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Crossroads Sighting Moab January 2008
The one and only, world class waterman, artist and photographer Donald Bowers of Cape Hatteras, N.C. in Moab on his way to the Wasatch to do a bit of storm chasing with Uncle Jerry and friends!
Late January 2008 .....correspondence from Bill and Amy Cort
The forecast was for SNOW- lots and lots of snow! And, the forecast was right! Four old friends gathered near the Colorado/New Mexico border, for a back-country ski into Spruce Hole, and a two-night stay at the cozy yurt.
Sometimes our dreams come true!
The four were: Me, Bill Kevin, a high-school friend since seventh grade (from Los Alamos), we've been on many epic camping expeditions before, and this one goes straight into the top ten-- Ken (from Albuquerque) and Andy (from Boulder) friends of Kevin's from their summers spent staffing back-country trail programs at Philmont Scout Ranch. The trailhead is at LaManga Pass, between Chama, NM and Antonito, CO, at 10,500 feet.
Sounds like Bill had the good sense to pack in something to drink although I highly recomend Tequila or Rum!
Friday afternoon was strangely warm and calm, but with fast-moving gray clouds, for our two-mile ski to the yurt. The trail climbed gradually, and took about two hours, three of us on tele skis with climbing skins, and Kevin on relatively antique touring skis. The yurt was warm and cozy (after we started a blazing fire in the wood stove) about 24 feet diameter, has two bunk beds (with sheets and blankets, no need to lug a sleeping bag), a kitchen counter and a center table built around the supporting poles, with propane lamps and cook stove.
No stargazing on this trip!
In the very center is a "crow's nest" chair for viewing the stars (but not on this trip!) Since we didn't have to carry tents, sleeping bags or cooking gear, we loaded up the vacant pack space with plenty of food and beverages, a couple of beers each, wine, and stronger stuff for hot buttered rum and cold winter nights. The yurt stayed shirt-sleeve warm, but the fire needed a couple of middle-of-the-night logs. At about sunset the flakes started to fall-- with about 6" new in the morning. Saturday morning we lounged for a while, watched the snow pile up and up before venturing out skiing.
This doesn't look like the fun part of the trip. Sitting down on this in the morning now that takes fortitude!
Each trip to the privy required more digging out of the deepening trench through the snow. On our ski tour, the visibility was ok, as long as we stayed along the edge of the trees. I made sure to punch in the GPS location of the yurt, though, as our tracks were quickly filling in behind us. Climbing up on top of the ridge wasn't a good option, but we skinned up a slope behind the yurt, where some open glades were the right pitch for making some powdery telemark turns. We retreated back to the yurt, for another fabulous pasta dinner and more story-telling. Sunday morning we awoke to another foot of snow, about 2-3 feet total, and wondered if it would be possible to ski out and drive home. Was the road even open? The skies were just starting to lighten a bit, and the snowfall was not quite as relentless. We sent Andy out on the trail to see if the road was visible in the canyon below. He noticed a snowplow and a few cars following, so we reluctantly decided to pack up and ski out. Breaking trail was very challenging, so we traded off every hundred slogs- it took about 1-1/2 hours to ski the two miles back. We found the road plowed, but our cars were thoroughly snowed in.
Looks like they were lucky to find their cars!
We must have parked in a windy spot, as there was no snow on the cars, just cornices on the leeward sides. We got out our shovels and began to dig! after an hour and a half of shoveling, we had a nice trench six feet deep and barely wide enough to drive through. Finally a giant snow blower arrived and cleaned up our path in about 30 seconds. The pass was still closed-despite what we'd seen earlier, but a snowplow driver at the base of the pass opened the gate for us. Laura and I are planning to ski this weekend too, but stay within the cushy resort confines of Beaver Creek. .....Bill
Last Day in Utah!
Here I am in line on my last day at Brighton with Don Windsor from Cape Hatteras, North Carolina sometime during the first week of March! I had been watching a high pressure system pushing it's way into the Pacific and was having a bad feeling that this might be my last good day for a while and perhaps the season.
Lucky at Aspen Highlands 4 11 08
....my 20th Powder Day of the season!
The premonition I had at Brighton that day was prophetic. No snow till the begining of April and Monty was taking his vacation that week! Well it kept on snowing the following week when Monty came back but I was up to my neck in projects at the begining of the week. I had a plan to hit Snowmass on Thursday but the storm hung up on the Grand Mesa and would have provided the best day of the year at Powderhorn if it had only been open so I blew it off! Late in the afternoon Synergy Wine Rep David Campbell calls me at the shop and tells me that Highlands is going to open up for an experts only day to pack down the 3 feet of snow that had accumulated in the Highlands Bowl / Deep Temerity area since they closed their lifts the previous Sunday. He didn't have to ask me twice I was out the door at 5:30 AM the following morning. David and I had a pretty good spot up near the front of the line with 400 of our closest friends. At the top about 30 seconds after the Ski Patrol dropped the rope into Steeple Chase we were met with some of the best conditions of the year! With 135 inch base and 3 feet accumulated over the week it was ....well just to keep it short ......WOW ....what a fine way to end the year!
