Sailing into La Dolce Vita (Hour 2) (Hour 2)

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Thank you very much.

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We are joined by Jeff Larson, Green Bay Sail and Paddle.

And you know, we always say some of our best conversations happen during the breaks.

Jeff just told us about a dream vacation a month in Italy you just got back from.

Well deserved, by the way, your wife.

Turned to her big birthday and

retired day

and she retired

we celebrated and

been planning for years to do this It's been a while right yeah, so tell us I mean we got a little bit of time here.

We're gonna get to these saddles.

Yeah, I mean saddle your sail

saddle and

sail Not the saddle that we had those for the equestrian people are coming in later the Tell us about it.

I mean Italy's great.

A lot of people been there not

everyone has Yeah, we had a great variety of big town

Venice and Rome and small going to a lot of the Hills cities in Tuscany especially was where we were centered.

It was just amazing food amazing wine Do the people speak English generally?

There are a lot of and we just encountered everyone was so gracious and and wonderful.

I mean, it was just beautiful.

Now

you did some driving

Yes,

how would you recommend an American driving around Italy or

not?

You definitely have to be aware, defensive.

Okay.

Pedestrians are almost as bad as the cars.

Really?

Because there's so many scooters and things going on, especially the big city.

If you're a pedestrian, you have to look and go.

You can't have any hesitation.

Okay.

And they'll stop.

But yeah, as I mentioned before, every driver, I think Italian driver believes they're Mario Andretti and they are going for it.

Really?

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

Are they aggressive drivers?

I would say very aggressive would be my.

I think that'd be a blast.

Me too.

It'd

be fun to drive.

I wouldn't want to get into it

with somebody over there.

No, no.

And then another thing we just had fun with is how many, you know, they talk with their hands.

Yeah.

And it's just like, when you start really zeroing in on that, it's like, it's a whole entertainment in and of itself.

That country

is for the tourism they get is.

not really, like, ADA compliant, right?

I mean, it's amazing.

Oh, no.

What does that

mean?

Well, like,

Americans expect escalators, elevators to be with American disabilities.

Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Sorry, you're not gonna

see this.

Okay, so my son, Dom, is huge into genealogy.

I mean, he has gone to the Czech Republic where his mom's family's from, and he's gone to those churches where they're built in 1500, then he can get on the computer and trace his family tree back to like the 1500s or 1600s, so it's all computerized.

You know what he can't do?

Trace our Italian family.

Cause it's like, nah, we didn't get to it yet.

We didn't, we didn't put it on the internet yet.

Come to the church and the such and such village and go there and get it.

So

little slow

with the data.

They're a little slow with the data.

He said Germany is unbelievably proficient.

Yeah.

Czech Republic, unbelievably proficient.

Yeah.

Italy.

Yeah.

Not so

much.

So 30 days is a long time.

To do it.

Yeah, really.

I think that's a long time.

I think we were there a couple times, but one I think was 14.

I was going crazy.

I want to get back, you know what I mean?

But 30 days.

Okay.

What?

You're going crazy.

You want to get back from the onslaught or whatever you had the other day.

I've been with you at things.

It's like, okay, let's go.

We gotta go.

We've been here long enough.

Let's go.

You have zero patience for

anything.

I don't.

I like going, but I love going home.

So anyway, tell us about the tour you took, because people are hesitant to tours.

And you mixed it up, which was smart.

We did that as well.

But you're the first.

No, you're not.

But anyway, tell us about the

tour.

That tour guide is so important.

That tour guide.

And you're not the first person that took this.

But anyway, tell us about that.

Sure.

Well, we came into Florence.

We flew in and out of Florence.

We came in two days before tour started.

We did an 11-day tour with Rick Steves, who's on PBS.

I would bet you 90% of our listeners have seen him because he's so good, so popular, and people just love him.

Now, he personally wasn't there, was he?

No.

He had a guy that actually had his own business for 18 years and was with Rick Steves for 11.

So the guy was great.

I mean, that prestige is unbelievable.

He just knew everything.

That's

cool.

David was his name.

David.

But yeah, so we did 11 days tour and then we did 17 days on our own.

So a nice mix.

driving.

I did five days of driving, which was plenty.

Was it?

Was it kind of like a little bit white and not like tension?

Cause

some of

those mountain roads are tough, right?

