Wow! This thread degenerated into a rather tangential subject!!

Just wanted to add another remembrance of Scott Bristow from the old
RBP days. I remember! I still have my old and worn RBP tee shirt with
the emblem of Scott hand paddling his 007 too! And an RBP sticker on
the back of my Grateful Heads helmet too, cause it's oval, and a bit
smaller than the Grateful Heads logo sticker. Every once in a while
someone notices it and asks me about it too, and I let them know that
there *was* an internet presence for boaters before the WWW and
Boatertalk days!

And Scott was among the creme of the crop in those bygone days.

Happy Thanksgiving all! :-)

John Kuthe...

wrote in news:1164401063.689912.215920@
45g2000cws.googlegroups.com:

Wow! This thread degenerated into a rather tangential subject!!

Just wanted to add another remembrance of Scott Bristow from the old
RBP days. I remember! I still have my old and worn RBP tee shirt with
the emblem of Scott hand paddling his 007 too!

I still have two of them, one of each design.

And an RBP sticker on
the back of my Grateful Heads helmet too, cause it's oval, and a bit
smaller than the Grateful Heads logo sticker. Every once in a while
someone notices it and asks me about it too, and I let them know that
there *was* an internet presence for boaters before the WWW and
Boatertalk days!

And Scott was among the creme of the crop in those bygone days.

Then there was the Rat. I've only seen one person with a rat attached to
his helmut.

John Fereira wrote:
wrote in news:1164401063.689912.215920@
45g2000cws.googlegroups.com:
Just wanted to add another remembrance of Scott Bristow from the old
RBP days. I remember! I still have my old and worn RBP tee shirt with
the emblem of Scott hand paddling his 007 too!

I still have two of them, one of each design.

I also still have some RBP T-shirts, both designs. Some sweaters too.

And an RBP sticker on
the back of my Grateful Heads helmet too, cause it's oval, and a bit
smaller than the Grateful Heads logo sticker. Every once in a while
someone notices it and asks me about it too, and I let them know that
there *was* an internet presence for boaters before the WWW and
Boatertalk days!

And Scott was among the creme of the crop in those bygone days.

Then there was the Rat. I've only seen one person with a rat attached to
his helmut.

I still have that plastic Rat... After it was "kidnapped", it literally
went all over the world!

Interesting character, that Rattso. One of the few kayakers almost my
size. Pretty good boater too! He used to spend some time on BT, but
rarely surfaces there nowadays.

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/

"Wilko" wrote in message
...

I still have that plastic Rat... After it was "kidnapped", it literally
went all over the world!

There were actually two of those rats. After it was kidnapped and sent
around the world, someone introduced a second rat into the mix... One of
them spent some time with me, and went on holiday with my family. I hope
one found its way back to its master.


-Paul

Paul Skoczylas wrote:
"Wilko" wrote in message
...
I still have that plastic Rat... After it was "kidnapped", it literally
went all over the world!

There were actually two of those rats. After it was kidnapped and sent
around the world, someone introduced a second rat into the mix... One of
them spent some time with me, and went on holiday with my family. I hope
one found its way back to its master.

I suspect that there were a lot more than two. Rattso did tell me that
he expected to have them escape from his helmet every once in a while,
especially when getting one of his famous self-inflicted trashings
(still swimless in...). I think one of them managed to get three paws
out of the straps holding it to the helmet before Rattso managed to get
out of the hole. :-)

--
Wilko van den Bergh wilkoa t)dse(d o tnl
Eindhoven The Netherlands Europe
---Look at the possibilities, don't worry about the limitations.---
http://kayaker.nl/

"Paul Skoczylas" wrote in
news:lbL9h.853$uj6.733@edtnps89:

"Wilko" wrote in message
...

I still have that plastic Rat... After it was "kidnapped", it
literally went all over the world!

There were actually two of those rats. After it was kidnapped and sent
around the world, someone introduced a second rat into the mix... One
of them spent some time with me, and went on holiday with my family. I
hope one found its way back to its master.