Synergy Rep David Campbell
Fortunately for me David was just getting over the flu and not running on all cylinders. He is one of the more competent riders I hang with and he could loose me in a minute if he so desired. He has a lot of technical skills in addition to having the aerobic capacity of an accomplished alpinist so riding with him is always a treat as well as a challenge. By the way David is a fabulous wine rep ... Eleni, Monty and I all hold him in high esteem and is a true southern gentleman to top it off.
Good Friends ...call someone you
haven't spoken to in a long, long time! Late February!
Keith Miller and I met at the Action Sports Retailer in Long Beach back in 1983. He was selling these funky t-shirt dresses and very expensive one size fits all t-shirts in wild colors that basically had zip codes for the graphics. Lordy we sold a boat load of them and before I knew it he had me out of the pleasant shop I had ensconced myself in St. Thomas and on the road traveling around the Caribbean selling his line and many other necessities. The next year we collaborated on a shirt that was called Hey Mon and if we had been smart and trademarked it in every country of the region neither one of us would be working today. Keith and I have been close friends and worked together for many years. I never minded that he was vastly more talented than myself when it came to creating graphics and producing the end product efficiently. In fact he does it so effortlessly I still enjoy watching him do his thing to this day! I you go to Hawaii, or any where in the Pacific for that matter or Las Vegas you will find his work in the best stores under his Gone Tropo trademark.
Keith has been skiing for a long time but had never seen more than a few inches of fresh on any given day. He came out to Utah to visit me and as luck would have it he caught one of the last really good 12 inch powder days we had this season. Keith likes to fly first class and rented a really good rig which helped him make the adjustment to the deep stuff real quick. I took him all over Mt. Millicent and had him riding a bunch of the Black Diamond runs down the Spine on the north side of the bowl. I think the day exceeded his expectations and he was so jazzed that probably went home and bought new skis and boots! Lord knows he talked enough about it at dinner.
Here we are with Eleni and Karen on the deck at the Silverfork Lodge in Big Cottonwood Canyon! Hey like I always tell ya ....get on the phone and call someone you miss! It will make you feel like a million $$$$.
Eleni and Karen Miller in the Silverfork Lodge Big Cottonwood Canyon UT
More Good Friends!
Uncle jerry's advice for the day pick up the phone
and call someone you haven't spoken to in a long, long time!
Powder Mountain 2/9/08
My friend Louis and I met when I switched over to Seabreeze Senior High back in 1969 ! Now I wouldn't say we were bad kids but we started a long list of adventures and misadventures almost immediately. Surfing, body surfing, scuba diving, water skiing, working on the beach patrol and finding any excuse we could to get out of the house and preferably out of town! Louis was kind of an anti-hero athlete back then. He was on the swim team but not a star, however on the cross country team he was a flyer. On the Volusia County Beach Patrol he took on all comers from a field of very good athletes and won the combined open ocean swim and run event 2 or maybe even 3 years in a row! I have fond memories of knocking on his bedroom window in the wee hours of the morning and rousing he and his brother Fred for the 2 hour drive to do the dawn patrol thing at Sebastian Inlet which were the first of our many travel escapades. Then there were the days when the ocean was up and too wind blown for surfing when he and I would be the only people out past the shore break swimming into the biggest peaks and body surfing as casually as the neighbors having a dip in their backyard pool. Louis was always light hearted and a constant joke teller but if things ever turned ugly he was good man to have around!
Louis really hadn't done much snow skiing! He told me that his prior experience was more apres ski than ski but that blue runs would be just fine. Well our first day at Powder Mountain after hooking him up with some modern rental skis I got a bit concerned after watching him drop onto the green run that leads down to the Timberline Lift. His skiing was pretty tentative and he went down in the soft snow on the edge of the run. Getting up wasn't easy with his poles sinking through the crust to the handles but we made a vow to stay out of the crud and moved on. When we got off the 1st lift and started down the mountain I distinctly remember hearing him say oh no at the first roll over so we stopped to give him a little coaching and encouragement. I got to tell you he got better every run that day and on Sunday at Solitude he was going down some very steep and very slick black diamond runs like Inspiration and Challenger. The more he charged the better he got... it was very impressive. We ended up having a very good tour of both Ski Areas! Above he is doing his best Hermanator on Inspiration!
True to form when we went out to have BBQ at Pats (Superb BBQ will be doing a story on it soon) with Don and Ann Bowers he ran through his current repertoire of jokes. Here he is doing his best John Travolta!
I don't do groomer days very often any more but even standing sideways I still retain a lot of that good edge feel from when I used to Zoom the groomed runs at Whistler and Telluride in my hard boots and carving gear. Solitude on Sunday was spectacular in the morning they really had the place groomed nicely and it was a perfect bluebird day. The snow was very hard packed and almost icy, it reminded me a lot of riding Whistler the day after a powder day.
55 and still having fun at the top of the Summit Lift in Solitude! When I was about to drop Louis off at the airport he confessed to me that I kept him so busy that that we didn't even have time to fall off the righteous path...a first for us! Well better late than never I guess!
Good friends!
