Bahia Honda Day 2 pre-game.

 Saturday morning woke up around 7 something.  Got puttering along, made coffee, and got breakfast of bacon and pancakes started.  I cooked the bacon most of the way then handed it off to Lucy, and started pumping up the USS Nimitz.   What is that you may ask.  A 15 foot long dual SUP paddle board.  I also had thrown a 10 ft sit on top Kayak into the coach.  You can see both in this pic:

You can see the paddleboard dwarfs the kayak.  It took about 20 minutes to pump up the SUP and I was sweating by the time we got done.  We woke the child up and stuffed her full of bacon and pancakes and then started to haul our gear down to the boat dock.   It was an easy couple minute walk and I carried the kayak myself.  Decided on the way back, someone was helping as the last 50 yards was a little tough (the SUP weighs less but too big for one to carry).

In the process I  pass a guy with a shirt on sporting the Logo below.
What is important about this logo is that Robert suffered and untimely death in 2005.  He had become my surfboard shaper (I sought him out) only a couple of years earlier.  He made me an magic board that only a surfer would understand.  I had one of his shapes, broke it, took the pieces to him and discussed what I liked and didn't like about it, and he built me EXACTLY what I wanted.

Me on my first RS (the one I snapped at Reef Road, but that's it's own story) at Pompano Pier, early morning.

Anyway, you can imagine my surprise when I saw this logo walking by me on a dock in the keys in 2021.  It was just the RS logo, without the words and as the guy passed, I blurted out Robert's full name.  Of course the dude stopped in his tracks and we started to chat.

He introduces himself as Andy, and I use my nickname Sprocket.  He's says, "Hey I know you, you have a couple of Roadmaster Station Wagons!"   Um, okay, we obviously know each other!   Turns out back in the day (probably 10+ years), I sold him a rare 1970s Pat Mulhern (Florida old time pro surfer) model board that was probably shaped by RS.   His family is in the boat with the motor running and neither of us have a phone or pen to jot down contact info.  I tell him which campsite I'm on (the one with the Yellow GMC) and he says he'll swing by later and we can catch up (spoiler, it rained REALLY hard and he never popped in).

Crazy cosmic convergence.   I tell a good friend of Robert's about it after the weekend and he knows the guy too!  Hoping to reconnect at some point...the surf universe is small and everyone knows everyone one way or another...

So today is going to be a great day!  We schlep all the gear over to the dock and off we go.....