The one I saw just just a bit after the infamous ratnapping and I never had
heard that the first was returned. I saw the second rat, I believe, and met
it's doting owner at Moosefest. I caught my first glimpse as he was running
Fowlersville falls.

John Fereira wrote:
"Paul Skoczylas" wrote in
news:lbL9h.853$uj6.733@edtnps89:

"Wilko" wrote in message
...

I still have that plastic Rat... After it was "kidnapped", it
literally went all over the world!

There were actually two of those rats. After it was kidnapped and sent
around the world, someone introduced a second rat into the mix... One
of them spent some time with me, and went on holiday with my family. I
hope one found its way back to its master.

The one I saw just just a bit after the infamous ratnapping and I never had
heard that the first was returned. I saw the second rat, I believe, and met
it's doting owner at Moosefest. I caught my first glimpse as he was running
Fowlersville falls.

I rediscovered Ratt's link in my favorites file the other day:
http://marina.fortunecity.com/heron/456/ .

Like many of you, Thanksgiving always brings back memories of both
Scott and Brian Reuff. Brian was a UNCA student who died over
Thanksgiving Break 2004 on a high water run of the Green Narrows:
http://www.steepcreeks.com/brian_reuff.jpg

-- Chris Bell

The Riviera Ratt and the Round-the-World Rat (or maybe an impostor that
was good enough to fool Riviera) were reunited at Gauley Festival.
Wilko van den Bergh, Chris Bell, Leland Davis and I (IIRC) were tasked
with the hostage exchange. I don't remember what the Revered Ratt had
to do to get the Roaming Rat back (he might have been required to make
a contribution of a particular sum to American Whitewater).

We had scheduled a huge production on the Festival bandstand while the
band was on break, and it was a massive anti-climax; it seems that a
tiny proportion of Gauley-festerers were RBP readers, and the rest just
didn't know or care what we were doing.

-Richard, His Kanubic Travesty
--
================================================== ====================
Richard Hopley Winston-Salem, NC, USA
.. rhopley[at]earthlink[dot]net
.. Nothing really matters except Boats, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll
.. rhopley[at]wfubmc[dot]edu
.. OK, OK; computer programming for scientific research also matters
================================================== ====================


John Fereira wrote:
"Paul Skoczylas" wrote in
news:lbL9h.853$uj6.733@edtnps89:

"Wilko" wrote in message
...

I still have that plastic Rat... After it was "kidnapped", it
literally went all over the world!

There were actually two of those rats. After it was kidnapped and sent
around the world, someone introduced a second rat into the mix... One
of them spent some time with me, and went on holiday with my family. I
hope one found its way back to its master.

The one I saw just just a bit after the infamous ratnapping and I never had
heard that the first was returned. I saw the second rat, I believe, and met
it's doting owner at Moosefest. I caught my first glimpse as he was running
Fowlersville falls.

I just googled Scott's name because I wanted to print out a picture of
him today. I am completely touched and amazed to see so many familiar
names - I am sorry for the reason that they are familiar - but so
touched...Mothra..Wilko...I do think of you guys often.

My family is doing okay. Mom and dad are semi-separated (which I think
is a good thing). My husband and I got divorced (which was definately
a good thing), but my son, Trey is doing wonderful. He is 11 years old
- plays basketball and football and baseball. He is in 6th grade and
growing up way too quickly. He was only 3 when Scott died...I still
wish as much as I did the day Scott died that Trey knew him better.

Trey and I watch the compilation video of news stories, memorial
service and song video twice a year...on Scott's birthday and today.

Thank you guys so much for remembering!

On Nov 21, 10:26 pm, "Mothra" wrote:
It was 8 years ago. There were so many messages on rbp back then.
Probably as many in a week as there are in a year now. And the most
prolific poster of all was Scott Bristow. I had never met him in
person, and yet I loved him like a brother. Trusted him so much I left
him the key to my house so he'd have a place to stay when he came to
paddle Great Falls of the Potomac on Thanksgiving Weekend 1998.

He stayed at my house, sure. He and Joe and Julie drove up from
Atlanta. I was having Thanksgiving with family in Virginia Beach. But
I was coming back on Saturday and we were all meeting for dinner that
evening. Not just me and Joe and Julie and Scott - but David and
Sheila and Matt and Rebecca and lots more. It was going to be a
rec.boats.paddle get together. And then I got the call.

