Beach magazine Dec 2017
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong><br />
Volume 48, Issue 18<br />
Kinder wonder<br />
Dina Moll<br />
Truffle hunter Billy’s Bells Swimming with jellies<br />
QB Alexander Surf Fry All 50<br />
<strong>2017</strong> <strong>Beach</strong> Gift Guide
2 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
26th Annual<br />
Saturday<br />
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 9th<br />
Vera Jimenez<br />
Grand Marshal<br />
KTLA5 Meteorologist<br />
“California Christmas”<br />
<strong>2017</strong><br />
2:00 pm Pier Holiday Concert<br />
4:30 pm SUP/Paddle Craft<br />
5:30 pm Boats<br />
Main Channel of King Harbor<br />
Redondo <strong>Beach</strong><br />
Best Parade Viewing Locations<br />
- Free Bleacher Seating in King Harbor Marina<br />
- Sea wall by the Sportfishing Pier<br />
- Portofino Hotel and Marina sea wall<br />
- Seaside Lagoon sea wall<br />
- Come early for best viewing<br />
Enjoy dinner at one of the many harbor and marina view restaurants including<br />
BaleenKitchen, Joe’s Crab Shack, The Portofino Hotel Lobby Bar, R10 Social House,<br />
Ruby’s, Samba or Sea Level at Shade Hotel. Stroll the harbor, boardwalk, and pier<br />
shops and view the Holiday Harbor Lights along harbor residence balconies. Family<br />
fun arcade, boat rides, cocktails, live music, seafood & more!<br />
Gift cards make great holiday stocking stuffers or business gifts!<br />
Book your holiday parties or order catering now!<br />
/visitkingharbor.com<br />
For more information and details about the event, visit khyc.org<br />
Ad generously donated by King Harbor Association<br />
visitkingharbor.com
Considering A Major Remodeling Project?<br />
REMODEL THE DESIGN/BUILD WAY - EVERYONE YOU NEED UNDER ONE ROOF!<br />
Enjoy The Remodeling Process From Concept to Completion<br />
Get inspired at our state-of-the-art Design Center in El Segundo.<br />
It’s the perfect place to see an array of ideas for your home.<br />
Visit Our<br />
For information on upcoming seminars and events:
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong><br />
Volume 48, Issue 18<br />
BEACH PEOPLE<br />
12 Sounds from the sea by Kevin Cody<br />
Billy Meistrell converts outdated scuba tanks into memorial bells.<br />
16 Grounded in Kindergarten by Mark McDermott<br />
Grand View Teacher of the Year DIna Moll views kindergarten<br />
as education’s foundation.<br />
24 Bay bomber by Scott Tapley<br />
Former Junior Lifeguard and Rolling Hills High swimmer Amy Gubser<br />
fights cold and jellies while swimming across Monterey Bay. Next up –<br />
the Santa Monica Bay.<br />
28 Handoff from dad by Randy Angel<br />
Quarterback Jack Alexander’s stellar season at Redondo might not have<br />
happened if his dad hadn’t stepped up to save local youth football when<br />
his son was seven years old.<br />
32 50 states without a plan by Tony Cordi<br />
The first lesson of traveling is to be open to a change of plans, a Hermosa<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> family learns after visiting all 50 states.<br />
34 Truffle hunter by Richard Foss<br />
Chef Michael Mazzotta and his dog Capo train to hunt for one of the<br />
culinary art’s most valued ingredients.<br />
36 Fry the surfer by Ryan McDonald<br />
Alex Fry leads perennial surf powerhouse Mira Costa into the new era.<br />
And it’s not all in the water.<br />
8 Calendar<br />
10 Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Tree Lighting<br />
BEACH LIFE<br />
ON THE COVER<br />
Grand View Teach of the Year<br />
Dina Moll.<br />
Photo by<br />
Brad Jacobson<br />
(CivicCouch.com)<br />
14 Mama Liz Thanksgiving Dinner<br />
20 Holiday Gift Guide<br />
STAFF<br />
PUBLISHER Kevin Cody, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Richard Budman, EDITORS Mark McDermott, Randy Angel, David<br />
Mendez, and Ryan McDonald, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Bondo Wyszpolski, DINING EDITOR Richard Foss,<br />
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS Ray Vidal and Brad Jacobson, CALENDAR Judy Rae, DISPLAY SALES Tamar Gillotti and<br />
Amy Berg, CLASSIFIEDS Teri Marin, DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA Hermosawave.net, GRAPHIC DESIGNER Tim Teebken,<br />
DESIGN CONSULTANT Bob Staake, BobStaake.com, FRONT DESK Judy Rae<br />
EASY READER (ISSN 0194-6412) is published weekly by EASY READER, 2200 Pacific Cst. Hwy., #101, P.O. Box 427, Hermosa<br />
<strong>Beach</strong>, CA 90254-0427. Yearly domestic mail subscription $150.00; foreign, $200.00 payable in advance. POSTMASTER: Send<br />
address changes to EASY READER, P.O. Box 427, Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, CA 90254. The entire contents of the EASY READER newspaper<br />
is Copyright <strong>2017</strong> by EASY READER, Inc. www.easyreadernews.com. The Easy Reader/Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> Hometown News<br />
is a legally adjudicated newspaper and the official newspaper for the cities of Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> and Redondo <strong>Beach</strong>. Easy Reader<br />
/ Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> Hometown News is also distributed to homes and on newsstands in Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>, El Segundo, Torrance,<br />
and Palos Verdes.<br />
CONTACT<br />
n Mailing Address P.O. Box 427, Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, CA 90254 Phone (310) 372-4611 Fax (424) 212-6780<br />
n Website www.easyreadernews.com Email news@easyreadernews.com<br />
n Classified Advertising see the Classified Ad Section. Phone 310.372.4611 x102. Email displayads@easyreadernews.com<br />
n Fictitious Name Statements (DBA's) can be filed at the office during regular business hours. Phone 310.372.4611 x101.<br />
6 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 7
S O U T H B AY<br />
CAL ENDAR<br />
Saturday, <strong>Dec</strong>ember 9<br />
Build me a sandman<br />
The South Bay may not have<br />
snow but there’s sand…How<br />
about building a sand snowman?<br />
Arrive early to claim a<br />
prime site. Registration starts<br />
at 8:45 a.m. north of the Hermosa<br />
Pier at shoreline and<br />
building commences at 9 a.m.<br />
Prizes awarded. Judging begins<br />
at 11:15 a.m. For more information,<br />
contact Community<br />
Resources Department at (310)<br />
318-0280 or hermosabch.org.<br />
Christmas car show<br />
The Christmas edition of<br />
Cruise at the <strong>Beach</strong>. Stroll<br />
among some of the finest examples<br />
of Southern California<br />
car culture. Judging begins at 9<br />
a.m. with the trophy presentation<br />
at 2 p.m. In keeping with<br />
the spirit of the season, please<br />
bring an unwrapped toy to<br />
benefit Cheer for Children<br />
Christmas Toy Drive. Ruby’s<br />
Diner, 245 North Harbor<br />
Drive, Redondo <strong>Beach</strong>. If you<br />
wish to display a car or require<br />
more information, contact<br />
Larry Neville at (310) 962-<br />
7438. Registration is $20.<br />
Dickens’ holiday<br />
Enter Fezziwig’s warehouse<br />
replete with Victorian decorations<br />
and several Dickens’<br />
characters. Fagin and the Artful<br />
Dodger from Oliver Twist<br />
will teach how to pick pockets.<br />
Come dressed in Victorian<br />
style! 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. The International<br />
Printing Museum,<br />
315 W. Torrance Blvd., Carson.<br />
$25 per guest, $80 groups of 4.<br />
(310) 515-7166 or visit printmuseum.org.<br />
Yoga on the Pier<br />
Free yoga on the Redondo<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Pier. Everyone is welcome<br />
to take part in this all<br />
level yoga class. Meet at the<br />
Octagon, where the Pier meets<br />
the International Boardwalk.<br />
10 - 11 a.m. 100 Fisherman’s<br />
Wharf, Redondo <strong>Beach</strong>. redondopier.com.<br />
Holiday concert<br />
Free holiday concert and<br />
Santa on the Redondo Pier presented<br />
by Redondo Pier Association.<br />
Take a selfie with<br />
surfing Santa. Free holiday<br />
parking. Free holiday activity<br />
book for the first 150 kids.<br />
Bring a new unwrapped toy<br />
valued at $5 or more for a<br />
chance to win pier prizes. 2 - 4<br />
p.m. 100 Fishermans Wharf,<br />
Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> (west end of<br />
The Pier behind Tony’s). Redondopier.com.<br />
Christmas Faire<br />
Annual Christmas Faire at<br />
Alpine Village. Santa photos,<br />
strolling Christmas carolers,<br />
festive music, wine tasting,<br />
live entertainment, food samples,<br />
holiday gift vendors, and<br />
Alpine Express Train rides. 3 -<br />
8 p.m. Alpine Village, 833 W.<br />
Torrance Blvd., Torrance. For<br />
questions call (310) 327-4384.<br />
Boat Parade<br />
Brightly decorated boats and<br />
paddle-craft parade through<br />
the marina trying to capture<br />
one of the event trophies. 4:30<br />
- 10 p.m. King Harbor Yacht<br />
Club, 280 Yacht Club Way, Redondo<br />
<strong>Beach</strong>. For more information<br />
contact Denise (Dede)<br />
Harkins (310) 892-7475 or<br />
Tracey McMartin (310) 962-<br />
0227. kingharbor.com/holidayboat-parade.<br />
Concert for Sandy<br />
The Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Rotary<br />
Club and Mira Costa High<br />
School Interact Club present<br />
classical guitarist Felix Kellaway<br />
with the MBMS Madrigal<br />
Singers and Joel Ruben.<br />
Sandy Casey, a special education<br />
teacher at Manhattan<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Middle School, was<br />
among the victims of the<br />
Route 91 Harvest Festival<br />
tragedy. Proceeds provide a<br />
scholarship to a student with a<br />
demonstrated interest in teaching<br />
children with special<br />
needs. 7 p.m. Mira Costa High<br />
School Theater, 1401 Artesia<br />
Blvd., Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>. Tickets<br />
$20 at benefit.mbrotary.org.<br />
Candy Cane Lane<br />
The 1200 block of East Acacia<br />
Avenue in El Segundo has<br />
magically transformed into<br />
Candy Cane Lane every holiday<br />
season since 1919. The<br />
homes are festooned with<br />
lights and decorations and<br />
Santa’s sleigh stops for a visit<br />
on certain nights through <strong>Dec</strong>ember<br />
23. The street will be<br />
closed to thru-traffic through<br />
Christmas night, and most<br />
houses still have lights up<br />
