7th place trophy…….

On March 9th, I posted a pic from the internet of my first Hobie. It was a Hobie Hustler skateboard from the 70’s, not the original I owned. It was almost the same color as the PA12 we purchased from Caney Fork Outdoors, and I had ridden it for a few summers in Tennessee.

See cast….not like in the credits…like on the broken arm….from those summers….

I talked about that post with my Joy and Logan at Caney Fork. They talked about how cool it would be if I still had that board. My first thought was yeah, my second was that I would have killed myself by now. In my early twenties, way too long after spending every day on it, I took that Hobie to a playground across the street from where I was living and tried to ride it down a slide…..well, you can imagine the results; the first part of my body that touched the bottom of that slide was my chest…then my face…you get the image. The board had flown of the other side and down the steps. I am still cringing from that memory as I write about the events that followed that conversation.

My Joy….well….you would just have to know her to understand the efforts she goes to in supporting me and my fishing; or anything she thinks would make me happy. I do not deserve her, and I will never understand what she sees in me….I digress…she loves me and that is enough.

I came home the day before the KBF National Championship awards ceremony, knowing I had done fairly well, to a card. Inside it was a picture of a skateboard – the Hobie Hustler – she had ordered off of the internet as a trophy for “her champion” (told you I don’t deserve her).

It was not here yet, but it was on the way!

She said she thought maybe it could have been mine.

I told her that wasn’t possible.

She said don’t ruin my dream!

I said mine had anti slip tape I had added.

She said…..well, not typing that…I am going to clean it up to “no way!”.

I asked what was wrong – she usually doesn’t use the words she used, especially strung together.

She pulled up a pic on her phone and showed me. This is one I didn’t get because it had the tape on it.

I took her phone and looked at it.

She said it just sold.

I looked closer.

She said it was sold in Allen, TX.

I looked closer.

She said it had been from yard sale to garage sale to some dude in Ohio yesterday.

I picked up my phone and called my brother.

Hey where did your boy live in Texas?

Just outside of Dallas….

Did he live in Allen?

No, but he went to school there.

Bye…

I looked at the pic again.

Joy asked me what was wrong.

I told her, that this looked like it, and the locations fit….and ….and…had she found the thing?

More words strung together by her – I most definitely am not the best influence on her!

I could have gotten that one….(*&%(&$^&$……..

I had given the Hobie to my nephew during a visit. I had no use for it, and thought he might like riding it in Texas, just outside of Dallas. There is no way this was real, but I can remember how I had cut the anti-skid tape and wished there was more to cover more area. I really didn’t want her to think she had come that close…but man. This was it.

I messed up didn’t I?

No Joy, it was a great thing you did.

But I could have had that one!

It is ok…it is just a thing.

Man I could have had the one you had as a kid!

It is ok.

Again, you would have to know my Joy to understand that it was never going to be ok. She took the time to message the seller on Ebay asking him to forward her information to the buyer.

He did.

They contacted each other.

Doug Weeks listened to the story. He appreciated the whole thing. His girlfriend Kelley told him what he had to do…and Joy offered to cover any costs for the swap….so….

I now have what I am fairly certain is my Original Hobie. A Hobie Hustler skateboard (Papaya too??) with anti-skid tape put on by a young kid who never imagined the journey it would take to land back under his feet at almost 56 yrs old.

The money I won for 7th place was pretty freaking awesome; but the trophy my Joy went through all of that effort to get for me…and the kindness of a stranger to help her….

…..sometimes you just cannot explain why the world turns the way it does….