All right, welcome back to the podcast, everyone.
This episode we have a very special guest, Tony Klarich.
Tony is a legend and pioneer in the water sports community, having invented over 100
water skiing tricks and winning 11 national and world titles.
For his 50th birthday, he accomplished the daunting task of water skiing on 50 different
objects in one day, including an ice chest and a ladder.
In this episode, we're going to hear about that, his Croatian heritage, and a special
event he's putting on on the island of Vis.
Tony, thanks for coming on the podcast.
Oh, it's so amazing to be here.
You're real.
I love your sweater and super excited for what you're doing and what we're going to
talk about today.
I appreciate that, Tony.
I appreciate that.
Yeah, I was just telling you off camera about the sweater.
I've gotten quite a few comments on it and it's really cool to wear around here in Zagreb.
Speaking of Zagreb, speaking of Croatia, that's why we're here today.
Can you tell us a little bit about your Croatian heritage?
Well, it's pretty interesting.
Both of my grandparents on my father's side are from the island of Vis.
They came out in the early 1900s.
I think there was a wine disease at the time, so a lot of people left.
It's kind of cool because in 1976, when my parents took me on a tour of the United States,
we actually went to Ellis Island and saw their name in the book, which was pretty cool.
And then on my mother's side, my grandmother on my mother's side, who's kind of the water
skiing connection, they were from Ljubljana.
So I mean, I guess you'd say I'm three quarters Yugoslavian, but one half Croatian now.
So that's just like the basic heritage that you would say.
What was really important and what I love about the Croatian heritage is that it's so
family oriented.
And my entire time growing up, every Sunday without fail, I think from age zero to 15
or 16, my dad took me from Orange County to my grandparents' house in San Pedro.
As you know, so many of the Slavs went from Croatia to San Pedro.
There's a huge community there.
And we went to Grandma and Grandpa's house, Nona Hinojna, every Sunday for years and years.
So that's where I was really exposed to the importance of family, the heritage.
My grandfather, when he first came over, was a cook on a fishing boat and neither of my
grandparents spoke English.
So I was programmed, whatever you want to call it, with the language.
So I've definitely got an ear for it.
It does require practice though, which looking forward to that as we look to moving to the
island.
But during that time, we'd have cousins come over and play the mandolin.
So I just hear the refrain of, you know, o mariana and all the desserts.
And I have to thank you very much.
I think Andrea with the cookbook, I purchased that cookbook, you know, so you're having
an influence out there.
And when I opened this thing up, it was amazing because I saw six or seven things that my
aunties and grandmother would make.
And it like brought me back to that time and place with the rum balls, you know, and all
the stuff with the walnuts and the little crispy ones with the powdered sugar.
So we've been able to make a few here at our house and get my son in on it now to spread
the generation.
So just some great Sundays growing up, learning about the heritage, you know, Nona was always
telling me about how I had to marry a good Croatian woman someday.
And, you know, all the typical stuff, you know, in her flower printed dress.
And so it was a good relationship.
And I spent all that time with them.
And we just knew that the cousins, the family, the sisters and brothers had property on these.
So when it was my time in the 70s, that I would have been, you know, teenager, my dad
took me to the island for a couple of, you know, a few weeks during the summer.
And one summer, it's just you show up.
And at that time, you know, one of the nicknames of these is the Forbidden Isle because of
the military implications.
It was very difficult for outsiders to come and travel on that island.
So at that time, it was just frozen in time.
It was just as it would have been hundreds of years previous, other than, you know, some
of the modern modernizations.
But spent time there, you know, in the houses and my grandfather's house and my grandmother's
house got to see the island, got to swim in the beautiful blue seas and, you know, the
sea urchins and the fish and all that stuff and eat the food.
And so I really got connected that way.
When we went back in 79, my dad actually bought a car in Germany of Volkswagen.
And we drove it from Hanover all the way through, you know, Lugana, Rijeka, Istria down the
coast and all the way.
You just drive it right on to the Jadralinje ferry and the car went right on the island.
We made all the visitations to my uncle's vineyards and visited and then he shipped
the car back.
And I always remember the personalized license plate he had on that car for years was a V79.
So it was commemorated.
And my father was a longshoreman as I am also.
So that was a big deal on the docks because there's lots of lots of longies from not just
Croatia but specifically from V. So I probably know 10 to 15 people who have a lineage just
from that island.