through New Year’s. From<br />
sunset until about 10 p.m.<br />
Sunday, <strong>Dec</strong>ember 10<br />
Polar Express<br />
The community is invited<br />
for a special reading of The<br />
Polar Express and photos with<br />
Santa. Face painters, balloon<br />
animals, crafts, hot chocolate,<br />
cookies and tours of the museum.<br />
Noon - 4 p.m. $15 per<br />
family and includes everything.<br />
Tickets are available online<br />
at lomita-rr.org or at the<br />
door the day of the event. The<br />
Lomita Railroad Museum,<br />
2137 W. 250th Street, Lomita.<br />
For additional information and<br />
ticket purchase, visit lomitarr.org/calendar.<br />
Let it snow<br />
Green Hills Let it Snow Holiday<br />
Festival & Memorial Tree<br />
Lighting. Free. Santa photos,<br />
snow sledding, sleigh rides,<br />
arts & crafts, and holiday<br />
music. 2:30 - 5:30 p.m. Green<br />
Hills, 27501 S. Western Ave.,<br />
Rancho Palos Verdes. For questions<br />
call (310) 521-4460.<br />
Holiday parade<br />
The El Segundo Chamber of<br />
Commerce and Chevron presents<br />
the annual Holiday Parade<br />
beginning at 1 p.m. and is<br />
expected to end about 3 p.m.<br />
The route begins on Main<br />
Street at Imperial Avenue and<br />
proceeds south to El Segundo<br />
Boulevard. Grandstands will<br />
be located at Main Street and<br />
Holly Avenue. Floats will be<br />
theme decorated and Saint<br />
Nick will make his appearance<br />
at the end of the procession.<br />
e l s e g u n d o c h a m b e r. c o m /<br />
events-and-news.<br />
Holiday fireworks<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>’s signature<br />
holiday event gets underway<br />
at 4 p.m. with a concert<br />
by the Hyperion Outfall Serenaders<br />
followed by award-winning<br />
Mira Costa Jazz Ensemble<br />
at 5 p.m. and local favorite,<br />
Joe’s Band, at 6 p.m. Lou Giovannetti<br />
will be Master of Ceremonies.<br />
Skechers’ Snow Park<br />
will be open from 4 - 6:30 p.m.<br />
with five 50 sled runs, two<br />
snow play areas and snowmen<br />
available for family photos. A<br />
donation of canned goods,<br />
cash or a new, unwrapped toy<br />
is requested for admission to<br />
the Snow Park. The Bounce<br />
Park will have two huge slides<br />
and the Fire Dog bounce for<br />
smaller children. Fireworks<br />
start at 7 p.m. and will be synchronized<br />
to holiday music<br />
with an extended grand finale<br />
sponsored by Belkin. This is a<br />
hugely popular event so be<br />
sure to arrive early to nab<br />
prime seating. Bring your own<br />
beach chairs and blankets. For<br />
additional information, visit<br />
mbfireworks.com.<br />
Christmas Pageant<br />
Since 1953 Neighborhood<br />
On <strong>Dec</strong>. 9, bring family and friends, shovels, scarves and<br />
mittens because in Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> where you can’t make<br />
snowmen, you have to make SANDMEN. Registration<br />
starts at 8:45 a.m. north of the Hermosa Pier at shoreline<br />
and building commences at 9 a.m. Lara, Tyler and Tristan<br />
Shea won Most Traditional award at the 2016 Hermosa<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Sand Snowman Contest. Photo by Beverly Baird<br />
Church presents its Christmas<br />
Pageant as a free gift to the<br />
community. Two shows: 5:30<br />
& 7:30 p.m. Arrive early (5:15<br />
or 7:15 p.m.) to enjoy the prepageant<br />
music by the church<br />
bell choir in the Sanctuary. Appropriate<br />
for all ages. 415<br />
Paseo Del Mar, Palos Verdes<br />
Estates. (310) 378-9353 or<br />
neighborhoodchurchpve.org.<br />
Tuesday, <strong>Dec</strong>ember 12<br />
Parent+child = fun<br />
A morning of fun and learning<br />
with your babies and toddlers.<br />
Talk to experts on early<br />
childhood literacy, development,<br />
and health while kids<br />
learn through play and art. For<br />
ages 0-3 years and their caregivers.<br />
10:30 - 11:45 a.m. Hermosa<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Library, 550 Pier<br />
Ave. Registration required:<br />
(310) 379-8475 or kwantuch<br />
@library.lacounty.gov.<br />
Support Group<br />
Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support<br />
Group is an open gathering<br />
of people who come<br />
together to share their feelings,<br />
thoughts and experiences in a<br />
safe environment. Attendees<br />
learn ways to better cope with<br />
and manage the challenges of<br />
dementia. (323) 930-6256 to<br />
RSVP. 3 - 5 p.m. Miller Children’s<br />
& Women’s Hospital<br />
Long <strong>Beach</strong> Conference Room<br />
A1/A2, 2801 Atlantic Ave.,<br />
Long <strong>Beach</strong>. For more Senior<br />
Plus events, visit Memorial-<br />
Care.org/SeniorPlusEvents.<br />
Thursday, <strong>Dec</strong>.14<br />
The votes are in<br />
Pages’ Publisher Reps from<br />
Penguin, Random House, and<br />
Simon & Schuster will talk<br />
about their favorite books for<br />
the holidays. Reception begins<br />
at 6:30 p.m., presentations at 7<br />
p.m. Books and prizes will be<br />
raffled off. Refreshments.<br />
rsvp@pagesabookstore.com or<br />
(310) 318-0900. 904 Manhattan<br />
Ave., Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>.<br />
Friday, <strong>Dec</strong>ember 15<br />
Cozy stories, crafts<br />
Snuggle up for a family storytime<br />
celebrating warm feelings<br />
and winter. Then create a<br />
seasonal card to share good<br />
wishes. Parents: food will be<br />
served. 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. Hermosa<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Library, 550 Pier<br />
Ave. Contact Kay Wantuch for<br />
questions at (310) 374-0746 or<br />
email: kwantuch@library.lacounty.gov.<br />
Saturday, <strong>Dec</strong>.16<br />
The Nutcracker<br />
The magic returns! 37th Anniversary<br />
Nutcracker directed<br />
by Uta Graf-Apostol. One<br />
weekend only Sat. <strong>Dec</strong>. 16 at 7<br />
p.m. and Sun. <strong>Dec</strong>. 17 at 1<br />
p.m. & 5 p.m. $35 for adults,<br />
$25 for children. Norris Theatre,<br />
27570 Norris Center Dr.,<br />
Rolling Hills Estates. (310) 544-<br />
0403 x221 or palosverdesperformingarts.com.<br />
B<br />
8 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 9
each holidays<br />
MANHATTAN BEACH PIER LIGHTING<br />
PHOTOS BY MARK MCDERMOTT<br />
1. Santa Claus shares a<br />
moment with a friend in his<br />
sleigh, which was parked at<br />
Metlox Plaza.<br />
2. Cindy Grutzik and Lenora<br />
Marouani hang out outside the<br />
latter’s shop, The Souk, with her<br />
kids Sura and Pash.<br />
3. Sonia Davis brought her 2-<br />
year-old elf Mackenzie to see the<br />
pier lighting.<br />
4. Monika Crook and her kids<br />
Nathan and Aviele.<br />
5. The Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Middle<br />
School Madrigal Singers.<br />
6. The Yoga Loft crew and its<br />
merry elves.<br />
7. The Hyperion Outfall<br />
Serenaders performed along<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Boulevard.<br />
8. Aspiring bakers apply the<br />
finishing touches to cookies at<br />
Becker’s Bakery.<br />
9. Anna Iantuono sings lead<br />
with the Dietz Brothers Band.<br />
10. The Harmony Carolers<br />
sang up and down Manhattan<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Boulevard.<br />
1<br />
2<br />
3 4<br />
5<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8<br />
9 10<br />
10 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
each people<br />
Billy’s<br />
bells<br />
Billy Meistrell with a retired scuba tank he made into a bell. Photo by Kevin Cody<br />
A member of a pioneering diving family recycles retired scuba tanks<br />
by Kevin Cody<br />
As the early ‘50s era Dive N’ Surf shop remodel<br />
was being completed in 2014, Billy<br />
Meistrell hit upon the idea of converting<br />
one of his dad Bill’s and uncle Bob’s discarded<br />
scuba tanks into a memorial bell. The twins’ dive<br />
shop was among the first in the nation and remains<br />
the nation’s oldest.<br />
Billy sawed off the bottom of the old gray tank<br />
and inside, for a clapper, suspended a chrome<br />
ball from a trailer hitch. Then he replaced the<br />
regulator valve at the top of the tank with a sailboat<br />
shackle and hung the bell in front of the one<br />
remaining cinder block wall from the original<br />
store.<br />
The sound from the nearly quarter-inch thick,<br />
steel tank has the low, long traveling ring of an<br />
offshore weather buoy.<br />
“During tours of the store, I tell people to ring<br />
the bell twice to say hi to Bill and Bob ‘up top’,”<br />
Meistrell said.<br />
12 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong><br />
Shortly after the store reopened, resident Al<br />
Walsh brought in a scuba tank with a mermaid<br />
on it that had belonged to his wife’s dad Dudley<br />
Wheeler. He asked Meistrell to make it into a<br />
bell, like he had with his dad’s and uncle’s. Requests<br />
for dozens of other memorial dive tank<br />
bells followed.<br />
“Instead of scraping the tanks, now they will<br />
last for generations,” Meistrell said.<br />
“Divers’ families and friends want the tanks<br />
left dinged up so everyone knows the person<br />
being remembered was a real diver. But now<br />
non-divers are asking for ornamental bells. One<br />
lady asked for a bell to hang from a tree in her<br />
yard, where she had buried her dog. She gave me<br />
the dog’s leash for a pull rope,” Meistrell said.<br />
“‘This is much nicer than a tombstone,’ she told<br />
me when she picked it up.”<br />
“Bells are rich in symbolism and each one has<br />
a unique ring. I made a pink bell for a breast cancer<br />
fundraiser and a purple bell for a pancreatic<br />
cancer fundraiser. Hawaiian artist Brad ‘Tiki<br />
Shark’ Parker applied his tiki artwork to one of<br />
the dive tanks and sold it through a Hawaiian<br />
gallery for $1,500,” he said.<br />
New scuba tanks costs $200 to $400 and their<br />
diving lifespan is limited by law. To prevent the<br />
costly, solidly made and aesthetically appealing<br />
tanks from going to a landfill, Meistrell is constantly<br />
inventing new uses for them.<br />
Some of the uses include wine chillers, table<br />
legs, planters, serving dishes and phone charger<br />
stations. For the holidays he painted three bells<br />
red, white and green and hung them side by side<br />
in front of the Dive N’ Surf store. When the wind<br />
