Do you remember ABC’s Wide World of Sports, (WWOS) that long-running sports anthology show on American TV?

Running from 1961 to 1997, it had an iconic montage of sports clips that ran with brassy music and the narration:

“Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… this is ABC’s Wide World of Sports!”

While a lot of you may remember the show, do you remember one of the scenes from the intro, of a guy on a surfboard? I daresay this is one of those images, like the unfortunate ski jumper who wiped out week after week, that’s burned into our collective subconscious.

Well, the surfer in that clip is one ‘legend-in-his-own-time’ Mike Turkington, pictured with me last week on my trip to Maui.

I hadn’t met Mike before this, but I was seated across from him at a supper of screenwriters from the Maui Writers Retreat. Mike T and I were among the ’spouses’ of those in the retreat. A really unassuming and quiet kinda guy, he and I were among the wallflowers - the smiling and indulgent foil to the very happy and slightly punch-drunk screenwriters. (A week of 12 hour days will do that to you.)

There were many cool conversations around the table that night - Luanne has a neat screenplay about what happens when a princess kisses a frog and…turns into a frog. Graham has another cool one about how Hurricane Katrina hides the evidence of a crime, and a second hurricane reveals it again…lots of creative people.

But cutting to the chase (just a little) there was something about the gent across from me, some hidden spark (something that ultimately is in everyone, you just have to look) that compelled me to ask:

“So Mike, what do you do? We spouses have to stick together you know.”

“I’m a Captain…I take people out on the water.” Very relaxed, he smiled when I leapt in with “A Captain? Ahoy!” and “Port…starboard, which will it be Cap’n?” And then, like a splash of cool water in the face, it came out that Mike was the guy - The Guy - in the WWOS clip.

“What’s cool about that clip is that I start out goofy foot on it.” This is surfer lingo for left, or ‘other’ foot, forward. “Then I disappear inside the wave and when I’m there, I switch-stance, and when I come out my other foot is in front - that’s what they liked so much about that shot.”

Okay…not only is he perched on a small piece of wood in the middle of 15 foot high waves, he is messing about with the position of his feet, changing things around part way through…

“Gosh…well, I have to ask Mike…what are some of your craziest wave stories - I’m sure you have tons! What is it like? I’ll probably never surf in my life, I find high heels a little wobblesome - so is it completely crazy inside the wave?”

That’s when, if you were watching, you could see the spark hit oxygen and quiet Mike T’s energy come on full.

“When you’re in there, and you catch a wave, all of a sudden you feel yourself tumbling and your stomach is above your head and you’re in this fifteen foot fall…and then there’s a second when it all smoothes out and you can start to control the board again, move around, do some zigging zagging…and all you can see is all this water in front of you…” Pause. Big smile. And a giddy sounding giggle.

“Whooaaaa.” I say. For the first time in my life, I understand why this word is so drenched with emotion whenever it’s said. “Whoa.”

More giggles from the formerly austere, unassuming Captain Mike.

Cindy, his partner of the last 6 years, pipes in…Mike used to run one of the original surf shops on the North Shore of Maui - one of his surf boards just sold on ebay for thousands of dollars.

“You are totally aLight, Mike” I say…”Your eyes have this LOOK in them…” I’m laughing, I can’t help it.

“And it’s the giggle, you made him do the giggle,” Cindy says…and it’s true, he’s giggling away, transformed.

Mike T’s been in movies as himself and has a modest page up at IMDB. He’s part of the fabric of early surfing history especially on the North Shore of Maui and when people (especially surfers) find out who he is - Cindy tells us - the eyes go round and it’s electrifying.

For me, it’s the highlight of the night, and the unexpected gift of the entire two-week trip. I’m energized just recalling the look in his eyes as he described it - I’ll carry that around with me forever.

Click on the photo above to enlarge it and see for yourself - it’s a keeper of a look.

I don’t know about you but that look of pure bliss, that state of being that’s calm AND excited, serene yet massively charged, is a goal unto itself and any one of us could be forgiven for pursuing that the rest of our lives.

I don’t write poetry, and this is not poetry, but listening to Mike was like catching a piece of powerfully moving poetry for just a moment. He might never know it but for that moment it was as if all his years of surfing (he still does it on the island of Oahu) and all the waves he ever caught, were transmitted to me.

No wonder surfers will pursue waves relentlessly for decades with a passion most people don’t understand.

Thanks Mike, to say the least. I’ll be adding your words to my treasure chest of touchstones along with the tune from ‘We are the Champions’ and the smell of fresh-squeezed lemons…