Latest Update: July 1, 2001 by Ben Marcus

18:07 MT SUNDAY JULY 1, 2001 IN THE VAN AT THE CAMP BY THE RIVER

ODOMETER: 56152
TRIP METER: 2075

MONEY Sunday brunch at Sun Valley Lodge for two plus tip: $56
Poor quality Mexican marijuana from Ketchum: $50.
AOL 800 number fees: None. Closed.
Fly-fishing gear: None. Forgot to go.
Water, apple for apple pipe, oranges, Killer smoked salmon as good as Creekside: $16.71
Sage reel lube: $ 4.00

Cash from Mountain View grocery $200
Money to Andy for rod and reel $120

Just got back from a long walk up a short creek. Warm Springs is a creek, not a river, although I don't know where the border to all that lies. Jeff thinks a river has to be navigable in some way. I don't know. Warm Springs is a creek and it is pretty choice. It is the perfect thing to do on an unusually hot day in Ketchum: walk up the creek for miles, hit the likely holes, catch a few middle-sized fish, watch the little ones go nuts. Warm Springs is mostly open and undeveloped, but one of the mysteries of this part of the world is walking around a corner and coming face to face with someone's rural mansion. Boy Howdy there are some houses squirreled away in this part of the world. Amazing houses. Sun Valley is an anomaly for Idaho. It's a very ritzy, classy European-styled ski town, but it is high desert and western, so it doesn't look or feel like a ski town. Jeff G. knows a lot about ski towns. His grandfather was inspired by Sun Valley to build a ski village called Alpitel in Washington. He knows a bit of the history of this place. Averell Harriman the Railroad Tycoon hired an Austrian ski whiz to find an ideal location for a European ski resort in the United States. He chose Sun Valley/Ketchum, and it was a good call. I don't know all the details about this Austrian guy. I don't know where else he looked or how he bumped into Sun Valley or how many seasons he stayed here or how long he looked, but it would be worth looking into. But driving around here today, you understand a few things: Why Hemingway lived here, why he liked fall, and how he used this place for inspiration.

This morning we had the Sunday brunch at the Sun Valley Lodge, and it was pretty terrifying. The Sun Valley Lodge is a very classy place with roots, and they do things with old school style. The breakfast buffet had everything you can think of: every kind of fruit, roast beef, quiche, bacon, sausage, sautÚed mushrooms, two dozen kinds of pastry, a mountain of smoked salmon, shrimp, a crepe chef, an omelette chef, liveried wait person with name tags and the place they were from: Tunisia, France. The hotel is grand the way the Royal Hawaiian and the one in Victoria are grand. What looked at first to be a swimming pool outside was an ice rink, with one young, graceful girl doing figures and pirouettes, and another, older man doing tight spins.

The walls are lined with photos of movie stars: Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Lucille Ball, Jamie Lee Curtis, Janet Leigh, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Lots of famous figure skaters and a few movies made on the premises, including Bus Stop.

We wandered around looking at all this stuff then found the banquet room. The only comparable spread was in the British Virgin Islands on our honeymoon, at a place on Virgin Gorda called Little Dix Bay. That was a dinner spread, and it was similarly awesome. All I wanted for breakfast was oatmeal and I didn't want to dive in, but how can you resist when every good thing in the world is laid out before you: I had smoked salmon on a bagel with capers and onions, a sausage, a piece of bacon, a piece of quiche, some sautÚed mushrooms, some pineapple slices, orange juice, coffee. Went back for more smoked salmon and mushrooms and then gave up. Love to have had something like that around when I was surfing Pleasure Point three hours before breakfast. What a drag it is getting old.

Anyway, the brunch cost $23 but it was worth it just to walk through a grand hotel looking scruffy and embarrassing. I said 'Merci Beaucoup" to one of the wait people and the nice young man smiled.

There was a piano player doing medleys from Sinatra to the Beatles to Christmas songs. We were the only ones in there around 9:00, but as we were leaving it was filling up.

I felt like death walking out of there, and only now, after four miles of river walking, slipping and sliding over boulders, am I starting to recover. I used to be able to surf that off and burn it off. Hard to do now.

