Zac Encounters A 30ft Rogue Wave..

[Trim50]

http://www.zacsunderland.com/blog/index.html

30ft is an enormous wave...that helps explain why one didn't call mom

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by Trim50

http://www.zacsunderland.com/blog/index.html

30ft is an enormous wave...that helps explain why one didn't call mom

I wonder how he knew it was that big? Without sleep...dunno

[Trim50]

Yeah...think he needed to come up with a good one to explain why he didn't call for two days.

[JeanneP]

I note his blog entry "While I have been busy with eating, sleeping and media, my dad and Mike Smith have been hard at it on Intrepid. They have been incredible - working long, hard days and checking off the repairs." *And later, the PBS show about his trip, "The year of living dangerously."

Or, this kid has been phoning home twice a day since he left home. *And they don't hear from him for two days and want to send out a reconnaisance helicopter? *Has he really left home?

The superstar, eh?

Is it because they're from California and that's how people think out there?

Sorry, I'm not particularly impressed by all this media attention and P.R. hoopla. *

[KevinBarr]

Originally Posted by JeanneP

I note his blog entry "While I have been busy with eating, sleeping and media, my dad and Mike Smith have been hard at it on Intrepid. They have been incredible - working long, hard days and checking off the repairs." And later, the PBS show about his trip, "The year of living dangerously."

Or, this kid has been phoning home twice a day since he left home. And they don't hear from him for two days and want to send out a reconnaisance helicopter? Has he really left home?

The superstar, eh?

Is it because they're from California and that's how people think out there?

Sorry, I'm not particularly impressed by all this media attention and P.R. hoopla.

Agreed. I got hit with a five foot wave and it broke my grasp as if I was a baby. I am 6'2" and 200 lbs and fit - I would have thought I could hold on through anything but that is just not the case.

[Trim50]

I know the family and I met Zac when he was knee high. His father and I were going to trade boats. I was 29 and the bank wanted a co-signer, so I dropped the effort. Anyhow, they are a great family who live on the water. The media thing seems fully planned by mom and dad, but that is business these days.

We must keep in mind that Zac is only 17yo...what were you doing at 17?

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by Trim50

I know the family and I met Zac when he was knee high. His father and I were going to trade boats. I was 29 and the bank wanted a co-signer, so I dropped the effort. Anyhow, they are a great family who live on the water. The media thing seems fully planned by mom and dad, but that is business these days.

We must keep in mind that Zac is only 17yo...what were you doing at 17?

Both Hubby and I finished high school in 3 years (at 16), so....we were both on our own/in college...out of sight and out of mind of parents...some of the things we were doing at 17?

Let's see...Hubby spent a summer backpacking around Europe when he was 17--after he'd spent the school year in Sweden as a Rotary Exchange Student. His family was out of touch with him for several months while he camped on trains, beaches, anywhere since he had no money but didn't want them to worry or make him come home...he sent a telegram to Mom saying something along the lines of "yes, I'm going to IU for college and ride needed from Chicago on x date." They lived in So. Indiana, so the ride home from Chicago was what got him to communicate at all.

Umm...When I was 17, I was at IU dating hubby-to-be and we were spending all our free time doing dangerous things that the parents knew nothing about. That year included:

lots of spelunking to help a geologist friend map some of the 5000+ known caves in So. Indiana...

lots of canoing flooded rivers (springtime, more fun with floodwaters, you know)...

Oh, and yes, I was 17 and hubby-to-be was 18 when we did a 1300 mile bike ride from southern IN to northern MN going thru MI and Ontario, CA...camping in forests, under powerlines, and on beaches of Lake MI and Lake Superior (since we had no money...a theme here...)

Countless near death experiences that year--that's what one does when one is 17, right? But, pretty much out of touch with the parents entirely.

Both hubby and I, independent of each other before we met, would have loved to travel the world on a sailboat at that age. However...that pesky little issue of no money would have interfered greatly. Both of us had parents who expected us to go to school, work hard, pay our own way through college (more working hard) and make our own fun adventures w/o involving them on the financial support end of things. During college we did have some great Canadian wilderness canoe trips both with and without David's father along--and we were lucky that Dad had great canoes available for us to use--else we'd not have had the opportunity for those trips. But, a sailboat was completely out of the price range for our fun. A bunch of climbing rope, some climbing knowledge, and a couple carbide lanterns and membership in the right Spelunking club gets one tons of caving adventure in Indiana and Kentucky. The right canoing gear does the same for canoing adventures. Two 10-speed bikes and some camping gear can take a couple of kids pretty far around North America.

But, most definitely, had the folks been involved, we'd have scaled back on our adventures quite a bit.

...humm...THAT hasn't changed a whole lot. They'd worry too much if they knew what we were REALLY doing these days, too

[Trim50]

I guess one should be careful about what one assumes around here.

I was pretty independent at 17 as well, but my entire focus was on motorcycles and girls. I didn't begin sailing on the ocean till I was 20-21y/o. I do remember being in a major storm with 15-20 ft seas, no working radio and a dink with only one oar. I recall having a smile from ear to ear while at the helm as my friends hid below deck for 8 hours.

I did a lot of spelunking in AZ as well...was one of my favorite things growing up.

So you and hubby have been together since teenagers eh...that is very rare these days.

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by Trim50

I guess one should be careful about what one assumes around here.

I was pretty independent at 17 as well, but my entire focus was on motorcycles and girls. I didn't begin sailing on the ocean till I was 20-21y/o. I do remember being in a major storm with 15-20 ft seas, no working radio and a dink with only one oar. I recall having a smile from ear to ear while at the helm as my friends hid below deck for 8 hours.

I did a lot of spelunking in AZ as well...was one of my favorite things growing up.

So you and hubby have been together since teenagers eh...that is very rare these days.

We met in college--he was 3rd year, I was 1st year and we lived in the same dorm. I'd never been caving and when I found out he and his best friend were active spelunkers, I begged them to take me along. Actually hubby wasn't very nice to me back then, the first trip was a (walk in) wet cave that required you (after walking/crawling/exhausting yourself for 8 hours...) to slide through a mud tube down into a chamber with about 6 ft of water in it--and then swim to the side and exit the cave. I couldn't even swim at the time. The "hole" was about 4 ft above the water surface...Lucky me that hubby's friend took pity on me and said he'd catch me and not let me go underwater so my headlamp (remember it was carbide) wouldn't go out. And, he did. Hubby-to-be just laughed at me....hummm...wonder how we did end up together...

Were you a member of a particular caving club? We were with Bloomington Indiana Grotto. A very good friend of mine in college, Holly Cook, went on to be a rather well known spelunker--she's done huge pits in Mexico, as well as some amazing caving in New Mexico--lots of cave mapping. We were pretty much "local" to Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri. David and I never got into anything over 250' free fall/climb. Most Indiana caves are mud tubes (well, actually limestone, but it feels like you're crawling through a mud tube) that you crawl through and every once in a while find a nice open chamber to enjoy.

The climbing harnesses, rappelling rack, and our PMI rope as well as rescue pulleys, gibbs, figure 8's and jumars now live happily in a bin and get used when climbing a mast. Haven't done any caving since the 1980's. And, I must admit that I'd be hard pressed physically do any of the caving now. How long has it been since you've done any caving?

[Trim50]

Did all my caving in high school and first few years in college...lots of caves around Tucson. Favorites were Scroll and Peppersauce. Peppersauce is an enormous cave system with several lakes for underground scuba. Best feature was the rabbit hole during rainy season. I'm quite certain that I couldn't fit through the rabbit hole now.

I grew-up rock climbing in Colorado Springs, Garden of the Gods. I did a lot of climbing till one day God showed up on the same cliff face as we were top roping. God didn't use ropes and made us feel like beginners. After 8 year of rock climbing, I never did another pitch.