A Walk on the Wild Side Hardly Causes a Ripple

Remember the story about God parting the Red Sea? Daniel M. Hodes could have saved Him the trouble.

For instance, last year Hodes took a 30-mile stroll on water from Catalina Island to Newport Beach. Earlier this year, he walked across the Cook Strait waters in New Zealand, humming Beatles tunes to himself and 20 trailing dolphins.

And get this: The English Channel is next; then it’s the rest of the world.

“The feeling of walking on water is fun in itself,” said Hodes, a Tustin attorney, who scoots along with a paddle and 11-foot-long pontoons on each foot, which are available for commercial purchase at water ski supply outlets “Fun for me is walking out a couple of miles and being alone with myself. It’s therapeutic and clears the brain.”

He once kayaked from Catalina Island to Newport Beach but didn’t find that very challenging.

Hodes says water walking makes more sense to him. “We all can walk on land, and, with certain modifications, you can walk on water,” he said. But he points out that the pontoons originally were meant to be used on gentle river water.

“The water can get pretty rough at times in the ocean,” he said. “Maybe that’s the reason there’s only two of us in Southern California who walk water.”

It might take a little to surpass the adventure of Hodes’ fellow water walker, David Roe, 39, of Dana Point.

Roe walked into New York Harbor during the Statue of Liberty festivities wearing white tails, white rimmed-glasses and a red, white and blue top hat.

“That was wild,” said Hodes, a triathlete who also water skis and runs marathons.

Now Hodes is planning to form a water-walking club and take a repeat walk on the Catalina route with eight others later this year. “Can you imagine the sight--seeing eight people walking on water?”

Hodes says that beside the fun of it all, there’s meaning to his water walking. “I’m making a nice living as a lawyer and it’s important to give back a little of what you take out,” he said, noting that he seeks pledges for each mile he walks on water and donates it to charity.

He said that his Catalina walk netted $12,000 for the Orange County Trauma Society and that he hopes all his future walks will produce the same results. He said he is currently talking with American Cancer Society officials to set up a charity walk.

“I want to walk on water on every continent on the globe,” Hodes said. “After the English Channel there’s the Straits of Gibraltar, South America, the southern part of Africa and Canada.”

He said it’s also good training for the triathlon.

The senior prom last year was such a memory-maker, said Pat Trotter, it will be repeated this year for seniors, real senior citizens.

The ballroom of the Fullerton Holiday Inn will be decorated in an Art Deco motif for the second annual Senior Citizens Prom May 1 with the theme “Reflections: A Senior’s Senior Prom.” Sunrise Rotary Club members will attend to make sure unescorted women have dance partners.

A prom king and queen will be selected and the Society for the Preservation of Big Bands will provide the music.

The $5 fee will include the prom, transportation to and from the hotel, a souvenir photo. A complete breakfast cooked by Rotary members will be served at the Fullerton Senior Multi-Service Center.

Trotter, the center’s community service supervisor, said there will be a difference is this year’s senior’s senior prom.

A no-host bar will be available.

Elayne Simpson opened a shoe store in Huntington Beach and named it “Goody ToShoes.”

Talk about names. Orange County Fair spokeswoman Dawn Casperson said the eight Future Farmers of America who will travel the county to talk about the egg and poultry industry and the July 9-19 fair, are called “The Good Eggs.”

The fair theme, of course, is “Don’t Miss the Egg-citement.”

Sounds like Eggstacy.

Acknowledgments--Woodbridge High School freshman Michael Feng of Irvine was awarded a scholarship for a summer program at Tunghai University in the People’s Republic of China. Phi Lambda (USA), fraternity of American professionals of Chinese ancestry, sponsors the program for young Chinese-Americans to study Chinese language and culture.