After breakfast we dove up a road that goes over the mountains to MacKay in the Lost Valley. Jeff was tempted to charge it, but he doesn't trust my tires. Tires are one of the things that I've been stressing about lately, and then the little lightbulb went off over my head: Sears card. Tires. Good ones. Charge it. I want to by four good All Terrain tires, because I do get into All Terrains, and it looks like I'm going to be heading up to Alaska after the Fourth of July.

So, Sears for tires. I'll probably do that tomorrow in Twin Falls after Jeff leaves for Boise.

We drove pretty far up the road almost to where it turns into dirt, and then we turned around and went back to the Hemingway Memorial. There is a diverted bit of stream that goes by a plaque with a bust looking toward the stream. The quotation is about fall. Let's see if I can remember it off the top of my head:

No, first I'm gonna go jump in the cold water and clear my head then I'll try to remember the Hemingway.

I chickened out. Didn't jump in. Too cold. I fished for a while and Ike watched me. I wonder two things: What would happen if I threw him in the water. And, if I gave him one of those little trout I catch, would he eat it or play with it, or run. I won't do either. He might drown, and I don't want to kill one fish in this river. I don't think I've killed any yet, although maybe one on the Big Wood yesterday. I know how to release them when they're stunned. You kind of have to jump start their breathing and circulation and then let them go into the current. The small to medium fish are so full of piss and vinegar anyway that they just hop into the water. It's a weird little science.

Hemingway: He wrote a lot up here and it's not too hard to understand why, or what his lifestyle was like. Fishing a small stream is the perfect opportunity to om out. You can focus two sides of your brain simultaneously, and get a lot done. Today I waded slowly up the creek in my felt-bottomed wading shoes, face in the sun, water up to my knees, looking for water to fish in an unseasonably low creek, and thinking about everything.

I had a lot to think about. Russia is probably off. The only way to get there now is to fly the other way: London to Moscow and then a nine-hour flight to Kamchatka, on Russian Airlines. It might be worth doing just for the adventure, but I don't know if others are up to it, or how much it will cost. I guess there is still a possibility we could go and I would like to go, but now I'm considering another alternative: A boat trip in Alaska. Peter Mel and some other guys did this a few years ago, but I don't think they got any surf. I interviewed the guy, Scott Liska, for swell.com, and he had interesting things to say. I think a trip in late August and into September might be the go. I doubt we'd get skunked, but I don't think the conditions will be all that burly. I'll look into it, see if Brock or anyone else is interested. It won't be as exotic as Kamchatka, but it will still be an adventure and we can also do the Tidal Bore thing at Turnagain Arm.

If we do that, then that gives me an excuse to go visit Peter Otsea in Yakutat. I think he is there through the summer, and I don't know if his wife or kids are with him, but I might go camp in his front yard for awhile. I wouldn't mind trying to surf there and attempting to get healthy. Don't know if it's possible for me anymore, I've been sedentary and over-indulgent for so long, but I have to try. Maybe spend a few weeks in Yakutat, trying to surf a little, fishing the famous Seatuck (spelling???) river and doing some reading and writing. I've got to call Peter and see what he says, and call Brock and a lot of people.

Here is who I have to call:

Evan Slater to talk about final fixes on the Jay Moriarity story. He hasn't read the new version yet, which has kind of a flowery, strange ending about Jay Moriarity ascending to Charger Valhalla. But I think Evan will like it.

Officer Avilla of the Pacifica Police Department to see if I'm in trouble. A couple of days ago I sent a nasty e-mail to Frank Quirarte, the guy who runs the Aggroville website who I threatened to sue on behalf of Evan and Jeff Clark and anyone else who got slammed on that site. It was halfway a bluff and halfway the truth, but he took it seriously and started pulling posts that mentioned names-mine included. I thought it was unfair that he would allow people to libel Jeff Clark on the site, when Jeff was the guy who introduced Frank to Mavericks, got him set up as a Water Patrolman, even gave Frank his first camera. Frank was Jeff's best man at his wedding, and now he allows people to slam Jeff-ignorantly, incorrectly and unfairly most of the time-for no good reason. I was just irritated when it was Jeff Clark and Evan and Grant they were working over, but when my name came in-most likely inspired by Skindog-I got pissed and sent Frank some e-mails threatening to sue. I should run the whole sequence of e-mails here. It's pretty entertaining. I think I lost the first batch when Gateway wiped away my hard disk, but the latest batch is pretty good, too.