It's kind of crazy.
So that was my heritage.
And that's kind of where it stopped, you know.
My grandparents died probably 20 or 30 years ago.
And I was just pretty disconnected living my life as a skier.
First marriage.
Little lop at Croatia or Vis wasn't really something I super thought about.
And that changed when I got remarried six years ago.
Everything just completely changed.
How did that happen?
Well my current wife loves to travel, loves to adventure.
And when she found out about the family home on Vis, it was, oh, we have to go.
We have to go.
So we actually got married in Greece.
And we were right there.
So we flew to the island.
We showed up.
And this is the crazy thing.
I hadn't been there since 1979.
I didn't have the keys.
I didn't remember where the house was.
We just showed up and it's like, I think it's kind of over here.
And because it was, I think October and us not being aware of the fact that there's actually
a tourist season over there, it was the very tail end of the tourist season.
So no taxis.
We found one place that was open, San Giorgio.
And they took us in.
And now it's time to find the house.
How are you going to do this?
So we started with lunch at Poyota, a very famous restaurant there on the island.
And our waiter, Tonko, we just explained to him while we were there.
And he goes, oh, Kladic, Kladic.
And he stands up.
He takes his apron off right in the middle of lunch.
And he takes us to the bakery.
And he says, I think I know who has your key.
So he takes us to the bakery and we go around the corner and she doesn't speak English.
So they're chatting back and forth.
And she's like, oh, yes, I know who has the keys.
So she makes a run.
And then we go, we get the keys and now we're there.
We're going to get in the house.
I see it.
It's all coming back.
And the only key she has is the keys for the shared courtyard.
Because you know, so many houses have a shared courtyard.
And while I think my family owned the entire property at one time, we were down to one
parcel of four in the shared courtyard.
So the keys that she had were only to get in the courtyard, which was still very exciting.
You found the house, you got in the courtyard, there's nobody there.
Now how are we going to get in?
So we're kind of walking around, walking around.
And as we're looking over the fence, a gentleman walks up, can I help you?
Which is one of the things that's so amazing about the country is that people are so willing
to go out of their way a few kind of words and they just help you with anything.
It's just so unlike what happens generally here.
And this gentleman, Miho, he, like so many people, was born on Vis.
He went away and became a captain in ships based out of Monaco.
And now he's come back and purchased the house and restored it.
And he has the property that's basically like Citrus Grove that's behind our property.
So we tell him the story and he says, oh, I think I know who has the keys to your house.
Meet me at five o'clock later.
So we meet him on the stoop where all the gentlemen kind of meet, like it's like the
Google of old, right?
All the older statesmen of the island are meeting there and he takes us there and then
he walks us up.
And it's so funny because it's not like we're so used to just punching on the computer and
getting the story instantly.
It's like their Google is relational.
You're talking to people and meeting with people.
So we talk to this person and that person and they take us up and he doesn't get on
his phone.
He calls up, hey, you know, so and so you've got the keys and they come down and then everyone
comes down and there's a big group of people and there's the keys to the house.
So amazing.
Now we have it.
And we walk back to the house and we get in to the house for the first time.
You understand my last aunt died in 1998.
So this and this was five years ago.
So this is, you know, pushing 25 years.
And it was such so many emotions going into that house after the first time after having
spent, you know, part of my youth in the home.
And it was just like somebody got up and left.
You know, there was literally bowls with spoons inside of them sitting there.
And there was clothing laid out on beds and things hanging on doorknobs and pots and pans
on the stove.
It was like my aunt's just disappeared.
But now here's this house that's in the family and we're excited about it.
But we don't know.
We don't really know what to do other than we've had this amazing experience on this
magical island.
And when we left, no taxis running.
So the the evil and Naveen at San Giorgio were so nice.
They literally let let us borrow their truck to drive from the parking lot to the ferry.
And when we got there at five in the morning, they had packed us a lunch, you know, a little
breakfast to to say thank you and, you know, welcome home and we hope to see you again.
So nice, but that's just what we found so many times over and over again.
So we're back home after first getting married and all the new stuff about that.
But now here's this house in Croatia that's a family house that my wife is just encouraging
me to go down the pathway of finding out about it.
You know, my father is since past, my uncle is now the kind of been the caretaker.
So we just went on the process of what's next and what a journey that is because it's not
the USA.
It's not California when you're over there.
