Boatparade2016

Marina Del Rey

Holiday Boat Parade Photo by Mike Yokotake

Have an Animated Holiday!

It’s time once again for Marina del Rey’s biggest onthe-water party.

The 54th annual Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade kicks off with fireworks at 5:55 p.m. Saturday, with participants decorating their vessels according to the theme “An Animated Holiday.”

We are excited to have gold-medal water polo Olympian KK Clark as this year’s grand marshal, leading a parade with many returning entrants and a lot of first timers.

Peter Ellis, whose designs are always a parade favorite, will be back this year, as well as Greg and Lavern Potter, Mike Sudo, Pamela Johnson and The Women’s Sailing Association. Good luck to all the entrants.

man’s Village is always a hotspot, and a lot of locals hang out on the jetty alongside Ballona Creek.

The following people who spend so many hours bringing it all together: Parade Vice President Lowell Safier, Treasurer Phil Seelig, Secretary Judith Ciancimino, and Past President Cindy Williams; Board of Directors members Diane Barretti, Vivian Callahan, Jerry Magnussen, Christine Rohde, Louis Scaduto, and Bob Singer; Prize Coordinator Melanie Williams; and volunteers Carolyn Epstein, Wanda Davis, Michelle Simmons, Eric Petterson, Darlene Fukuji, Michael Gutierrez, Vernon Stubblefield, Don Mantarro, Denise Williams, Megan Peery, James Sampson, Renee Baldwin, Janice Solis, Barbara Wasserman, Chuck Daugherty, and Vicki Pasek. I thank you all for your devotion and hard work to make sure the community enjoys a spectacular parade.

How many boats participate?

We won’t know for sure until show time, but recent parades have featured 60 or more.

A special thank you also goes out to our judges, grand marshal, the parade announcers who will be stationed at Burton Chace Park — Lisa Osborne and Mickey Laszlo — and photographer Michael Yokotake.

A grand fireworks display kicks off the parade at 5:55 p.m. Saturday

Everything You Need to Know about the 54th annual Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade

By Joe Piasecki What is the Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade?

The boat parade is an indispensable community tradition.

Individual boaters and local organizations put loads of creativity and energy into turning their watercrafts into floating holiday spectacles.

Some of the more sophisticated entries feature computer-animated LED light displays.

How did this tradition begin?

On a sunny December weekend in 1962, a small group of pioneering boaters thought it would be fun to decorate their vessels with Christmas lights

and parade around the newly dredged main channel of the not-quite-finished harbor.

Community volunteers have kept it going ever sense.

When is this year’s parade?

The parade runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 10, but you’ll want to catch the 5:55 p.m. fireworks display over the marina’s main channel. Arrive early to snag a spot.

Where are some good places to watch?

Burton Chace Park (13650 Mindanao Way) is where the announcers set up, but anywhere with a clear view of the main channel should be fine. Fisher-

How much does it cost?

Watching the boat parade is free and open to locals, tourists and landlubbers alike.

How about parking?

Parking is available for $8 in several county-operated lots and $15 at Fisherman’s Village,

Most importantly, let’s all say a big thank you to our boaters: Without you there would be no parade to light up the night.

I wish all of you a Very Happy Holiday and all the best for the New Year!

Kelly King President, Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade

(Continued on page 14)

December 8, 2016 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 13

Holiday Boat Parade Parking Info MARINA ENTRANCES • Washington Boulevard and Pacific Avenue

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• Lot 11: 14101 Panay Way, at Via Marina • Lot 12: 14151 Marquesas Way, at Via Marina County Lot 13: 4601 Via Marina, near Main Channel

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(Continued from page 13)

but spaces disappear fast. Come early or consider using a rideshare service such as Lyft or Uber.

How do I enter my boat in the parade?

For parade rules and entry information, visit mdrboatparade.org.

What’s there to do before the parade?

Bring the whole family to the second annual Snow Wonder festival, a free public holiday celebration happening from noon to 6 p.m. at Burton Chace Park. They call it Snow Wonder

because there’s real snow for kids to play and sled in.

This is Southern California.

How much snow?

Sixty tons of snow! The snow play area is roughly 25 feet by 25 feet, plus the 6-foot steel deck sledding hill.

What if I get hungry?

This is Southern California — there will be food trucks. So far the roster includes the Richeeze grilled cheese truck, Blast Ice Cream and the new Heritage L.A. coffee truck.

