Hobie Surf: All Things Water… Part One: Dory.

A while back Hobie ran an ad featuring five of our most prolific watermen, Mitch Kahn, Jim Birdsell, Rob Pelkey, Blain Morgan, and Scott Diederich. We listed their collective accomplishments. Years Lifeguarding: 120, Rescues: 5,000+, Workout Miles: 500,000+, National Titles: 67. These statistics are the stuff of legends. However, try and get anyone of the fives of these guys to talk for one second about themselves as “watermen” and they just smile, nod at you and let you know in no uncertain terms that they are not watermen and that they live perfectly boring lives… nothing to see here.. nothing to write home about.

Just a regular Saturday morning in the life of our boring watermen.

Average everyday Joe’s. Yup.

So… since I can’t get them to talk about themselves, I figured I can just show you what a day in the life of an average everyday boring Joe is like in a photo essay series called “All Things Water”. I’ll be visiting (aka Stalking) our watermen doing whatever it is they do and sharing glimpses into their lives. Enjoy.

Part One: Dory

Minimum boat weight: 300 pounds.

Brass Oar Lock

The oars are about 8′ long, and weigh about 10 lbs each. The dory has a 6″ false bottom for flotation, and scuppers for drainage through the surf.

Rob Pelkey

Adjusting Foot Placements

Looking in the Scupper

Mitch Kahn

Bowman: Mitch Kahn, Sternman: Rob Pelkey. The bowman holds and turns the boat, while the sternman jumps out and runs to the berm line before going out for another lap.

Testing new foot placement.

Heavy as the boat is, Rob never put his water down… one handed it the whole way.

Over the kelp….

One last push and pull…

In.

Mitch and Rob… and Vaseline… but that is a story for another day.

Part two will show racing through the surf… hint, there will be helmets!

-Tracey Engelking

*** All photos in the Part one: Dory section are property of Tracey Engelking, ask and you shall most certainly receive permission… tracey@hobie.com The first photo was sent over by Rob Pelkey, if you can catch him, you can ask him to use it.