Yeah, we did mountain roads with switchbacks.

It's the kind of stuff you see on tour de France where the bikers, you know, go off the end of the road and that's the end of them and, you know, stuff like that.

So it was, everything was beautiful.

Everything was enchanted.

Were you kind of

being tailgated as you did that?

Oh God.

Yeah.

My wife would get on me because I'm going like I gotta find a pull-off I gotta either pick up or I would naturally start to pick up because I had one two then six and eight cars behind me and She's like just go your own pace.

I'm like it's so hard when they're pushing you, you know, yeah Do you

think they always knew it was an American driving?

I think yeah, yeah, I'd have tapped

you a few

times It might have been a few other international right but other drivers, but they knew it wasn't local

so food-wise

Because again, this is still my dream to go to Northern Italy.

I'm not into the Rome type things, whatever, whatever.

But Northern Italy, where my family's from.

But I like the old authentic type food.

What kind of thing?

Because I don't know if you've seen the show Stanley Tucci, eats

his way

through Italy or whatever.

I love that he goes to these little villages where, you know, they're eating these snails from a whatever and not that I want to do.

But, you know, the real authentic type of food over there.

Tell me a little bit about that.

Yeah.

Food was amazing.

Just everywhere we went.

One was just better than the next.

Yeah.

Outstanding wine local they all had their own things and they really push freshness and local Yeah, and a lot of it is because they don't have the transportation system and they don't have you know, and they take pride that it's Grown on their hill, you know, it's everyone thinks their olive oil and their wine is just the best and you taste it and you go like I agree But then you go to the next village and it's like no

They might be better.

No, maybe I'm just more hungry that day.

You know

what's funny?

I had a friend who from way back who was in the army over there, okay?

Was it in the army in Germany and Went to Italy on a little vacation type thing.

Hey, and he was that he got to be really good friends with this one little village, you know wine type place and everything like that and And they said and the guy asked his word you American or German and he says well, we're American, you know, he goes, oh, okay We'll give you this good wine.

He goes, oh, but I thought that expensive stuff there'd be this is no he says I'll tell you what he said we still hate the Germans

We still hate the krauts as we call them, so you know what we do?

We give them our cheapest wine, tell them it's their most expensive wine, and they don't know the difference.

They all talk about this great wine, and it's the cheapest stuff we have.

And Italian would spit it out, and we tell the Germans, oh, it's so great, and they believe us.

So, I mean,

there's probably a

lot of stuff over there where it's

like... They're going to get their history, though, for sure.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's interesting, too.

The history is, we think of it as such an old country, and the Roman Empire and all that, but they're a country...

for less time than the United States.

Really?

Yeah, it was like in the 1860s, 1870s is when they became Italy.

Before that,

it was 17 principalities.

And that's why Florence and Siena fought for thousands of years.

That's why every town is built on a...

on a hill.

Right.

Well, there, I'll tell you this, one thing Dom did find is there is a little bit of, I hate to say this, almost like inbreeding in my families where like second cousins or something, because they were so isolated, they're almost like, was no other place to go when they had a donkey or whatever, you know, way back.

And I mean, that's the way it was sometimes.

Yeah.

Wow.

I don't

see

him.

Right, do I?

With the donkey?

I

have to think

through this thing.

Hey, tell us

about, tell our listeners though about how you're at a restaurant and then just the entertainment that just like appears.

Oh yeah,

we've had it several times.

That's the beauty of Italy.

Yeah, we were at one place and two guys just walking around.

They're in costume.

They got instruments, guitars, and I said, oh, what's going on?

Are you done with a...

performance or heading to one.

Oh, no, we want to hear something and he starts playing.

You know, we're in a market.

This is a previous time to Italy.

And it was a Rick Steves moment.

We were in this little town and they had their market going on.

And I had just seen a show about that community.

And here's a guy with flowers at the flower market, the market, farmer's market type of thing.

And I knew that he had sang opera on the show and I went up to him and I had my camera.

on record and I said, you know, my wife and friend are here and they just love opera.

Could you do a number?

And he just broke into singing.

They're awesome.

You know?

What part did you like the best?

Like if you only had a week and they said, hey, we're gonna give you a free trip to Italy.

You're gonna spend one week in one area.

What area would it be?

It would be Tuscany, but I'd probably still move around between a couple of communities.

