I have a lot of Jimmy Buffet on my iPod. I can sing along to more than Margaritaville and I’ve read all his books. In 1998, when Jimmy turned 50 and I was toying with the idea of starting a whitewater magazine, he wrote his autobiography, A Pirate Looks at Fifty.
On the jacket of my hardcover copy Buffet summed up his life in 400 words and I thought I’d try to do the same someday. Looking down the losing end of 39, here are my 400 words, in case I don’t make it to 50.
I survived my small-town youth of motocross, snowmobiles and four wheelers. I drove an 18-wheeler hauling gasoline for awhile, graduated high school not being able to spell, and went off to university to become an engineer.
I did my first canoe trip, wrecked my grandfather’s cedarstrip, sold all my things with motors, dropped out of school and protested the first Gulf War. I got a job at an outdoor center, learned to paddle whitewater, grew my hair and got back into school in an outdoor program. I became an open boat instructor, got a job as a raft guide, swam a lot and drank too much warm beer.
I re-met the right girl (she was in my kindergarten class and I kissed her in grade two), went on to teachers’ college, graduated and sea kayaked 1,600 miles through the Great Lakes. We learned to snowboard, blew off to the mountains, slept in my truck, ran out of money, missed warm rivers and drove home.
I helped start the Paddler Co-op, a non-profit paddling school, and got the idea to start a magazine. I left the paddling school, broke up with the right girl and moved to a rented shack by the river in Palmer Rapids.
I got lonely, proposed to the right girl, bought my first computer, racked up every credit card that arrived in the mail, and launched a 16-page trial issue of Rapid. I paddled every day, learned to use spell check, ate too many frozen pizzas, married the right girl and started a sea kayak magazine and, a year later, Canoeroots.
I hired an editor, started a paddling film festival, built a house in the Valley, moved out of the shack, drove a Corvette, had a little boy, cut my hair, took over a paddling festival and bought another magazine, for a dollar—Family Camping.
I bought a good camera, took a photo of a friend running a dam, ran the photo in Rapid, almost got arrested and nearly lost my business to the hydro power company—the owner of the dam.
I launched a kayak fishing magazine, had a baby girl, lost the fight to save national river navigation rights, bought property on the river and started a web-based paddling television show. We became the magazines of the American Canoe Association, I cancelled a family paddling trip, realized it was time to slow down a little and gave up the paddling festival. I took my kids paddling.
When I realized I’d be 40 this year, I stopped drinking coffee, found my running shoes, ordered another boat and booked my first northern river trip.
Now I’m trying to figure out what comes next.
This article originally appeared in Rapid, Early Summer 2011. Download our free iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch App or Android App or read it here.