What else?

Some pretty cool stuff for kids and adults: carousel and

PAGE 14 THE ARGONAUT December 8, 2016

snowboarding simulator rides, a winter-themed crafts table and a deejay playing family-friendly Top 40 hits.

I’ll already be in the marina, but how do I get from one place to another without losing my parking space?

You heard it here first: The Marina del Rey Convention & Visitors Bureau is debuting a new electric shuttle service from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. in conjunction with Snow Wonder and the boat parade.

Called “The Free Ride,” this new service is a fleet of four six-passenger electric shuttles circulating from Fiji Way to Admiralty Way to Via Marina

— a route that includes Fisherman’s Village, the marina’s six hotels, the Waterside at Marina del Rey shopping center, Mother’s Beach and local restaurants.

And yes, The Free Ride is free to ride, though tipping the driver is appreciated.

Starting Dec. 15, The Free Ride will operate from noon to 9 p.m. seven days a week.

How do I catch a Free Ride shuttle?

Keep your eye out for the extralong golf carts with the Marina del Rey logo, and just flag one down or text your pickup location to (323) 435-5000.

Where’s the after party?

Lots of people party on boats or in yacht clubs before, during and after the parade, but local restaurants are also going to be swinging. Whiskey Red’s is already booked for a private event, but expect Killer Shrimp, The Warehouse, Tony P’s Dockside Grill, Café Del Rey, SALT and Cast + Plow to keep the waterside cocktails flowing until at least midnight.

That’s awesome. Is The Free Ride just for Snow Wonder and the parade?

For more information or to contact parade organizers, visit mdrboatparade.org.

December 8, 2016 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 15

Holiday Boat Parade 2016

Spirit of a Champion Olympic Gold Medalist KK Clark brings a winning attitude to the fore as grand marshal of the 54th annual Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade Story by Christina Campodonico | Photo by Maria Martin Olympic gold medalist and collegiate champion water polo player KK Clark hasn’t ruled out the possibility of playing for Team USA in Tokyo when 2020 rolls around, but for now she is flirting with the idea of jumping into another kind of pool — you know, the one for job applicants.

Having spent so much time in the water, “I’ve had to get creative with the résumé,” says Clark, 26, as we talked about her hypothetical job search and real-life Olympic journey following a breezy boat ride and photo shoot on Marina del Rey’s main channel.

As a member of the gold-medal USA women’s water polo team at this year’s Summer Games in Rio, an NCAA champion and three-time collegiate All-American, the 6’2” Clark — who played for UCLA in the PAC-12 and then professionally in Italy — has plenty of impressive accomplishments to put on her resume.

And with an Olympian aunt and uncle, personal drive seems to run in the family.

“More than anything I think I just felt like there was a destiny in a way, that it was sort of in my blood to be good at this,” says Clark, whose given name is Caroline. “I kind of always had this belief in my back pocket.”

So it comes as a surprise to find out that she almost didn’t make it to Rio this past summer.

Just a year ahead of the Olympics, Clark found herself just short of making the U.S. team roster for the 2015 women’s water polo world championship in Russia. Only 13 players were selected to compete at the tournament. Clark, number 14 on the list, was just shy of making the cut.

“That was kind of a wake-up call,” said Clark. “At the time I thought it was kind of over. There’s a year to the Olympics. How much turnover would there be now?”

Clark decided that she not only needed to improve her play in the pool, she also had to train her mind to compete at the highest levels. She began watching

ESPN’s “30 for 30” sports documentaries, read about the lives of athletic greats, kept a journal of daily intentions and meditated regularly.

After renewing her commitment to the sport that she had played throughout high school and college, Clark was in the pool a year later when the final buzzer went off at the U.S.’s gold-medal-winning match against Italy. The final score was an absolute blowout: 12-5.

1980 Olympics, but our country didn’t go [in 1980], so it’s kind of a bittersweet thing for her.

And then your Olympic journey. I read that you were cut from the 2015 world championship team at the last minute.

What happened?

It was a mix of things. I wasn’t playing to my potential and where I needed to be playing for the team. The coach also used

“It’s fun for me to share the medal with people. You see their eyes light up and that it means something to them.”

— KK Clark

“It was incredible,” she says. “We won the gold medal game by seven goals, which is kind of unheard of in water polo.”

