Rusharound

Leo Robbins (blue jacket) taught me to sail. He ran the Parks and Recreation sailing department in Ventura from a shed next to the fuel dock. At the end of the class he had to read the exam to me because I didn’t yet know how to read. (More after the jump)

Leo is famous for lots of things, the least of which was being a hip 60 year old who rode a motorcycle. Probably more important is his contribution to Kevin Hall (red vest) who graduated from Leo’s class and later went on to become an Olympian and America’s Cup sailor (and for a short while, the coach of my high school’s sailing program). Kevin and I — and thousands of others — owe a great deal to Leo.

We also owe a great deal to my dad who realized Leo’s potential and formed the Ventura Maritime Foundation to make sure Leo’s programs and Kevin’s competitive sailing ambitions would have the resources they need to succeed. Kevin’s achievements are well known , and so are Ventura’s sail training program which was awarded US Sailing’s Outstanding Year Round Program Award for 2006.

Read more about Leo.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 25th, 2007 at 7:51 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.