LAKE MICHIGAN SURF DOG RESCUE
10-3-07
BY CORKY CARROLL
Ya know folks; there are heroes all over the place just waiting to happen. And surf too. And you can find them in the most unlikely places sometimes. I remember one time I was driving across the country on my way to a surfing event on the east coast and my car broke down out in the middle of Texas someplace. Being way more surfer than car mechanic I was helpless on the side of the road. About a half hour went by and I was hoping for a cop or somebody like that to come by and help me. And then out of nowhere comes an old station wagon with surfboards on the roof. The guys driving saw my car stuck there with boards also on the roof and stopped to see what was up. It turned out that one of the dudes was a car mechanic and he was able to fix something or another that was causing the problem and get me going again. These guys were members of the Kerrville Curlers Surf Club from Kerrville, Texas. Who would have ever guessed I would have been saved by surfers in the middle of the Texas desert?
There are surfers everywhere these days. Including the Great Lakes. They even have a big surfing contest and party there every year called the Dairyland Surf Classic. I have been meaning to take my cowboard up there and try my luck against the freshwater dudes but never seem to make it. Last year I got an invitation that said that if I showed up I could have all the cheese, bratwurst and fat chicks I wanted. I am not trying to be disrespectful here either folks, that is simply what the invitation offered. I was thinking, “Wow, the big three. How can ANYBODY pass on that?” But there was a nice south swell running here at home at that time and I knew that my wife, the Muy Bonita Karlita, wouldn’t like me wolfing down all that bratwurst and getting fatter than I already am. So I passed.
Then other day I got a call from my pal Blue Dog Metcalf. He told me I had to check out a story that was on the internet at Yahoo.com about a surfer saving a drowning dog somewhere on Lake Michigan. Below is the story. I love this kinda stuff.
Wed Sep 12, 10:37 PM ET
GRAND HAVEN, Mich. - A surfer rode a wave on his stomach to rescue a struggling dog that had been swept off a pier and into Lake Michigan by a wave.
Matt Smolenski, 25, said he grabbed the pooch's collar just as the exhausted, black-and-brown mixed breed stopped dog-paddling on Tuesday.
"He put the dog up on his surfboard, and the dog rode the surfboard in to shore," said Royce Rodgers, an off-duty Muskegon Heights police officer who witnessed the rescue. As the dog crouched on the board, Smolenski held on from the water, fighting large waves and a strong current all the way to shore.
"I've watched the dog about a million times," said Smolenski, of Grand Haven. "He barks at the waves and then jumps back when they wash up on the pier."
A surfing buddy, Joe Riopelle, 24, also of Grand Haven, helped pull in the duo.
Rodgers, who had started walking his own dog on the pier but turned back around after seeing the size of the waves, said the other dog wasn't on a leash when the wave swept it over the side. The same wave knocked the animal's owner off his feet, Rodgers said.
"The dog was trying to swim, but the waves were very large. It was struggling," Rodgers said. "The owner was screaming for the dog."
Rodgers said the owner thanked Smolenski and gave him a high five. He then "left so fast, I couldn't get his name," he said.
Wow, I thought that was a pretty cool rescue story. But it is a bummer the dog owner didn’t pony up a bit of a reward or at least a hot lunch for the doggie savior. Seems like that would have been the right thing to do don’t you think.
Of course I do remember once saving a pigeon who had hurt his wing and seemed to be drowning at the San Clemente Pier one day. I got it into the beach and went to set it on the sand and he turned and bit me. He bit me hard too. Just goes to show you that no good deed goes unpunished. But still ya gotta do ‘em. It’s all part of the way we should live and take care of each other and our fellow creatures on this planet. Anyway here is a long distance high five to Matt Smolenski, one of our landlocked surfing brothers, for saving some ingrates family pet.
