Monthly Archives: July 2008

Memories

Posted on July 30, 2008 by | 4 Comments

I’ll keep the words to a minimum on this post and I’ll let the pictures do the talking. I found a couple of CD’s worth of pictures from a climbing trip I took a couple years ago. I love looking at pictures like this. Each one tells a different story. It’s great.


So so close on the Sit Start. Came back the next year and got it 2nd go. I love that feeling. Love it!


Slushy Puppy and Slushy Puppy low. Everyone has epics at some point and the sit was one of mine.


Such a bad idea. That’s all you can say for this. Offwidths are always a bad idea.


It’s rare you see a picture of this boulder with no one actually climbing on it. I think that’s why I like it so much.


Kelsen taking a lap on the Mulletino roof. I like the little bits of action with Kelsen and Tony. It adds a lot to what would normally be a static image. I’m a fan.

→ 4 Comments

Posted in Pemba Serves

Heard On The Street

Posted on July 29, 2008 by | 2 Comments

Picture this:  I’m standing on the corner of John Nolan and Northshore in downtown Madison – minding my own business – the lone guy on foot among a crowd of bicycle commuters.  Out of the blue the guy next to me says,”So, are you the guy who swims in the lake every day?”


I should mention that I was wearing a full wetsuit.  I also had goggles strapped over my bright orange swim cap.

I said:  ”Um, yeah, but really there are dozens of us.  Really, I see eight or ten others every day I’m in the water.  Really, I do.  Really.”

I don’t know if he bought this.  It’s partially true.  I mean, I sometimes see other swimmers in Lake Monona.  Once, I counted eight of them, but they looked like they were part of a team or a club.  It is – after all – the Wisconsin Ironman course.  People do swim it every once in awhile.

It’s also true that most swimmers drive, and put on their wetsuits in the parking lot right there.  I’m probably the only one who walks, but then again it’s only two short blocks away.  I think I would look even stranger on a bike, in a wetsuit, but maybe I could pull it off.  I guess I could skateboard, but how would I lock it up?  It’s probably better to walk.

(I don’t think that my Vibram Five Fingers help my image that much, but I love them.  Thanks Darren!)

The nice commuter said,”Well, good effort for you and all the others, then.  Way to go.”  That made me feel good.  The other riders at the light were trying hard to ignore me.  Each had a studied ambivalence, and yet they were most certainly watching from the corners of their eyes.

While walking to the lake, I’ve learned to put on my best “Yes, I know I’m wearing a wetsuit” look.  This is really hard to pull off while wearing goggles, but I try.

While I was in the water, I thought of all of the missed comic opportunities to the original question.  I could’ve said:

  1. “Why no, I don’t know how to swim.” (In my best Chevy Chase dry delivery…)
  2. “Um, no, I’m on my way to work – I’m a safe-sex counselor for the State.”
  3. Or this, which would’ve been hard to pull off without sounding sarcastic:  “No, I just really, really like neoprene.”

The best part of this little ritual is coming home.  My neighbors in the condo building have all become used to me walking through the garage in a dripping wetsuit.  My wife Vera always thinks it’s really funny, and the kids always ask,”Were you swimming Daddy?”

I guess if there’s one bright spot to be gleaned from my own embarrassment it’s that my kids will grow up thinking that – somehow – this is normal.

At least, I hope that this is a bright spot.  It may just be their excuse for extensive therapy, too.

Oh well.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Brad

Needful Things

Posted on July 18, 2008 by | 3 Comments

So recently there’s been some debate about whether I need an intervention, or an exorcism.  As far as I can tell, they’re leaning towards the latter.  Janice keeps dousing me in (perhaps Holy) water, Pete’s burning incense, and Steve is doing that strange chanting thing that he does.  (Well, actually, he does that all the time, so…)  While it’s pretty much been decided that I’m not the devil after all, I may have been possessed by Needful Things.


I blame eBay, naturally.

I got it bad.  After riding my brother-in-law’s new cruisers in California, I was seized with nostalgia for my old paper-boy bike.  I bought it in sixth grade and sold it several years later to the kid who took over my route.  Coincidentally, he now lives in La Jolla, so while I was there I dropped him a line.  Here’s how it went:
  1. Me, via e-mail:  “Hey Andy, remember me?  Long time no see, eh?  Hey, I was wondering, do you still have that bike I sold you thirty years ago?”
  2. Andy’s response:  “Have you been drinking?”
Needless to say, he no longer had the bike.  We got together to have a few beers anyway, and I quizzed him about it, just to be sure.  I’m pretty sure he’s telling the truth.  Pretty sure.  At least, he looked me in the eyes and didn’t blink when I asked.  I’ve learned that this is a good sign. 

 (Is it a bad sign that Andy asked the bouncer to escort him out of the bar, and to make sure that I didn’t leave until he was gone?)

So I Googled my old bike to see if I could buy it anywhere.  It was a Gary Littlejohn 26″ Three-Bar Cruiser.  As it turns out, it’s a collector’s item now.  Apparently, it was one of the very first BMX cruiser bikes on the market.  The only one I found for sale was going for $3,000, and all of the rest are in museums.

Short of robbing a bank for the funds, I couldn’t have one for money, trade, or personal favors.  Actually, after some thought I drew the line at personal favors – for a man with a monkey on my back I still have some scruples.  I’m still considering the bank heist, though.

So, I started haunting eBay’s vintage yards, once again.  You may remember that I spent this spring rebuilding my old road bike, and it’s just about done.  Luckily, there’s a lot more vintage parts available for old BMX than there are for old road bikes, and there’s only one standard so I don’t have to do as much research to make sure that the parts will fit.  I found an old three-bar cruiser frame that’s only a few years younger than the Littlejohn, and a stack of gorgeous parts.  Here’s how I’m doing, so far:

Fountain of Youth?  Do brand-new twenty-five-year-old parts make you younger? We’ll see.

Now, I’m just waiting for the frame and fork to arrive.  Everyone here is, too.  The second it arrives, everybody gets the day off.  Well, except for me. 

I’ll need some time alone with my things.

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Brad

drama…

Posted on July 11, 2008 by | 3 Comments

I’m neither a Wisconsin native, nor particularly attached to the sport – and even I can’t bear the suspense. My heart goes out to the rest of the state. We’ll make it through, somehow…

→ 3 Comments

Posted in Pete

On "Mountain Madness"

Posted on July 10, 2008 by | Comments Off

Pray for a brave heart: one that does not fear death, that counts a long life among the least of Heaven’s gifts. – Juvenal


Climbers and paddlers generally get a tough rap in the press when it comes to accidents. “Climber falls at Devil’s Lake.” “Paddlers drown after running dam.” These deaths are as unfortunate as any other, and as a paddler and climber, they give me pause. But a careful reading of the news article too often reveals it is a hiker venturing off trail that stumbles on the bluffs or a couple of novices who climb into a canoe for the first time, without basic safety equipment and unaware of the hazards downstream. 

Is the news media ignorant of the distinction, or attempting to summarize the event in a short (and compelling) headline? Both, undoubtably, and it does these activities a disservice. Yes there is considerable risk in climbing and paddling. Training, experience, and sound judgement can mitigate some – not all – of this risk. But our activities deserve a fair accounting of both our tragedies and accomplishments, and I appreciate when journalists attempt to convey our motivation for climbing and paddling rather than painting all of us as adrenaline junkies, taunting death.

Timothy Egan writes a very fair op-extra on the New York Times Blog, discussing the recent fatalities on Denali. Similarly, the public comments are unusually fair – a real discussion on understanding risk, why we climb, and obligations to our loved ones back home. Obviously there are many answers, but I like Hugh McIsaac’s suggestion:
Perhaps the gene which leads us on such adventures is the same one enabling our distant ancestors to travel thousands of miles in search of distant lands and new beginnings. The gap between triumph and tragedy is often very narrow. (post #17)

Comments Off

Posted in Pete

Today’s Paper

Posted on July 3, 2008 by | Comments Off

Not everybody had time to read today’s paper, I know.  As a matter of fact, fewer people have time to read it as each day passes, and this phenomenon is true all across the country.  This has been a rough week for newspapers, actually.  Truth be told, it’s been a rough year.  They say it may be the worst year ever for newspapers.


And we thought we had it bad in the outdoor industry…

But hey, I’ve been on vacation so this morning I took the kids to the local surf/coffee cafe and sat down to read the paper while the kids had donuts.  Did you have time to read today’s paper?  I thought not.  Me, I only get to read the paper when I’m on vacation, or when I’m traveling by plane for work.

Today I particularly enjoyed the weekly science section. Here are some of the headlines, with a synopsis:

  1. “Birth Dearth” – Worldwide, the number of live births of boys vs. girls has been declining, and some think that a notable change is under way, driven by factors such as environmental contaminants and various types of stress.