blows they ring like church bells.<br />
Scuba tank bells are available at Dive N’ Surf,<br />
504 N. Broadway. Meistrell can be reached at bgbstrell@aol.com.<br />
B
each people<br />
COMMUNITY GATHERS FOR<br />
Mama Liz Thanksgiving dinner<br />
O<br />
ver 50 cooked turkeys and even more pies<br />
were delivered to the Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> Kiwanis<br />
and Rotary halls Thanksgiving morning.<br />
The donated fixings were just enough to serve the<br />
more than 400 guests who attended the 34th Annual<br />
Absolutely Free Mama Liz Thanksgiving Dinner. The<br />
dinner is organized each year by Berkshire Hathaway<br />
Realtor Donna Dawick and the Easy Reader staff.<br />
Readers donate cooked turkeys. Sandpipers donates<br />
the pies. Real Estate West Realtor Jonathan Coleman,<br />
of the band Abrakadabra, organizes local musicians<br />
who perform throughout the day. Dennis “Balloon<br />
Man” Forel and Vince “Bubbles” Ray entertains the<br />
kids. Hermosa Celebrations’ Sandy and Michael decorate<br />
the Kiwanis Hall with brightly colored, helium<br />
balloons. This year’s chefs were Enrique and Ava<br />
Ramirez and rolls were donated by Panera Bread.<br />
Hermosa Kiwanis made their hall available for the<br />
diners and the neighboring Hermosa Rotary Club donated<br />
use of its kitchen for carving the turkeys.<br />
1<br />
2<br />
3 4<br />
PHOTOS BY KEVIN CODY<br />
1. Donna Dawick and<br />
Ethan Hamilton.<br />
2. Ellen Jenkins of the<br />
Redondo Chamber<br />
delivers a turkey to the<br />
carving crew — Marc<br />
Hamilton, Neil Boyer<br />
and Jessi Aispuro.<br />
3. The morning crew's<br />
Ben Morse with sons<br />
Henry and Jack.<br />
4. Jerry "The Piano<br />
Man" Rothschild has<br />
been performing for<br />
the Mama Liz Dinner<br />
for over 20 years.<br />
5. Chefs Ava and<br />
Enrique Ramirez.<br />
6. Phoebe Benya, Teri<br />
Contreras, Donna<br />
Dawick and Alicia.<br />
7. Jessica and<br />
Jennifer Pusateri.<br />
8. The Harrow family<br />
Michael, Corey, Talia<br />
and Avigal.<br />
9. Humble Harry sings<br />
"A Boy named Sue"<br />
with Johnnie Pal on<br />
slide guitar.<br />
10. Music director<br />
Jonathan Coleman.<br />
11. Server Jessie Kay.<br />
5<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8<br />
9<br />
10 11<br />
14 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
310.539.6685 310.884.1870<br />
310.326.9528<br />
866.BEYOND.5<br />
310.997.1900<br />
www.cflu.org<br />
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 15
each people<br />
Where<br />
education<br />
begins<br />
by Mark McDermott<br />
Grand View Elementary Teacher of the Year Dina Moll in her kindergarten classroom. Photos by Brad Jacobson (CivicCouch.com)<br />
Early on a Thursday afternoon in November,<br />
a chorus of “ehs” were echoing in Room 12<br />
at Grand View Elementary School.<br />
Twenty-five kindergartners sat in a semi-circle<br />
around teacher Dina Moll, who was making a<br />
game out of a lesson regarding the pronunciation<br />
and drawing of the letter “e.” This was the 59th<br />
day of the school year; the students were on their<br />
second time through the alphabet.<br />
“E is one of those letters that is tricky,” Ms.<br />
Moll told the class, as she demonstrated how to<br />
draw a small “e” starting with the line in the middle.<br />
“Draw the diving board, then jump up, and<br />
around!”<br />
An overhead projector illuminated a series of<br />
slides featuring a barnyard full of animals, including<br />
a cheerful elephant and some chickens with<br />
eggs. As if it were a game show, Ms. Moll called<br />
up different kids to identify the right letter to use.<br />
The large projector screen was a touch screen, so<br />
the kids could drag each appropriate “e” to a<br />
bucket in the bottom corner to win.<br />
“I have an ‘e’ before a ‘y’ in my name,” said one<br />
girl.<br />
“That is why you are an ‘e’ professional,” said<br />
Ms. Moll.<br />
Every child in the classroom was paying full attention,<br />
which for a group of two dozen five-yearolds<br />
only two months into their educational lives<br />
counted as no minor miracle. When an elf appeared<br />
on the screen, Ms. Moll reminded the<br />
class of the elf who’d appeared in their classroom<br />
not so long ago.<br />
“This is what I was for Halloween,” she said.<br />
“An elf!”<br />
Welcome to the magical kingdom that is Ms.<br />
Moll’s classroom, where learning is joyful and<br />
the ringleader of 25 buzzing little beings is the<br />
most energetic of all. A class never goes by in<br />
which Ms. Moll has not made direct eye contact<br />
and interacted with each and every child in the<br />
room. Ms. Moll compares her role in the classroom<br />
to that of an actor, because she can’t take a<br />
single moment off — she has an audience glued<br />
to her every movement. But it’s hardly a passive<br />
audience. The students are ready to model their<br />
teacher’s every behavior, and she never forgets<br />
it. Her mood is always buoyant.<br />
“Whatever is going on in your personal life<br />
doesn’t matter when you walk through that<br />
door,” Ms. Moll said. “I feel like I am on stage performing...At<br />
this age, they are sponges. They pick<br />
up on everything I say and everything I do. If I’m<br />
excited about a project, they are going to be excited.<br />
If I am not into a project, they are not going<br />
to care about it.”<br />
“You are on every second of every day. There<br />
is no down time. You don’t get to pass out a test<br />
and say, ‘I’ll be here at my desk.’”<br />
Ms. Moll was named Grand View’s Teacher of<br />
the Year last June in part because her colleagues<br />
recognized the depth of her dedication, something<br />
reflected not only in her ebullient, attentive<br />
classroom presence but in the hours of painstaking<br />
preparation that make her lessons fun, riveting,<br />
and effective for kindergartners.<br />
Grand View Principal Nancy Doyle said that<br />
Ms. Moll is usually the first person at the school,<br />
arriving at 7 a.m. each morning. The work she<br />
puts into planning, Doyle said, makes her teaching<br />
appear almost effortless. But a lot of effort<br />
goes into the structure of each day.<br />
“First of all, it’s the smile that is on her face, so<br />
welcoming to each child as they walk in that<br />
door, and you just know in your heart they are<br />
going to have a happy and productive day,” Doyle<br />
said. “Once inside the room, she is carefully organized.<br />
She fastidiously plans her lessons….Each<br />
16 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
is designed to engage, designed to keep the kids active. Little sound bites<br />
happen throughout the day; five-year-olds’ attention spans wax and wane.”<br />
Kindergarten instruction is foundational. Ms. Moll’s classroom is brightly<br />
adorned, but with specific purpose. “There are so many beautiful reasons<br />
to be happy,” says a sign above her desk. Between her desk and the chalkboard<br />
a polka dotted tarp hangs with the words to “The Silly Squirrel” song<br />
pasted on via green construction paper squares.<br />
The song is part of a poetry series used to emphasize tracking when reading,<br />
sight word practice, grammar, punctuation, and how to change your<br />
voice to match the contours of the lyrics. Ms. Moll uses songs to help teach<br />
many lessons. There’s a clean-up song, a sit down song, and a goodbye<br />
song.<br />
“Most songs are used to help with transitions, or times when children<br />
are moving from one activity to another,” she said. “It keeps them focused<br />
and on task.”<br />
Nearby, a “sharing schedule” was written on a marker board with each<br />
student’s name assigned with others for each day of the week. The students’<br />
desks are shared, two-foot high tables encircling a rainbow-colored<br />
carpet, where the kids sit when Ms. Moll gathers them for group instruction<br />
intermittently throughout each day. Behind her desk, laying peacefully<br />
in a cage, was a kindly-eyed golden labrador named Quinta. Ms. Moll volunteers<br />
for a non-profit that trains service dogs, and though Quinta will<br />
only be in the classroom for a month, the kids are happy to be part of the<br />
dog’s socialization.<br />
“When you are creating a foundation, the first thing is you have to get<br />
kids to want to come to school,” said Doyle. “She fills her classroom with<br />
a sense of community, and the students’ days with a myriad set of activities.<br />
So the day is super varied. They experience everything they need to<br />
experience in their little developing minds. The way she does it seems so<br />
seamless, but I know she is working super hard.”<br />
“That service dog, too, really shows she is an example to the kids, of selflessness,<br />
of being responsible, and that really sets a tone,” Doyle said.<br />
“Everything is intentional, but it looks effortless. Whether it’s life lessons<br />
about being respectful, or learning an academic lesson on the meaning of<br />
four plus four, they are doing it effortlessly but extremely intentional under<br />
her direction.”<br />
The “e” lesson wasn’t on the day’s schedule, but the kids had finished<br />
an art project 20 minutes earlier than planned. Ms. Moll, attuned to the<br />
mercurial nature of her students, always has alternative plans built into<br />
the school day. In fact, part of the reason she loves students at this age is<br />
their inherent spontaneity. No two days are alike.<br />
“They are so funny, to me,” she said. “I just can’t predict what they will<br />
say, and what they will do.”<br />
The art projects each student put together were made out of eight different<br />
pieces of colored construction paper cut to form the sun and the sky<br />
above two green trees and the ocean, with the inscription, “I am thankful<br />
for the blue water” at the bottom.<br />
“Ms. Moll, I want to take this home today,” said one curly-haired little<br />
blonde girl.<br />
Dina Moll teaches a group lesson to her students at Grand View.<br />
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 17
Students from Dina Moll's first class at Grand View Elementary, as a pre-k<br />
teacher in 2004, returned just before graduating high school last spring.<br />
Photo courtesy Grand View Elementary<br />
“You are taking this home today,” Ms. Moll said, leaning down near the<br />
