Mendo 2004
Vicki Basham

Hello Folks,

Man, what a party! The WSK Holiday Party lived up to its reputation of being incredibly fun, full of luscious taste treats, and loaded with sex and debauchery. Well, ok, not exactly sex and debauchery, but a pair of skimpy blue undies did play a most prominent part in the festivities.

Andy continued the tradition of giving awards to deserving club members. Last year’s Most Improved Paddler, Russ Olsen, presented the award this year to Jumbo Williams, who I believe was on his way to South Africa and couldn’t make it to the party.

John Kern presented his namesake Kernage Award for being in the wrong place at the wrong time while doing the wrong thing and paying the price. The lucky winner this year was Cass Kalinski. He was in hot competition with Buck Johnson for the award when Cass took a tumble in the rocks at Pt. Pinos. Cass cinched the award after filming his own demise recently at Yellow Bluff.

The Whisk Award for best food dish went to the very deserving Yoshiko Olsen for making couscous for fifty folks at the February meeting. She had extremely tough competition from Trevlyn and Jumbo for their November feast, and from Pat Turner for her Oktoberfest treats. Presenter of the award? Who else but the member with the most notable appetite – Ray Carig.

Ed Roseboom, incoming president, presented Andy Walters, outgoing president, with the Most Trips Led Award. Which doesn’t even come close to acknowledging Andy’s paddling contributions this year. Not only did he organize our yearly Mendo weekend and a zillion other trips, he also came up with some really creative events for helping folks improve their paddling skills.

Mel Mashman received the coveted Best Trip Report Award, and if you go to http://www.westernseakayakers.org and read his Mendo story in the trip reports section, you’ll see why he won. (His award reminds me of another wonderful piece of writing we were all treated to in September. Check out Message #2992 by Diane (Noah) Wiese in the YahooGroups WSK messages archive.)

The Lifetime Achievement Award went to the ever-deserving Jim Westcott for providing our meeting place, introducing folks to whitewater paddling, leading his annual Angel Island picnic trip and for making it through his fiftieth birthday. Poor guy had to suffer through one last round of “Happy Birthday to You”, sung by practically everyone at the party.

We had two new awards this year. Cabin-boy Buck presented the “Perils of Polly” Award for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing and escaping upright and unscathed and probably none the wiser. The award went to Hansi Sellge who, during Buck’s Talk-Like-a-Pirate Day Paddle, decided to go in a bit close to shore. Those of us further out watched in horror as a huge breaking wave proceeded to roll up and completely engulf Hansi and his poor shouldered parrot, Polly. Both Hansi and Polly disappeared, but to our utter amazement, both escaped unscathed, with Hansi paddling up and over the breaker.

Buck presented another award, the Sponge Award, to the paddler who has been on the most trips without ever leading one. The lucky winner was Jim Haverkamp, who has decided to lead in a different way – by being our new club Veep.

And then there were the presents. And the stealing and the kissing. And those skimpy little blue undies. And Deirdre’s big-eyed talking dog. All I can say is that the pictures tell the story better than I ever could. Take a look: http://www.westernseakayakers.org and click on “Photos” on the left.

If you made it to the party, I hope you had as wonderful a time as I did. Many thanks to all who helped put the party on, especially Tim and Diane Burns, who arranged for us to use their neighborhood clubhouse. Although we really missed making Andy’s cats crazy again this year, it turns out the clubhouse was the perfect venue.

If you didn’t make it to the party, do try to make it next year. You’ll be glad you did!