EDDIE BERTRAND COMEBACK
The Wave ~ 10-3-07
BY CORKY CARROLL
EDDIE BERTRAND IS A SURF GUITAR LEDGEND. ABOUT A MONTH AGO I GOT AN EMAIL TELLING ME THAT HE WAS MAKING A COMEBACK. SO I GOT AHOLD OF EDDIE HIMSELF AND ASKED HIM TO TELL HIS STORY IN HIS OWN WORDS. THE FOLLOWING IS THE EDDIE STORY BY EDDIE:
“I began listening to Duane Eddy when I was 12. I had a 6 string acoustic guitar and worked out the melodies from his records.
About a year later, I started surfing. My first time on a surf board was at Torrance Beach. I spent a lot of time surfing the South Bay beaches including Haggertys and Rat etc. After that, I surfed all the hot spots from Huntington Beach to Santa Barbara.
Just after I started learning guitar, I met a guy named Paul Johnson on the school bus. He was also learning how to play the guitar. We got together at each other’s houses and played our guitars. As we started playing together, we also started writing songs, one of which was “Mr. Moto”, the first record the Bel Airs put out.
I’ve been told that Malibu surfer Lance Carson, who was in the movie Endless Summer, heard Mr. Moto & said, “That’s surf music.” After Mr. Moto was released, The Bel Airs played TV shows and various venues in California, one of which was the Rendezvous Ballroom in Newport Beach. The weekend The Bel Airs played at The Rendezvous Ballroom, by the second night; I had blown the single speaker in my Fender Bandmaster amp.
I knew where the Fender plant in Fullerton was, so, I decided to take my amp to Fender in hopes of meeting Mr. Fender. I had a thought that it might solve the problem if he could put two speakers in the cabinet instead of one. Leo was kind enough to see me, invited me into his office and said, “How can I help you son?” I then told him of my thought about placing two speakers in the cabinet. After a brief moment of contemplation, he said to me, “Leave your amp and cabinet here. I’ll give you something to use in the meantime. Come back in two weeks.” When I went back, The Bandmaster had two twelve inch speakers, sounded awesome and I thanked him with all my heart. Leo said to me, “Please don’t tell anyone as this is not a production amp.” However, with stage lights, people could see there were two speakers. Thus, the Fender Bandmaster with two twelve inch speakers became a production amp.
After a short stint with the Bel Airs, Paul and I had a disagreement about our sound because I wanted to use a Fender Reverb Tank and create a bigger sound and Paul did not. So, I left the Bel Airs, taking Dickie Dodd with me to form a band that became Eddie and The Showmen. By the way, Paul and I have remained good friends through the years.
I considered Eddie and The Showmen to be a “surf band.” In fact, one of the songs I wrote, “Toes on the Nose”, the ascending guitar lines, I visualized as walking to the nose of the board. I thank John Severson for the song title as it was one of the sections in Surfer Magazine.
Eddie and The Showmen played weekly at a place called the Retail Clerks Hall in Buena Park. These shows were put on by Reb Foster and the Police Protective Association of Buena Park. Reb Foster was the program manager a LA radio station called KRLA. To promote their current singles, Reb would have the artists come play the Retail Clerks Hall with Eddie and The Showmen. Artists included The Righteous Brothers, Sonny and Cher, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Coasters, The Rivingtons, Beach Boys and many more. I felt it a privilege to play with these stars.
My biggest thrill of all is when Eddie and The Showmen did a concert at The Hollywood Bowl in front of over ten thousand people, and shared the stage with my all time hero and mentor, Duane Eddy. It just so happened that when we were trying to leave the police had to surround us in a circle to get us past the screaming fans. I thought I had died and gone to Heaven. Duane Eddy was the only guitar player that truly influenced what I became.
In 2007, I have returned to my roots to play pure clean surf music as I did in the beginning. I was invited to play at the Huntington Beach International Surfing Museum. I can’t believe the compliments I received from Internet websites surfguitar101.com, youtube.com and EddieBertrand.com. It was huge. I am humbled by it. Thank you to my surf music fans all over the world.”