Chapter 4: Spent the last year Rocky Mountain way

Late July 1977

Venice, CA

Kathy's eyes blinked open as a strong ray of morning sunlight pierced her lids. Temporarily disoriented, she sat up and groggily shook her head, then squinted at her surroundings for a few seconds until she realized she was at Jay's house. But Jay himself was nowhere in evidence as she discovered when she groped around on his side of the bed and found it empty. She grumpily pulled the covers down and heavily swung her legs over the side of the bed, grimacing as her bare foot glanced off of something hard and metallic – a skateboard truck, she noted as she bent over to remove the offending object from her path. She dropped it among a pile of other skateboard hardware that resided on the large table by the wall, then headed for the bathroom to make her morning ablutions.

After she finished she pulled on a pair of shorts and a tank top, then prowled through the small apartment in search of Jay, but he was nowhere in evidence. Not that she really had to look to see if he was around; if he'd been there she would have known. Indeed, the whole building could tell when he was at home by the sound of his voice, which was usually cranked to 10. If the voice was absent, so was Jay. As she opened the refrigerator door and reached for the orange juice carton, Kathy realized she was glad for the rare moment of silence. When she turned to the opposite side of the kitchen to get a glass from the cabinet, she spied a note on the countertop, written in Jay's boyish handwriting: "Gone surfing at the Breakwater, be back by 10 at the latest," it promised. She glanced at the clock on the wall: 9:05. So he could yet live up to his promise, she reflected as she poured the juice.

After placing the carton back in the fridge, she took her glass outside and sat on the wooden steps to sip the juice in the already warm sunshine. As she consumed her liquid breakfast she strained her ears in the direction of the ocean three blocks away, trying to hear the waves. The only noises that reached her were the sounds of traffic and pedestrians on nearby Main Street. Then Blanca's strident voice broke her concentration.

"What's the haps, girl? Ya just getting up?"

Kathy threw her friend a half-hearted wave inviting her to come up the stairs and join her. "Yeah, pretty much. Just enjoying the silence before I go meet the guys at the Breakwater."

Blanca laughed, but understandingly. "I hear ya. It is pretty quiet without Jayboy's loud mouth goin' off huh?" As soon as the quip was out Blanca looked slightly crestfallen as though she was afraid she'd gone too far, but Kathy simply smiled crookedly and nodded her agreement. Blanca shook her head at her friend. "Man, I don't know how you keep up with him sometimes. That boy is wired 24-7."

Kathy drained her glass and set it down beside her with a thump. "I don't try to keep up with him. Just kick back and watch the fun."

"Yeah fine, but c'mon – it has to get old sometimes," Blanca probed. "It would for me, anyway."

"Good thing you two aren't going out then," Kathy replied evenly as she picked up her glass and got to her bare feet. Blanca shrugged and followed her inside.

After brushing her teeth and hair and washing her face, Kathy donned a pair of red and white striped flip-flops and grabbed her purse. "Ready to go?" she inquired without waiting for a reply from Blanca, who exited behind her as quietly as she'd entered.

The walk down to the beach was short and nearly silent. In an attempt to dispel the tension between them Blanca mentioned an upcoming show at the Santa Monica Civic, but only got a mild expression of interest in return. She was relieved when they got to the Breakwater vicinity and saw a fairly large group of people already hanging around, most of them fellow Venice locals. Among them was Tony, his curly mop still dripping seawater from his last ride. With a little cry of delight Blanca launched herself forward and into his arms, heedless of getting her outfit soaked. For once he didn't seem to mind her blatant public display of affection but merely laughed and held her close as she planted a big kiss on his cheek. Kathy scanned the group for her own boyfriend but he was nowhere in evidence. Looking out over their heads toward the sea, she spied him on the left edge of the lineup, waiting anxiously for the next set of waves.

Tony spied his sister and gestured for her to join them. She got verbal greetings and a few hugs from most of the guys – Paul Constantineau, Wentzle Ruml (acting slightly tipsy although it wasn't even 10am yet), Billy Yuron, Paul Hoffman and Ray Flores along with a number of other lesser lights of the scene, a few of the girls who loved them and the next generation of Dogtown skaters and surfers. Only two guys, both in their mid- or late-teens, were unfamiliar to Kathy but upon closer scrutiny she recognized one of them as Steve, the nervous skater at the Upland contest from last month. He still looked a little nervous now, probably from finding himself in the midst of so many Venice denizens; a crowd well known for its inherent and vicious localism. They were both standing close to Tony and taking their cues from him about when to laugh or look serious or just stay quiet (the most popular option at the moment), so Kathy guessed they were there at her brother's invitation.

A moment later Tony confirmed her suspicions. "Hey Kathy, this is Steve Alba and Chris Miller from Upland way. I'm thinking of sponsoring them so I invited 'em up here to see if they can hang with us."

"You should let Steve ride for you just 'cause his last name is one consonant off from ours," Kathy joked, making the subject of their chat shyly drop his big dark eyes down toward the sand as he dug little hole in it with the toe of his red Vans sneaker.