It all started from something written in here. I had sent Frank an e-mail asking for information on his premiere at the Capitola Theater that benefited Kim Moriarity. I also asked for a copy of his video Return of the Drag-In and asked for any comments he might have to go in the story. It was a very polite, respectful letter because he was involved in the whole deal, but I got no response.

Here is the original e-mail:

Subj: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/24/2001
To: Publisher@mavsurfer.com, evan@swell.com

Frank
Evan Slater has asked me to write a memorial for Jay Moriarity in Surfing Magazine and I want to do a good job.

I want to include the benefits for Whipped and Return of the Drag In in the story. I also want to review both of those videos for Swell and Surfing.

I'll be fair. You'll see. I wish you guys had stuck together and done as good a job as you did for Year of the Drag In, but maybe two videos will be as good as one.

I am in Montana now and am going to be in Ketchum, Idaho by Tuesday or Wednesday. I would really appreciate it you could e-mail a copy of Return of the Drag In-with the Jay Memorial piece-to

Ben Marcus
c/o Smith Sport optics
c/o Leah Butler
280 Northwood Way
Ketchum, ID
83340

If you do Fed Ex or UPS me something, please e-mail me and let me know what and when it is coming.

Also, if you want to write up some words on your benefit for Kim: How many shows, how many people showed up, how much money you raised, what Kim said, what you said, anything you think would go good in the story. Please e-mail that to me, too.

I have to get this thing done and I have shitloads of material, with more coming.

Thanks.

That was a decent e-mail. I only wanted his side of the whole story, but he never responded in any way, so I wrote in Sacklunch: "Screw him. There's something wrong with that guy." The latter quote coming from someone else who has had to deal with him.

Well apparently Frank read that, and sent me this e-mail.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 3:39:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: publisher@mavsurfer.com (Frank Quirarte)
To: TheBenM@aol.com

I can't wait until you visit us again! Be sure to come and find me.

That sounded threatening to me and I refuse to be threatened by some surf photographer dingaling from Pacifica so I sent this back.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL Date: 6/27/2001 3:59:00 PM Pacific Daylight Time From: TheBenM To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

There is something wrong with you.

And then this back.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL Date: 6/27/2001 4:00:27 PM Pacific Daylight Time From: TheBenM To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

If I come to find you I'll have a shotgun, so you better learn to duck, dirt bag.

I guess the fresh air made me cocky. And irresponsible.

Well after all the crap and death threats I got on Aggroville, as edited by Frank, the little whiner decides to go and make a nuisance of himself and call the cops.

These are the e-mails he sent me and I returned.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:14:28 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: publisher@mavsurfer.com (Frank Quirarte)
To: TheBenM@aol.com

Thanks Ben, we are forwarding your threat to the police. And thanks for sending me your address so they will know where to find you.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:15:34 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: TheBenM
To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

Boo hoo hoo. I'll forward all the threats from Aggroville then, and we'll see who loses.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL Date: 6/27/2001 4:22:41 PM Pacific Daylight Time From: TheBenM To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

I'm in Idaho. Better send them here and tell them to bring their fishing poles.

Let's just take the whole package into court and air it out. I'm ready. Jeff is ready. Are you ready?

You might have to mortgage your ski to pay the lawyers, and then where would you be" Back at Wal Mart?

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:39:56 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: publisher@mavsurfer.com (Frank Quirarte)
To: TheBenM@aol.com

Where in Idaho are you? How about a phone number? Address.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:40:29 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: TheBenM
To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

I dont have one. I'm camping. Give me a number for the cops and I'll call them and explain the whole thing.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:43:35 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: publisher@mavsurfer.com (Frank Quirarte)
To: TheBenM@aol.com

Where you camping?

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:43:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: TheBenM
To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

I dont know. I'm with a friend. Why?

