In 1988, SMA member Greg Raymond (RIP) suggested having a Galapagos conference, this attempt was never consummated due to lack of interest and money. However three SMA members, Mark Renneker, Bill Heick and Nelson Swartly decided at the last minute to do a boat trip, and rented a trimaran The Windshadow, captained by Ricardo Nunez, spent 2 weeks in the area of San Cristobal surfing and exploring. Subsequent SMA conference attempts never happened until 2012.
Dr. “Mr. Bill” Outer Reef, Tongos, 2012
Conference Report
Dr. Geoff Booth and Bill Jones
Dr. Geoff and Dr. Lady Di came all the way from down under and Geoff connected with old time founding members, Rym Partridge and SMA CFO, Tom Kever. The quotes in the rest of the story are from Geoff’s report on the conference. Geoff related that the conference “was absolutely superb and definitely one of the best I’ve been to.” Geoff has been to a lot of SMA events and conferences since 1985 and the organizers appreciate his appraisal.
Geoff writes, “The crew were fantastic folk and I must thank them so much for letting me get my three waves/session including a couple of really long rides at Tongos. I really struggled with the combo of stuffed knees and peripheral neuropathy but received great encouragement from all (and some good advice from Rym)” As older founding and charter members age there will be a lot more on surfing and aging articles.
Geoff has always been an astute observer and had an eye all the attendees and commented on surfing styles. “Kit Sheffridge was such a go-to-it young guy and wasn’t fazed by the surf even though he’d just started to learn. Also a great thinking/creative mind and I hope he really gets into surfing as a way to keep his mind fresh and open.”
Dr. Rym Partridge and Geoff behaved themselves, even though they have a tainted past at SMA conferences. Rym, Tom and Frank Ono were excellent organizers in during the first week and master of ceremonies for the first week. Bruce Olson, Rym’s room-mate, was an excellent guy to have as he kept him honest and also was not fazed by Rym’s poo-works. Bruce also caught a lot of good waves.
Boothie relates that, “it was a great pleasure to meet Greg Linder for the first time. He’s got a prodigious memory for old surf films and it was very pleasant learning some facts about the Ranch and seeing his great pics. Greg very generously gave out some goodies: thanks Greg for the Ranch cap and the great T-shirt that Di proudly wears. “ Greg is a Carmel/Pebble Beach realtor who is a Ranch veteran and knows Gary “Wombat” Groth-Marnat.
“Mike and Marilyn Whitcomb from Monterey were great company”. Both Marilyn and Mirela (Joaquim’s partner) snapped off a great bunch of pics (both surf and land) and were really into the environmental side of the Galapagos. I learnt a lot from them. Mike’s talk on his THR (total hip replacement) trials was most inspiring. Again, I learnt a lot from him for which I’m most grateful.”
Drs. Joaquin Havens and Glenn Valaire were the stand-out surfers, really ripping. Glen was on his way to World Surfing Master at Montanita, Ecuador, so the Galapagos provide and super training ground for him. Joaquin’s talk on the Haitian Earthquake was most sobering.
Boothie also related that he’d “also like to thank Jade, Jye and Jemma Valaire for showing me how to use my new Go-Pro. Thanks guys, and it was great to see Jye and Jade surfing so well. Jade & Jemma also gave a fantastic talk re their Tavarua experiences.”
As mentioned before, it had been a while since Geoff had seen Rym and Tom. “It was great to catch up with Tom after nearly 30 years. He’s still a guts-up surfer and caught the biggest waves I saw at Loberia. His mate, Frank, was also going for it despite significant weakness in his L arm. You would have been very proud of these guys.”
Mary Showstark, was a late entry into the conference, but made it just under the wire, Geoff related that Mary “was a great chick to have in the party. She had a lot of great stories and clearly is a very talented person who is not afraid to get out and about by herself. Very impressive.”
“Talking of great chicks, Marsha Wulff delivered a very interesting and passionate talk about her experiences in financing developing economies and her template for assessing projects. She and Kent Nagle were a loving couple and it was amazing to see how many exciting things they had done over the previous 6 months (marriage, house sales, job changes, house buy, interstate moves, etc)”
Dr. Neal Harris (Bill’s personal ER doc) performed an excellent job of MC during the second week. Neal and Geoff paddled around the outside Harbour reef one day but didn’t catch any worthwhile waves.
The attendees are thankful to Eddie Salazar, the Galapagos fixer, who can do most anything or get you what you want. Finally a big thanks to Henry Morales and Wavehunters for the extra efforts. The SMA 2014 Conference will be happening next year mid March.
Pages: 1 2