I loved Luca.

That was just...

Something else, isn't it?

And there's

there's some people from Green Bay that live over there.

You know that because that's such a paper Capital and you know Luca surrounded by the wall.

So you go, I mean, it's just the design of that community is I'm obviously back from when they were fighting but yeah, Luca is there's a few people in Green Bay and that

there's some texts in that

paper in industry.

Yeah, Luca's beautiful.

Yeah, and we went

To an opera there too, which was just unbelievable.

I remember I was with a guy from the chamber and the guy's like We should look which we were tonight.

He goes, oh, you know a dark suit will be fine.

It's just like suit.

He had was like this brown twinkle Just

what kind

of

food like what which is I mean isn't all pasta based

Much of it is yeah, pasta isn't the same as here.

No, why not the wheat is different

just tastier.

The ingredients are so much different.

Yeah, you can just, yeah, I had lasagna probably three or four times and every time it was different and every time it was great.

But just the, um, not that it's

just the richness of it, right?

Or what I'm looking for, but maybe like you said, you know, that's, we, they have farm to table now that, oh, let's get it here.

But I mean, that stuff is, you know, from the backyard, it's just

so fresh.

We stayed two days at a ranch.

Oh, okay.

And they were, they were paid to

raise a particular type of cow cattle that was kind of an antique that was near extinction.

Okay.

So, and they do that with wheat.

There's certain types of wheat that are grown in certain areas.

So this is why you get some really significantly different tastes.

Well, that's, I mean,

over here, because I remember my grandma used to make her own pasta.

Okay.

And it was completely different than the bag of pasta you would buy at So-and-So because like she would say, well, that's just filler.

The pasta over here is just something to have, and then the stuff you put on it.

But the Italians always used to want to make sure the pasta itself

was really good, would stand alone.

Florence is known for their meat steak, had a Florentine steak, you buy it by the kilogram, and you get like a 1.3 kilogram, which is shared.

It's like three inch thick with the bone in.

Okay.

It's been hanging.

Curing sure in the thing.

Yeah, till you order it and they slice it off Well, it's just amazing you go like well, I've eaten steak before This isn't the same thing.

So that's the original steak quarantine type thing there, right?

That's what's wrong.

What about seafood wise because again when I watch that show with Stanley Tucci, he's always that little seaside little restaurants

What about

that?

I'm not a big seafood eater.

My wife did.

We were one day on the beach, and most of it was inland, so we weren't in areas where that was a specialty.

And when you think of Italy, think of why.

Did you have wine at

every meal?

Yeah.

I probably drank more wine in a month than I had in the previous 10 years.

And how about the coffee bars and stuff?

right cappuccino oh yeah espresso you name it it's just better than it is here i don't know is it because we're i don't know you're in the littlest cafe and they got a special machine you know that's right the size of a Volkswagen but the people were nice generally everyone

except the drivers

behind you.

Yeah.

Well, they didn't express it personally, but you could feel it.

None of this.

Feel it.

Yeah.

That's

awesome.

I swear we'll get to why you're here, Jeff.

Jeff Larson, Green Bay saddle, sail and paddle back ever.

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We're having a great time talking all about that.

We'll get to it.

We will get to it.

But you can't just come back from 30 days in Italy and expect us not to just absolutely quiz you.

Come on, man.

So you've done some traveling.

If you had to make a 25th anniversary or, I guess, anniversary, whatever, would you pick Italy or would you, are there other countries that you thought, man, we should go

there?

Yeah.

Well, my wife went to Bali and she just loved that.

We've been to Paris and to France multiple times and that's been a favorite.

But my wife even said, I think I might like Italy better than France.

And I just wanted, what I think is interesting about Italy is, you talk about history.

I mean, you say the country, I understand that the United, but I mean, that's, they've got some old, old architecture and some beautiful things there.

But when you go look at some of these churches, you come here and you look at a basilica, it's like, oh my God, this is unbelievable.

There, the next couple steps, and you see another one, and another one, and another one, and it's amazing how they just keep ones more beautiful than the next,

the

artwork and

the buildings.

And bigger, and yeah, I mean, we saw spots where Michelangelo was buried, not just where you worked, but yeah, the wealth, the...

Tell me a little bit about

that farmhouse you stayed in.

See, now that, to me, is something I would love.