girl, smiling. The little girl did three celebratory leaps with another girl. “I<br />
am so excited!” she exclaimed.<br />
Ms. Moll is in her 14th year teaching at Grand View. She graduated from<br />
Loyola Marymount in 2003. She was a psychology major before focusing<br />
her aspirations on teaching.<br />
“I knew I wanted some type of job that helped others,” she said. “I spent<br />
a lot of time thinking about how impactful certain teachers were in my<br />
life. I knew I needed work that made me feel I was doing some good for<br />
the world. Teaching was that for me, the fit.”<br />
She briefly taught at an inner-city elementary school in L.A. A teacher<br />
friend told her about Grand View, describing it as “the Disneyland of<br />
schools.” She was hired first as a pre-kindergarten teacher and then as a<br />
kindergarten teacher. It was a grade level she had never aspired to teach.<br />
“I didn’t really choose it,” she recalled. “I thought I preferred older kids.<br />
But after that first year at Grand View, I just fell in love with the innocence<br />
of the children of this age group. Looking out into a classroom and seeing<br />
how totally new they are to education, and how their bodies and faces<br />
transform into awe and wonder — it’s probably the greatest feeling as an<br />
adult that you can have. They are so excited by the little things. Sometimes<br />
you are the first person to explain to them why we have rain, how rain<br />
falls from a cloud — you don’t necessarily think about that as something<br />
cool, but then you sit and talk about it with the kids and see them begin<br />
to understand. It’s like a physical shift, how it lights them up. There are<br />
things I am the first person to tell them, about how the world works and<br />
how to be a good person in that world — it’s fun and exciting for me, so<br />
much energy, so much to talk about, so much to learn.”<br />
Ms. Moll’s students practiced their “e” skills on worksheets, trying out<br />
big E’s and small e’s and identifying cartoon animals whose names begin<br />
in “e.” She inspected each student’s work, applying a rubber stamp seal of<br />
approval that shows an apple with a bite out of it and the word “Terrific!”<br />
She gave a high five to one little boy wearing a T-shirt that said, “Class of<br />
2030.” The kids ended their day singing the goodbye song to each other,<br />
and to their teacher, who sang along.<br />
“I love what I do, and I feel that it matters,” Ms. Moll said after her students<br />
gleefully departed at the song’s end. “I am teaching kids how to be<br />
responsible, kind human beings. Obviously parenting plays the biggest part<br />
in that, but I feel that this is the foundation of how they are going to feel<br />
about school for the rest of their schooling.”<br />
The reality of this sentiment was brought specially to life last year. A<br />
group from the first class Ms. Moll taught at Grand View, back in 2004,<br />
returned to celebrate their high school graduation with their very first<br />
teacher. A dozen of her former students came, celebrating their graduation<br />
into the larger world back where their education began.<br />
“It is Disneyland,” Ms. Moll said of Grand View. “I come to work every<br />
day thinking, ‘I can’t believe I get to work here.” B<br />
18 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 19
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20 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 21
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22 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • GIFT GUIDE <strong>2017</strong>
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 23
With encouragement from a Junior Lifeguard instructor and a fellow Junior Lifeguard she married,<br />
Amy Appelhans Gubser has completed over a dozen marathon swims in just two years<br />
Seeptember 22, <strong>2017</strong> 8:19 PM, Santa Cruz, CA: It’s a quiet night.<br />
The beaches are empty and the ocean is calm. The sky is clear and<br />
the air feels cold on bare skin, reminding us it’s the first day of fall.<br />
Amy Appelhans Gubser, 49, stands beside a rock jetty, near the<br />
Santa Cruz boardwalk, wearing a swimsuit, cap and goggles. She takes a<br />
deep breath and wades into the chilly Monterey Bay and starts swimming.<br />
The Monterey Bay, between Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove, is 25 miles<br />
wide, nearly five miles wider than the English and Catalina channels. The<br />
Bay plunges to a depth of 2,600 feet and the water temperature hovers<br />
around 55 degrees. Afternoons are windy so swims are attempted at night.<br />
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biggest threat to swimmers is the Pacific Sea Nettle. Their 24 tentacles grow<br />
to 15 feet in length and they reproduce quickly into massive armies, over a<br />
mile wide.<br />
There had been just 11 previous attempts and only three recognized, successful<br />
attempts to swim across the Monterey Bay. The first successful attempt<br />
was in 1980, by Los Angeles County Lifeguard Cindy Cleveland, of<br />
Palos Verdes. Cleveland finished the swim in 15 hours, 20 minutes. The second<br />
successful Monterey Bay swim wasn’t until 2014, when Patti Bauernfeind,<br />
of Dublin, completed the swim on her fourth attempt in exactly 13<br />
hours. She was followed that same year by Kim Rutherford of Capitola,<br />
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Monterey Bay and he did it in a wetsuit.<br />
Monterey Bay Swimming Association rules, like those governing Catalina<br />
and English Channel swims, prohibit wetsuits. Swimmers must depart from<br />
land and finish on land under their own power, wearing only a swimsuit,<br />
a single swim cap and goggles.<br />
A promising Junior Lifeguard<br />
Amy Appelhans moved with her family to Playa Del Rey from Illinois in<br />
1978, when she was 10. Her mother, a swimmer in her youth in Wheaton<br />
Illinois, encouraged her daughter to swim at the Westchester YMCA. But<br />
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Maurry introduced her to surfing and convinced her to join Junior Lifeguards.<br />
That year, she tried out as a swimmer for the local JG team that<br />
was going to the Nationals Championships. After the swim, the 10 year-old<br />
asked if she had made the team. You won the race, her JG instructor told<br />
her.<br />
In 1981, her family moved to Palos Verdes, where she swam for Peninsula<br />
Aquatics, the San Pedro/Peninsula YMCA and Rolling Hills High School.<br />
“Our high school team had only five swimmers and one diver. But we all<br />
advanced to the finals and our team placed second in CIF,” Gubser said.<br />
Ten years after qualifying for the Junior Lifeguard Nationals team, she<br />
qualified to become a Los Angeles County Lifeguard. Her first Lifeguard<br />
boss was legendary ocean swimmer Cindy Cleveland. In 1976, Cleveland<br />
swam the Catalina Channel, from the island to the mainland. The following<br />
year, she swam from the mainland to Catalina and back to the mainland.<br />
Two years later, one month prior to her precedent setting Monterey Bay<br />
Swim, Cleveland circumnavigated Catalina Island, swimming non stop for<br />
34 hours, 24 minutes, a distance of 46.4 miles.<br />
“Cindy would workout for hours on her days off. I was in awe of her discipline,<br />
both mental and physical. She was always encouraging me to swim<br />
events like the International Surf Festival Pier to Pier Swim and the La Jolla<br />
10 Mile Swim,” Gubser said.<br />
One day, while lifeguarding at Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, Gubser rescued a young<br />
24 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
Former South Bay beach lifeguard<br />
Amy Gubser swims across Monterrey<br />
Bay. Her husband Greg, also a<br />
former South Bay beach lifeguard,<br />
drives her escort boat. Photo by<br />
John Chapman<br />
boy with assistance from a fellow<br />
lifeguard named Greg Gubser,<br />
whom she remembered from her<br />
first year in Junior Lifeguards.<br />
While lifeguarding a few days later,<br />
she saw a paddler coming ashore<br />
in her swim area. “I ran down to<br />
scold him and was surprised to see<br />
it was Greg. He had been fishing<br />
and caught a huge halibut. He invited<br />
me to dinner. That was our<br />
first date and two years later we<br />
were married.”<br />
In 1993, one year after the couple<br />
married, Greg joined the U.S<br />
Coast Guard and they moved to<br />
the San Francisco area, where he<br />
was stationed. Eventually, they settled<br />
in Pacifica, a small beach town<br />
just south of San Francico. The<br />
area had no Junior Lifeguard program,<br />
so Amy and Greg started<br />
Surf Camp Pacifica. Amy also<br />
worked in a Pediatric Intensive<br />
Care Unit as a neonatal nurse.<br />
Work and raising children Justin<br />
and Holly left little time for swimming.<br />
But in 2014, with her kids<br />
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having finished high school, Gubser<br />
accepted a friend’s challenge to<br />
swim in the San Francisco Bay. It<br />
was in February and it had been<br />
nearly two decades since she had<br />
swum competitively.<br />
“I tried every excuse to get out of<br />
it,” she recalled. “And when I<br />
jumped in I lost my breath. I cried<br />
and had a panic attack. Finally, I<br />
relaxed. Every cell in my body suddenly<br />
felt alive. I loved it.”<br />
She began swimming year-round<br />
in the San Francisco Bay in preparation<br />
for marathon swims.<br />
In April 2015, she swam the 10-<br />
mile-wide Strait of Gibraltar, from<br />
Spain to Morocco. Four months<br />
later, in July, she swam the 21.3<br />
mile length of icy Lake Tahoe. And<br />
a month after that, she and five fellow<br />
members of the Nadadores<br />
Locos completed a 59.4 mile, relay<br />
swim from the Golden Gate Bridge<br />
to the shark infested Farallon Islands<br />
and back.<br />
Then in 2016, Gubser swam the<br />
Catalina Channel. She finished in<br />
just under 15 hours, well off her<br />
regular pace. After reaching shore<br />
she was rushed to the hospital. She<br />
had spent the last six miles struggling<br />
to breath because of an anaphylactic<br />
reaction to an algae<br />
Pacific Sea Nettle jellies blanketed Monterey Bay during Amy Gubser’s swim across the bay on the first day of fall.<br />