It was 4 in the afternoon. I was running a nice hot bath in
anticipation of our night out. I almost didn't answer the phone. But
then, I was leading a club trip the next day and it might be a paddler.
So I got up and answered the phone. I still remember David' voice.

"We lost Scott at Great Falls today."

And with those words an era ended.

I don't think I've ever been so affected by loss - except for my baby
sister and my dad. It's still unfathomable to me how I still grive
for Scott, and now 8 years have passed.

We memorialized his passing for a while by paddling the GW Canal loop
because that's what a bunch of us (including newborn Rowan Chapelle -
just 2 weeks up and bunting'ed up in a pfd) were doing as Scott
perished at Charlie's hole.

I wonder if anyone still paddles that loop in his memory. We'd always
do it the Saturday after Thanksgiving because that's what felt right,
rather than the 28th.

This year, on the 28th, I'll be landing for a business trip in Juneau,
Alaska. I've never been to Alaska and there's 45 inches of snow on the
ground right now and its dark. Never mind. I'll look for Scott in the
night sky - maybe he'll show in the Northern Lights.

I havern't had a cry like this in a good long time.

Also, does anyone keep in contact with Joe Day or know how I can get in
contact with him?

On Nov 28, 10:28 am, "Scott's Sister"
wrote:
I just googled Scott's name because I wanted to print out a picture of
him today. I am completely touched and amazed to see so many familiar
names - I am sorry for the reason that they are familiar - but so
touched...Mothra..Wilko...I do think of you guys often.

My family is doing okay. Mom and dad are semi-separated (which I think
is a good thing). My husband and I got divorced (which was definately
a good thing), but my son, Trey is doing wonderful. He is 11 years old
- plays basketball and football and baseball. He is in 6th grade and
growing up way too quickly. He was only 3 when Scott died...I still
wish as much as I did the day Scott died that Trey knew him better.

Trey and I watch the compilation video of news stories, memorial
service and song video twice a year...on Scott's birthday and today.

Thank you guys so much for remembering!

On Nov 21, 10:26 pm, "Mothra" wrote:



It was 8 years ago. There were so many messages on rbp back then.
Probably as many in a week as there are in a year now. And the most
prolific poster of all was Scott Bristow. I had never met him in
person, and yet I loved him like a brother. Trusted him so much I left
him the key to my house so he'd have a place to stay when he came to
paddle Great Falls of the Potomac on Thanksgiving Weekend 1998.

He stayed at my house, sure. He and Joe and Julie drove up from
Atlanta. I was having Thanksgiving with family in Virginia Beach. But
I was coming back on Saturday and we were all meeting for dinner that
evening. Not just me and Joe and Julie and Scott - but David and
Sheila and Matt and Rebecca and lots more. It was going to be a
rec.boats.paddle get together. And then I got the call.

It was 4 in the afternoon. I was running a nice hot bath in
anticipation of our night out. I almost didn't answer the phone. But
then, I was leading a club trip the next day and it might be a paddler.
So I got up and answered the phone. I still remember David' voice.

"We lost Scott at Great Falls today."

And with those words an era ended.

I don't think I've ever been so affected by loss - except for my baby
sister and my dad. It's still unfathomable to me how I still grive
for Scott, and now 8 years have passed.

We memorialized his passing for a while by paddling the GW Canal loop
because that's what a bunch of us (including newborn Rowan Chapelle -
just 2 weeks up and bunting'ed up in a pfd) were doing as Scott
perished at Charlie's hole.

I wonder if anyone still paddles that loop in his memory. We'd always
do it the Saturday after Thanksgiving because that's what felt right,
rather than the 28th.

This year, on the 28th, I'll be landing for a business trip in Juneau,
Alaska. I've never been to Alaska and there's 45 inches of snow on the
ground right now and its dark. Never mind. I'll look for Scott in the
night sky - maybe he'll show in the Northern Lights.

I havern't had a cry like this in a good long time.- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -