Coach Bill / Dad, Entrepreneur Special Educator, American Political Scientist, Writer, Musician.

My home in Oahu’s North shore town of Haleiwa was a 2 bedroom ‘shotgun’ plantation wood structure left over from the 1940’s. It sat on a raised level just across the towns only 7-11 store on Kamehameha Highway. My backyard overlooked the pineapple fields and the massive mountain range that shoots out to Kaena Point, the most westerly tip of O’ahu. While in Hawai’i, I worked as a life skills trainer to a young, feral girl on the autism spectrum. On my time off, I would explore the island, surf, join bonfires on the beach and race through the pineapple fields. There was always talk of protecting the North Shore’s natural environment and warding off big development was very important to the people of the town. Everyone liked the way things where. My neighbor, originally from Oregon, was an exceptional Mormon surfer guy who use to go out at midnight off Sunset Beach with a spear and long flippers to fish all alone. I was amazed he stayed alive.  A jack-of-all-trades...

Five hundred years ago, Christopher Columbus, from Italy, set out on the Santa Maria with two Spanish captains who are maternal ancestors of mine, the Alonso Brothers. They commanded La Nina and La Pinta across the Atlantic Ocean. The three captains and their valiant crew went southwest on adventure for many months to what was hoped to be a new land to them and not the end of earth as many at that time forecasted.  Nothing was sure. This was the first time anything like this had been attempted before across the widest expanse of the Atlantic.  They made it though. They set out on an adventure into the unknown with only the wind pushing their sails being certain. Skateboarding is like that. When you are able to skate the bowls at a skate park, a sense of adventure is attained. It is an epic moment between hesitancy and commitment as the body and mind commit to dropping-in effortlessly and doing all the needed functional balance adjustments to skate down the wall s...

When we meet people, if we let ourselves yield to each other, we open up and our stories can come forth. They can impact us, change our perspective, create empathy and even get us to change our actions. During my last visit to Florida, I met a father and son team straight out of a crocodile dundee movie. The young boy, Will, was very outgoing and met me with a big smile upon my arrival. Two of my sisters and I had visited his 'estate' as guests of his Dad. My eldest sister is friends with him. It is a log cabin home filled with stuffed alligators and mounted heads of hunted stags of the field. This is a man's home, nay a cowboy's home. In the entrance to the property there is a humongous Oak Tree and as my experience that afternoon and night unfolded I would soon learn that I was a guest at the estate of two living Oaks. A Dad Oak and a son Oak, if ever there could be one.  Will's Dad was taking us out on their airboat on the St. Johns River a half hour ...