26 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
Monterey Bay swimmers Amy Gubser, Kim Rutherford and Patty Bauernfeind,<br />
signal with their hands the order in which they swam across the bay.<br />
Rutherford is also holding up one finger for Cindy Cleveland of Palos<br />
Verdes, who was the first person to swim across the bay.<br />
bloom in the water.<br />
“I only finished because I didn’t<br />
want to have to do it again. A finish<br />
is a finish,” she said afterwards.<br />
The adverse reaction aside, Gubser<br />
felt she hadn’t trained hard<br />
enough for the channel swim. So in<br />
preparation for the even longer and<br />
colder Monterey Bay swim she embarked<br />
on what she calls “no recovery<br />
training.” Each morning in the<br />
dark, she began a three hour workout<br />
in the San Francisco Bay, where<br />
water temperatures range from 48<br />
to 60 degrees. Then she worked her<br />
12 hour nursing shift.<br />
“If you can’t find the time you<br />
make it,” she said. In the six months<br />
prior to her Monterey Bay swim,<br />
she made time to swim across four<br />
Arizona lakes in four days, and<br />
Gubser cont. on page 39<br />
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 27
each sports<br />
Jack Alexander Sr.<br />
rescued local<br />
youth football,<br />
paving the path for<br />
his son to lead the<br />
Redondo High<br />
Sea Hawks<br />
Redondo quarterback Jack Alexander completed<br />
his two-year varsity career averaging 162.2<br />
passing yards per game while recording 3,731<br />
yards and 38 touchdowns. Photo by Ray Vidal<br />
by Randy Angel<br />
When an email was sent to<br />
families informing them<br />
that the 2008 fall flag<br />
football season had been cancelled,<br />
eight-year-old Jack Alexander was<br />
devastated. He put his uniform on<br />
and, clutching his football, stayed<br />
in bed the rest of the day sobbing.<br />
Alexander loved playing sports,<br />
beginning with T-ball at the age of<br />
four, in the old North Redondo Little<br />
League. It was then that he became<br />
good friends with John<br />
Jackson III whose father, a former<br />
standout wide receiver at USC<br />
known as JJ, was the coach.<br />
In 2007, Jackson suggested to<br />
Jack Sr. that their sons play flag<br />
football in the Redondo Pacific<br />
Coast Conference. Their team<br />
went undefeated and then played<br />
in the newly-formed South Bay<br />
Youth Sports league in the spring,<br />
which they also won.<br />
So, the following year, when<br />
South Bay Sports cancelled its fall<br />
season two days before opening<br />
day, Jack Sr. decided to take matters<br />
into his own hands.<br />
He called dads and coaches vowing<br />
to save the season. The day before<br />
the season was scheduled to<br />
start, he went to Mira Costa High<br />
School at 7 a.m. to ask permission<br />
to use the football field. He was<br />
told he would need permission<br />
from both the the Manhattan<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Unified School District and<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Athletic Foundation<br />
(MBX).<br />
Alexander wrote a check to the<br />
foundation for approximately<br />
$15,000, bought insurance for all<br />
233 kids and, with the help of<br />
foundation President Gary Wayland,<br />
got the MBUSD to sign off.<br />
28 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
At 6:10 that evening, he put the word out that the <strong>Beach</strong> Cities Youth Flag<br />
Football League season was on.<br />
“I had to do something not just to help my son, JJ3, and the other kids<br />
in our neighborhood on our team, but for all of the kids in the beach cities,”<br />
said Jack Sr. who became first president of the new league. “It was a wild<br />
ride and helped change the culture of youth sports in our community, so I<br />
am very proud of stepping up to start the BCS.”<br />
BCS players, Jack Alexander among them, also helped change the trajectory<br />
of Redondo Union High football. Alexander recently finished his<br />
senior season at Redondo, after leading the Sea Hawks to the CIF-Southern<br />
Section Division 4 playoffs.<br />
The 6-foot-3, 190-pound signal caller was a dual threat for Redondo, possessing<br />
a strong arm and quick feet.<br />
In 11 games, he averaged 196.2 yards passing per game, throwing for<br />
2,138 yards and 18 touchdowns, with only six interceptions. He also ran<br />
the ball 110 times for 724 yards (6.5 average) and nine touchdowns.<br />
Alexander finished his prep career wearing the same No. 7 he wore since<br />
he began playing football at the age of seven.<br />
Alexander did not play quarterback until his first year of tackle football,<br />
when he joined the Redondo Pop Warner team as an 8th grader.<br />
Though originally slated to play wide receiver, he made an impression<br />
on coach Tom Coate who told Jack’s father after the team’s first practice<br />
he would need his own football because he was the new quarterback.<br />
“It was during that season that I really fell in love with the game,” Alexander<br />
said. “I knew I wanted a career in football and someday become a<br />
coach. The passion and intensity in tackle football is extreme. You only<br />
play 10 games a season. There is no other sport like it.”<br />
Coate, the current head coach at Chadwick in Palos Verdes, saw something<br />
special in Alexander.<br />
“He was tall, athletic, and had a fierce competitive spirit,” Coate recalled.<br />
“Once I saw Jack throw a football, I thought he was the ideal fit for a great<br />
quarterback. He had an incredibly high football I.Q., was very coachable,<br />
and was a leader. I knew then that he was not only going to be our quarterback,<br />
I knew Jack was going to be a great quarterback for all his future<br />
teams.<br />
“What makes Jack special is that he is a humble and hungry warrior.<br />
Jack always gives his best effort, is competitive and makes others around<br />
him better – a leader in every sense. One of my greatest memories is coaching<br />
this wonderful young man.”<br />
In only his second year playing tackle football, Alexander was named<br />
MVP of Redondo’s freshman team after throwing for 2,500 yards and 24<br />
touchdowns with only one interception.<br />
But Alexander wanted more. As a member of a devout Catholic family,<br />
he had attended St. James Elementary School in Torrance and decided to<br />
transfer to St. John Bosco as a sophomore.<br />
“I wanted an opportunity to play with the best,” Alexander said. “Bosco<br />
had recently won a national championship (2013). I carpooled with some<br />
guys in the area. It was a year of learning and game experience against<br />
high-quality opponents.”<br />
But the carpool to the Bellflower campus was falling through and the<br />
long, grueling days of getting up early and arriving home late took its toll.<br />
Alexander decided to return to Redondo.<br />
“I have no regrets about the decision,” Alexander said. “It was nothing<br />
but football and academics. I wanted to fully enjoy the high school experience<br />
and I really missed my friends. The Redondo community is great<br />
and the school’s football program is strong with a lot of history.”<br />
Alexander began his junior season as the Sea Hawks starting quarterback<br />
and led the team to a share of the Bay League title. The team reached the<br />
second round of the CIF-SS Division 4 playoffs, losing a heartbreaker to<br />
top-seeded Sierra Canyon 41-34 in triple overtime.<br />
Yet it was the season opener that Alexander considers the most memorable<br />
moment of his career.<br />
“It was my first varsity start and we beat a very good Rancho Verde team<br />
28-22 in double overtime,” Alexander said. “It was among the top five<br />
games I’ve played. I was anxious and nervous. It was breathtaking to take<br />
the field as the starting quarterback for the first time. It’s those kind of<br />
emotions that make football such a special game.”<br />
Alexander led a late drive to tie the score then connected with Julian<br />
Woodard on a 25-yard screen pass to win the game. It was one of only two<br />
games Rancho Verde lost that season<br />
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 29
Jack Alexander celebrates Senior Night in Sea Hawk Bowl with parents<br />
Jack and Vicki. Photo courtesy of the Alexander family<br />
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30 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong><br />
Another highlight of his career<br />
came in this year’s regular-season<br />
finale when he played with a severe<br />
ankle sprain.<br />
“I’m all about winning and there<br />
was no better feeling than beating<br />
Mira Costa on their turf this year,”<br />
Alexander exclaimed. “Coming<br />
from behind and connecting with<br />
Pierre Dawson for the winning<br />
score was so exciting and I’m proud<br />
to have beaten Costa in my junior<br />
and senior years.”<br />
The Alexander-Pierre connection<br />
went deeper than on the field. Dawson,<br />
a Canadian who wanted to<br />
play American football, has lived<br />
with the Alexander family since August.<br />
Alexander has worked hard to<br />
reach the level he is at, having<br />
worked with former USC head<br />
coaches Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian,<br />
former NFL quarterback Billy<br />
Joe Hobert and a number of high<br />
school and college coaches, including<br />
Matthew Hatchette (LB Poly),<br />
Ryan Campbell (Westlake), Chad<br />
Johnson (St John Bosco), Seth Oseransky<br />
(College of the Canyons) and<br />
Eric Wilson (RUHS alumni who<br />
played for the University of Washington).<br />
Along with Coate, and of course<br />
his father, Alexander considers John<br />
Aponte (current RUHS offensive coordinator)<br />
and private instructor<br />
Danny Hernandez (Team Dime/Premium<br />
Sports) as the major influences<br />
in his career.<br />
“I appreciate Coach Aponte for<br />
letting me showcase all my skills,”<br />
Alexander said. “I really enjoyed<br />
working with him.”<br />
Aponte resigned as Banning’s<br />
head coach after the 2016 season to<br />
join Matt Ballard’s staff at Redondo.<br />
“Jack is an amazing kid. I've<br />
watched him go through ups and<br />
downs and I've loved the way he<br />