Friday February 8th, Donald Bowers and I are standing at the head of the lift line waiting for the first chair! Don likes dropping into Millicent Bowl first better than anyone I know. The last couple of weeks he has been the first one down the bowl 5 times! I suspect he's plotting out how to get the goods without offending me and Don Windsor (back to us) another friend riding the 1st chair with us! We've gotten a bit jaded the last month this was the worst powder day of the month only 10 inches!
Don and I have been friends since around 1981 when I used to travel up and down the East Coast on my first job in the apparel business selling t-shirts mostly to surf shops and marinas. He was a very good surfer back then and did the airbrushing and glassing for Fox Surfboards in Buxton. I started windsurfing a year or so ahead of him but once he took it up it didn't take him long to catch up. He was a world class amateur in both wave sailing and on the race course! The first year of the Aruba High Winds where about 300 of the best sailors in the world showed up to race he took 2nd in the amateur event and was the first amateur to cross the finish line in the long distance event beating most of the pros! Don could really fly and he rarely fell which made him a very tough competitor! I always enjoyed sharing the water with Don because out there playing in the elements he is an extremely happy fellow and has always been good at getting me to push my limits! It is much the same in the snow and one of the reasons I would make the pilgrimage to Utah each year to hang with him and our mutual friend Scott Busbey! In the pic above he is standing on top of James Peak in the Powder Mountain Ski Area!
Yes he even drug my sorry ass up this hill. It was quite a march but thoroughly enjoyable! I had been wanting to try hiking with in a controlled ski area for some time and Powder Mountain is a good place for that! Last week we did the hike loop of Mt Baldy twice and I am simply waiting for it to snow again before I take my next hike!
Monday February 4th
....why is every one smiling? Big cottonwood Canyon was closed at 8 AM allowing only about 100 lucky bastards entry to the Brighton Ski area after 3 feet of snow fell on the place in 48 hours The wind was blowing so hard on Sunday that no one got to ride Millicent Bowl and this small band standing at the head of the chair lift line @ 8:45 are all about to drop into the best day of the year! We had the place to our selves until noon! I have been riding with my good friend from Cape Hatteras Don Bowers in the orange jacket the last 2 weeks along with his wife Anne and their friends (on right) Keith and Agnes. I don't know who the kid is in the middle of the pic with the big grin is but one things for certain he knows he's about to score the big one!
Think I am exaggerating ....just ski patrol tracks from AC!
Above and below is the miracle that is Powder Mountain 24 hours later with snow so deep you had to straight line most of it and be careful not to stop or fall on a flat spot! This is all stuff you can ride if you are willing to hike a bit!
It's amazing that 2 days after the storm nobody has tracked up much of the good stuff! A lot of it is simply not the obvious terrain you find as you immediately get off the lift or you may have to walk a bit and there is a lot of that. As you can see life is good and it is snowing again as I type! ....See ya next week ....Uncle Jerry
Crossroads Sighting Arches National Park!
Donny got lucky when he married Ann who owns an art Gallery in Cape Hatteras she is a pretty good snowboarder and an even better instructor. She spent a day riding with Eleni and I am not sure if Eleni will even want to ride with me after that experience! I think I heard something about needing to get in touch with my feminine side. Ann is good at taking things in stride and does remarkably well getting around the mountain in all conditions! One of these days I will have to get to her Indian Town Gallery! But if you want to get a break from the mountains in winter just click on the link and you'll be on the coast in a flash! http://www.indiantowngallery.com/
Here is Donny's self portrait!
The next big storm hits Utah!
262 accidents on Monday around Salt Lake City one was a 12 semi-truck 30 car pileup south of Spanish Fork. Getting up Big Cottonwood Canyon wasn't too bad but the wind was blowing 35-45 knots. there was about 11 inches overnight but it was snowing so hard that your tracks were practically covered by the time you got back up to do another loop. They closed most of Brighton down in the afternoon. Tree riding was great but there was a 2 hour wait for avalanche control to make the Canyon safe for the drive down.
This is what we found Tuesday morning when they opened Millicent Bowl after 3 feet of snow fell the previous day and a half! SWEET but it got better on Wednesday with another foot and a half plus what it snowed from 5 AM till noon when they finally opened the place up after several hundred powder hounds waited 3 hours for the canyon to open. I penned most of this email in the car while waiting. God bless Wireless technology!
The things I do to for my readers. Uncle Jerry standing in line at Millicent's new high speed quad after about 12 loops!
Mega Crossroads Sighting France Switzerland
If you read the Damn News you may recognize our friends Doug and Sandy Canright from Ridgway. They decided to take their dream vacation to Europe and took off for Switzerland early in September. Doug and Sandy are mountain jocks of a high order so a vacation to them means plenty of outdoor fun. On this trip they did a trek where they circumnavigated Mont Blanc. While still in planning stages the trek outfitter asked them how old they were. After stating that they were #% and &@ the outfitter said you know this is a pretty strenuous trek. He obviously didn't know who he was dealing with!
