter with nicest folks
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- Game time
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- Ugly water and paddle-battles forming
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- The view for the next five hours
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- What a shot by Joel Gitelson
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- “She of the nice femurs” DJ taking the win
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- Happy to hit the sand
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- Father’s Day finish with the whole family!
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- Done and done
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- 5:16
Rock2Rock (teaser)
Rock2Rock starts with a trip to Catalina…all of them memorable in some way. This one, for reasons that are immediately obvious, was epic.
Race recap of R2R 2014 coming soon…do NOT go away.
“…You People…”
Some folks have wasted precious time (years even) trying to explain to me that doing backflips off piers isn’t awesome. Good thing I’m still not buying into it…
Rock 2 Rock 2014 (Preview)
I get to pass along a huge dose of ‘feel-good’ because I finally convinced Ruth Parish to partner with me in Rock 2 Rock, 2014. She doesn’t show it because she hauls the mail, but Ruth has been recovering a hurt wing. Putting 21-22 miles on an already-injured shoulder will certainly let you know if it’s ready for The Catalina Classic or, alternately, it could just plain wreck you for the rest of the season. Period.
I certainly didn’t want do that, and I suspect Ruth didn’t want to risk it, so I begged her to be my partner (literally, I think it took something like 5 calls, 10 emails, and 20 text messages). The upside is that she agreed — Rock2Rock is simply too much of a good time to not be out there with the rest of the paddling family, racing, supporting, and clicking off the miles. With Mark Urkov, of Urkov Charters, running the boat, I couldn’t ask for a better set-up. I am lucky to have such friends. More on Mark, The Rough House, and the overall race plan soon…
You Can’t Dig It If You Don’t Dig It
Had the good fortune to host the end-of-the-year party to celebrate all of Ms. LeCate’s 4th grade students who participated in the planting, maintenance, and harvesting of a school garden. The kids created their own garden cookbooks and pulled what was left of the spring vegetables to take home. The plot wasn’t all that big, and the ‘harvest’ was nothing if not modest, but the smiles on their faces were as big as I’ve seen. It didn’t hurt to make 5 gallons of ice cream and let the kids achieve vertical take-off on sugar. Poor Ms. LeCate had to cope with 28 jacked-up students for the rest of the afternoon. Destructo.
Toothpicks and T-Shirts
It was Daniel’s turn for racing over the weekend and the kid took home his fair share of 1st-place swag. I’ve never been one to collect medals, but I guess it’s always fun to get a nice shirt or a little something to remind you that all the hours staring at the line at the bottom of the pool are paying dividends. Stoked.
2farandaway 