After catching up with everyone Kathy and Blanca decided to sit on the small causeway that led to the rocks of the Breakwater itself so they could get an excellent view of the action. Most of the non-surfers followed them across the sands, their conversation and occasional bursts of cackling laughter shredded into incomprehensible babble by the strong sea breeze. Tony, both Pauls and Ray returned to the water just as the next set was beginning to crank up. As soon as she and Blanca had found a suitable perch on one of the jagged rocks, Steve and Chris appeared next to her. "Can we uh, sit here?" Steve shyly inquired.

"Yeah sure, it's a free country," Kathy replied with a little shrug. The Uplanders looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged as well and gingerly set themselves down. A moment later Wentzle clambered onto the rock and plunked down close to Kathy's left, pulling out a silver whiskey flask from his wetsuit as he did so and wordlessly offering her a sip. She declined with a little laugh and shake of her head.

"Too early in the day for ya, huh?" Wentzle said with a chuckle. "Ah well, there wasn't a lot left anyway."

She threw him a wry smile. "There ya have it," she shot back offhandedly. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Blanca was looking a bit put out, probably more over being ignored by the original Zephyr skate team member than not getting a nip of booze. A dozen yards off to their left, Jay was just catching a decent wave, Tony and PC hot in his wake but not quite able to match him move for move. Kathy watched intently as he rode it until it began to crumble, making him steer himself over the crest and behind it just before it burned out short of the surf zone. He lowered himself to his stomach and paddled back out, seemingly oblivious to the watchers on the shore. Within two minutes he was charging a fresh wave, doing slick cutbacks and pulling a couple of quick berts, his right hand slicing through the wave's face and leaving a miniature wake which echoed the one made by his surfboard. His perfectly-executed run drew a smattering of applause from the watchers on the rocks and Kathy had to smile at the normally jaded Venice locals getting stoked watching her boyfriend surf.

She turned to Blanca. "Yeah, so Jay can be a loudmouth but it's times like this that make it all worth it. I wouldn't trade him for any other guy in Dogtown."

"He's probably even better than my Tony," Blanca agreed expansively. Kathy noted the emphasis her friend had put on the word 'my', which was undoubtedly for the benefit of the younger single girls sitting nearby, who viewed mornings such as this as their chance to window-shop for a Dogtowner boyfriend. After shooting them a stern look Blanca turned back to Kathy and broached a new topic.

"Oh! Check it out, guess who I ran into at the pier yesterday? Tiffany Griffith!"

"No shit, Tuff Tiff? Is she visiting or back for good?"

"She's moved back. Guess she didn't like Denver as much as she thought she would. I didn't get the whole story from her about what went down but yeah, she and her mom are living in the same apartment building as before."

"Crazy. Wonder why I haven't run into her yet?"

"Probably because she's been hanging with the Mob guys ever since she got back. And they've been kinda keeping to themselves lately," Blanca pointed out.

Wentzle squinted out to sea pensively. "Holdin' out on us, man. Tuff Tiff, fuckin' A."

"Uh, 'the Mob'?" Steve dared to butt in.

"Not the mob as in Mafia, the Mob as in the guys who used to surf the old POP pier," Blanca hastened to inform him.

"Oh, right on."

"Yeah, don't nobody fuck with that crew. They're a little older and they rip," Wentz stated.

"More surfers than skaters," Kathy added. "Some of them were on the original Zephyr surf team."

His confusion alleviated, Steve nodded in understanding and turned his attention back to the surfing. Between sets Tony waded back onto the sands and shouted up to his sister: "Hey, Ray's having a barbeque at his place starting 'bout one or two o'clock. D'you and Jay have a way over there?"

Kathy shrugged. "Dunno, let me talk to him about it. Philane's in the islands but we can't find the keys to her car."

"Shit, that's a bummer. Well, let me know if you guys need a ride over there. I love driving my new carro, ya know."

Kathy grinned down at him. "You mean showing it off all over town. Oh hey, did you know that Tuff Tiff moved back?"

"Uh, I thought somebody said that earlier, yeah. So where the hell is she hiding out?"

"With the Mob guys," Blanca jumped in, eager to be included since she was the one who broke the news in the first place.

Tony's expression turned ever-so-slightly solemn for the briefest of moments, then he recovered his cocky grin. "That so? Well, maybe she'll remember who her original friends are and come hang out with us sometime."

"We all have a lot to catch up on since she left," Blanca stated in a bright tone.

Kathy glanced over at Jay, who was paddling hard to make an approaching wave. "Yeah. I'm sure Tiff will be very interested to know what's gone down around here in the past year," she murmured in a voice so low the crashing waves nearly drowned her words out entirely. Only Blanca heard her clearly and shot her a sidewise look. Heedless, her gaze still fixed on her boyfriend, Kathy continued:

"Yeah, Tiffany's going to find out that Venice really has changed. A lot."