Second Wind remains in slip as Dana Point logs its fourteenth Florence Event of the sabbatical
DANA POINT, CA — Local father of three Doug Prendergast purchased a 42-foot catamaran on Monday after watching one YouTube video of John John Florence sailing through Panama, telling his family at dinner that they were “done with the rat race” and would be circumnavigating the globe as soon as he figured out which rope makes it go.
Prendergast, 47, a regional sales director who has surfed “on and off, mostly off” since 2009, was reportedly deep into the Florence family’s sailing odyssey, documented most recently in Surfer’s coverage of the three-time world champion scoring flawless, punishing barrels in Bocas del Toro, when the algorithm delivered him directly into a boat dealership’s marketing funnel and, 72 hours later, a marina.
The Vision
“John John traded the tour for the horizon,” Prendergast told reporters from the deck of the vessel, which he has named Second Wind and which has not yet left the slip. “Him, Lauryn, little Darwin, just a family and the sea. Uninhabited islands. Empty beaches. Thick jungle coming right down to the water. I watched that and I looked at my own life, and I asked myself, what is stopping me? And the answer was nothing. Nothing except knowledge, experience, my job, the kids’ school, and my wife, who I would describe as consulting an attorney recreationally.”
Prendergast’s wife, Karen, clarified from the dock that the attorney consultation is “not recreational.”
Maritime Experts Assess
Harbor officials say the Prendergast purchase reflects a documented surge in what the Coast Guard privately calls Florence Events, defined as any vessel acquisition occurring within one week of exposure to footage of a professional surfer living correctly. Dana Point Harbor alone has logged fourteen Florence Events since the champion began his sabbatical from full-time competition, of which eleven vessels remain in their slips, two have reached Catalina, and one made it to Catalina but had to be towed back “emotionally.”
“There is a pattern,” said Harbormaster Vincent Okafor-Reyes. “A man watches a world champion, a generational waterman raised on the North Shore, thread a slab in the Caribbean between navigation sessions with his family. The man does not register the thirty years of ocean mastery. The man registers the boat. He believes the boat contains the mastery. The boat is where the mastery is kept. So he buys the boat. And then he stands on the boat, and he waits for the mastery, and the mastery does not come, and eventually he asks me which one is starboard, and I tell him, because it is my job, and because he is going to find out either way.”
Okafor-Reyes noted that Florence himself sailed across the Pacific, through New Zealand, the Bahamas, and now the Caribbean, surfing waves that detonate onto dry sand. “Doug,” he added, “got seasick at the boat show. On land. At the boat show.”
The Shakedown Cruise
Prendergast’s maiden voyage on Saturday was described by witnesses as “brief and educational.” The vessel departed the slip at 9:14 a.m., achieved open water at 9:31, and returned at 9:58 after Prendergast encountered what he described as “conditions,” which harbor cameras confirm was the wake of a duffy boat carrying a bachelorette party. The bachelorette party waved. Prendergast has described the incident as “a heavy water moment” and says it taught him a lot about himself, which observers agree is true.
His children have taken varying positions on the family’s new direction. Daughter Madison, 15, has stated she will not be homeschooled by “a man who replied-all to the whole company twice in one month.” Son Tyler, 12, is fully committed and has already begun referring to his bedroom as “below decks.” The youngest, Emma, 8, asked if the boat has WiFi, was told no, and has not spoken to her father since.
The Broader Movement
Economists say the surf-sabbatical fantasy economy is now measurable, with marine brokers reporting that catamaran inquiries spike within hours of every Florence upload. One Newport broker has begun scheduling extra staff around the champion’s posting habits, calling it “the John John calendar,” and confirms that the single phrase ‘felt like everything was alive’ moved more fiberglass in one week than the entire spring boat show.
The trend has drawn satirical attention on both coasts, with Bohiney Magazine publishing a guide titled How to Tell If You Are a Waterman or a Man Near Water, and the UK’s The London Prat reporting a parallel British phenomenon in which men watch one canal documentary and buy a narrowboat, “which is the same disease at four miles per hour.”
Undeterred
Whether Florence returns to the Championship Tour remains one of surfing’s great open questions. Whether Prendergast returns to open water remains one of Dana Point’s. He insists the family departs for the South Pacific in June, pending a few remaining items: an engine course, a navigation course, a knots course, and, per a written agreement with Karen, “a course where someone explains insurance to him slowly.”
“People doubted John John too,” Prendergast said, gazing at the harbor mouth, beyond which lies the entire Pacific Ocean and, somewhere in it, a man who actually knows what he is doing. “The sea calls to some of us.”
At press time, the sea had left a voicemail.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com