Out in the country, in a farmhouse, up in the mountains.

Are they still selling them for like $100?

I didn't see

one, but... But you hear so, and I was gonna ask you about that as well, because now those are remote places.

This isn't Venice or Florence or anything.

No, this was out in the middle of Tuscany, and the last three miles was a gravel road, and it was a rough road.

We were up and down, and...

It was a barn.

The house that we stayed in had been a barn.

I

love that.

I love the idea.

I think they want

people to live there.

They've got some vacancies in these

homes.

Well, the young people are moving out.

They're moving to the city.

Right.

And they want it.

So they give you these homes or some for $100.

Now, I think there's a couple of things that you have to have.

One is you can't air and be in there.

You got to live there.

So that's going to be your home.

And I think you have to have some kind of, John would qualify, some Italian in you.

But

another thing they talk about, because I watched one of those shows where people go over and do that, and God bless the Italian heritage, but it's like somebody would go for a permit, and they'd say, hey, come back in two weeks, and then go back two weeks, or what do you want?

Well, we don't know about no permit.

Yes, we did.

You know what I mean?

It's like they're not really.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, you don't want to try to do it at two o'clock three o'clock in the afternets and they close down a lot of shops even close

Yeah,

because you have your big lunch.

How hot is it over there?

Well, we experienced tremendous weather.

It was 85 and then Rome it was 95 the three days we were there.

It was just hot But it's summer so

like when you're at that farmhouse out in the Tuscany countryside or whatever like what do you do during the course of a day?

Yeah, we went to of mineral springs went and soaked in it.

That was I don't know maybe

five, six miles away.

It wasn't far.

Okay.

Little Hilltown was again only about eight miles away.

And then there's communities in every direction.

We drove probably a half hour went to a multi-pacino.

I can't pronounce any of these things.

But there was a garden that was the English type garden, kind of like our botanical garden here.

Just beautiful.

You know, the

one place I've heard negative of though, of people that have traveled over there and were expecting something really beautiful and great.

And they said it was almost like a scary city as Naples.

Did you go to Naples

at all?

Yeah, we could get far south.

I heard that was almost like being in one of our cities.

You know what I mean?

Where it's like, don't go out at night and one of those kind of things.

But when you stayed up in that barn,

okay,

how much do you think it was in American money?

Under $100 a night.

See, that's awesome, isn't it?

Did they

provide the food?

Tell you there was fruit trees.

We could go out and pick an apricot right off the tree and I've never been an apricot person.

I was like I can Take about three of these yeah, and eat them right now.

It's like when you're but you know when you have strawberries freshers Getting it from the store.

Did you rent a car?

We did okay?

We did did you

get one of those navigational things where it's like it'll tell you where to

yeah, that was a lifesaver

I'll bet

So it kind of like it was an Alexis or three,

but he couldn't put it in English.

So how's your

Italian?

No,

I'm

sure it was.

I'm sure it was.

It was we had a Jeep.

We had an American vehicle.

No neat.

I

think that's fantastic.

I

ain't

for you for doing that.

I still want to do that someday.

I really do.

And tell me who you talked about.

You took a tour for 11 days.

The rest of it.

Is that something online or do you have some friends that

how do you which would you

recommend?

Yeah, that was online.

The Rick Steves tour to register for that.

The 17 days after that was that we went on our own.

We just went and said, oh, let's go in that city and this city.

And we, my wife did research.

I did research.

Sometimes we booked for the same city, but a different place.

Internal communication.

We survived it.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

That's very cool.

You did that.

Just once, I think.

How'd you like it?

It was okay.

Yeah, had the lemon, what is it?

Lemon chia.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's kind of the other.

Okay, one last question.

I promise we'll talk about Green Bay Sill and

Paddle.

Okay.

I have to stay for a second segment.

Yeah, I do.

Recommendations you'd give to people that want to go to Italy.

Absolutely do it.

Yeah, just great.

Be prepared to...

navigate plenty of cobblestones and plenty of stairs.

And I think that's important that people understand it's not America.

It's not this ADA compliant.

It's a lot, a lot of walking and it's steps and there's not escalators.

And I think that's fine.

I just, I was, I mean, I was fine with it.

I was just surprised.

It's like, wow, there's some people that were on our tour that couldn't go.

Also, the first floor is zero.

