Homelessness and River Surfing

I literally walked away with tears in my eyes….

I always get too wrapped up in river surfing and my hair grows out long. I try to fool myself into thinking it will make me look rockstar cool like local river surfers Mr Mike or mascot Cody; but instead, I always look like a crazy homeless guy.

So as the river flow waned this particular day, I went to the Floyd’s barber shop on Colfax Ave in Denver for a much needed haircut and sat down to the normal bi-annual inquisitions of: What length do you want it cut to; and, When was the last time you got your hair cut?!?… Umm, please give me a regular haircut.

Then a homeless guy was seated next to me. Holes in his shoes that looked more like those sandals for SUP’ng in BV or Salida, but they were no expensive trail sandals and were instead just badly worn-out sneakers. He had long hair like mine except with tangled and knotted hair in the back that the female barber so kindly described it for him as a “dreadlock”.

It was like I was looking into a mirror, with both of us sporting unkept long graying hair, sans the Chaco-like worn out shoes (as I was wearing smelly Vans that needed fumigation) and I didn’t have a stylish dreadlock. Sad part, I was paying only a slight fraction of my bank account for my haircut and the gentleman next to me only had $20 to his name and he was using the twenty to pay for a haircut instead of going toward some new shoes.

Despite him saying it was two years since his last haircut, the barber next to me showed as much respect and care to him as my barber was showing me. It was one of my best hair cuts ever. I mean not the actual cutting of my hair, but to see the respect given to the down-and-out person next to me getting his first hair cut in years at that friendly barber shop.

It was so nice to get my raggedy hair cut. It was clearly similar for the man next to me. Except you could see it more so in his face as he had received a transformation to a bit of normality of life that we all take for granted.

River surfing has brought me closer to the unhoused population in Colorado. Those interactions down at the river’s edge have ranged from: homeless ignoring me; to homeless saying hello to me; to homeless wanting to fight me; to homeless cheering me on when I get waves; to homeless cautioning me on dirty river water. Honestly, the exact same interactions I have had with river surfers over the almost eight years I have been river surfing.

What is interesting is that the homeless get unfairly blamed for causing the bad water quality in the river waves we surf. Sure the homeless encampments are filled with trash and drug paraphernalia that can and does make its way into our rivers. And no doubt the homeless use the river as their bathrooms when the public restrooms are closed supposedly “due to vandalism”. But us river surfers undoubtably often pee in our wetsuits to be flushed out in the river.

And I challenge you to drive down the road from your own front door and just see how far you get before you see a piece of trash on the side of the road. It is disgusting how much litter is strewn across our neighborhoods and cities that has nothing to do with the homeless but all to do with our disposable society, to the point we can’t keep pollution in check. No wonder our rivers are full of flotsam and jetsam. It surely isn’t just the homeless fault.

Ah but the water is so much cleaner in the Colorado River or the upper Arkansas River. Sure if you ignore the heavy metals and arsenic that seeps into the headwaters and eventually into our rivers from the thousands of abandoned mines in Colorado. Not to mention the typical trash and street runoff from the mountain towns, as well as other non-point pollution sources coming from agriculture and active mining in Colorado.

But what bout the homeless addiction problem? Well, river surfing is an addiction all to itself.

Just the other day I river surfed eight hours straight with no food intake and very little drinking water. Felt like I was hit with a bus that night, but I wanted and needed to do it again the next day.

But, river surfing is a healthy addiction! Really? Is any addiction really healthy???

So after we got our long locks cut at Floyd’s Barbershop, my unhoused counterpart completely emptied his pocket of his twenty dollars and gladly paid for what turned out to be a real nice haircut. I pulled out my debit card and quickly added a $10 tip to my also nice haircut like it was nothing at all.

I then asked the barber what her deal was for the homeless haircut. She said she felt bad charging a man with holes in his shoes a full price for a haircut and gave him a discount. I thanked her for being so nice and professional to the guy and I gave her a $10 dollar bill as a thank you tip that she at first refused.

I then had to quickly exit the barber shop as the tears from witnessing such kindness with the simple act of a haircut for a fellow human being welled up and spilled out of my eyes.

Not sure what we can do to reduce poverty, homelessness, and pollution; that is truly for another place and discussion forum (though I will open up this for comments). But we can be kind to each other, even when kindness doesn’t feel like it is being afforded to us individually.

River surfing is such a strange activity that mimics life in so many ways. And looking back at it, people wish they had my problems in life.

Peace and Love,

LBK