"Elizabeth Taylor, Surf Shops, and Charity!"
For surfers on the island of Kauai, 1971 was an epic year! Lots of trade wind days, moderate rain, and a steady swell that seemed to last all Winter long. The Kauai "experience" was like another world, really. You could be out at Hanalei Bay, one of the most challenging and fastest waves on the Earth. While sitting in the line-up, watching the waterfalls cascading off the Napali cliffs, the volcanic peaks rising through the billowy clouds, one senses that this is a very special, auspicious moment. Those famous North Shore breaks: Cannons, Windmills, Pinetrees, "impossibles", the "bowl"-all with their own lure, each of them offering their own intimate secrets since the millenia of Creation!
Part of the Kauai "experience" for some surfers was the accomodations at Taylor Camp, a loosely run hippie commune for revolutionaries, exiled Americans, poets, minstrels and low-budget surfers. Word has it that once Elizabeth Taylor visited the place, fell in love with the beach and for some reason decided to build a commune there. Needless to say, with such an eclectic milieu in the "Camp" ( a collection of huts and tree houses), there was no shortage of interesting goings-on!
One of the "vets" at Taylor Camp was a good-natured soul named Jake (Jacob was his real name), who bailed out of a lucrative insurance brokerage in the Bay area to ease his soul on Kauai's North Shore. What was Jake's claim to eclecticism? He loved the ocean and, though himself not a surfer, had a tremendous admiration for those wandering navigators of huge open swells. In his tree house was a veritable "one-stop" surfer's warehouse of used boards, surf wax, extra fins, fibre glass, and resin for impromptu repairs. No money? No problem, Jake would take out a ledger and give you a line of credit. Unemployment check not here yet? It's cool, just pay when you can!
You came into Jake's hut, and one look at his operation would tell you that his whole gig was not a business at all, but a marvelously disguised type of charity- without the debtor even feeling it! Jake undoubtedly understand the great value and importance of his cheritable "institution", recalling this week's Haftarah portion in Isaiah (1-27), "redemption through charity". May it be, that surfers like Jake, serving as a "pillar upon which the entire world stands", will continue to be an inspiration to us all! One more story in the Aloha Spirit that made surfing more than just a "sport!"
Surf Trip in Baja California, Ensenada! Don't miss out!! Fun, fun, fun! Aug 21-24. See our web page. "Surf & Soul" Baja Shabbaton in cool Baja!!
Rabbi Nachum Shifren "The Surfing Rabbi" Email: rabbisurf@aol.com
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