Oh,

zero.

If you do have an elevator and they say you're on the third floor, you're really on the fourth floor because their first floor is zero and then it's one is on.

One floor up.

Hey two floors up.

Who are you to tell us we're gonna be ADA compliant?

Jeff this is great stick around Green Bay sailing paddle back at

this

Okay, thank you for the tour and the wonderful information about traveling throughout Italy.

But let's talk a little bit about what you guys do.

Green Bay sail and paddle.

And the number one thing that I'm so impressed with you guys is you take some young people who...

99% would never have a chance to get on the water and do the things that they get to do through your organization.

And I know you guys are knee-deep in that.

Could you talk a little bit about that?

Oh, happy to.

Yeah, we work with many nonprofits, and we work with kids, kiddos, children of all abilities.

So, you know, yesterday we had an autism group in.

Awesome.

From Conning Stars, and...

They were with us last year and they're gonna come back next Tuesday as well with a second group.

But sometimes that's more of a ride.

With other young children, we're doing more of a class teaching how to sail and some of the intricacies of putting the sails up.

Where else would they have an opportunity like that?

We had two groups from Eisenhower that, again,

And we had an organization, a company in that area that sponsored that two groups.

And it was from, it came from a bus driver said, I'd love to give my kids something, an incentive that if they behave on the bus, we reward them at the end of the season.

And that's what grew out of that was coming sailing.

And

so.

And that's, some of those kids pick an ice hard, but lower income kids maybe don't have the exposure to.

but just to the whole water, you

know.

That's what I

mean.

Just

getting on the water.

I think that's awesome that you expose those

kids to that.

And you go up to

high school

kids too, right?

Yep, yep.

Last year we had middle school, summer school through this Green Bay school system.

We didn't have anything this year.

I think they're funding they were unsure of.

But yeah, we have all age groups.

We have adult classes for kayaking and sailing.

We have a couples night, a family night sailing.

We have a regular youth group every Friday morning.

So that's a neat way because those kids come regularly.

So they're learning things and really getting the appreciation for the bay, the water and sailing.

Well, Jim and I always talk about the way to really see a city is from the water.

You know what I mean?

Because people don't get a chance to see it that way very often.

But when you do, completely different perspective.

It looks great.

You know, I mean, it just does.

I mean, from the air too, right?

It's like, wow, this is great looking laid out city and from the water and you can get that appreciation.

And that kayaking is, it's doing better in Green Bay.

We could do more of it, but you've got to get a lot of people coming in for that, right?

Yeah, we don't really do a whole lot on kayaking.

There's some other organizations that just been on here.

I mean, the Y

in different places

do that too.

Yeah.

You know, we're happy to do it.

We've had the kayaks in the pool like at Sible Hop.

for teaching a class again and getting some idea.

People pay to do this, but the people who can't, you have fundraisers, I know you were in Give Big Green Bay this year, which was great.

Other things that you do, I mean, you guys are pretty active with

fundraising, are you not?

Yeah, that's a year round activity, and we've been...

quite successful this year.

A couple things have come out of that.

Certainly the nonprofit groups in that we try to get them as much as possible that we pay the way.

Sometimes they pay a hundred dollars out of what would be a thousand dollar type of fee.

We can get individual scholarships so any kid that wants to come we don't want to deny them.

It's all about accessibility, inclusivity, you know, and then it's safety and having fun once they get there.

And it's so unique.

Yeah,

that's different.

Yeah, not everyone gets it.

I mean, I've never had a chance to do something like that.

You know, we're ready to take you out there.

I know.

You don't have to know how to swim either.

Well, that would then equalifies.

We'll put a life jacket

on.

One of those big ones.

From

like PT 109.

Remember the old

movie,

PT

109?

But your organization isn't that old.

Yeah, nine years now, 2016.

It was formalized.

It was around in a...

in a formation before that, but it wasn't really the in two classes.

They were talking about it.

talked about it for years.

So yeah, we'll have our 10th anniversary next year.

And

there's got to be a bet for somebody that's never done it.

If you guys take them out and got the full sales going and you got a, you know, the perfect type of wind or whatever, that's got to be such an exhilarating feeling for some of these kids who have never experienced anything like that.

I mean, I've done it just from doing stories on it for TV or whatever, those types of things.

