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Mandelon
07-04-2006, 07:42 AM
My kid and neighbors made the paper. The news guy was cruising the sandbar on Sunday. Found this in the paper this morning.
At least the article didn't make the whole crowd out to be a bunch of boozers like they so often do in the news.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060704/images/rover280.jpg
San Diegans go with the flow at the Colorado River
Boats, bronzed bodies, beer as plentiful as heat
By Mark Sauer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 4, 2006
ON THE COLORADO RIVER – Soon after sunup, the engines roar to life, massive, menacing hulks of unmuffled chromed machinery powering sleek, gaily painted hulls.
NELVIN CEPEDA / Union-Tribune
Hanging out on a sandbar at Martinez Lake on the Colorado River is a popular pastime for San Diegans.
Streaking past families on pontoon craft, the jet boats and “cigarette boats” – named for their long, narrow design – head upriver from the RV settlements and launch ramps at places such as Hidden Shores and Martinez Lake in Arizona to secure a spot on Party Island.
It is nothing more than a spit of exposed sand in the middle of the shallow river that cops know as Zoo Island. Early risers stake their canopies, umbrellas, beach chairs, cushions and coolers like Sherpas setting up base camp.
On summer weekends and especially on holidays such as the Fourth of July, it's bikinis and beefcake, blaring music and beer from riverbank to riverbank on mostly government-owned land as thousands of sun-and-fun lovers from San Diego County descend for the experience known as “going to the river.”
Though not quite as busy as Memorial Day weekend, when sheriff's officers estimated the invasion of 10,000 people – 90 percent of them driving three hours from San Diego County – this four-day weekend has found the river churning with boat wakes and teeming with glistening bodies.
At night they settle into careworn cabins and cottages, fancy motorhomes and increasingly upscale houses on bluffs overlooking the Colorado River. Some trek 30 miles to Yuma, Ariz., where air-conditioning, a shower and a comfortable motel bed await. At morning's first light, the weekend nomads are back on the river.
“We have four generations out here and we always come to Party Island,” said Vicki Jibben of San Diego. “We never get tired of it. Being on the water is our favorite thing.”
Splashing with Jibben in the tepid Colorado were her granddaughter, 3-year-old Savannah Miles, and Jibben's mother, Judy Smith, who retired recently to Yuma to be closer to the river.
“I'm a people person. I like the party atmosphere,” Jibben said, straining to be heard over the boat engines and music – country, rap, hip-hop, rock – booming from scores of speakers.
“Most people are very nice and this is a great place for families. But you also see a lot of very drunk and stupid people out here. And after a while, they get liquored up enough to start strippin'. It's really fun to watch.”
A century or so ago, the Colorado River flowed wild and unimpeded for 1,700 miles, dropping some 14,000 feet from its origins in the Southern Rocky Mountains and Eastern Great Basin to the Gulf of California.
Fed by melting snow, the great river drains 250,000 square miles and provides electricity and drinking water to about 25 million people. The Colorado also helps irrigate 3.5 million acres of farmland in the United States and Mexico.
But most of those racing on powerboats and Wave Runners are oblivious to all of that; they just want to have fun.
“If you want a really nice time on weekends like this, head north and avoid scenes like Party Island, where it seems like half of East County goes,” said Robert Grace, a high school teacher from Ramona.
That's just what Grace and his wife, Theresa, an elementary school principal, did, along with their two “kids,” Shadow, a golden retriever, and Diva, a Doberman pinscher. They piled into their 1997 Ultra jet boat and headed up to the far reaches of the seven-mile stretch north of Imperial Dam that attracts most of the San Diego County river runners.
In this section, the banks are lush with tamarisk and tules; beyond that rise harsh calderas, the river coursing through landscape as barren as the moon. Cormorants, great blue heron and snowy egrets frolic in the bulrushes along the water's edge.
“It's so peaceful just hanging here out in the water all day,” Theresa Grace said, relaxing in her half-submerged beach chair beneath an umbrella on a sandbar. “It's a great way to come out and recharge.”
Handfuls of families congregate on several sandbars north and south of Party Island. They while away their days water-skiing, tubing and wake-boarding or teaching the kids how to wet a line and take some bluegill, catfish and bass in scenes far more bucolic than bacchanalian.
The July sun is relentless, creating blast-furnace heat – 105 degrees with high humidity – for which the 85-degree water provides scant relief. Unlike the majestic blue hues of Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam 600 miles north, the lower Colorado is the color of green tea.
Back at Party Island, perhaps 800 people and scores of dogs cavort in the sludgy midriver shallows, ringed by 200 anchored boats. By noon, the breakfast bloody marys are forgotten and it's time to get out the beer bong.
This ubiquitous contraption features a plastic hose attached to a funnel sealed by a valve at the opposite end. After beer is poured in, the consumer opens the valve and sucks the tube dry.
“Take it down! Make 'em proud!” a heavily tattooed young man shouted.
Erica Trtan of Yuma obliged, doing back-to-back beer bongs. Trtan said she expected to do “eight or 10 more of these” before nightfall.
“I'd say this enhances the river experience,” she said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “Trouble is the calories – I've got a beer gut, beer butt and beer thighs; I say beer everywhere.” Indeed she did: Her black bikini read “Corona” in pink lettering, top and bottom.
The river runs deeper along the banks, and that's where the thundering boats, with rooster tails trailing 20 feet in the air, race past all day, a cacophonous parade powered by high-octane fuel and testosterone. Many boat pilots are here chiefly to put their crafts on display.
Doug Hoffman of El Centro is hard to miss. The hull of his 25-foot “Liberator” catamaran is proudly painted in stars and stripes, and the massive, twin 270-horsepower, 2.5-liter Mercury outboards have been airbrushed into American bald eagles. There are muscle boats costing $60,000 or $80,000.
“But I was able to do the whole thing for $32,000,” said Hoffman, who sported a red, white and blue bandana.
“I wanted something that stands out, that represents who we are – a patriotic family. I have two sons and a daughter who had a hand in designing this.”
Hoffman, who did not serve in the military, said running his boat on the Colorado River nearly every weekend is “my way of supporting the troops.”
“I had the boat out on Lake Havasu and people came up and said, 'I don't know whether to salute you or place my hand over my heart,' ” he said. “I didn't intend for stuff like that to happen, it just worked out that way.”

shueman
07-04-2006, 07:47 AM
Very cool....!! Nice write-up as well.... :cool:
Now, EVERYBODY will be coming to the lower colorado.... :wink:

tamalewagon
07-04-2006, 07:48 AM
What a crack up...when's the last time you've seen a Cigarette boat at Martinez??? Except for maybe in Fast Freddy's mind as he's "smokin' a Cig in Martinez"???

OutCole'd
07-04-2006, 07:51 AM
Kid's a celebrity now.
Very cool.

Mandelon
07-04-2006, 07:58 AM
I saw a big Eliminator Eagle maybe 27' running all weekend. That's about the closest I've ever seen. I actually saw two other Lavey's though. That's a record!

Old Texan
07-04-2006, 08:41 AM
Does anyone else ever get the urge to puke everytime you hear any kind of performance boat called a "Cigarette" by some no baoting knucklehead?
"He got 'im one of them Cigarette boats. She's sure a pretty 'un." :cry:

Not So Fast
07-04-2006, 08:56 AM
What the hell is a "cacophonous parade" :idea: And the writer better get more informed about the pcice of "muscle boats" Hell, a pontoon costs that much :rolleyes: NSF

Boatcop
07-04-2006, 11:38 AM
gaily painted hulls.
LMFAO
:crossx: :D

Throttle
07-04-2006, 01:08 PM
kool

FryJet
07-04-2006, 01:18 PM
I was there and saw Mandy in his cigarette boat, he gave me a Tecate to say so too. :)
F.J.

Mandelon
07-04-2006, 01:45 PM
Mine's a cigarillo boat.... :rolleyes:

Hardly Satisfied
07-04-2006, 11:11 PM
:rollside: very cool :rollside: