Kitesurf Recluse

Having always been fortunate to be participating in numerous sports while involved in several jobs to pay for them, watching football games and other sports on TV or even turning the thing on, only happened a few times this lifetime. Not that I don't admire the athleticism of any pro athlete regardless of their mastered atheletic event, Mother Nature and her waves, wind, etc kept my running, bike, etc shoes, wetsuits, reserve chutes on and in the activity and never sitting with a beer in hand in front of the boob tube turning the brain to mush and the stomach into a spare tire, or so that was my excuse to avoid the idiot box in the past.

So it was just another day up at five am to drive down to Long Beach to do a shoot with some guy named Payton Manning and dude named James Brown who would be doing the job I was originally cast for. Happens all the time and just part of the game. Always flattered and stoked to get work. Figured these guys probably did not kitesurf, whomever they were, but if this was James Brown the singer, this could be one very fun guy to hang with and I was lucky for the opportunity.. Found out who Peyton Manning was pretty quickly on set as well as James Brown and he wasn't the singer but the very personable and fun sports anouncer on a bazillion TV shows.. Quarterback Payton told great inside football stories/insights and James went on about all sorts of fun stuff while the photog did his thing. The photog and his crew would throw a football around on the breaks as the energy of one of the sports stars turned them into kids again, just craving to get some of that fun. Like groms learning to surf or kitesurf in the waves. The session was a hell of a lot of fun and eye opening. Payton was as pasionate about his sport/profession as many of my kitesurf, surf, bicycle racer, lifeguard competitor, paraglider,chiropractor, surgeon etc. friends. What they want to talk about and who they are. The person embodies the sport or profession and exudes the excitement and enjoyment of the activity through their skin. James would have been the loquatious ex pro surf rider type who talks the talk and knows all the players/surf rippers on the beach and Payton Manning playing the role of Kelly Slater. Same personas but different sport with the bottom line of, all great people to be around and football reaching a lot more housholds than kitesurfing/surfing of course, with the associated ga,ga factor and pressure on it's players to be public image figures.

Good people, and when driving by the white caps at Topanga on the way home from work, the experience had me smiling and not bumed to have missed a kitesurf session, with the realization, that maybe looking at sports illustrated/ people magazine instead of scientific american, at Barnes and Noble this Saturday evening could re-open my world again. Who knows maybe even get on Match.com and get a date and start doing stand up again. See, work can be eye opening.

It's easy to shrink away from society and become a kitesurf, triathalon, etc recluse. The awareness of disasociasion from the other semi advanced primate tribes out there you used to like interacting with, is not always easily grasped or noticed. It is a subtle thing as you slip away and sort of become a hermit in the mountainous boundaries of the "new sport"/ girlfriend or whatever you uncounscioulsy form. I like being a social monkey so might put down these books being studied and board dings in the process of repair and turn on the tube. How do you get that quarter inch layer of dust off of the screen and who has an old couch I can borrow? Can I get a supersize popcorn bag with that? Hold the trans fats...