And we had a lot to learn, but we were willing and looking forward to to that.
So that's basically that's what got us on the island.
And that's that's where we were about six years ago.
Now, I have to say that's such a classic sort of small town Croatia type of story, you know,
that you just show up on the visa and you don't even know exactly where the house is
located and you find it.
And then, oh, yeah, I know, Claudette, you know, everyone knows the last names of everyone
in the village.
I don't know that the story just hit home just like that's a classic Croatian story.
I mean, that's part of the appeal.
That's a big part of the appeal, I think, to a lot of people and to a lot of us.
You know, the hospital is that sort of connection with, you know, with the community over there.
It's real.
Your name in the community and the not a mock also, which, you know, is the family name,
it is important.
That's what people want to know so that they can connect you to cousins and and other people
and it was crazy to me when we were renting a car and split one time when he saw the last
name, he goes, oh, you're from Bees.
I'm like, we're at the airport and split and you know where I'm from or where I'm going
to based on my last name.
It's just kind of crazy.
But when you think about we found documents in the house from I think who's kind of the
original founder and I believe he came from the Venice area because at that time, you
know, the Croatian coast was a Venetian holding from like fourteen twenty to eighteen hundred
roughly.
So it literally was Venice and we found documents sound from paribonio in the early eighteen
hundreds in this house.
So I know my family has been in this house since the early eighteen hundreds at a minimum
and who knows on the other houses because we're just getting into it.
So it's so excited to discover that history that people, you know, be able to help us
through the churches and the network of people.
So that was the start.
Now we had to figure what are we going to do about this house that's basically abandoned
as so many houses over there.
You know, it's uninhabitable, but it's in the family.
And my uncle said, well, you know, he remembers it in the days past where it was a closed
island and everything was so quiet.
That's not what that island is anymore.
It's become a huge tourist Mecca.
And also because it was kind of frozen in time until after the homeland war.
I mean, I think a lot of people didn't really come until the late 90s and even early 2000s.
So this island, I think more than a lot of the other islands, hasn't been developed with
a big tourist infrastructure and a lot of like, you know, giant corporations that you'd
recognize.
There's really nothing like that on the island.
It's just the stone houses and mom and pop shops all over the place.
And he says, well, you'll probably be bored.
You need to go spend a week to make sure that you're going to like it there.
So we came back and it was amazing.
The country and why I think it's so popular is it's discoverable.
Here in the US, we're so used to dialing up the internet and you can just plan your trip
from start to finish and everything is known and there's no surprises.
That country, it's like an onion.
Sure, there are some people that do that, but it's so imminently discoverable that you
can go to a place and not really like we would try to get go to one of the national parks
that's down.
Is it Kurtka?
The one that's by split?
Couldn't find our way in.
Like he just just couldn't find our way in, you know, and then finally, by the time we
figured out where we needed to be, it was too late.
So we missed the tour.
But same thing with Plyvitsa.
We went and you just kind of discover as you go and like you see a sign and you stop.
So the country is discoverable, which is why I think so many people have been attracted
to going there now.
But the island, especially even more so because of that lag of development.
Every time we go back, we discover, oh, there's there was a Royal Air Force airport on this
island from World War Two.
Oh, there's a cricket field and an active cricket team like the National Cricket Team
is practiced there.
Oh, there's restaurants in the interior like just Fort George that's doing stuff.
You just it's not the mindset of the American and the mindset of the Croatian is so different
that in America, everything would be up in big lights and this and that and discount
today we're there.
It's much more relaxed.
You just kind of discover as you go.
So that's been that has been very different.
So as we have all these adventures of travel and the water and the sea, we're like, yeah,
uncle, we want to go down this road.
And he's like, OK.
So on our next trip, we've probably been back 10, 10 to 15 times in the six years.
So three times a year, Covid was a little tough.
So now he goes, OK, here's the properties.
Well, I thought it was just grandma's house and a donkey house because my uncle that was
there, you know, rode the donkey to the fields.
Oh, no, he gave us a list of the cadastral numbers, which was like 20 parcels.
We talk about the craziest, most fun scavenger hunt in the history.
Not just that you have a home on this magical place, but now you get to go in the interior
and find fields and use the Google Maps and the in the cadastral maps to try to figure
out where and when and where is this next one going to be such an adventure.
I knew that my uncle planted grapes and pressed grapes.
