Hello Folks, this is Jamie Whitney, the sous-chef, husband and photographer for my wife's food blog. I know this blog, "Cooking From the Heart", that my wife started was intended to be a place where we could share her cooking recipes with the many people who have asked for her recipes. Now that it's up and running, several people have also asked us to include more information about "other things" we like to do. Many of you already know I am a dedicated "surfer for life", so today I will share with you one of my surf-related stories. This one is called, Hero For A Day.
It started yesterday when my buddy Steve Schubert and I went down to the beach to get in a few more "practice waves" before we leave on our long-awaited surf trip to Costa Rica. When we arrived, the surf was about as lousy as it gets with low tide, no shape, crumbly faces, and a real "victory at sea" day. I don't think I even caught one ride, bummer! Oh well, at least we got in some paddling exercise.
Then we stopped at a couple of surf shops and picked up some last minute items we thought we'd need for the trip. We got new T-shirts, warm water wax, extra rash guard, and this cool looking strap-on hat to protect my bald head from the tropical sun. Afterwards, we headed back home to take on the task of stripping off the old wax from our surfboards and then packing them up in our travel bag using bubble wrap and tape. Sounds simple enough, right?
Wrong! Not this time. At least not for me because the first thing Steve noticed was my fin box was damaged, cracked and loose. Not good. Taking a surfboard in that condition is "taboo" for a surfing trip because of the risk of water damage to the foam inside the board. This is the last thing you need on a trip to Costa Rica. I was bummed for sure.
Then Steve says, "Hey, I can fix it for ya". (Here's where the hero-part comes in) And I said, "You can?" In about 15 minutes he cleans, sand and repairs the nasty damage using some "solar resin" which hardens in seconds. This Dude was MY instant hero! And, the finished product looked really professional too.
With that problem fixed we started on the long process of taping pipe-foam to the rails of the board and adding bubble wrap to the top and bottom for protection from the "gorilla baggage handlers" at the airport. Steve also brought a large roll of packing tape, the kind with one of those "saw-tooth blades" built into the plastic swivel-type thing that I assume is suppose to make applying the tape easier. Sounds simple enough, right?
Wrong! Not this time. At least not for Steve because he could NOT get the tape to tear off easily from the get-go. He pulled, he yanked, he stretched it, he even bent the saw-tooth blade on the tape dispenser. So he tried tearing it with his bare teeth! Nothing worked for him. It just wouldn't separate from the roll without a major wrestling job. Of course I was laughing because it just kept folding and sticking to itself. Amazingly though Steve maintained incredible patience, I might add, even while I was giggling.
Finally, (Here's where the "other" hero part comes in) I went to my tool box and took out a simple pair of scissors and held it out in the "open position". He looked up at me and held out a strip as I quickly and neatly snipped the strip of tape. Presto! problem solved. He must have tried 8766 times to tear a simple piece of tape before I became HIS hero with "Mr. Scissors!" We both enjoyed a good laugh.
Speaking of "Heroes", I would like to mention a "real hero" of mine. Her name is Rell Sunn. This lady was born on July 31, 1950, at Makaha, Hawaii. She was the younger of two sisters and grew into one of the greatest women surfers in the world. She was beautiful and had a classic Hawaiian surfing style. Her Hawaiian middle name, Ka-polioka'ehukai, means "Heart of the Sea". Rell was a pioneer in women's competitive surfing and water sports. She was one of the original members of the first women's professional surfing tour.
I think she had a lot of wannabe boyfriends all over the world too. I once met her in a parking lot in Oceanside, California when she pulled her car in right next to mine. She was there to attend a surf contest being held at the pier. I was so startled I blurted out something like, "Oh, it's you!" And she heard me and walked over to me as if I knew her. Being embarrassed, I immediately confessed that I was just one of her "wannabe boyfriends" and that she really didn't know me. I went on to explain that I truly admired her for all she had done for the surfing community, especially working with the "menehunes" which loosely means chidren in Hawaiian. She was a natural teacher and loved to teach kids how to surf, just like me.
Rell came to be known as the "Queen of Makaha". Everybody loved her there and everywhere she went. I remember she traveled with former Women's World Champion Jericho Poppler. Those two were a pair, believe me. Jericho with her flaming red hair and constant laughing. And Rell, with long dark hair and the more tranquil of the two made such a contrast to Jericho. Both were good looking girls and both were living life as it should be. Like, "Where's the fun?" I liked that about them.
Then in 1982, during a pro surf meet in Huntington Beach, Rell felt a lump in her breast which turned out to be breast cancer. When she was diagnosed later on in 1983, her prognosis was for "one year" at best. She continued to surf everyday after her diagnosis, despite the constant pain and chemotherapy associated with the disease. Unfortunately at age 47, Rell Sunn died on January 2, 1998 after a long battle with her cancer.
The surfing world suffered a dark day when that happened. One of its brightest lights was lost. It hit everybody very hard too. More than 3,000 people attended her memorial service, where her ashes were scattered in the ocean off her native Makaha Beach. How could this beautiful and still very young woman be taken like that? Just one of those mysteries that can never be explained I guess. God must have his reasons.
A movie has been made about the life of Rell Kapolioka'ehukai Sunn. It's very appropriately called, "Hear of the Sea". This multi-award winning DVD documentary is available on line. Rell was something special in the surfing world and her story is one that you will be glad to know. She was the total water-woman, be it surfing, body surfing, outrigger canoeing, and spear-fishing, she could do it all, and with beauty and grace. I am happy that I was one of the lucky ones to have met her. She is one of my true "heroes".
Aloha!
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