I'm having a little trouble getting my Kiawi channel swim put together. Originally I was planning to swim from Molokai to Oahu a week before Father's Day in June. The major issue as always is money.To compensate a Kiawi channel fisherman for the escort, and pay for about thirteen hours of fuel it costs about a thousand dollars total. That doesn't really factor in the cost of other supplies, and covering for incidental costs of volunteers.
A typical crew will have a captain, a spotter and a paddler. Often swells separating the line of sight between the boat and the swimmer are mitigated with a proficient paddler. The paddler will also run food, water and ibuprofin from the boat spotter to the swimmer. The spotter keeps his eye on the swimmer at all times, and gets nourishment ready at preset intervals. The captain? Well, the captain drives the boat, and understandably, makes his living doing it.
For the Kiawi, I'm trying something different. Rather than absorbing all the costs myself, I'm asking for your help. I'm sorry if this is a bit awkward, but I'll try to make it up to you with some value added. I'm throwing in this illustration and my thanks in exchange for support. If you want to give me a hand with this, just go to the cafepress site, and purchase any of the "Red Buoy" products there. So far I have a couple of different sized posters with the illustration. My mark-up is about 60% of the cost of the poster. I will put that toward the channel.
I'm totally blown back by the events in the Gulf of Mexico right now. That coastline will never be the same. Ever. I've never really been an environmentalist, but this issue really tugs at me. Seriously, it's time to start using some of our energy alternatives. Anyway, I digress, anything raised in excess of my fund raising target ($1k) will be donated to a worthy Gulf clean-up related fund. Please post me your comments if you have any suggestions.
About the art. If you scroll down a couple entries you can read about the day I did the hand made illustration. It was inspired by a training swim I did with Brian. We started at sunrise from Kaimana beach hotel, and swam the length of Waikiki, then looped around the red Ala Wai buoy. From there we went in to the Sheraton. Last weekend, I brought a scan of that art into Adobe Illustrator, vectorized it, and brought those paths into Photoshop. I did the painting affects with a Wacom tablet on an iMac. The sketch took about 2 hours, the computer rendering about 5. I hope you enjoy it, and more importantly, I hope it inspires you to reach your own goals as well.
This is hypocritical. "Oh - I am sooo distraught by the oil spill...enough of that...can I have some of your money to pay for a boat to burn carbon fuel for eleven hours so I can swim?" "You see, I don't feel like spending my own money...that is why I am asking for yours." Rrrrriiiigght.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: hahaha. you are hilarious. you think how boats burn off fuel is equivalent to the oil spill? geez, we mine as well stop driving cars then right? oh, and we should probably tell all the people helping to stop/clean up the spill to stop using boats since it only adds more pollution to the air! i like you Anonymous, you made me laugh.
ReplyDeleteRather than buy something for which you get a %, we'll just send a donation. It's a good idea, though. Just don't know where we'd hang the poster. Say, here's another idea: make money by spreading the ShopBest shopping online thing. Go to Darrel's address, www.shopbest.com/CaravanCarver, download the toolbar, and use it whenever you order stuff online. You get a great price, Darrel gets points that convert to money, and he sends the money to you. Share the benefit with others. It's supposed to be a get-rich-quick-scheme, but if everyone benefits and no one gets hurt, that's reward enough, yes? And you get more fish food. Check it out. Lee
ReplyDeleteFrom the looks of the build-up on the bouy in the poster, I'd much rather go out into the open ocean. Not that I could - 1 k is my swimming limit. Funny thing - I think it's simply crazy to go swimming channels here in Hawaii... like treatable-crazy-kine, but I'll support you as you try. Go figure. :-)
ReplyDeleteCool poster Quinn. I think someone should adopt it for one of the ocean swim events. It's begging for some Scooby Doo-font words over it with details underneath. There's even room for someone to graffiti-in a shark fin (that seems funny here on dry land...)
Dave, I love you man.
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