I mean, there was all the equipment in the canova at the house, you know, the big barrels
and all that stuff.
So we knew he did it.
And I had been there in my youth and ridden the donkey and all that stuff.
But how are you going to find it?
So it's modern technology, you follow the thing.
And we found over 200 old vines still producing fruit that are on our lands.
So then it's like, well, OK, now what do you do?
Like we obviously someone's caretaking for these.
So it's your lands, it's your stuff, but someone else is caring for it.
So you have to try to learn how to not be an American and say, oh, that's mine.
I'm going to take it.
No, you work with the people to try to figure out what's going on and how you partner and
what you do.
And one of the more exciting fields that we found was literally we run into this kind
of sustainable farm called Fields of Grace.
And this Fields of Grace, basically, it's the same thing.
This gentleman is probably in his 60s named Yaksha Kibola.
And he was born on the island, went away to make his way in the world.
He went to the Far East and he became an expert in hoteling and he was a Michelin chain chef.
So when he came back to the island in his 50s or 60s, he decided basically to open the
sustainable farm and restaurant that's in the middle of the island.
And when we discovered that one of the plots of land was in proximity to this and we discovered
Fields of Grace, it's like, OK, we want to talk to this gentleman.
Oh, he cooks an amazing seven course meal with wine that's made on the lands right there.
And the whole thing is like 50 bucks for seven course meal.
And now we're in talking to this gentleman about, you know, that's my uncle's land.
It's going to become mine someday.
And let's figure out a way to partner on this.
And it's just been so exciting to get those pieces and see how like some of them have
not just the parcel of land, but then they'll have a small piece where you can build a building
that's in conjunction with that.
So as we move towards hopefully spending significant time in retirement there, there's just so
many possibilities.
So yes, uncle, we can take the it's very exciting.
We want to spend time there.
And it just kind of kept going that we're going to rehab the house.
And as so many people have done, do short term rentals at the house to make it worth
their while.
But Croatia has a lot of surprises for you.
It's not always what you think you're going to do.
You know, Croatia is its own beautiful, lovely, different thing that you need to learn to
adapt to.
And you don't just go in there and rehab the house.
It doesn't work like that.
You know, first, there's I don't know, 15 to 20 names on the property still, since my
uncle had been trying to get the thing, you know, and narrowed down to the current people.
And you know, that's been an 18 year journey.
So finally, that's been taken care of.
But just to go through that has been exasperating.
And you don't understand that Croatia is its own thing.
You have to just somebody one of the guys that talks about this is don't try to change
Croatia, let Croatia change you.
And I think about that a lot.
I think that's real important as we come back, you know, at the diaspora, we're coming back
to the country.
We have ideas, and it's good to have ideas.
But you can't think that you're going to impose your feelings, thoughts, energies, biases
on a country that's been surviving, you know, for a long time.
You know, I have to say, I think you're going into this with the right attitude.
I know a lot of people in the diaspora can probably, you know, agree and relate to, you
know, especially property issues and, you know, trying to figure out who's who's and
what's what and where is everything and all that stuff.
It's never going to be simple.
There's always going to be, you're always going to run into problems be that with, I
mean, you know, bureaucracy paperwork, not everything is, you know, like you mentioned
earlier on a computer, there's going to be so many things and so many twists and turns,
you know, on that journey that you're going through right now.
So many pieces of the puzzle to fit together, which is also for you, I'm sure, you know,
very exciting.
You know, I think you said that before.
I want to get back to Vis here at the end, but I do want to ask you quickly, but not
too quickly about, you know, sort of water sports before we get too far into, because
I do want to talk a little bit more about Vis.
I know you've got a wine tasting and art show that I want to hear about, but, you know,
quickly, how did you sort of get into sort of water sports and is it water skiing, water
boarding, not obviously not waterboarding, but yeah, boarding?
Well, it's been called waterboarding too.
It's been called a lot of names because the boring name that fits the whole thing is Toad
water sports.
And I mean, but even that doesn't fit now because we're branching into people wake foiling
where you're not being towed anymore.
So using the boat to surf behind the wave either on a surfboard or on a surfboard that's
got a hydrofoil underneath.
So Toad water sports isn't even the thing.
So I think generally like the organizations will call it water skiing and wakeboarding
kind of the catchall that everybody understands, but just the family thing.
