Almost mile high club.

There’s never a reason to get up early on Sunday morning…..except when it’s for the service of others. Being incredible athletes in their own right, my friends Jami and Nancy are the consummate sporty servants and recruited me to help with their aid station for today’s Cycle to The Sun. The theme was “The Almost Mile High Club”…although we were only at 3,200 ft!

Here is the motley the crew, 6:30am pre take off.

The chalk was a hit and we graffitied the road with ‘tea or coffee’ ahead of the aid station and Nancy decided (after seeing herself in uniform), there would in fact be ‘turbulence ahead’.

I was magnificently surprised to find my friend Rick was on Island and deftly snuck away from my water bearing duties for a hug. Meanwhile, Nancy took to the theme with great gusto providing all manor of motivation!




The early riders blazed by, focused and racing the clock to the top of Haleakala Crater. The later ones stopped, texted, took pictures (with the obliging staff), snorted their baggies of advil and let their feet breath. These are my kind of sportsmen because while the other talented volunteers went riding and running after our aid was no longer needed, I just awoke from a nice big fat nap!

Thus, happily today's antics kept my own motto (around sporting events) confidently intact 'I don't compete, I rarely volunteer, but I always show up for the party' and if you're going to volunteer, I highly recommend the team that is Jami Kimel and Nancy Robberson. Thanks guys, I haven't laughed that much, that early in a long time. Bub bye now.

Olympic slip and slide action.

High degree of difficulty, left side slide with great smile but needs to work on his toe point.

Committed forward slide with a low degree of difficulty, but nice traction and attitude.

Semi blind, feet first making it hard to spot the landing, but a first rate performance.

Mini Me.

I came across a brown envelope the other day that enclosed a veritable gold mine of goodies.

The writing was all very neat and written with fountain pens and the general remarks are surprisingly consistent. Words like ‘delightful, helpful, conscientious, cheerful and friendly’ (according to my teachers) summed me up on my school reports between the ages of eight-eleven. Goody two shoes was also a ‘neat and tidy worker’!

Of course there are always the other comments that seem to stick with you.
ENGLISH : ‘She is very careless with spellings’, this is still true today as my mother with attest.
MATHS: “she lacks confidence and gives up too easily” and “her understanding of multiplication and division concepts are weak and she gets muddled” These two things are also still true today, so it’s perfect that I’m in charge of payroll and so books for my company!

As an aside I was also evidently quite good at sewing (whoopee).

The best report however, was one I wrote about my self at age 11 years 6 months. Blatantly honest I give my own game away by stating “I loath doing Interest and I try to get out of doing it”…what the hell was “interest” anyway?! Jesus, I have zero recollection of that whole subject. I continue “Games and P.E. are super” SUPER! This from the eleven and a half year old me, bloody fantastic. Somewhere along the way I lost or dumped the word ‘super’ (probably at age twelve) so I think in homage to myself I’ll bring back into my lingo immediately.

Here I am engaged in some typical games, PE and knicker flashing all rolled into one, the caption on the back diligently written by my Mum reads "a typical manouver".

I heard an interview with David Bowie recently and the question was asked "how much of that young Brixton boy is still in there"? He answerd "very little". We grow up, we change, we move and I may have agreed with the Space Oddity about myself, if I'd not just read six school reports that clearly show the foundation of my personality and abilities had already been laid at a young age.

"Kinda cool huh" says the American in me, "Super" says the Brit.

Just what the doctor ordered.

I’ve been feeling ‘off’ for a few days and decided I needed to shift my energy. Strangely windsurfing didn’t do the trick, so I decided to just sit and take a moment and watch the world go by. I swear Kanaha never fails to amuse, with its cast of usual suspects and odd ball extras. The good news, I left feeling ‘normal’, what ever that means!

Mr. Kanaha.

Nothing like giving your leather hat the treatment it deserves, a nice salty bath.


I think pre-lesson waiver should simply read "I agree to be humbled, lose my dignity and look like a total nitwit all in the name of sport".

"now on the count of three, everybody turn around.....ready...... one, two, three"

Running up wind for another inflatable tire down winder.....


And finally, this cutey reminds me of me. Pale, freckle faced, double water winged (safety first)and topless.