  3. “Death March of the Penguins” – Oil pollution, fishery depletion, rampant coastline development and climate change have all adversely affected penguin populations worldwide, many of which are now in sharp decline.

  5. “Researchers Warn of Decline in Sharks, Disrupted Ecosystems” – In the past two centuries, the shark population in the Mediterranean Sea has plummeted 97 percent.

Okay, it’s the science section so maybe we can expect a green bias.  (Scientists are smart, after all…)  But San Diego – with all of its military infrastructure – isn’t known as a liberal bastion.  Still, does anybody else see a pattern here?

Sometimes, I feel like John Nash, the subject of the movie “A Beautiful Mind.”  (No, I don’t think that I’m brilliant, and I’m probably not crazy – well, at least not that crazy…)  Every so often though, it seems that patterns just jump out of the paper like one of Nash’s Cold War cyphers.  

What is the meaning of this message?

Ponder this for a bit, would you?  I’ll be right back.  Every time I read the paper I’m supposed to stuff the articles that jump out at me into a plain manila envelope and deliver it to a creepy estate on the edge of town. 

Please don’t tell my wife…

Comments Off

Posted in Brad

They Say It’s Your Birthday

Posted on July 1, 2008 by | 2 Comments

Well, really, it’s OUR birthday:  Today Pemba Serves turns seventeen!  Just think, pretty soon we’ll be old enough to vote.  Times like these make one reflective, don’t they?


It seems like only yesterday when we were in swaddling clothes, wearing diapers, sucking on that cute little binkie.  Okay, some things don’t change:  Almost every day is casual day at PEMBAbase, and sometimes Steve still wears his version of swaddling clothes (is that a ROBE, Steve?); we’re happy to report that Pete’s only wearing diapers at night now; and please don’t ask anybody at the office about my binkie habit – I’m trying to quit.  Still, in all these years a lot has changed, too.

In the summer of ’91, as was my practice for many years I spent the month of June climbing in the Alaska Range.  It was while on this trip that I decided to open my own retail consulting business.  In those days, I worked for Erehwon here in the midwest.  Among other things, I was responsible for their newsletter and other types of related promotions for the company.  I had this idea that these sorts of things could be done free-lance for a number of outdoor stores at the same time.  So this is what I decided to do.

As for the name, some has been written about this elsewhere.  For the short version, Pemba was a yak-herder on an expedition to Tibet that I was lucky enough to be a part of in 1988.  (For extra credit, check out Peter Breslow’s award-winning NPR broadcasts, and also in the sidebar here.)  Pemba made an impression on me, and I liked the idea of having an active-verb (“Serves”) in the name of the company, too.  In consulting – in repping also – you’re only as good as the last thing that you’ve done, after all.  The idea of being a rather passive noun (for example, “Services”) just wasn’t appealing, either.  Frankly, it seemed a little generic, too.

Okay, so it’s a trippy name, I admit.  Maybe it’s my degree in writing poetry shining through, ultimately.  I blame Mary Kinzie.

So, a couple things happened upon my return from Alaska:  1) A war with Iraq had triggered a recession; and 2) My phone started ringing with other opportunities.  I couldn’t do much about the recession, and marketing dollars were being cut in outdoor stores everywhere.  And, the opportunities were good:  Michael Crooke called about working as a rep for Moonstone; Karen T’Kint wanted to know if I might consider repping Five Ten; Dion Goldsworthy was looking to revitalize Gregory, and he needed a rep, also; Roody Rasmussen convinced Steve Hudson at PMI/Petzl that he needed a midwest rep… And so it happened that way, and Pemba Serves became a sales agency.

We’ve been lucky over the years to work with a lot of great companies and people.  Truly, we’ve worked with legends, and legends have worked with us.  We’ve been very lucky, in general.  We’re thankful for every relationship, including those on our team, our vendors past and present, and – as always – for our customers, too.  

Things have changed quite a bit in the repping world in the last seventeen years.  Along with many others these days, we see a future where reps in the outdoor industry work more like business consultants than anything else.  And so in this way maybe things have come full circle, and we’re back to the original vision of who we were going to be.  We’ll see. 

So, today, thanks to everybody who has helped to bring us another birthday.  (In other words, thank YOU!)  It’s a privilege to work with you all.

→ 2 Comments

Posted in Brad