Subj: WHICH POLICE DEPARTMENT Date: 6/27/2001 4:41:16 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: TheBenM
To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

Is it Pacifica police department? Got a name for a detective. If you arent bluffing, give me the number.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:55:03 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: publisher@mavsurfer.com (Frank Quirarte)
To: TheBenM@aol.com

Officer Avilla of the Pacifica Police department would like you to call him at (650) 738 7314. I need to treat this as a serious threat. You should call that number.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:45:20 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: TheBenM
To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

There's a lot of Idaho and a lot of it doesn't have names.

You arent going to win this one. I'll just show all the threatening e-mails I saved from Aggroville. The cops will get pissed that you wasted their time.

You dont worry me.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/27/2001 4:47:09 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: TheBenM
To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

Don't you get tired of being such a desperate little scumbag?

So I called Officer Avila and explained the situation. He didn't seem all that concerned. I told him I was in Idaho and asked if he had been to Montana. He said he had relatives there. I urged him to go as soon as I could. Officer Avilla asked if, "This will be the last time I hear of this, right?"

I said that I thought it would. Since it didn't seem like a big deal, I sent another snotty e-mail to Frank.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL
Date: 6/28/2001 6:23:36 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: TheBenM
To: publisher@mavsurfer.com

Dear Frankie

I talked to Officer Avila. I told him I was in Idaho and he asked about Idaho. We talked about Montana and fishing and hunting and I told him to get up here as soon as possible.

Then I said, "What about the shotgun deal?"

He said, "Do you own a shotgun?"

I said, "Yes."

He said, "Just make sure you lead him."

Nice try. Shall I sick the law on you now? Want to be in court for the rest of your miserable little life? Want to mortgage your little Pacifica Palace?

Keep my name, Jeff's name, Evan's name and Grant's name off your little Jerry Springer Show, creep.

Ben

P.S. Officer Avilla said you asked him to turn on the flashing lights in his patrol car, and he did. What a nice man.

Subj: Re: NEED RETURN OF THE DRAG IN FOR JAY MEMORIAL Date: 6/28/2001 6:44:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time From: publisher@mavsurfer.com (Frank Quirarte) To: TheBenM@aol.com

Officer Avilla of the Pacifica Police department would like you to call him "again" at (650) 738 7314. You must have misunderstood how serious this is. Please call him back.

That was the 28th. Instead of calling Officer Avilla I sent him an e-mail that explained the whole thing.

Subj: URGENT E-MAIL FOR OFFICER AVILLA (AVILA) FROM BEN MARC Date: 6/29/2001 9:45:27 AM Pacific Daylight Time From: TheBenM To: police@ci.pacifica.ca.us, PUBLISHER@MAVSURFER File: Mav Surfer Forum - bRE Ben Marcus-b.htm (9525 bytes) DL Time (49333 bps): < 1 minute

Officer Avilla
Pacifica Police Department J

une 29, 2001

Officer Avilla,
I am sending you this e-mail in response to the situation with Frank Quirarte.

My e-mail response was smart-ass, I admit it, but you have to understand that he has used the Aggroville chat forum on the www.mavsurfer.com website to threaten and harass me and others for months.

A while ago I threatened to sue him for libel (this is his retaliation for that, I guess), and he has done a good job of keeping my name off of his website, but I still get death threats on there. I have attached and pasted one of dozens that I saved.

I have no intention of shooting Frank Quirarte or getting anywhere near him. I just think the guy is a weasel who takes advantage of other people, and I just wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine.

I will try to call you today, but I thought this e-mail might get to you faster.

Thank you. Sorry to keep this going, but I really don't like the guy. I'm not going to shoot him. Better punishment to let him live.

If you want some corroboration on this, I can give you names and numbers of other people who have been shafted by Frank and also are ready to sue him.

Ben Marcus
Idaho

Below is one of many death threats against me on Aggroville. I take them as seriously as you should be taking mine against Frank. But they're still not fun to read.

This is the last you will hear of this, I hope.

This is an example one of the many death threats I got on Aggroville.