These are all from the last day of hiking as we are heading back to Chamonix in France. To the right of his head is Mont Blanc. (big and white)
This one is Sandy atop the Tete Entre Deux Sauts in Italy. At approx 8700 feet it was one of the tallest places they went to. She kind of looks a bit like Supergirl in this photo ready to leap tall mountains in a single bound!
At lunch at Lacs des Cheserys (the lake) above Chamonix. Beautiful! One of the things Eleni and I like about these two is that they are such a good match! They even got addicted to an unusual winter sport, skate skiing on those ultra short skis. They've taken that sport to the extreme riding double black diamond runs and deep powder in Telluride!
Doug entertaining everyone at a ski area where we took a tram back down to Chamonix.
Doug is one of my heroes. He did a tour in Viet Nam in the 60's and after being severely wounded in an explosion the doctors told him he wouldn't ever walk normally. After many, many Marathons and Imogene Pass events I guess you could say he has beat the odds......
You got to love the Swiss ....look how nice they made the garbage dumpster look..
...Bienvenue en Suisse means Welcome to Switzerland.
Some of our group at happy hour after hiking all day. We are in Les Chapieux, France, at the Auberge de la Nova, a country inn. From left to right - Terry, Doug, Sandy, Linda, Gib, Kristie. Those beers tasted REALLY good! Doug and Sandy must have brought every hat I ever gave them on this trip!
Kite Boarding in the British Virgin Islands
No I've never tried this and am not likely to at this stage of my life
....but it sure looks like fun!
Anegada is a flat slab of exposed coral and sand on the northeast corner of the BVI. It sits so low you can't see it from any of the other islands in the chain. Fishing for bonefish around this remote island is legendary, as are the waves that if you catch it right wrap around the island and break for hundreds of yards! Not a bad place to chill ...it sits on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean there is nothing to the east till you hit the Azores and the Canary Islands! When you are on Anegada believe me you will feel like civilization is a long ways back in the rear view mirror!
Scott "Scooter" Holtzendorf used to design & punch my embroidery tapes when we were in the apparel business. He happens to be one of the best kite boarders on the East Coast. He got involved in the sport when it first hit the scene and has spent a lot of time traveling in the tropics scratching an itch that just never seems to go away... kind of like powder days!
Perhaps Cane Garden Bay if the sun is sinking ....there are so many bays and coves through out the VI it is hard to tell?
Oh Yeah these guys get air time!
And for surfers in a boat there is a wave like this around every corner!
Crossroads Sighting!
Hunting is one of the West's great pursuits and a
large part of the cultural and historical landscape.
The first to explore the region were expert hunters by necessity and and the tradition lives on with a few technological advances. It never ceases to amaze me what ends up in the parking lot and the pictures our customers bring in. Rob Hann who supplied the pictures of his hunt on the Eastern Side of the Divide won the lottery and got a tag in one of the best and most remote areas in the state. He even bought horses to pursue his fantasy hunt and when the time came he got his trophy bull, a 7 & 6 at 400 Yards. Rob does all his own meat packing and prep and is a avid chef.
When you are in the middle of nowhere you'll need a little help from your friends!
Rob managed to get a pretty good buck for good measure! Thanks for the jerky and the sausage Rob!
Dallas Trail 7/29/07
These 2 mountain goats are Sandy and Doug Canright....they have been in the Damn News before as they either take pity on or enjoy torturing Eleni and I by dragging us up some unbelievable trails in the San Juans. They are getting ready to go to Europe next month and do a trek circumnavigating Mont Blanc which will take them in and out of 3 or 4 countries. They have promised me some really interesting pictures! We love these guys because they represent what is best about living in Colorado!
The trail we did last weekend was the Dallas Trail just outside Ouray. Unlike most of the hikes we have taken around here the trail goes straight up as soon as you get out of your car. I am guessing the climb was about 2500 vertical feet of steep switch backs. It was worth it the views were spectacular.
Going up we hiked above a big Creek and saw 2 different waterfalls and well as one stretch where we walked thigh deep through a field of ferns and other primordial growth where you could hardly see the trail!
Jerry & Eleni getting a good dose of the Rocky Mountain High
Crossroads sighting in Nicaragua
Letter from Scott Busbey .....Hyatt and I took a trip to Nicaragua last week, where we were fortunate enough to surf everyday at least twice a day. The surf was so consistent I never got a chance to open my book. Now that's the sign of a good surf trip!
Looks like a palapa on steroids ....bet my blood pressure would go down about 20 points in one of those hammocks!
My traveling partners were Hyatt and his best friend Owen. We met some past traveling partners of mine, Miles Walsh from California and Andy Rich from Richmond, Va. We also met with my old friend from High School, Stuart Nicholson and a friend of his, Bob Pastuer.
Hyatt was born to surf although his family let him take his own sweet time acquiring an interest. His parents Scott and Carol are both icons of American surf culture and his uncle, Jim Cartland was East Coast Champ before he went off to Med School. The kid has got really good genes to work with when it comes to action sports and in addition to being a very good snowboarder and skier Hyatt is a straight A student.
Scott and Hyatt after the last wave of the last day!
We stayed with Captain Lance Moss and Kristen where they run a surfing and fishing camp, Surfari Charters. Each day we were up at 4 am for breakfast so we could get on the road at the crack of dawn. We would travel by land or boat depending on where we were going out that day or what the conditions were like.
This beats the crowds back home at the Lighthouse in Hatteras!
If we went by boat we would always catch fish on the way home. By land was slow and rough as the road system was muddy and bumpy but they all led to quality waves. We were able to surf seven different breaks the week we were there and saw several others. The guides did a great job of putting us on the waves each day so I don't have a lot to talk about except surfing.
Above and below the one and only, 50 something if you can believe it, Scott Busbey
....thank god some things just never change!
After dinner at eight everyone was in bed to get rested for the next day. For Hyatt it was his first surf trip and his first time out of the country, it was also his first time surfing over rocks and one time he found himself washed up onto the reef standing in knee deep water. He was a little bit freaked out about it but he'll also tell you that was his favorite spot.
It's a damn good thing the communists abandoned this place! Commies don't surf or something like that!
We did stop one day and watch some locals playing a game of baseball. The field was so rocky and rough they were playing on (talk about a bad bounce) but these guys were good. There was pig grazing at second base and one fly ball almost hit a horse in left field. We called it a ground mule double. We're back now though and we have been really busy in the shop this week with the holiday week. ? Take care, Scott
Crossroads Sighting Mexico!
In the Caribbean the colloquial term was Lime! As in "hey mon I'm just gonna have a good lime"! Ya know hang around and drink rum and chill under a palm tree! Well Dennis and Eileen are really good at just kicking back and enjoying life they just like doing it in Spanish and drink Tequila. They are an incredibly popular couple in Grand Junction and if they invite you to dinner or one of their parties don't make the mistake of being somewhere other than their home. They cook and make presentations like the best chefs in town and are incredibly talented entertainers. They are currently developing a beautiful piece of real estate in Sayulita, Mexico! The plans are spectacular and the location is the quintessential south of the border paradise!
Hola,
Just got back from Sayulita, the house construction is going well, The house should be completed in August. We made a trip to Playa Chacala, a little fishing village about 65 miles north of Puerto Vallarta, to visit my friends Herb and Vicki Gearhart of Grand Junction, who own a house there. Not many gringos here!
We ate dinner at our favorite spot on the beach, Restaurante Acela, in Playa Chacala. Their specialty is Pescado Serandeado, which is whole fish (butterflied) and slow cooked over an open wood fire, with a spicy bbq sauce, it is really great, but takes about 2 hours to cook. You just have to hang out on the beach and drink beer or margaritas until your dinner is done. The fish is served family style, with salsa, beans, rice, and vegetables. Everyone shares and dishes out of the same serving platters, (just like home).
The photos show Herb and Vicki along with their son Alex, and of course Eileen! Thought this might give you some fodder for your newsletter.
Hasta luego,
After Tax Day Celebration & Blind Tasting
... if you wern't there, this is what you missed!
Diana and Holly from DMT Catering put on quite a spread!
Like I said everybody enjoyed the food and Willow Pond B&B was a big hit! What a great place to have a party or an overnight stay...a really beautiful place in the heart of the Grand Valley!
Monty held court and we poured some incredible wine! Yes the $110 bottle of the Terre del Grico Monster we poured was a big hit as were the other 8 bottles!
One of the best parties we attended this winter was the 6th ANNUAL SOUP WAR at Jim and Susi Alvillar's home. Every year the 3 contestants Susi, Dave Chepko and Marilyn Rabideau all slave away at the stove making a soup they have never made before. Then on Sunday after noon they throw a party and the guests are the judges. All three entries were delicious it was hard to pick a winner. Susi's was this lucious three grain soup with mushrooms that reminded me of the kind of soups served at chick restaurants in Aspen or Telluride. Mairlyn's was a yummy potato soup that with all the toppings tasted like the best baked potato you ever had. Dave did this Cajun fish soup that had just the right amount of spice that reminded me of the soup my mother used to make when I was a kid. In a close vote Dave won and is seen above holding the travelling trophy.
Susi Alvillar-Spicy Three Grain
Dave Chepko-Golden Cod
Marilyn Rabideau-Baked Potato
Mark Harrington has some interesting hobies ....falconry being one here with his 4 year old female Harris Hawk, Apache and Janet. His life as a fishing boat Captain in Alaska affords him a lot of time in the backcountry mushing dog teams. Below seen on a 2 week expedition in the remote Ray Mountains Of Alaska.
Jammin Salmons Captain Mark Harrington
The big white boy is Josh Merren! The last time I saw him in person he was just a kid. His dad Greg is a good friend of mine and the comes from one of the oldest families in the Cayman Islands. They still catch some unbelievable hauls of fish there Look at the size of the Wahoos.
In the old days (Feb. 1987) instead of snow boarding Jerry used to spend a week or two in Aruba sailing in order to check out new gear and shed the early winter rust gained from too many trade shows. I used to get a little work in while there but this trip was mostly to sail. If this looks a little familiar Phil Jones a National Geographic Photographer made a good living doing windsurfing photos from this vantage point on 15 feet of scaffolding set up in the middle of Fisherman's Huts! The photos that got published were usually of pretty girls in bikinis!
