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The 2005 Edition of The Bill Andrews Electronic Fish Wrapper Is Still Going!

This is even WORSE than 2004's - and it's getting WORSE-ER by the day!

Are you ready for a G&S Class Reunion - July 23, 2005 - Details here soon

Latest Photos - The Lot and The Arena:

17 March 2005 - AM - PM

Scott and JT, Memories, Groms in Ratland, Buzzy's kid [aka Vincent]

- March 19, 2005 -

- Rights Vs Rites -

I'm pretty sure I've told this story before, but a recent article in the LJ Light Fish Wrapper about The WSR made me revisit it [my LJ Shores story] and a Tad Hodson quote in the article made me think, at least a bit, about Rights and Rites.

Last summer, or maybe the summer before, I was surfing The Shores with about 5 of my good friends, and about 1,500 assorted beginners, kooks and idiots.

Tom Ortner was taking off on a good wave, and there was only [dudes, I swear, ONLY one], 1 surfer who was gonna hack T.O.
I gave the potential hacker a quick lesson in Surfing 101:

"If you hack Ortner, I'm gonna rip your *+??*%%#@ arms off!"

Apparently my admonition worked, and Tom got a good hack-free ride.

I came in a few minutes later, and after I made my obligatory pass by the Bench of Despair, I went to my car and started my most favorite surfing thing - taking off [putting it on ain't much better] a wetsuit that's probably at least one size too small for me -

I'm on one leg, leaning against my car door, one leg and foot unfettered, my other x-large leg and foot are trapped in a size large rubber...wetsuit that is.

Some guy comes up to me - gets about one inch from my face and accuses me of surf intimidation - apparently his son was the kid I threatened with dismemberment.

Anyway, I wasn't in the best position [physically or mentally] for a parking lot brawl with some guy who looked like either an attorney or a used car salesman - I figgered the best defense was a good offense - so I spew:

"Dude, you're a negligent parent - you spend about a grand at the Rusty Shop down the street, and you figger that your kid, with little or no surfing experience, has the RIGHT to just paddle out into a packed line-up and blindly flair around out there!

Your kid's lack of surfing skills puts everyone else in the line-up at risk, your kid's dangerous!

I oughta turn you into the Child Protection Agency!"

Whew - it worked - the guy backed off, so I figgered, I may as well keep going [after I extricated my other leg, and re-wrapped the towel around my waist].

"It's a good thing, for your kid, that I was doing the threatening - I'm just an old blow hard, and I'm totally harmless.

If kids your son's age start picking on him because of his stupidity, that's a different story. They probably won't rip his arms off, but at least in La Jolla, there is a surfing RITE of passage.

This RITE may not be a lot of fun, but it might make your kid a better person...just look at how good I turned out [just kidding]??"

Anyway, I'm glad that my parents weren't screaming about my supposed RIGHTS when I was a kid, and I'm doubly glad about the RITES of passage that I've navigated in my life.

BA

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