But for these kids for that first experience of that sale just being full and taken, that's got to be something really special.

isn't it?

Yeah, you know, again, there's some apprehension for some people.

Sure.

Not knowing how to swim or never been on a boat.

And they sit fairly low in the water.

The bay is shallow enough that we have to take them off the beach.

So I got to walk into maybe knee or waist deep to get on the boat before it's deep enough that we can sail.

But yeah, it isn't necessarily just children, because adults too that haven't been in it when you get out there and you can get it

flying across the water, you know, when you get that wind filling the sail, that's just a wonderful experience.

And then with these students, and again, middle school, you really leaned into last year, but besides, you know, nature, the beauty of the water, the appreciation, they learned some STEM things too.

I mean, there's the math and science to that, especially, you know, setting sail

and,

right?

Earlier this year, we had a STEM camp.

We usually have that every summer.

It was a half day for the full week.

But yeah, there's segments we teach on buoyancy and the sail, actually with the sail, you can sail against the wind at an angle.

It's more like an airplane than most people realize on how the pressure works to get the boat moving forward.

So yeah, there's different elements and different segments of science that we talk about.

That's awesome.

It is, right?

Did you

shoot knots?

Not tying.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I struggle with that.

Yeah So do I yeah, I'm the worst now.

I can't even tie my shoes without doing bunny ears So but I mean those are kind of things that somebody it's it's like not everybody would know how to do some of these things and I think it's kind of cool to have some of those skills that very few people have

and it's always interesting when we have classes that are more than one session You know we our intro class is one three-hour session, but like the kids in the narwhal youth group that come on

Friday mornings, you know, some of our eight, nine years old, and now they're old hands.

They get it there.

Let's get the boats.

Let's get the trailer, get them down on the beach.

They're rigging the sails up.

It's not necessary to give any instruction anymore.

They've been there two, three times.

Now they know it.

That's fantastic.

And these kids, they grasp it so fast.

That's always fun to

see.

And that's the life's, you know, what's nice about that.

It's not like football and football, but.

That has a beginning and an end usually.

You're not paying that, playing that when you're a real 40, 50.

That sailing is.

We have instructors that have started as students and then have come and volunteered because they're too young to work a job.

And then now they're junior instructors with us.

That's awesome.

Yeah.

How expensive is it if somebody wants to keep doing that and get their own boat?

Well, boats can be a bottomless pit.

So you can spend as much money as you want.

But like the boat.

that we're on, Catamaran, you can probably find them used for $3,000, $4,000 or $5,000.

Okay.

If you're getting a large boat, they could be like yachts, you know, millions.

Yeah, he does it.

He just, around the country, they sail.

That's their thing as he's retired and goes to different countries sailing.

Some of those people, I will say, I watch this thing on, it's a YouTube type thing.

Gee, there's airlines.

This young girl.

from like, I think she's from the United States.

She's going across the Pacific by herself sailing.

That's scary, isn't it?

Yeah.

We have an instructor this year, two, three years out of college.

She's from New Zealand.

And she's sailing with us because her mother grew up in Green Bay.

Wow.

On Emily Street.

And her name is Emily.

Because her mother had such a good time in Green Bay.

Great experience, but living in New Zealand now.

Wow.

But those people that go these cross, I mean, you never know what the weather or storm and they just have the courage to do that.

What's the furthest you've ever got?

in the bay.

You're talking about how shallow the bay is.

And we actually had the Coast Guard auxiliary on here.

We have on a fairly regular basis.

And they talk about people don't realize if they're new to boating, how shallow some parts are when you're first leaving, you know, the Fox, you're getting into the bay and like the stumps that are just below, you know, all those kind of things that talked about story.

One of the old Packers was telling a story at a banker one time and he said they had a morning off of practice that had game the night before.

And the guy said, Hey, let's go fishing.

And it's like okay, how do we go fishing here?

You know so they rent all this stuff from up in I think was Dykesville and they go out and they're having some beers and like the Sunday afternoon some and the guys screwing around and the pat they lost the paddles and They're drifting and they're like oh my god.

Lombardi's gonna cut us.

He's gonna kill us He's gonna whatever and we can't guys I can't swim we can and the guys like

so they see

this little kid fishing he goes get help kids like what?

Get help no oars

No oars, get help.

And the kid goes back, walk in.

He's like up to their waist the whole time they're out

there.

The area we sail is three to five feet deep.

That's what I mean.

It's probably the same area.

And then there's a sandbar here and there.

Yeah.

All of a sudden you're out a hundred yards and it's this deep.

And then all of a sudden it's six inches.

So it's

perfect for training, huh?

You got to know where you are.

Yeah, but

as far as like where people have

to, like I said, safety is our number one concern.

So what do

you teach them

on?

What do you start with?

We're on hobby waves.

It's a catamaran, so it's very stable.

At the top of the sail, there's a floater.

So if you cap size, it isn't like some boats that you'll go totally upside down, you know, 180 degrees.

This will only take it to the side.

When we have them in a class, we teach them how to write from a cap size.

They're in the water and they learn how to do that.

I'll tell you the job.

I'll

tell you, I'll tell you something that, uh, of all the things where you say jobs you could never do will never do would never nice watching this thing about the elite coast guard.

rescue boats.

Out of 40,000 people in the Coast Guard, I think there's 110 of these guys.

That's so hard it is.

And they take these boats, these rescue boats up to the Columbia River, where it's the, yeah, so many different confluences of water coming in, the waves are just ridiculously crazy.

And it's at the point where those boats, even in training life times, they'll hit these things, if they get hit sideways, the attitude is, I always try to see these big swells coming in, take them on.

you know, head first, don't let them hit you on the side.

And with these boats, they train them, they go over sometimes completely over and up again.

It's mind boggling how great these boats are because they're, they're buoyant enough, but they train to go all the way over and then pop back up.

I mean, when, when you're really experienced, you know how to do that stuff.

Well, for any boating sailing too, you would head into the wave.

You'd want to cut it.

Yeah.

You went on it to hit sideways.

Right.

If you got big water.

Yeah.

We're, uh,

Over this weekend, up in Elkhart Lake, and a lot of wind surfers.

That was a thing that it wasn't a... Do you teach that as well?

That looks like so much fun.

Boy, were they flying.

Yeah, we do not.

And you got to go to Sheboygan, where they really have some of that get out on Michigan.

Well, I mean,

Sheboygan gets that, you know, I mean, they surf in Sheboygan

in the spring.

I mean,

they get waves down there.

That's crazy.

But I was just surprised how fast they were going.

I mean... Oh, yeah.

That I've never done that.

I think

I should have

tried it.

I know I think I want I think you should yeah I think you should know this week in a while to learn how to do it first.

That's what you don't teach

that.

Don't

waste the time Jim Jim.

Get one

and go on out there and let it rip.

You can start with sailing with us and get the feel and then work up to that.

Jeff one

final thing for you buddy.

How can people help you guys out?

Yeah, well we certainly can use financial help but we'd like to just get them out on the water so they can experience it and help spread the word.

How do

they contact

you?

We can go to a GB sale.

SAIL.org, our website.

And again, thanks you do for some of these young kids that would never have the opportunity to be

on the water,

any other situation.

That part is awesome what you guys do.

And I appreciate that so much.

Yeah, I think we have 15 groups this year.

Phenomenal.

CP Center, Bridge the Gap, Counting Stars.

Autism.

We all rise.

Yeah.

Good for you, man.

Thanks

for doing Jeff Larson, Green Bay Seal and Paddle.

Please check them out.

If you can make a contribution, you'd be helping out some great young kids that could really use the help in hand.

We'll be back more, mine or the mayor,

after this.

Mine on the Mayor here at 97.9 FM WGBW 98.3 96.5 FM WSS in the Civic Media app.

That was fun.

That was good stuff.

Fun talk about Italy.

Fun talk about the Green Bay ceiling panel.

And I just, you know, if there were so many organizations around this area that really do so much for people that need a little bit of a helping hand, whatever way it is.

And I've known Jeff for 40 years.

I think we said we were both at KI for a while.

He could.

Not do anything right.

I mean he's retired.

He's got enough money That's so great that they give back and of course he does like sailing I mean I think he found something that he likes but

you said exactly I was just gonna say that

he and not only shares it with But he shares it with people who would never ever exactly

exactly.

I think

that's

really

cool Yeah, me too.

He's a good guy.

So yeah, we just That's where I was running back in here.

We're setting up a lunch spend a little bit more time because he's so

you want a sale bar.

Is that what you want to do?