VI-7 is a former World and National Champion my old friend Jim Buderus from the VI. We spent a lot of time figuring out how to make these things go fast and then racing them in events like the Aruba High Winds and the US Open in Corpus Christi. He too lives in Colorado and is runnig a sales business we started together in Florida and that he later transplanted to the mountain states.
Call a friend you haven't spoken to in a while!!!! Followed my own advice once again and called a good friend who I used to windsurf with in Florida and Aruba. It was and accidental call. I had meant to call a different Ian (K) but hit Ian (P's) number instead. Funny thing I had been thinking about sailing Aruba in the early weeks of June which is the windiest month of the year there. A bunch of us in the industry along with a lot of other serious sailors and the entire pro circuit used to go down there for the Aruba High Winds Regatta and spend 3 weeks sailing one of the windiest venues on the planet. When I caught Ian last night, who won the High Winds in 89, he happened to be with another friend Joe, that was also part of the Aruba crew! It's good to catch up and have a drink with old friends even if it was just on the phone. Make a point to call a friend today!!! Aruba June 1993 (Special thanks to Mike Curtis for scanning these pics)
This change of direction is called a Lay Down Jibe ...to start you over sheet the sail and let the mast dip to depower it then just lean into your carve giving the illusion that you just dropped the sail on the water. When you pull the sail up the power comes back on, and you finish your 180 ° carve, then flip the sail around, switch your stance and complete the jibe ...seems like it takes forever start to finish out on the water... but at 6 frames a second it happens in about a second. It always amazes me how time expands when you are having fun! This photos come from June 1993 the last time I sailed Aruba after many years of making the annual pilgrimage to be there with a couple hundred of the best sailors in the world. The wind is a steady 35 knots, the hull was an 8' 9" X 21.5 " polystyrene carbon epoxy 14 pound John Parton Shape, the sail was a 4.5 meter Sailworks from Bruce Peterson, the entire rig was carbon fiber and the fin was made by Santa Barbara's Chuck Ames. I was pretty crippled up at the time after rupturing 2 discs in my neck the previous fall. I don't want to think about how bad my back was at the time. However even at 20 lbs. over my racing weight I still managed to run the inshore flats around Fisherman's Huts at well over 40 MPH and the offshore run between Eagle beach and the Lighthouse all the while laying down jibes like the pros and savvy locals. I have fond memories of the place and the people who shared the obsession. It was the golden era of this sport! Sailing here will never be the same due to the building of several more mega resorts that now block a lot the wind blowing out of the bay close to shore. Progress caught up with this place just as age catches all of us. Uncle Jerry |
The 2 15 06 Winter Cruise Edition of the Damn News All this sunny weather has got me a little depressed. Thank heaven for Devon, Chris, Crystal and their new protégé Jesse over at Traders Coffee who all know how to make a Latte just the way I like it! A while back at my Doctor’s request I gave up regular coffee and made tea my hot drink of choice at home in the mornings. For a guy who has been drinking coffee in all its forms since I was a little kid this is kind of like downsizing from a Harley Davidson Fat Boy to a Vespa. I usually make up for the lack of zip in the tea by indulging myself with designer coffee or 2 several times a week at Traders Coffee. I have always liked espresso and the variety of coffee drinks that can be made with it. I started drinking espresso in my early teens after family dinners out of double decker espresso pots in little demitasse cups with a little lemon peel. Shortly after getting out of college in 76 I got my first job traveling in the islands on the cruise ship, Nordic Prince. I was the sports director on the cruise staff. Besides organizing activities for the passengers my job was essentially socializing and buying people drinks on the staff expense account. The rest of the staff were all entertainers and I had the distinct honor of being the only staff member who did not sing, dance or tell jokes for a living. Anyway the pay sucked and I did all the jobs the entertainers hated but I got to live quite well because the perks were great. However the best aspect of the job was that I got to preview quite a lot of territory on our 14 day trips back and forth to South America.
Trunk Bay St. John Most of the time when we got to a port of call, my #1 duty was to act as the Cruise Director’s bagman. It entailed collecting money from island retailers who were coerced into payola schemes so that their shop received a favorable mention during the Cruise Director’s shopping lectures. When I wasn’t shaking down retailers the Director would sometimes want to have a member of the staff at a beach outing or on one of the bigger tours to keep sure everyone had a good time. This kept bad comments to a minimum. Comment sheets at the end of every cruise were the bane of every Cruise Director and staff member. There was always some jerk amongst the 800 guests who would write some sort of groundless complaint. “Such & such didn’t dance with me, I felt ignored or some other neurotic babbling”. Man oh man these people need a life in the worst way! To keep dissent to a minimum and as a form of insurance the Director from time to time would give me roll of cash and tell me to keep sure everyone had a good time. Except for all the bad things I learned about the cruise lines, like the fact that the directors were basically extortionists, and that the Captain and crew threw tons of garbage off the back of the ship each night it was not a bad job at 22. After spending the previous winter managing a resort pool deck in Miami Beach watching how the mob worked it’s thing, (from a discrete distance of course) this was merely white collar crime and corporate pollution on a massive scale.
