My Craziest Workout Day Ever

By Rob Potter

April 15, 2012

            I moved to Laguna at the age of four and lived on Cypress so my first beach experience was at Divers Cove and through pictures I vaguely remember washing in and out on a raft and screaming with glee. We then moved to 9th street and our babysitter took me down those long stairs. I remember one incident that seems funny in retrospect but was harrowing for my sitter. My sister and I were ready to trudge up the stairs with the kind Norwegian live-in who was our day guardian. However, as there were no bathrooms down there in 1962 I was feeling a strong urge which required my immediate attention. I notified my babysitter who was aghast as I ran into the surf and went past the breakers to do my business. She was shouting and waving at me frantically to return to shore, but I was determined to finish even as the current moved me, which to her seemed perilously close to the rocks. After I was ashore she was extremely relieved. At the time I did not understand her angst, but I have always been fearless when it came to the water so it was a natural progression for me to become a lifeguard.

       My mother married a long time local Cy Painter and from the age of 6 to 15 I pretty much grew up living in the grey house overlooking Bluebird Beach. At that time we also owned the Shoals motel which was next door and it had a pool to rinse off in after the beach.

           We stored the locals volleyball courts in our basement and it was a ritual to help set up the courts everyday in the summer. We were able to get 2 courts easily on the sand in those days. There was quite a rootsy volley ball crew at Bluebird in those days led by Shar Buhlig who was a 1964 Tokyo volleyball Olympian. She trained my mom and a bunch of other gals in the finer arts of the game. They had an indoor league and played on the beach with devotion.

          The locals down there were legion and in my high school years. Bluebird was a hot spot to rival the Thalia gang, the Vic gang, the Sleepy Hollow and of course the 3 Bays: Emerald, Three Arch and Crescent. Main was mostly for tourists and a strong contingent of locals who were not as cohesive as the other local kids groups.

         As I have become more wise in my age, I realize how lucky I was to watch from my dining room table the Agate Street surf show which took place every morning before school as I ate Captain Crunch cereal. I went to sleep with the sound of the ocean rolling through my window. 

           Charlies Schoenlieber was the amazing fixture who surfed every single day and there were many other regulars, but none as devoted as he until little Jimmy Pribram who succeeded him for regularity. I remember him at about 6 or 7 years old ripping it up everyday. I never surfed there that much as my dad lived on Oahu and I surfed for 3 to 4 weeks every summer everyday for 8 hours a day 6 days a week with cookie cutter waves, which I rode for 400 yards or at least about a minute on each wave. The waves in Hawaii reform over the many reefs on their way to shore. So I was non-plussed when my friends in high school said, "Why don’t you surf more often". They would get up at 5 am and drive to Trestles to sneak past marines in cold water to maybe catch a swell and a 100 yard ride! I was unimpressed and to this day I rarely surf in California. Though bodysurfing the big uns is still my passion.

           At Waikiki I would paddle a mile out from the Halekualni (talk about a paddle, a mile to get to the line-up) in those days I did it on my knees and had small junior size knobbies growing below my patellas. Thank god for smaller boards as my knobbies disintegrated, but my knee paddling expertise would serve me well as a guard as I qualified for the famous paddling quintet that finally took first place over LA County for our brave and determined leader Jack Lincke whose competitive spirit thirst was quenched in my rookie year. I was the only 16 year old in the entire paddleboard finals and I did feel proud of that.

     Now as I am in full blown reminiscing I will share another tale or 2 before I narrate the craziest day ever. Before I became a lifeguard it was always great fun at 14 or so to mess with the tourists at the Surf and Sand (when we weren’t picking up on their daughters) but more so with our fellow Bluebirder guard Charlie Ware.

         I would scream and cry from out in the water with a mock cry of help with a wolf wolf sort of wail, "The sea monsters got me leg". I never meant to distract Charlie really, only to have a bit of fun and the giveaway signal it was me was "The sea monster" part of the cry. He would laugh I would laugh and it was all good. Then one day when the womping was AWESOME and Charlie was a bit on edge, as the beach was packed, it was high tide and the beach was crammed with inexperienced tourists getting pounded in front of the Surf and Sand. I decided to play dead and go completely limp as the shore break would roll my body like a corpse.  He didn’t notice for a bit so I kept it up and sure enough he was freaked to the max running down until he saw it was me. He gave a relieved knowing smile and shook his finger at me. I never faked for him again. So I say now, "Sorry Charlie only the finest tuna..." 

