There’s roughly ten percent of the population that science calls High Sensation Seekers – people who are genetically predisposed to being – sort of crazy.
Houtz: Not to surf. But I saw waves out there. I’d been out there fishing – albacore runs. I’d fill the back of that 47 foot Chris Craft of mine, up to our knees,the wells, filled with fish. We had so much fun. It was just great out there – awesome, just absolutely awesome. The water out there. It’s so clear. There are maybe two places I’ve seen clearer water. The South Pacific and Cortes, well they’re actually pretty much the same, but no water is clearer than Devil’s Hole. In those early days, people fished for abalone at Cortes too – but that didn’t last long. They wiped them out in nothing flat – which was a shame.
The bottom at the Bank, it’s a gradual, approach, several miles – that comes up to the Bishop Rock – which is lined up exactly with the (northwest) wind and current. And the Bishop Rock, is a rock. It’s a tower, a column, everything else is a sand bottom. A lot of times, when the water was extremely calm, with an extra low tide full moon, Bishop Rock would almost surface. You’d see the swirls and you’d know darn good and well that it’s right there. Then on the eastern side, it drops and goes down four thousand feet – a very rapid drop. That’s where the caves are, and that’s where the lobster were – thirty, thirty five pounders. You’d grab ’em by the horns, and hold ’em to your chest and the tail was almost touching the ground. It was wonderful hunting.
CD: Were you into surfing at all?
Houtz: It’s funny, at that time, I had a buddy who got me into surfing. We’d surf right off Goleta, El Capitan, Rincon – all those spots. I remember my first custom board. I had gone through three, four – second and thirdhand boards. My first board was green – translucent pea green. I remember talking to the shaper and he said, what would you rather have for the centerboard stringer? I said ‘poplar and mahogany.’ It was gorgeous.
Since you and I started our conversations, all these things are coming back. You know, I loved to surf. But I’m going to school, trying to make a living, raising kids — all these other things going on in your life. I couldn’t go off and just be a surf bum. But a lot of the guys I knew – that’s exactly what they were doing.
CD: So how did you become one of the planned colonizers of the Cortes Bank?
Houtz: Well, after Devil’s Hole – at that time in the 60’s – it wasn’t often I couldn’t go to a restaurant and have somebody recognize me from diving. I’d even gotten a grant from the International Film Festival to do a a film on Devil’s Hole.
So one day I get this call. It’s Joe Kirkwood he calls me and invites me to a meeting at his bowling alley up in Los Angeles. He was a husky guy. Big. Animated. He asks me if I want to get involved in this project to turn Cortes Bank into an island. At first, I thought he was nuts, but we talked about what the issues were – and what it was going to take. We both agreed that we wanted to think about it a little bit. But the idea really got the wheels spinning. It was like, ‘Okay, I’ve got a project here. What will it take to do it?’ My philosophy is, I don’t accept the word impossible — I can’t. When somebody gives me that, I get really frustrated. You can talk to anybody who knows me and I’ve told ’em all my life, ‘it takes a little longer to do the impossible.’ So yeah, I got involved.
God, what a nightmare…
