An "Aloha" to my TAY friends

“Aloha”: a good word, Hawaiian for both hello and goodbye.

For the past forty years, my guiding passion has been the mountains – especially wild snow skiing, many times with TAYers. For the past fifteen years I have done so against medical advice because of advancing osteoporosis.  My attitude was that I would continue until something broke. “Hopefully it won’t be my neck,” I joked.

Well, it was my neck.




On Hapuna Beach on the Kahala Coast of the Big Island last week, I tried body surfing a rogue wave that was W-A-A-A-Y above my pay grade. I was augured head-first into the sand from the top of a ten foot wave and pounded with several tons of water. A fortuitously nearby lifeguard recognized my staggering attempts to get to shore and stabilized my head until his buddies got there with a back-board. A litter-carry and ambulance ride later, a Waimea Hospital CT scan showed multiple fractures of my C1 and C2 vertebrae. I was immediately air lifted to the Queens Hospital Trauma Center in Honolulu where the attendants immediately wheeled me into – the cardiac ER!!

I have always had an unusual but benign rhythmical thingie in my heart, and have a famously low heart rate of around 40 bpm.  The medical crew on the “Mercy Fight” was convinced that I was going into cardiac arrest.  It took several hours to convince them that my main problem was a broken neck, not an unusual heart. Eventually I was taken to the neurological unit where they could assess my neck injury.

I am a lucky man. After coming within a whisker of being a vegetable, further CR scans showed that there was no movement in any of my fractures. At no time did I have any symptoms of spinal cord injury. After 12 weeks in an uncomfortably tight cervical collar, and another few months of PT to get strength and flexibility back, I should be able make a “full recovery”.  At least as full a recovery as a 72 year old man with osteoporosis can anticipate. My ability to mend bones is severely compromised, and I doubt that I will soon want to risk any activity for which a helmet is advised.

So, “Aloha” to skiing, at least for a while, and to the many TAYers who have shared with me the greatest days of my life: Marcus, Zap, Ron, Mark, Darren, Charlie, Mad-dog, Silas, Clem, Toby, Sylvie, Matt, Andrew, Gregg, Scotsman, Becky and Pete, Emma, Andy, and so many others. Thank you all.  And an especial thanks to my Baker Stalwarts, Steve, Jeff, Stevan and Rod.

And, finally, “Aloha” to the PNW.  I no longer have the ability or will to fight six acres of blackberries and slugs for sustenance. I will soon be moving to Southern Oregon, into a house two miles from my niece’s winery, where I will be sop, pest, and sometimes crush monkey for the Wooldridge Creek Winery. My main passion will turn from snow to trying to lay a Delta blues styling onto 1950’s doo—wop with open “G” tuned guitars, stomp boxes, and home-made cigar box guitars called a “Diddley Bo” in Clarksdale. “Aloha” to the “Applegate Delta Diddley-wop Menace”!

Holy cow!  Don't know whether to feel badly for you or happy..   I think I'll say attaboy for recognizing the path ahead and knowing where the value lies.

Best wishes!!

Holy crap Tim!  Thanks for the update and Anastasia and I are so happy you came out of it okay - I had no idea you were going through this.  We were just looking over the pictures from our first Fairy Meadows trip with you, now 8 years ago.  Keep healing well and your plans for Oregon adventure sound pretty damn good to me - we'll look you up if we head down that way.

So sorry to hear about this, Tim. Best wishes.

We should all be so lucky to break our necks surfing at 72.  You lead a great life!  Heal up and keep it real.  B'ham and the Baker backcountry will be lesser in your absence.

I've bodysurfed at Hapuna a time or three, mostly in a younger, more resilient era. I remember encountering more than my share of roguish man-eaters amongst the predictable winter swells. I'm impressed as hell you were still at it, Tim, and equally impressed by your forward plans.

Stay well and keep a place at the table for me in your new home!

Mark