Welcome to the new Mav Surfer Forum (AgroVille for all you kooks that like to rip each other apart). To start a new thread, simply click on the "Start a New Topic" link below. To reply to a message, just click on the message title. Have at it!

Topic: RE: Ben Marcus
Name: wall (64.124.150.138.available.above.net)
Date: 06-06-01 20:11

Your fucking dead!

And that's the last I've heard of it. I talked to Evan after the Mavericks paddle out and he said Frank was "pissed." Well, that was my intention.

I got slammed on Aggroville and a few e-mails from Aggrovillains who were mad that I wasn't respecting all that Frank had done for Kim Moriarity and Jay, but how was I to know, I'm in Idaho. I'm doing a lot for him too, and it will be a whole lot if the "Live Like Jay" thing comes through.

I've been getting in a lot of trouble with e-mail lately, telling people to piss off in ways I could never do in person either out of fear or manners or both. It's soul cleansing. I only do it in rebuttal to things said to me. If someone treats me like an asshole, I do it right back, and harder. And I'm good at it. Smart and bitter makes for good and mean. Don Johnson and Steve Hawk will probably never speak to me again, but maybe that's a good thing. I still have people I can talk to.

What other phone calls do I have to make? I have to call Peter Otsea, Evan Slater, Officer Avilla. I should call my friend with the rich husband and tell her to join the Jet Set in Sun Valley. With a couple millions bucks you could build a ranch house on nice land here and live it up. Sun Valley would be a fun to place to have a vacation house. There's bike riding and good fishing and drinking in the summer, and skiing in the winter. And there's plenty of culture around. I'm thinking about going to see Bruce Willis in True West in Hailey tomorrow night. Bruce Willis lives up here, and Jeff saw Jamie Lee Curtis in the fishing store the other day.

Sun Valley is a happening place. There are zillions of girls around, a big bar scene and everyone is friendly and happy and glad to be in what is obviously a special place.

Who else do I have to call? I have to call Brock and see if he is interested in Alaska. I have to call Peter Mel to ask about Alaska and the Live Like Jay campaign and Frank and other stuff.

Jeff is back and looking for his towel. It's jump in the river and shampoo time. We're going to a sushi restaurant where his friend works to get some free piggins'. I think I'm ready to eat again.

In all my walking and thinking today I caught I caught about seven trout: four medium-sized ones and a couple of micro fish. The micro fish are hilarious, jumping out of the water like rodeo cowboys and pouncing on the fly on the way back into the water. There were a couple of really nice pools, and after you fish them you jump into them to cool off.

So I've got the micro and medium sized trout wired, now it's time to move up into the 14 to 20-inch range. The bartender at the Casino last night has a photo of himself with a 23-inch rainbow he caught at night on the Big Wood. Nice fish. You do it during the full moon, which is coming.

I also saw two snakes, a half-dozen horses, several stonefly husks and a couple of good-sized fish. Trout are lightning fast, sometimes you spook them and they go torpedoing off. And they fight like tigers. Holding onto a trout to get the hook out of its mouth is similar to grabbing Ike when he's trying to escape. They both are fast and slippery.

Tomorrow if Jeff doesn't need a ride to Boise I'm going to drive to Twin Falls and get some tires. The Internet CafÚ is closed so I'll kill a day taking care of business, and then come back to Sun Valley for Fourth of July. The town gets crazy, apparently, but I'll be able to camp and come into town for the show.

Depending on my next move and money, I may go back over to Challis and fish that neck of the woods, which Jeff doesn't want me to talk about. The little girl at the motel where I stayed wanted me to leave Ike with her. I think she's a little lonely and would like a visit from Ike. They hit it off right away.

If I'm heading for Alaska, then I'll probably go directly there. That's another phone call I have to make. I might call mom and see if she can find out about taking cars on ferries to Yakutat..

And I also have to call Canadian Customs to see about taking cats into the country.

It's now 18:10, the wind is blowing, the birds are chirping, Ike is hunting and it's time to bathe in the river and eat. I think I summed up today well enough. Even out here in the middle of nowhere you can have a lot on your mind, but walking up a nice creek with a fly rod on a sunny day can make it easier to bare.