What I was experiencing, in fact, seemed so extraordinary that I felt the urge to share it with my friends back in Italy.
I created a distribution list called "adepti" (not sure how to translate that... maybe recruits? But not the military kind) to whom I was sending random emails called "hawaiian reports".
Those were pretty much my first writing exercises and they ended up being incredibly successful. Well, half of the people in the list were ex HP colleagues, and that made them particularly receptive, considering that till a few months before I was sitting in a cubicle next to them...
One of them suggested me to send a few samples to the italian windsurfing magazines. There were (and still are) three of them: Windsurf Italia, Funboard and Windnews .
I didn't hear back from the first two, but I got immediate interest from the last (and smallest) one, a magazine run out of pure passion by a guy who has a publishing family business.
So I started writing an article every month, even though at the beginning they had very little to do with windsurfing.
Quite remarkably, as of today I still do that... I just sent in my article number 74!
At one point in time (da hell, can't remember all the dates!), one of us (me or the editor... da hell, can't remember all the details!) had the idea of collecting the articles of the first two years in a book.
He found a cartoonist (his art name is Cryx) that volunteered to draw a little sketch for each individual chapter and the final product was, I dare say, quite pleasant.
In order to minimize the risk of money loss, the editor printed only a limited amount of copies that could be ordered only by contacting him and sending the money with the equivalent of a postal money order.
The title is a word joke based on a best seller at the time. It literally translates into "I hope I'm going to surf her..."
Kinda works even out of context, doesn't it?
The book marked very high in readers liking and very low in sales... for which I'm going to blame the rather unfriendly way of selling it!
Here's a few examples of stories that can be found in it.
The arrival in Maui.
My friend Paolo picked me up at the airport with a beat up van full of boards. He had no slippers, no shirt, sandy feet and the first words he pronounced were:"man, you should see the waves at Hookipa..."
That was as good as it gets as a welcoming scene.
Little Beach... what a place!
The Monday night concerts of Willie K at Hapa's in Kihei... kinel, those were so much fun! You would never know what to expect out of a night like that. Ah, the good old days...
(if it doesn't look like uncle Willie, it's because I didn't send Cryx a photo of him).
At one point I entered a circle of... 'extravagant' people who organized amazing full moon parties in Haiku, every time in a different house/location. And how about those ones in Kaupo? Geez Louise!
This one was about a revelation I had while staring in awe at the waves sitting on the cliff at Hookipa after a surf session. Here's the translation of it.
"I'm going to live here for the rest of my life. I want to die on this island. And I want to be buried at Hookipa. On the rocks, in a lava grave right were the waves break, so that I will surf in eternity.
And on the grave, there will be written: here lies a man who lived the way he wanted, not the way the others wanted."
Oh, this one was about the adventures with a Californian blonde in a convertible car (a Camaro. Which inpired the title, seen the similarity with my last name)...
I didn't send Cryx a photo of the blonde either, but this time he guessed her quite right... ;)
I even retrieved a couple of photos of the Camaro rin't a Camaro...
Oh yeah, a weekend in a treehouse in Hana with another lady. One of my favorite chapters.
Oh God, the masquerade party in a multi million dollars house in Kula. Never seen anything quite like that again.
It was organized by some kind of association of mainlanders and none of them was into water sports. So I went dressed as a kitesurfer (that's when I was trying to learn on a 5.0 two lines Wipika in gusty 25 knots wind... good luck with that!) and ended up being quite original...
I had the kite bar hanging on the harness and often that bumped into the ladies bums... "Oh sorry, sometimes I just can't control my stick..."
Juvenile, shallow, vulgar, call it as you wish... it was fun for me!
This is the house.
My first full moon surf session at Hookipa. An absolutely unforgettable emotion.
Nice memories.
74 articles, one published book, a blog with almost a thousand unique visitors per day. Once again, if someone would have told me that 10 years ago, I would have said:"no way!"
All happened and keeps happening because of passion and will of sharing. Things that truly make me happy.
It wasn't the outcome of a plan. I had no idea how much I liked writing till I actually started writing. I just followed what my inclination was.
I try to only do things that I like doing. Sometimes it's hard and often it's not the most rewarding choice money wise, but there's no going wrong on that path.
PS. It's higly possible that I will take pictures of the big south swell and post them Monday night, so I anticipated this chapter to Sunday. Chapter four on Thursday.
PPS. Please keep guessing what the sixth example of "everything is possible" will be. Also because... no one guessed it yet!
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