Still buoyed by her team’s win, Clark, now living in the South Bay, is enjoying the fruits of her labor and is looking forward to serving as grand marshal for the 54th annual Marina del Rey Holiday Boat Parade on Saturday.

Do you have a natural affinity for the water?

I do. I feel like a little bit’s in my blood.

My grandfather Richard Dorst, he was an engineer and he and a buddy built Dorsett boats — these vintage little tugboats. I actually did not grow up on boats because my mother did, and she grew very tired of being on boats. I think I am attracted by nature to the water.

I hear that there are other Olympians in your family, too.

My uncle [Chris Dorst] was a water polo player as well. Chris was one of my first coaches growing up. He was a goalie for the 1980 and ’84 teams. And then his wife, Marybeth Linzmeier, was a really decorated swimmer who qualified for the

PAGE 16 THE ARGONAUT December 8, 2016

opportunities to play different combinations of players, and he challenged a lot of the girls on the team in different ways.

And this was one of my big tests.

The team won the world championship and I was in the stands, which was hard at first. But then I became really excited to be there cheering on the girls, and it was liberating to me because I realized I wanted to be on the team, whether or not I was on the roster, and that ultimately allowed me to kind of let go of all of these fears that I wasn’t going to make the team at the end of the day. And I think by letting go of that fear I was able to play so much better in practice.

It just allowed me to kind of be the athlete I was not able to be those years prior because of the pressure and because of the expectation that I think I put on myself. So it was really cool for me to look back on that and see how I adapted and changed with the challenges that I faced.

What did you do to make your comeback?

I had four categories. I made a little syllabus for myself. And it was all things that were just kind of like brain food and

soul food for me. Watching was one of the categories, and I started watching 30 for 30s [ESPN sports documentaries] and inspiring sports movies. So I watched “Rudy” for the first time and The Rocky movies for the first time.

My second category was reading, and I started reading sports-related books. So I read Andre Agassi’s autobiography, a John Wooden book, a golf book — really anything that I could somehow pull inspiration from. I would read those on the bus when we were busing to and from practice, while we were on trips, on a plane, before bed.

The third thing I did was write. I wrote in a journal and I wrote daily intentions.

And then also when I came home I wrote positives and negatives to what I did in practice, just so that I could make sure I wasn’t making the same mistakes.

And then the fourth one, which is actually the hardest, was just meditating.

It was really helpful for me to have that kind of peace of mind and the calmness that it brought.

Water polo can be a very rough sport.

Some of my high school friends on the water polo team would tell me about suit grabbing and kicking under the water. Is it like that at high professional levels of the sport?

A lot of people, when you tell them you play water polo, they say the same thing.

The sport has a bit of a violent reputation. But I think at the level we were playing there was not as much of that. I think that’s just because the players are well rounded in a set of skills and it’s more about maneuvering than it is about taking another player out, if you will.

There’s definitely suit grabbing and a bit of kicking. And we had to train so that we were prepared for teams that would try to be really, really physical with us.

So we had to be exposed to a more aggressive style of play, and we would do it to each other in practice. But we also had to be able to play really quick (Continued on page 18)

KK Clark sails around Marina del Rey on a breezy Friday afternoon December 8, 2016 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 17

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Holiday Boat Parade 2016 (Continued from page 16)

and fast — not let yourself get grabbed. That was my big thing.

I’m really long and fast and mobile, and if I get grabbed then I’ve lost the battle already. So my style was more about trying not to get caught up in a physical match.

What’s it like coming home after winning an Olympic gold medal?

Coming home was really, really

cool. I remember being in the airport and strangers would come up to us and say, “Thank you so much.” And I was really taken aback by that because I’m not a veteran. My grandfather was a World War II vet. Those are the real heroes. But I was really proud and honored to represent the country in a small way and being able to share the medal.

Since being home, I think my biggest realization is that the medal doesn’t mean that much

to me because it’s just a medal, whereas my memories and the feelings I get when I think about being with the family and what we went through is so much more valuable to me. So it’s fun for me to share the medal with people. You see their eyes light up and that it means something to them. My mom was like, ‘We can get it framed for you.’ I’m like, ‘No, this thing is not being framed yet.’ It will go on a wall one day, but it’s meant to be shared.

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December 8, 2016 THE ARGONAUT PAGE 19