fights through it,” Hernandez said.<br />
“This last year he lost two of his<br />
best offensive weapons (running<br />
back Jermar Jefferson and receiver<br />
Julian Woodard), who decided to<br />
transfer to Narbonne. He didn't cry<br />
about it. He just got to work and understood<br />
he was going to have to<br />
shoulder the load. Jack is a playmaker<br />
but I think I admire his mental<br />
toughness the most. I know he's<br />
undecided but the (college) team<br />
that lands him will be happy because<br />
they are getting a good one.”<br />
Alexander sets very high goals for<br />
himself and considers his ability to<br />
extend plays to be the strength of<br />
his game.<br />
“I’m extremely competitive and<br />
emotional, even when I’m just playing<br />
video games like Madden,”<br />
Alexander said. “I’m very proud of<br />
some of my performances but numbers<br />
never mean much to me – I<br />
just want to win.”<br />
Alexander’s high football IQ has<br />
Alexander cont. on page 39
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 31
each travel<br />
Isabella Cordi embarks on a swim in Bingham Lake in Minnesota on the final day of her tour of all 50 states. Photo by Tony Cordi<br />
by Tony Cordi<br />
A Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> family sets off on a tour of all 50 states,<br />
leaving behind the careful planning that governs life at home<br />
Ican’t recall how it all started. It may have been just a passing suggestion<br />
from our then eight-year old daughter Isabella. It sounded daunting, but<br />
for whatever reason, we relented and embarked on a journey that would<br />
take us to all 50 states. Had we thought through just what this would entail,<br />
we probably would have backed out. But, we broke from our habit of overplanning,<br />
creating enough of a shift in our behavior to make room to thoroughly<br />
engage in all of the magical moments we would encounter along<br />
the way.<br />
Over an 18 month period, beginning in <strong>Dec</strong>ember 2014, we made it to<br />
all of the states we hadn’t been to before. It took seven separate trips and<br />
by the time we finished, we had logged over 13,000 miles by car and close<br />
to 30,000 in the air. We would see over 30 major colleges and universities,<br />
25 state capitals, and several National Forests, Parks and Monuments. Our<br />
only rule for the visit to count was we needed to spend the night or have a<br />
full meal. We spent a total of two months away from our Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong><br />
home.<br />
It began with leaving Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> for a road trip to several southwestern<br />
states. We knew where we wanted to be and when we wanted to be<br />
there. We even mapped out our food and researched restaurants in advance.<br />
But as we would soon learn, over planning inhibited us from embracing<br />
the adventures as they unfolded.<br />
Our first epiphany on the benefits of unscripted travel hit us in Saguaro<br />
National Park. The Arizona valley is surrounded by thousands of tall<br />
saguaro cacti standing sentry to the majesty of the desert. We were struck<br />
by the stillness, something we don’t experience often at the beach. It would<br />
be a recurring experience in the Southwest in places like White Sands Na-<br />
32 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
tional Monument and the Arches<br />
and Canyonlands National Parks.<br />
To interrupt Isabella’s increasing<br />
dependency on her iPad during the<br />
trips, we began to make random<br />
stops. These respites paid off. In<br />
White Sands National Monument<br />
she rolled down the glistening hills<br />
while laughing hysterically. The<br />
same thing happened on the slopes<br />
of Vail and sledding down Y<br />
Mountain in Provo.<br />
We committed to eating local<br />
food and witnessing the culture as<br />
much as possible. We couldn’t get<br />
enough of Southwestern cuisine,<br />
especially in New Mexico. Santa Fe<br />
had fantastic food and offered opportunities<br />
to visit enchanting<br />
places like the pueblos of Nambe<br />
and Taos and to shop at the Native<br />
American vendors at the Palace of<br />
the Governors. The uniqueness of<br />
El Paso, Denver and Las Vegas<br />
would add to the mix.<br />
In the spring of 2015, we set out<br />
to visit family and friends in the<br />
Gulf States before venturing off to<br />
several adjacent states. Experiencing<br />
unfamiliar places with people<br />
we enjoy who happen to know the<br />
area greatly enhanced our travel.<br />
Ruby Falls, outside Chattanooga,<br />
is a 145-foot high, underground<br />
waterfall, every bit worth the effort<br />
of getting to it. Likewise, we will<br />
never forget digging for diamonds<br />
at Crater of Diamonds State Park<br />
outside Murfreesboro, Arkansas. It<br />
is the world’s only diamond-producing<br />
site where the public can<br />
do this. We spent hours, mostly in<br />
mud, not even caring if we made a<br />
discovery.<br />
We were also able to enjoy excellent<br />
Southern-style cuisine in Alabama<br />
and Florida in addition to old<br />
school ribs in Memphis. Of course,<br />
we had to try gumbo, jambalaya<br />
and beignets in New Orleans.<br />
We thought it would be fun to go<br />
to the District of Columbia and<br />
Philadelphia over Memorial Day<br />
weekend and it turned out to be a<br />
great decision. We didn’t need an<br />
iPad for Isabella at all on this trip.<br />
Because of timing issues, we had to<br />
consolidate the D.C. trip and opted<br />
to take a bus tour, which worked<br />
out perfectly. We covered many<br />
monuments and had the opportunity<br />
to walk around most of them.<br />
It was fun for our daughter to see<br />
the White House and I had a<br />
chance to meet up with a former<br />
college classmate.<br />
We had great food in Reading<br />
Terminal Market in Philadelphia,<br />
but missed out on seeing Liberty<br />
Bell Center because the line was<br />
300 people deep. We grabbed<br />
Philly cheesesteaks to go instead<br />
before meeting up with friends for<br />
dinner in Cape May, New Jersey.<br />
Our shortest stay in a state was in<br />
Delaware with a stop for cheesecake<br />
and we would only spend a<br />
couple of hours in Harper’s Ferry<br />
in West Virginia. Baltimore offered<br />
fantastic soft-shell crabs, cannoli in<br />
Little Italy, and a chance to burn it<br />
off paddle-boating in the Inner<br />
Harbor.<br />
Later in the summer after Isabella<br />
turned nine, we visited the<br />
Pacific Northwest and brought our<br />
travel to another level. We had an<br />
exceptional trip to Idaho,<br />
Wyoming, Montana, Washington<br />
and Alaska. Everything about these<br />
states made it easier and more enjoyable<br />
to be spontaneous. We had<br />
a blast, swimming in a sinkhole off<br />
the Snake River by Shoshone Falls,<br />
watching the Jackson Hole Rodeo<br />
in Wyoming, and swimming in the<br />
West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake.<br />
It helped that we had warm<br />
weather and got to see bison roaming<br />
up close, eruptions from Old<br />
Faithful Geyser, and the beauty of<br />
Big Sky while hiking.<br />
Stops in Coeur D’Alene, Spokane<br />
and Seattle all added to the adventure.<br />
We got our Idaho potato fix<br />
in, and a fantastic ferry ride at<br />
night to view Seattle.<br />
I could write volumes about our<br />
time in Alaska with friends. We<br />
went dog-sledding with Iditarod<br />
competitors, rafting in a Glacier<br />
river, toured Denali National Park,<br />
ate incredible salmon, and stayed<br />
on military bases. The signature<br />
moment occurred on the way back<br />
from a dinner cruise to Fox Island<br />
in the Kenai Fjords. We stopped in<br />
Emerald Cove and were blown<br />
away by the sight of countless<br />
moon jellyfish, sea lions trying to<br />
scramble up a tiny island to escape<br />
four approaching orcas, eagles on<br />
the side of a bluff not far from<br />
common murres, cormorants,<br />
puffins, and a random mountain<br />
goat. Definitely not something we<br />
see every day.<br />
Over Labor Day, we flew round<br />
trip to Boston to witness the<br />
pageantry of the change of seasons<br />
and see all of New England. An<br />
Tony, Isabella, and Janeth in South Dakota, celebrating the completion of<br />
their 50-state tour. Photo courtesy of the Cordi Family<br />
hour drive can change everything<br />
there. We went to Pemaquid Point<br />
Light to scramble on the cliffs and<br />
tour the lighthouse before eating<br />
lobster rolls in Boothbay Harbor.<br />
Having Italian food was a must in<br />
Boston before spending the night<br />
in Cape Cod. Swimming at the<br />
beaches of Nantucket Island and<br />
just walking around the island left<br />
an indelible impression.<br />
Isabella had a chance to scope<br />
out Harvard and Brown on this trip<br />
and to see my childhood home in<br />
upstate New York. We swam in<br />
Lake George and enjoyed the company<br />
of one set of friends in<br />
Burlington and another set in Montreal.<br />
It wouldn’t be until spring break<br />
2016 before we made our next<br />
trip – to Michigan, three of the<br />
Great Lakes, the Rock and Roll<br />
Museum, and Notre Dame. This<br />
trip marked another turning point.<br />
Isabella became far more proactive<br />
in planning our activities.<br />
She had us visit the incredible<br />
Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn,<br />
an indoor water park in Sandusky,<br />
the musical “Matilda” in Chicago,<br />
the Wizard of Oz Museum in<br />
Wamego, Kansas, and later the Little<br />
House on the Prairie site in Independence.<br />
She even managed to<br />
get a horse ride in when we were<br />
in Lincoln, Nebraska. We were encouraged<br />
to visit Woolaroc, where<br />
the free-roaming wildlife and the<br />
extensive museum captivated all of<br />
us.<br />
Food was a big part of this trip,<br />
as well. We had brats with friends<br />
in Milwaukee, baked goods in the<br />
Czech Village outside Cedar<br />
Rapids, and steaks in Omaha. We<br />
even enjoyed a dinner in Tulsa and<br />
great Thai food in Dallas.<br />
On our last night, we pampered<br />
ourselves at the Westin Galleria,<br />
which gave Isabella an opportunity<br />
to swim in the morning and ice<br />
