I have known Winston Trice for about two months longer than I've been acquainted with my wife, as Winston and I interviewed at the Medical College of Virginia on the same day in August 1976 before I headed to Utah for my fourth year of college and met Paula.
Winston and I ended up becoming good friends, both near the top of our med-school class. Ever the organizer, Winston became the unelected leader of "Group 12," as we started on the clinical training rotations of our third year. The group consisted of a bunch of us with wives and even children, all of us doing OK academically.
But there was always something different about Winston. I won't easily forget coming upon him at 3:27 AM one night on our Internal Medicine rotation, playing a solemn fugue on the organ in the Jefferson David Memorial Chapel there on the top floor of the old MCV West Hospital. (That's right, Jefferson Davis, like the President of the Confederate States. Said chapel has since been removed.)
Winston wisely chose Ophthalmology as a specialty and headed to Nashville while I ended up at Duke for OB-GYN residency. He ultimately joined an Ophthalmology group in Richmond, and Paula and I ended up in Raleigh. Several years later we re-contacted and did things like running the rapids on the James River in his city in whitewater kayaks. In 1992, we got together with my brother and our wives for the first time for a windsurfing trip to Hatteras Island, part of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. (Winston's the tall guy in the middle.)
This changed (degenerated?) to kiteboarding sometime in the 'oughts.'
Winston, or "Skortch" as he is known to his grandchildren, is a lot more adventurous and imaginative than me. He has kited and adventured in more strange places than I thought even existed, and is always trying something new. He visited us with my brother Mark and his wife when we were in Bogotá and then Peru, hiking up to 17,000 feet on the glacier-studded mountain behind our city.
Several years ago on one of our twice-yearly kiteboarding trips to Hatteras, Skortch brought a 4x8 sheet of Home Depot plywood in his minivan and proved that one could kite upwind on it if one had the skill, and he did. Turning around? Simple, just run to the other end of the plywood and reverse course.
Not content with pushing that envelope, this fall Winston brought The Chair of Wisdom, a ratty old wooden chair rescued from some swamp on Hatteras that he insists on loading in his van, and to everyone's amazement and delight proved that with proper skill and outside-every-box attitude one could kite upwind on a sheet of plywood, while seated on that chair!
The crowd on the beach went nuts!
Once again, Winston had broken through a barrier of extreme sport! Skortch for the win!
OK, well, the landing at the end of the run still needs some work. When Winston came in to the beach aboard his craft, the crowd wisely scattered, running for first aid kits and dialing 911. When the plywood hit the sand, it stopped suddenly, while The Chair of Wisdom and its occupant continued on a bit, until the back legs dug in.
Luckily or otherwise, The Chair is not equipped with a seat belt, and so Winston ejected. His luck really came through as his kite landed before it hit the trillion-volt power lines next to the water.
It is regrettable, though understandable that no one captured the landing on video. Understandable because they were all running for their lives and/or first aid kits and/or professional rescue help when it all went sideways.
Winston brushed the sand off his wetsuit, stood up with a big grin and pronounced, "That was great! You gotta try it!"
I truly feel lucky to be Winston's friend, and that I was far enough away from The Chair of Wisdom to avoid its ultimate trajectory. He always exhorts me to do more than that of which I think I'm capable, to push my limits and look for ways to enjoy life. He is also one of the truly honorable men that I know.
May you have such good friends. On the other hand if Skortch ever turns to you with that look in his eye and says, "Hey, I know! We could..." think twice. And then think again.
Dave
(Oh, and by the way, if he specifically says, "Hey, I know! We could put you in a whitewater kayak and hook you to a kite!" really, don't do it. Do not do it. Been there, done that and I thought I was going to drown.)
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