Paddling is believing for blind crew
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- Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2007 20:47:16 -0400
Orange County Register, CA, USA
Friday, September 14, 2007
Paddling is believing for blind crew
By PAT MICHAELS patmike@xxxxxxxxxxx
You can see them on a Sunday morning. They come gliding under the Back Bay
bridge and into Newport Harbor, their outrigger canoe cutting a neat line in
the water as their paddles flash and sparkle in the sun.
They've just come back from Hawaii, this amazing outrigger crew, where theirs
was one of 140 such boats competing in an 18-mile race off the Big Island of
Hawaii.
It was only the second year the local group had entered the Hawaiian race and
they didn't do exactly well. They did best their last year's time considerably,
but, toward the end, their canoe tipped over and they lost 15 minutes off the
race clock.
John Chavez, one of the founders of the team, tells me they call themselves the
Makapo Aquatics. There are five paddlers and a steersman. In Hawaiian, "makapo"
means "blind."
John is blind and so are the other crewmen, except for the steersman who pilots
the boat on its course. They were the only blind team among the 140 outriggers
competing off the Big Island.
Says John, the Makapo Aquatics Project was formed "to bring awareness to the
blind and visually impaired community that paddling sports are the ideal
opportunity to benefit from the life lessons team athletics provides."
Today, the Makapo team is already practicing hard for the next Hawaiian
competition 11 months away.
The team seem to be intensifying their efforts in their determination to come
home with a trophy next year. That's why you see their paddles slashing the
waters of Newport Harbor on Sunday mornings with such precision.
Watching them, you don't know they're blind.
Talking politics at The Bungalow, Stan Gordon philosophized over his martini:
"Some politicians achieve a reputation as wits. Others only make it halfway."
. .
Greg Johnston tells me about the sign at a South Coast Metro gym: "Diets: For
people who are thick and tired of it!"
. .
Fred Arnold is getting ready for the big golf tournament on Oct. 15. He's
hoping it will be huge.
The tournament will be held at the Costa Mesa Golf Course, and it will raise
some money for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.
When a Marine or corpsman is wounded in Iraq or Afghanistan, many times it
almost bankrupts his family, Fred says. Frightened wives and family members
want to be with the injured loved one but, oftentimes, travel to Navy hospitals
across the country is prohibitively expensive on a serviceman's pay.
There have been cases where wives of Marines have gotten behind in mortgage
payments and lost homes in their desperation to be with hospitalized loved
ones.
Fred says the fund for which the golf tournament will be held handles both
kinds of cases, providing travel expenses and making up those back mortgage
payments for Marine families.
"Whatever the legitimate need, the Semper Fi Fund is ready to help," he says.
Call 949-689-3570 for information on participating in the golf tournament or
just making a donation.
. .
Over at the Costa Mesa Senior Center Sarah Thompson turned down the idea of a
cruise. "It used to be that cruise ships provided quiet, relaxing vacations for
me," she said. "Now, they're like a fraternity house with a rudder."
A Newport Beach developer called The Foundation Group wants to marry golfing to
shopping. Currently, it is working on a pilot 84,000-square-foot shopping
complex called The Shops at the Greens. It will be on the same site as the
Indio Municipal Golf Course.
Dan Almquist, of The Foundation Group, said, "We're sharing the same entrance
with the golf course. People can get done playing and walk over and shop and
eat." Oh.
At Newport Country Club, Marty Glass grumbled, "Man was born to suffer. It says
so right on the marriage license."
Contact the writer: patmike@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.ocregister.com/news/golf-blind-team-1845426-says-makapo
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