skate later in the mall.<br />
This left us with three states to<br />
visit. We flew into Minneapolis just<br />
before Isabella’s 10th birthday and<br />
enjoyed the city before checking<br />
out the expansive Mall of America.<br />
Not surprisingly, Isabella loved<br />
Nickelodeon Universe and we<br />
would make it back a couple more<br />
times. We ventured off to Fargo<br />
and then spent the night in Bismarck.<br />
The next day we achieved<br />
our goal of hitting our 50th and<br />
final state when we made it to Ludlow,<br />
South Dakota, without any<br />
signs of civilization in sight.<br />
South Dakota proved to be another<br />
big surprise, with Mt. Rushmore,<br />
Jewel Cave National<br />
Monument, Crazy Horse Monument<br />
and later Badlands and Sioux<br />
Falls. We would punctuate the last<br />
night of our last trip on this journey<br />
with a spontaneous stop at<br />
Bingham Lake in Minnesota for a<br />
swim.<br />
Our quest had come to an end.<br />
When asked what her favorite<br />
places are, Isabella offers New<br />
York City and the big island of<br />
Hawaii. She has vivid memories<br />
from both areas. Our travels have<br />
been an incredible blessing thanks<br />
to making the shift from a heavilyscripted<br />
approach to a mindset of<br />
just embracing the opportunities as<br />
they come. B<br />
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 33
Chef Michael Mazzotta and his<br />
Lagotto Romagnolo, Capo, on the<br />
hunt for truffles.<br />
Photos by Brad Jacobson<br />
(CivicCouch.com)<br />
34 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
y Richard Foss<br />
NoSe<br />
A Basq Kitchen chef Michael Mazzotta and his dog Capo train for one of the<br />
culinary arts’ most prestigious competitions<br />
Chef Michael Mazzotta and Capo relax at A Basque Kitchen.<br />
If you hang around Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> you may have seen a mustachioed<br />
man on a bicycle being towed down The Eslpanade by a small dog<br />
with curly brown and white fur. At one end of that leash is Redondo’s<br />
next media sensation, but it is not yet clear which end.<br />
Meet Michael Mazzotta, chef at A Basq Kitchen, and Capo, a bouncy,<br />
friendly dog of an unusual Italian breed called Lagotto Romagnolo. The<br />
two will soon be competing at an Oregon event where they hunt one of<br />
the prizes of the culinary world, a musky, pungent fungus prized by gourmets.<br />
Truffles are related to mushrooms and grow on underground tree roots.<br />
They are one of the few plants that humans have been unable to domesticate.<br />
Top quality specimens sell for over $5,000 a pound.<br />
As Mazzotta explained, “Truffles have the allure of being something humans<br />
can’t create or control. It’s a foraged product that grows in unpredictable<br />
places, so that humans can only find them with the assistance of<br />
partner animals. They used to use pigs, but recently switched to Lagotto<br />
Romagnolo dogs, originally bred as retrievers trained to hunt birds on the<br />
lakes in Italy. At one time the lakes dried up, and the breed almost went<br />
extinct until they found a new use for them. Truffles saved this breed.”<br />
The use of these dogs to hunt fungi instead of avians only goes back a<br />
few decades. The fact that humans bond with dogs better than pigs is a<br />
major advantage, said Mazzotta.<br />
“Pigs have an acute sense of smell and are good hunters, but they’ll<br />
happily eat the truffles, so if you find it and he eats it you’re back at<br />
square one. Dogs are better for the job, and it’s not just that he doesn’t<br />
eat what we’re looking for. Capo wants to please, and we have a strong<br />
bond. The way he reacts to the scents blows my mind. The look in his<br />
eyes – he’s experiencing something no human can ever understand. There<br />
are levels and levels of scents that he has access to. With his mind and<br />
his nose, and his desire to excel at this, it’s incomparable to what a pig<br />
could do.”<br />
Though he had dogs as a child Mazzotta had never trained one before.<br />
But after buying Capo as a three month old puppy he started burying<br />
truffles and challenging the dog to find them.<br />
“Training him was easy. They’re such smart animals that he understood<br />
immediately that this was the game, to use his amazing sense of smell<br />
and instinct to dig to unearth these gems. I just bonded with him, and it’s<br />
just us reading each other. Without words we communicate back and<br />
forth like that.”<br />
on the prize<br />
Experienced dogs learn to ignore immature truffles and only dig up<br />
those that are ripe. This is one of the skills that will be graded at the North<br />
American Truffle Dog Championship, which will be held in Eugene, Oregon<br />
in late January. Oregon forests are home to both a native truffle and<br />
colonies of transplanted European truffles that now grow wild. This year’s<br />
competition is the third annual test of dogs and their partner humans. It<br />
will be the first competition for Mazzotta and Capo, and they’ll be up<br />
against both two and four legged pros. The challenges come in two stages,<br />
only the first of which is open to the public.<br />
“The first round is indoors, and there’s a set circuit where the truffles<br />
have been hidden. After that you’re out in the woods, foraging for the<br />
natural truffles. We’re going up early so we can do some foraging before<br />
the competition, really putting him to the test in a real world situation.<br />
It’s really exciting to be able to do that without flying to Europe.”<br />
There are plans to document the trip with a video, and Mazzotta has<br />
started a GoFundMe page, offering dinners using the truffles Capo finds<br />
as an incentive. Those dinners will be held shortly after their triumphant<br />
return, because the prized fungi deteriorate soon after being unearthed.<br />
“The shelf life of a first-rate truffle is very short. Use it within a week<br />
of it being found if you want to experience what it really has to offer. You<br />
only get them fresh during a short period, which differs depending on<br />
the variety and where you are. There are summer truffles and winter truffles<br />
in Italy, and in Oregon they’re best from <strong>Dec</strong>ember through March.<br />
The rest of the year you have to use truffle oils, which is the only way of<br />
preserving the flavor.”<br />
When asked whether there is any substitute for this temperamental and<br />
elusive plant, Mazzotta was emphatic. “There’s no way to recreate the flavor<br />
using any combination of other ingredients. It is such a unique product…<br />
For some reason when you add a truffle to a dish it elevates the<br />
other ingredients. You can’t pinpoint exactly what that is, it’s magic.”<br />
Man and dog will be put to the test on January 25, and will come back<br />
with stories, a video, and some funky, musky, luggage containing some<br />
of the most prized plants on Earth. Until then, Capo will get his exercise<br />
practicing his scenting skills and riding down the Esplanade towing<br />
Michael’s bicycle.<br />
To find the contribution page go GoFundMe.com/capo-the-puppy B<br />
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 35
each sports<br />
Wave of passion<br />
Alex Fry putting it on rail during an NSSA contest in October. Photo by Steve Gaffney (SteveGaffney.com)<br />
Mira Costa’s Alex Fry relies on internal drive as a rising South Bay surf star<br />
by Ryan McDonald<br />
or a good portion of last year, Alex Fry ate breakfast in the car.<br />
The Mira Costa High School junior did not have a problem with his snooze button.<br />
In fact, he had already been up for some time. He was in the water, squeezing<br />
in a surf before school. Fry is a top competitor on the school’s championship<br />
surf team, but unlike many of his fellow surfers, he was playing another sport,<br />
tennis, on top of it. Participants on the surf team usually hit the beach in the<br />
morning and start the day late, filling out the remainder of their schedule in<br />
periods two through six. Fry’s place on the tennis team meant that he did not<br />
have an extra period to spare, and so he crammed in time and meals where he<br />
could.<br />
This year he has put tennis aside, making it Fry’s first year in which surfing<br />
will be his sole athletic focus. But he retains the spirit of an athlete willing to<br />
do whatever it takes to succeed.<br />
Along with his contributions to Costa’s perennial powerhouse team, Fry has<br />
racked up impressive performances in National Scholastic Surfing Association<br />
events, including a third-place finish in his division at last year’s West Coast<br />
FChampionships.<br />
36 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
Though not a fan of aerials, Alex Fry proves he can break loose his fins, if he wants to. Photo by Steve Gaffney (SteveGaffney.com)<br />
His path to success reveals how much surfing has come to resemble other,<br />
more established sports. Fry has little in common with the loose-limbed<br />
slackers that formed part of the sport’s identity. Those who know him say<br />
that he stands out for the intensity of his focus.<br />
Leo Schleyer is Fry’s teammate on the Costa team, and also his neighbor.<br />
He typically catches a ride with Fry when the two are on their way to a<br />
meet.<br />
“He’s a super competitive person, probably the most competitive person<br />
I know. Sometimes before contests, we’ll be driving there, and you can tell<br />
he’s thinking about it. He’s sitting there, just super focused,” Schleyer said.<br />
Schleyer said that Fry’s passion tends to make those around him better.<br />
Tracy Geller, head coach of the Costa surf team, described him as “a born<br />
leader.” The team has begun working out with a fitness trainer, and splits<br />
into groups for smaller sessions. But the groups were uneven: the one immediately<br />
after school was crowded to the point of chaos, while the later<br />
one was sparsely attended. Fry, Geller recalled, took it upon himself to talk<br />
to teammates about their schedules and help balance attendance at the<br />
workouts.<br />
Despite the changes surfing is undergoing, it remains unavoidably different<br />
from other sports. (Whether it even is a sport has been the subject of<br />
