Fwd: old stories

After sending out the picture of Jeff Quams board I received a reply from Earle Richmond.  Here is his letter and my reply.

from Rich:

That is a beautiful board, but it reminds me of the redwood log of a paddle board that sat on the deck of the main tower in the summer of 1960. Early in the summer I was on duty at the main tower as the relief guard and day off guard my first year.   We all looked up and saw a person parachuting out of a small plane.   He was aiming for the beach but landed  hundreds of  yards out beyond the buoy.  I was told to go get him.  Paddling that big log out to get the culprit was hard enough.  But, when I got to him he said he wanted to save his parachute so he climbed on to the board with his chute.  I told him he was going to have to pay his way back in by helping to paddle.  By the time we got back to the beach my arms felt like they were going to fall off.  Of course the board we were using was a lot bigger and heavier than the one Jeff made.  But looking at his beautiful board brings back bad memories of another red wood board.    I don't surf,  But, even if I did, because of its beauty and my past memories I would probably use it as a coffee table. 

My reply:

I rescued one of the other guys who parachuted that day.  I swam out from Saint Ann's to pick up my guy.  When he said,  "I need to bring the chute in because it was rented."  I simply said, "Are you kidding?  I can take you or the chute, but not both."  He dropped the chute and I swam him back to the beach.