Long Bay Tortola, BVI On the ship the staff dining table was in the main dining hall and we were treated like royalty, just the same as the passengers. Being the youngest least worldly member of the staff the other members felt it their duty to introduce me to all their vices. Let me tell you entertainers are well versed on vice. These folks had very few limits. Actually I had a huge head start having a gourmand for a father and growing up in the late 60’s and early 70’s, but I always played the part of eager student to the hilt when it came to food and anything that was mind altering. We always had cocktails along with wine for dinner and getting back to the subject I started on espresso drinks in all their forms after dinner to give us a lift so that we could drink with the guests till midnight. Fact is on the ship I could ask for an espresso, cappuccino or a latte any time of the day or night and get it for free. Definitely one of the better perks I’d say. It was a nice job for 6 months that gave me a good look at what the Caribbean had to offer. I started island hopping seriously after my stint on the cruise ships. I had been scuba diving since I was 13 and even though I did not have dive instructors papers I had a knack for teaching the sport and more importantly making people feel comfortable in and under the water. It always made me a welcome visitor. I had been on something like 75 water rescues as a lifeguard and participated in reviving 2 people which alone was more experience in emergency situations than your average dive master might come up with in a life time.
Looks benign but a lot of divers have died in this crack in the earth!!! I had also survived an attempt on my life underwater. It happened in a 120 foot deep black hole that has never seen the light of day, called Blue Springs (should have been named Black Death) in Orange City a half hour from Daytona Beach. The place has claimed maybe 20+ lives over the years. The first time I snuck into this spring with my snorkeling gear I was 12. It was on a Boy Scout camping trip. The kid I hiked back to the boil with ratted me out and I got a severe tounge lashing from the Scout Master. When I got home my father put me on restriction for a very long time. After I received my diver certification at 15 I started diving the place regularly and have probably been to the bottom about 40 times, it was a place I knew well. The idiot I brought up from 100 ft. didn't bother to check to see if he had a full tank before he started down. He probably made it to the bottom or close to it when his regulator just went dead! He shot up from the bottom in a panic and caught up with me at about 100 feet, literaly crawling up my body as I was making my ascent. I will never forget the look in his eyes or the grip of his hands around my left wrist after I had calmly given him my regulator to share. The fool wasn’t going to give it back. It was a bad scene and I had to administer a little pain in order to get his attention. I did this by swimming the back of his head into the wall of the cave hard enough to hurt him but not knock him out. Thank the lord for Scuba Pro Jet Fins! 35 years later and I know pro divers that still swear by them. When you don’t have the sense to check your gear before you go diving in a cave or the cool required to make an emergency ascent it’s a mistake that can kill you and whoever happens to be nearby. People who panic in the water are notorious for taking someone with them when they drown. Hell I was only 19 at the time, had the typical beliefs you have when you are young regarding the good intentions of man and was very fortunate to have survived. It could have been really ugly! Funny thing about this idiot he didn’t even stick around to thank me for not ending his miserable life or even getting him to the surface safely. When I got topside after a short decompression stop at 15 ft. he was already in his car and gone. Yeah, and my liberal friends wonder why I sometimes have a dim view of humanity.
The springs flow down this lovely river into the St. Johns River Experiences like this and the fact that I had taught a bunch of my close friends to dive had made me quite adept at sensing neophyte divers moods and I could literally predict who was going to freak out long before it got out of hand. For the dive operators I spent time with in the islands if there was a problem 80 ft. below the surface Uncle Jerry was someone they were happy to have around to take the client to the surface.
Apple Bay Tortola, BVI So papers or no papers documentation was never a deterrent for me I was a valuable commodity! Dive operators in the day didn’t really care if you were on the island legally as much as the fact that you showed up for work. If you were good at the job and sober it was just an added bonus for them. Fortunately for me drinking during the early part of the day was never my thing and I had spent a lot of time around boats. Besides how hard could it have been to be agreeable and ingratiate myself with the owners who employed me? I was on an island in the tropics, where after everyone is safely back on the boat it is customary to break out the beer? Tough job but somebody had to do it! I had some really good gigs the best being on Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands where the deal included a 40-foot sport fisherman to live on, I got paid well for teaching a bunch of Doctors on a tax scam vacation to dive and when ever the waves were good I was free to surf.
BVI Panorama!!! You could find Coffee and Espresso prepared a bunch of different ways all over the Caribbean although most of it was terrible. In Miami, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico instead of a latte they make Cafe Con Leche, which is essentially super strong burnt espresso with over steamed super hot milk. They also take the same espresso shots then mix it with sugar in like a 2 to 1 ratio and call it Cafe Cubano. You have to watch them shovel the sugar into these little cups of burnt to a crisp espresso to believe it. Let me tell you if your heart can deal with it, the Cafe Cubano will give your morning one hell of a jump-start and the sugar hides all the flaws in their coffee making technique.