Yes.

Yeah.

That's what I want to do.

I was going to do that.

But it wasn't rented from where I was.

We were at the Ostoff.

Do

you need lessons?

That's what I think I do.

Because I think you're balanced.

Do you

have any sailboarders out there?

No,

it's more windsurfing.

Well, that's what I mean.

What did I say?

Sailboarding.

Is

that sailboarding?

That's a new term.

No, it's not.

That's the name of the sport, sailboarding.

It's cold windsurfing

anyway, I want to take lessons

before I do that though because I don't want to

because I've seen them That's what I mean and the thing collapses.

I bet

that happens a lot

I think it's a lot harder than it looks

but those guys that and I was surprised how fast they were going I don't want to go that fast, but they must have just you know,

it's all in I'd like to move to Jamaica and I want to be one of those guys on those rafts they stand and they pull

push the people, the tourists up the rivers and everything.

Those guys were in such unbelievable shape.

It's mind

boggling.

I could get in such incredible shape.

So do you

want to, do you want to, or the raft, or do you want to get in shape?

I think that

both.

I'm going to be the guy on the, on the thing.

He was in shape before he got on that raft.

It's almost like a gondola type thing.

Yeah.

And they, and it's, you're going upstream and everything.

That seems like the greatest workout.

That gondola thing would be cool like in Venice because it's,

you

know, the water's not deep and it's just tips.

I could do that.

Yeah.

I could do that.

I think that's really my next workout type thing.

Yeah.

But what they do at that Green Bay, that's just so cool.

And there's some other kids that they bring on.

And we talked about kids, you know, civil hop and some kids that have some challenges.

But there's some kids that are lower economic that

it would never ever experience that from some of these schools.

And they get some scholarship money.

And like you said, you know, they may charge $100 for something that costs $1,000.

And that's okay.

It's okay to have a little skin in the game.

And to take those kids out sailing on Saturdays, I just, that's very cool stuff.

And, you know, it, depending on how much your, your, your sailboat costs, that's not the most, we talk about how expensive sports are.

I mean, you know, you look at

How expensive hunting has gotten with God put training dogs and all these crazy guns and you know, I'm not

It's just everything.

I can't remember.

I was at $170.

I think for my license up in Michigan.

Yeah, and then it's

crazy

expensive animals got an expensive but

okay, okay go fill up a boat these days to go fishing on a Winnebago

That's exactly

how much that's gonna come

where's not a lot of gas tanks on sailboats I mean, what's cool is that you if you can get something and

That could be a really nice hobby.

I saw some pictures people did 4th of July right before the fireworks and everything.

Yeah, on the river.

Sailing around out there and it's like, what?

You know, sitting in the background and then the fireworks and everything.

That's cool.

Phenomenal.

And I've never, okay, I've done a couple of stories, like I said, in sailboats, for the big regatta type things they've had around here or whatever.

But I've never done it like for pleasure, but it seems like that would be like if somebody else was doing the work.

Okay, yeah,

kicking back and having a cocktail or something Oh, that seems like that'd be the most relaxing time and it's different from being on a powerboat to speedboat Not even close I would think that if some just do people rent those I think that would be the coolest thing that you could rent is take somebody out on a Sunday afternoon for two hours and Just sale and you can have have your little basket.

You can buy those cheese your wine

You buy those excursions was for

all around here.

Well

Up in Marinette, I know they

have.

I

don't know.

I don't know if they have that in Green Bay.

I've never heard of that around here.

Yeah, you can.

You do that.

But

if I become a sailor, if I learn how to sail, I'm going to do that.

Okay.

That I think there might be a market.

It's like a fishing tour, right?

Right.

Four hours, six hours.

But I mean, you know what?

I would have, I'd have my own.

You know what?

I'd get some of your good hot dogs.

No, you know, they can't have that on there.

Can you have a grill on a sailboat?

I would guess not.

I don't

know.

That's

what it means like here's your menu here.

We would you like some nice?

Yeah, that's some nice Johnny juice

shooter some wine.

Yeah,

that could be a fun fun afternoon.

Can you imagine a sunset sailing cruise around this area?

There you

go.

Is there such a thing people?

Because if not, I'm going to put one together.

Okay, I yeah, just no rush people.

But just yeah, that would be that would be a fun.

Couple thing to do.