        Art Fisette’s sons were great watermen, but never did try out for guards. The eldest was particularly vigilant against the tourists. One day I was "helping a tourist" boy who had been stung by a jellyfish. He told him to rub sand on it! He was older than me and I was down on the pecking order so I didn’t say anything, but I thought it was a bit cruel as it only excited the release of venom.  But for an adolescent boys that was fun. So much sun and surf in those days. I will tell this similar story which I perpetrated against my good friend, fellow guard and understudy goalie Dave Koorajian. We were at Bluebird it was another AWESOME womping day at "Inbetween".  It was my day off from guarding and I was enjoying the day and the excellent waves.

          I was on my way in from a great sesh and as I removed my fins I saw the entire beach rise as one as if for a standing ovation and point towards the water directly behind me! I quickly turned to see 3 dolphins riding waves in towards the shore which was quite unheard of in those days. As I backed up I noticed Sahabo (Koorajians nickname) just ending his ride on another wave and he, like me, had noticed the entire beach in shocked awe looking and pointing at the water directly behind him. Being the quick thinking jokester I am I caught his attention before he turned around and said with fear in my voice and terror in my eyes "SHARK SAHABO, SHARK". He turned briefly and saw a fin barreling towards him. He just turned and literally walked on water, to reach the shore in record time. The Lord would have been proud. It was like a cartoon how he moved so fast. I must admit, I do still have true glee at this memory.

    After days like these it was not uncommon to have major lifeguarding parties which usually included things like jumping off of Dwinell’s roof into his 6 ft deep pool while drunk!   I can also remember one of my dates drinking the "secret weapon" and saying "this is really good watermelon". An old lifeguard trick was to literally inject a watermelon with rum which was hard to taste and so the unsuspecting dates would certainly be more "relaxed" as a result.

   Thank god it was the 70's as in today's politically correct atmosphere we would have been crucified. We often would, at the end of the night, drive to Aliso to jump off the pier ...naked of course. Ah yes, those were the days my friends. It was on one such similar night that I, who did not really drink that much, got a bit toasted and as luck and poor planning and a hot date would have it I over slept.

         The next day was scheduled a “not required” but bragging rights to the run-swim-run or “Gauntlet Swim” that went from Camel Point to Emerald Bay. I did not make it to the 5 am starting time and heard about how fun it was...really? Fun? I felt guilty so that Saturday in my tower I resolved to do the course on my own on the morrow. I was quite disciplined in those days and on my own did start the course and was well on schedule though I started at 6 or so instead of 5:30. At the Reef Hotel I decided to take a short Jacuzzi. Oops, was I cheating? Not really in my mind, but I did continue on and ended at Emerald Bay pretty nackered.  As I hit the shore I noticed the Ebay guard opening his tower.

     Holy baby cakes I thought.  What time is it? It was 9:45...yipes I have to be at main by 10 so without shoes I ran to Main just in the nick of time to see my fellow rookies getting ready for one of "the missing links" notorious workouts. We ran to Pearl as usual and a rock swim and a buoy paddle for good measure. Then he wanted us do a little extra for the north south rookie competition coming up.

      Jack looked me up and down as I was definitely lagging and not coming in my usual place and said "What is it my son". He called me “my son” because I did respect him so and really gave my all in his workouts and I was good paddler. I told him why and he just smiled his genuine ear to ear grin and said "Is that all?....”your anchor on the paddle, so get ready for one more paddle competition". For Jack who would often get on a paddle board and paddle straight out form Main Beach at 1 until he literally disappeared and return at 4:30. My craziest day was a walk in the park for him.

           I collapsed into my chair at Broadway and was thankful it was a green flag. I devoured my lunch and massaged my hypothermic cramping legs until the 6 o clock call.

Fondly recalled by Pottsman AKA Potsy

Robert Lyne Potter
Mailing Address 
327 CALLIOPE ST APT. D
Laguna Beach,Ca.
92651