Jerry and Eleni lived a couples of miles up the road from Magens Bay! The worst coffee in the Caribbean is on the Dutch side of St. Maarten and the very worst was at the airport bar. They would make it with the most putrid water I have ever encountered in a so-called civilized country and used canned milk for cream…YUK!!!! It is amazing what you will drink when you are addicted and need a fix. On the French side of St. Martin things were a bit better. There used to be a little café across from an ancient cemetery right on the beach in Marigot Bay that a French Canadian couple from Montreal owned. They did breakfast, had croissants and absolutely the best hot cinnamon rolls you ever tasted (light on the cinnamon heavy on most delectable dough with a lovely glaze …even better than a hot Krispy Kreeme). I can’t remember his name but he would proudly proclaim that what ever he was serving you was ZEEEEE BEST! I had breakfast and coffee there many, many mornings literally planning my schedule on the island so I could be there when he opened. The lattes were just ok (the water was just as bad on the French side) but considering what the Dutch passed off as coffee on the other side of the island it was heaven. The worst coffee in the world is served in St. Maarten!!!! The other French islands in general were little better with regard to their coffee drinks. However, St. Barths, Martinique and Guadeloupe were all light years ahead of the East Coast of the USA unless you were in a really good restaurant until about 10 years ago when the gourmet coffee boom started. I was luckier than that because I started traveling out to the West Coast to windsurf in the Columbia River Gorge and to attend sales meetings during the summers. This afforded me the opportunity as far back as 1985 to spend time in San Francisco, Seattle & Portland where the coffee boom started in this country. It was in the Pacific Northwest that I had my coffee epiphany and got hooked on Seatle style espresso drinks. The realization of which was that all the coffee drinks I had in the past sucked!
St. Martin on the French Side ...used to be a sleepy little fishing villiage called Grand Case Now a lot of people think Starbucks, the Seattle based giant serves great coffee but personally I think its crap. Please don’t take this personally or add any religious overtoness to this statement but for their crimes against humanity I hope the souls of the founders and present day management of Starbucks reside in hell for all eternity. I have even been so bold to tell one of their regional managers (who has shopped in Crossroads) that their product sucks and being an aficionado himself he couldn’t do anything but agree with me. They cannot properly train baristas (the maker of the divine fluids) fast enough or retain experienced baristas to keep up with the company’s growth. The thing that really pisses me off is that Starbucks has been serving up such poor quality coffee drinks for so long the general public has been bamboozled into thinking its good! People even refer to coffee as a Starbucks these days, which is really a disgusting thought. That’s why all their shops are now changing over to fully automated machines so their staff needs only to push a few buttons. It basically affords the company the opportunity to standardize the level of crap they serve. In stead of having one level of crap in one city and another level of crap in another. They will now be able to serve the same crap every where they have stores. I have never been in a Starbucks in any city where the so-called button pushing barista can actually steam milk correctly. Most of the time they just burn it. When its done right the milk becomes thick and you can’t see any bubbles. It looks just like white molten glass and pours like a liquid whipped cream. I don’t want to get too bent out of shape on the quality of the espresso shots they pull but Starbucks is responsible for taking espresso and completely trashing the concept! Espresso should be a thing of beauty that when done with care, is so succulently sweet it will electrify your palate for hours. They have eliminated the art of making espresso in their quest to make a gazillion bucks for their shareholders. Last time I was in Seattle I was walking around town and this lady pulls up to me in a BMW and asks if I know where she can find a Starbucks? I replied with as much sincerity as I could muster, “hey lady this is Seattle, all you got to do is drive around the block”!!!! I myself had taken up the habit while traveling out west of wandering around cities and towns looking for the small little obscure shops that are into the art of espresso. I would try shots in shops, watching the barista do his thing with the milk till I hit a sweet spot. Then I’d hang in that coffee house for a while with a note pad, newspaper or a book. I’d have a shot, then a latte or 2, maybe a breve (latte done with half and half instead of milk) and another shot to go home on. When it is done right I just love the stuff. I can be a real fanatic when it comes to coffee and some have even referred to me as the Latte Nazi. So what’s new all of you know I’m into peak experiences! In GJ we are lucky to have the crew at Traders Coffee who have bent over backwards to accommodate my addiction. They roast their own beans, pull nice shots and take the time to steam the milk the way I like it for my lattes. On a personal level Dee and Fong are a trip. They have a real gift for putting a shop together and their management style is excellent. It feels a lot like what we do at Crossroads where we try to treat our customers like family. Dee, god bless him even sent Chris to a special school for baristas and she has been sharing her knowledge with the rest of the staff ever since. If you haven’t visited them yet go and check them out. I promise you it will be your regular coffee stop in this town. Ask for a seatle style latte or jerry's latte and see if you like it! I also like the coffee shop in Gunnison on Main St. that is immediately on you’re your right as soon as your turn off 50 headed to Crested Butte. They do a very nice job and if you are ever that way don’t hesitate to pick up a latte there. Another place here in Junction is the Aspen Street Coffee Shop in Fruita. Ronnie and Danny roast their own beans and have a good feel for coffee having managed and run shops along with a roasting operation in Oregon. If you wanted to talk to some one about what you are doing at home they would be a good source. …. Uncle Jerry |
