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Saturday morning along Hermosa Beach. I finished my bike ride on The Strand and was a couple minutes into my run. I have been running barefoot in the soft sand for a few months to try to keep my ankles happy. Five minutes into my run, and I felt someone coming up behind me.
“Is it cool if I run with you a bit? I am sick of all these shoebies around here.”
Without really looking I responded, “Sure, just putting in 40 or so easy minutes this morning. But shoebies, I have not heard that term in many years. Are you a fan of Otto Rocket?”
I heard a quick laugh and then I looked to my right. Damn, it is Otto Rocket all grown. “Wow, sorry dude! I did not recognize you. You are the first celebrity I have met out here. My kids watched your show, and I sat with them so many times. Your group was awesome.”
“Sorry your first celebrity is not much of a celebrity.”
“No, really the kids are going to be so jealous when I tell them I met Otto. Now I need to hear how you and everyone is doing these days.”
“Okay, so you know about Reggie, right?”
“No, not at all.”
“Dude, she played for the U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey team and won a gold medal in 2018. And she is now one of the lead analysts for the NHL on ESPN. You never heard this?”
“Yeah, sorry but hockey is the one major sport I don’t follow. When a team is losing and their strategy is punch somebody in the mouth and maybe that will make us play better, that is a dumb sport.”
Otto let out a snort laugh and said, “I will be sure to let her know this.”
“That is great to hear that she did what she loved and had such a great career with it. Now onto Twister.”
“Well, Twister and Lars went into business together.”
This one got a snort laugh from me. “I thought they hated each other.”
“They outgrew that and started making some music. They put together a group of artists and had a large portion of the business in the local clubs here. They were doing great until Lars started putting their profits into Crypto.”
“Ouch. So, not doing so well anymore?”
“If you want a good deal on an NFT of Kyrie Irving or Johnny Manziel, I know a guy.”
“I’ll pass. What is Squid up to?”
“We kind of lost touch after a few years. He had options that we didn’t. He went to a magnet high school in Beverly Hills and then onto Stanford from there. Last I heard, he was working for SpaceX as one of their lead engineers. We also don’t hear much from Tito these days. He moved back to Hawaii and is just chilling out there. Still surfing when he has time, but I have not seen him since COVID hit.”
“Make sure you reach out to those guys soon. Life is too short to not talk to someone you care about. Make sure they are doing okay. Now, we have talked about everyone but your dad and you. What are those stories?”
He put his hand up so we slowed down to a walk.
“We lost Raymundo to COVID. When things were shutting down he was determined to keep the Shore Shack open and provide to people who needed a meal. He enforced the mask rules but just had so many people coming through the place. He wasn’t even charging most of the people for food and drink. The only good thing is he passed quickly and the doctors made it as painless as possible. Damn, I miss that guy every day. “
“Wow, so sorry to hear that Otto. He seemed like a great Dad. But what has your story been, Otto? I always thought you would be the one in the Olympics or on a pro tour somewhere.”
“Hmmm, I was on that path. I was training with Shaun White, most of his big tricks started with us pushing each other a little farther than we should go. One day I landed wrong. Both knees. End of career before it started. Shaun offered me a job on his staff but that would have been too much to watch him, knowing I should be the one fighting him for gold. So I started working with Dad and now, I’m running the Shore Shack. I skate and surf a little bit but not like the old days.”
“Okay, I am about done here but it was fun catching up with the news on your group. I will definitely come by the Shore Shack and have a meal sometime soon. Nice meeting you and take care. Woogie Woogie Woogie!”
Walking back to my car all I could think was how jealous the kids were going to be.
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