Woody and Seth in front of Berkeley marina's baitshop, Berkeley Sportsman's Center.. Photo credit: C. Antinori
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Seth and Woody
Seth and Woody
Interviewed by Camille Antinori and Robert Bermudez at Berkeley Waterfront, August 5, 2024
Image: Woody next to his boat with a freshly caught halibut. Image courtesy of Woody.
Seth and Woody are best friends since childhood and still visit the marina everyday. Woody taught Seth how to fish and Woody's dad would often load them up in his truck to come down to the pier to fish. Later, they came on their own on their bicycles. Woody recalls when the whaling station still existed in Richmond, the last whaling station in the United States before whaling was banned. Themes are growing up amid the turmoil of the 60s and 70s and yet finding a place to stay out of trouble. Today, they still consider the space as their paradise, their backyard. They contrast the feeling of the area today with the past and how they would like to see the space protected for open and free public access, fishing opportunities and other recreational uses.
Full Interview
Full Interview
Topics (in order):
Topics (in order):
Introductions
Berkeley was wild and this is where we stayed out of trouble
Seth's dad sent him to pier to hang out while he worked
Bait shop as a big tent in the 70's
Richmond whaling station
Woody's parents as fisherfolk
Seth and Woody growing up in the neighborhood
Seth's dad and the iron Viking boat
Woody's parents and going fishing
Being out on pier in night in a storm and loving it
How Al Capone got to Alcatraz
Fishing on the pier and getting silver perch
Pier as a gathering place, for weddings, older Asian folk fishing for food, visitors from miles away
Childhood memories
The Mud Marlin Festival, Redfish and BBQs
Thoughts on how area now is way less friendly with the pier closed; getting stared at
Graduates of BHS '80 and '82
Where lived in Berkeley
Identity as outdoorsmen and this is where they come and what they do to be outdoorsmen in Berkeley, how others familiar with marina, like the baitshop, recognize and respect them
How pier means a lot to others, place where kids see their first fish, others want to visit one last time
Thoughts on future of space: open the pier, how it is still stable even if it flexes, ferry for yuppies only, not wanting a little aluminum pier like one in Richmond; place of solitude
Getting "jacked up" on other piers
Keeping it affordable and public: don't change my paradise, why take it away for a ferry which would eliminate best fishing spot; fix bathrooms; more visitors if bring back pier
K-dock as only pier in marina originally
Parting words
Richmond whaling station at Pt. San Pablo, Richmond, California, 1956-1971, Mesnick et al., Sperm whales of the Golden Gate, n.d.
Full interview transcript
Full interview transcript
Full interview transcript (PDF)
Citation (APA style):
Seth, Woody, Antinori, C, & Bermudez, R. Exploring Intergenerational and Community Connections to the Outdoors. (2024). Interview with Seth and Woody conducted by Camille Antinori and Robert Bermudez, July 30, 2024. [Pdf] Retrieved from the Berkeley Fishing Memories Oral History Project: https://www.cmantinori.net/berkeley-fishing-memories-oral-history-project/interview-with-seth-and-woody.
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