dozens of <strong>magazine</strong> stories, from “Surfer” to “The Atlantic.”) Even when a<br />
wave is reduced to a decimal-pointed average, good surfing still requires<br />
liveliness and unpredictability. And at a time when more and more of the<br />
kids Fry faces in contests are approaching competitive surfing with a kind<br />
of parent-assisted monasticism, Fry lives a pretty typical life. He usually<br />
forgoes afternoon surfs to focus on homework. He still gets in the water<br />
every day, but does so in the frequently closed-out waves of the South Bay.<br />
When I asked if he thought growing up here was an asset or a liability as<br />
a surfer, I half-expected him to reply with some bromide about learning to<br />
get to your feet quickly. What he offered instead revealed an understanding<br />
of surfing, as well as the world outside it.<br />
“It’s an asset. Compared to kids that live in the inner city, where I live is<br />
a dream. But compared to the kids I compete against almost every weekend,<br />
the waves I surf are nowhere near what they have. And most of them are<br />
homeschooled,” Fry said.<br />
His voice carried no hint of bitterness or excuse, just recognition of the<br />
facts.<br />
Climbing the ladder<br />
Fry’s dad Kurt introduced him to surfing when he was about six, but<br />
there was no thought of world-tour domination in those early tours through<br />
<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 37
Fry with his mom Nicole and dad Kurt. Photo by Ryan McDonald<br />
the whitewater.<br />
“I never thought I would be doing what I am now. It was just kind of like<br />
a hobby, for whenever I wasn’t playing other sports. It was just fun,” Fry<br />
said.<br />
Fry is a natural athlete with springy legs, erect carriage, and a surprisingly<br />
strong grip. He embodies what Geller has identified as a key transformation<br />
in the sport: the increasing acceptance of surfing as a competitive endeavor,<br />
and the ensuing willingness of sport-inclined parents to commit their children<br />
to it. (Along with tennis, Fry played club soccer, and baseball when<br />
he was younger.) Competitive surfing is now being suffused with a talent<br />
pool that a generation ago might have thought of it as just, well, fun.<br />
Fry entered his first surf contest, with the local South Bay Boardriders,<br />
in fifth grade. The joy his initial successes brought revealed to him how<br />
much he enjoyed competition, and winning. He gradually expanded his<br />
sights, entering contests in the Western Surfing Association, and now describes<br />
himself as committed to the NSSA.<br />
Attending these contests gave Fry his first taste of the challenges a South<br />
Bay surfer faces. The closest contest location is Huntington <strong>Beach</strong>. Others<br />
can require driving more than two hours, and he is thankful that his parents<br />
were willing to help him get there.<br />
“We’ve always been supportive of him and his surfing. It’s fun to go watch<br />
him, even though he has a driver’s license now. You just hope he makes it<br />
out of first heat. It’s a bit of a bummer to go one-and-a-half hours for a 15-<br />
minute heat,” dad Kurt said.<br />
These early experiences also revealed another obstacle: many of his competitors<br />
are reared on pointbreaks or cobblestone reefs, which tend to provide<br />
longer rides and more open wave faces than South Bay beach breaks,<br />
and allow for more opportunities to practice maneuvers.<br />
It can be hard to discern any such disadvantage from watching Fry surf.<br />
He is attuned to the tiniest shifts in the ocean. Once to his feet, he moves<br />
with the taut precision of a running back, goal in sight, but constantly adjusting<br />
to things trying to knock him down. His carves and hacks land with<br />
such force that they seem to come from some place beyond his still-growing<br />
frame.<br />
The only maneuvers Fry does not do are airs, even though many young<br />
surfers increasingly define themselves with their aerial repertoire.<br />
“I’m not sure if it’s a decision I made, or something that just kind of happened.<br />
I definitely think that my rail work sets me apart from a lot of kids<br />
who are doing airs. I don’t even know how to do airs, but I can still get<br />
pretty far in contests sticking to my guns,” Fry said.<br />
Geller has encouraged Fry to explore airs, less as something required to<br />
win heats than as a way to inject excitement into his approach.<br />
“Kids like Alex, they know exactly how to do the turn and the time to hit<br />
the lip to get the score. But it’s just a little bit controlled or safe. I’ve been<br />
encouraging him to just send it. Don’t throw away the wave at the end, just<br />
send it. If you’re going to fall, fall trying something new,” Geller said.<br />
With another season of competition, Fry said improving his wave selection<br />
will be key to going further in contests. But this will hardly be the only<br />
thing on his mind. Along with his team and his family, there is a full schedule<br />
of classes to occupy him. Fittingly for someone who embraces challenge,<br />
Fry’s favorite subject is history, one he has struggled with at times, but<br />
nonetheless finds fascinating.<br />
“We’ve always wanted Alex to be well-rounded. We want him to focus<br />
on school, and get good grades. Surfing is an important part of life, but it’s<br />
not the only part,” said Fry’s mom Nicole. B<br />
38 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
Gubser cont. from page 27<br />
swim across the Santa Barbara<br />
Channel, from Santa Barbara to<br />
Anacapa Island.<br />
When fall approached, the 49-<br />
year-old said, she felt like she was<br />
in the best shape of her life.<br />
September 22, <strong>2017</strong> 8:24 PM,<br />
Santa Cruz: A sliver of moon slips<br />
behind the mountains, revealing a<br />
thick blanket of stars. Gubser’s<br />
team waits offshore in two small<br />
boats and a kayak. Her husband<br />
Greg, retired from the Coast Guard<br />
and now the Deputy Harbormaster<br />
for San Mateo Harbor, was driving<br />
one of the two escort boats.<br />
The team sees the waterproof<br />
light on the back of her goggles as<br />
she enters the water. To monitor her<br />
pace, they listens to the rhythm of<br />
her hands. Slap, slap, slap. 70<br />
strokes per minute. The bright lights<br />
of the Santa Cruz Boardwalk fade<br />
slowly into the background. Gubser<br />
stops every 30 minutes for liquid<br />
carbohydrates and the occasional<br />
sports gel. At every stop, she shares<br />
a smile and a joke or a silly song. It’s<br />
not long before she reports her first<br />
jellyfish sting. The water temperature<br />
is 54. The night air is two degrees<br />
colder and she is swimming<br />
against the current. The crew is<br />
bundled in heavy coats and hats,<br />
but Gubser appears unaffected by<br />
the elements. When dawn arrives,<br />
the crew sees what Gubser has<br />
been swimming through most of<br />
the night. Pacific Sea Nettles are just<br />
below the surface, in every direction.<br />
As she nears the Monterey<br />
Peninsula the wind picks up, the<br />
current threatens to push her off<br />
course, and every stroke is paid for<br />
with another sting. Finally, she<br />
reaches the protected cove outside<br />
Monterey Harbor and works her<br />
way through clumps of kelp until<br />
her feet can touch the bottom. Seventeen<br />
hours, 49 minutes after leaving<br />
Santa Cruz she becomes only<br />
the fourth person to have swum<br />
solo across the Monterey Bay. Family,<br />
friends and beachgoers all cheer<br />
as she walks ashore, unassisted.<br />
“I felt amazing, physically and<br />
emotionally. It was a big swim,” she<br />
said.<br />
On June 7, her 50th birthday,<br />
Gubser plans to return to the South<br />
Bay to swim across the Santa Monica<br />
Bay. To date, only two people<br />
have completed the 26 mile swim.<br />
On March 16, 2013 marathon<br />
swimmers Jen Shumaker and Forrest<br />
Nelson departed together from<br />
Point Dume in Malibu and finished<br />
together at Lunada Bay in Palos<br />
Verdes in 13 hours, 10 minutes, 35<br />
seconds.<br />
For more information about Amy<br />
Gubser’s Monterey Bay swim, visit<br />
SwimMontereyBay.org. B<br />
Alexander cont. from page 30<br />
transferred to the field from the<br />
classroom where he holds a 4.2<br />
GPA.<br />
“I like math and English and<br />
enjoy writing,” Alexander said.<br />
“But my favorite class is government<br />
taught by (RUHS girls volleyball<br />
coach) Tommy Chaffins. He<br />
makes the class so enjoyable.”<br />
Alexander wants to play football<br />
as long as he can and is looking for<br />
a university that has a strong combination<br />
of athletic and academic<br />
programs.<br />
“I want to play in college and get<br />
a free education with a scholarship,”<br />
Alexander said. “I’ll see<br />
where the game takes me. I am so<br />
passionate about football and I<br />
hope to coach one day, passing my<br />
knowledge on to young players as<br />
others have done for me.”<br />
Alexander is considering the<br />
University of San Diego and Azusa<br />
Pacific and has been contacted by<br />
Benedictine University (Chicago),<br />
Arizona State, and Washington<br />
State, as well as USC offensive coordinator<br />
Tee Martin.<br />
He plans to major in business<br />
with a focus on business management<br />
and would like to follow in<br />
his father’s footsteps by running<br />
his own business.<br />
When not on the gridiron,<br />
Alexander enjoys playing video<br />
games and pickup basketball<br />
games.<br />
“I also enjoy hanging out at the<br />
beach with friends whom I consider<br />
part of my family,” Alexander<br />
said. “I want to spend as much<br />
time with them before we all go<br />
away to college. But I keep things<br />
in check and keep my name on the<br />
positive side.” B<br />
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 39<br />
2013
Michael Burstein is a probate and estate planning<br />
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40 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> • <strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong>
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<strong>Dec</strong>ember 7, <strong>2017</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> <strong>magazine</strong> 41