The Junior Lifeguard coming of age ritual
At the end of the summer an evening demonstration was held for the parents.
It was cold, gray, windy and getting dark. Ugly, overhead surf pounded the shore.
We shivered shirtless in our Spartan red trunks with the JG patches sewn on by our moms. If I had been the parent of one of those 10-year-old JGs I’d have yanked him off the beach.
Rudy yelled run. We ran. He yelled buoy swim. We swam through the surf to the orange buoys that bobbed in and out of sight off the end of the pier. He yelled rescue and we dolphined out through the surf dragging our red rescue cans. We strapped the rubber cans around our theatrically flailing partners and towed them back toward shore. When we reached the impact zone we pushed our victims over the falls to mess with them and scare their parents.
Wild things: The Snowy Plover
Western snowy plovers or Charadrius alexandrines nivosus are cute little birds that inhabit prime waterfront property along California’s coast and inland water bodies. Weighing just one to two ounces and reaching six and a half inches in length, snowy plovers are designed to blend in with their environment. Their back feathers are a sandy brown and the stomach feathers are fluffy white. This color scheme is accentuated by a stout black bill, dark grey legs, black eyes and a white ring around the neck.
Matt Wuerker
Harbor Page: Harbor Mistress Leslie Page
Business owners often say there’s nothing more valuable than loyal, reliable employees. So when Mar Venture, Inc. sold the Redondo Beach Marina’s (RBM) leasehold to Decron Corp. in 2008, the transaction documents should have listed Leslie Page far above the standard restaurant sub-leases and golf carts normally catalogued as assets in that kind of real […]
South Bronx to South Bay: Hearts and Minds, again
It took President Obama months to decide what to do next in Afghanistan; he finally presented his plan at West Point on December 1. Last Sunday, the New York Times ran a lengthy examination of his decision-making process — days and nights of meetings with his advisors, many of whom held widely divergent views. He displayed a comprehensive grasp of the issues, the article recounts, prodding the participants with questions and comments, resembling both “a college professor and a gentle cross-examiner,” as one of them put it.
Barfly: Familiar names, no digs
Changing Over: Philly twins Kirk and Kieran Harrington, the culinary force behind what was Corkscrew Café (the small-plate, boutique wine, authentic Philly Cheesesteak, chic but chill like you’re part of the family resto that is now Sushi), Marine/Rosecrans, MB, and Upper Manhattan, Highland, MB have teamed up with Seth Weiss, brother of Darren Weiss, chef/owner of Darren’s Manhattan Ave, MB – still with me? – to buy the Cruz Room.
A gift from Duke Kahanamoku
In the early 1960s I had two idols with two completely different personalities — Miki Dora and Duke Kahanamoku. Miki was surfing’s bad boy. He thrived on pissing everyone off. Duke, with his Aloha spirit, treated everyone with respect and grace. The Duke had a brand new Cadillac with a gold plated hood ornament of […]
AVP’s Hodell: An officer and a banker
Eight years ago in May, at the height of the dot com meltdown, approximately 75 of the AVP’s top players attended a meeting called by sports agent Leonard Armato at his Digital Media Campus in El Segundo. The players included 1996 beach volleyball Olympic gold medalist Karch Kiraly, and 2000 beach volleyball Olympic gold medalists […]