And that's on the Murphy side, that's my grandmother who's got the heritage from Slovenia now.
So that family just grew up water skiing.
So like I went with my dad to my other grandparents house, I would go water skiing with my other
grandparents growing up.
I mean, since I can remember, we would just take trips to go skiing and it just became
a family obsession and my uncles were really good at it.
So my uncle basically became an instructor and then he became a show skier at a very
famous place called Tommy Bartlett's.
Tommy Bartlett was a TV personality in the fifties radio and TV personality here in the
United States.
And he ended up opening a theme park that then had a water ski show.
So my uncle Mike went to work for him and uncle Mike is a unique individual.
He is not only became one of the best show skiers, but a brilliant inventor's mind.
So along the way, he started inventing maneuvers.
He kind of became the father of what they would call hot dog water skiing.
So have you ever seen like the snow skiers, what they would call hot dogs, snow skiing
that was kind of popular, like in the seventies and eighties, you know, guys jumping and they
do back scratchers and it's just kind of like a showy kind of skiing they made movies on
it and stuff.
Well, he kind of became that person in water skiing in the seventies, eighties.
Now I grew up thinking this was normal.
I just thought, oh, that's just the way you ski because I saw him doing it.
And also I will have to admit that because I also saw that as a young impressionable
youth, I saw that the ladies were also very interested in the fact that Mike did really
cool water skiing trick.
And he always had very, let's say hot girlfriends around.
And I was like, yep, that's what I want to do.
So I followed in the family footsteps and more than anything, Mike just kind of kept
doing things and inventing things.
And then I would step into that role.
So he was a, he was, you know, a great show skier.
I went and became a show skier at Magic Mountain in California.
I know you're from LA.
So Magic Mountain used to have a show ski site for about six years in the eighties.
I worked there.
Mike invented the knee board, you know, that you've seen that device that you kneel down
on.
I learned that in 1972.
Well then I learned all the, all his tricks.
And then I started getting better than him, which he got a little mad about, but you know,
you got to let your baby go sometime.
So then I became, you know, national champion in wakeboarding.
And then he invented the sit down hydrofoil, commonly called like an air chair or sky ski.
You sit down on this device, it's got a hydrofoil underneath.
So you don't write on the board, you write on the foil.
And this thing had a huge run in the nineties, extremely popular, you know, he was all over
the place on, you know, TV news, travel the world.
I mean, he was in Playboy magazine on this thing, you know, discovery channel commercials,
everything.
I, once he started doing the flips on that, which is the first person to do a flip in
like 1991 on that.
Okay.
That's the thing.
So just kept following in his footsteps all the way.
That's just what kept happening.
And boy, he didn't like it better than though it was always like, even though he's an uncle,
it was like sibling rivalry.
You know, he had to, he'd have to every once in a while, smack me down and show them all
the old dogs got tricks still.
But when I think of him being old, he was like 40 something, which doesn't seem so old
right now because I'm 58.
But we've, we've had a great time, a great run.
He's still, he's still doing it.
In fact, I'm going to meet uncle Mike.
He's 74.
He's still selling hydrofoils and on the road as a hydrofoil guy, not because he has to
because he loves to.
I'm meeting him at our house in Florida this next week.
We're going to do some filming on the history of hydrofoiling.
So it's been huge.
And then it was, you know, I did all this stuff.
I had designed a knee board like he designed.
It's the number one all selling compression knee board.
It's called the Joker by HO.
I was a professional, you know, on the road and traveling for 20 years.
Did shows everywhere in the world.
You know, had access.
I mean, you don't make a ton of money as a skier.
I mean, you know, it was, it was decent for sure, but just to be able to travel and to
perform for, you know, Prince Albert of Monaco to perform for, you know, I mean, lots of
people, you know, presidents, vice presidents of countries, you know, prime ministers did
it all through the years and got to see everything and became, I followed in his footsteps of
hot dog water skiing was the first person to do a front flip on a slalom ski, which
in 1986, that was a big deal.
I mean, any more sports have gotten so extreme.
It's not like that.
But at that time, just to do a flip on anything was a huge, huge deal because there are so
few people doing it.
Did great at knee boarding, did great at sit down hydrofoiling.
And then as far as the skiing and kind of what it led to was my grandmother, who we
talked about her thing was always endurance skiing.
We would go to Catalina, the family would go to Catalina for lunch or brunch.
She'd ride her ski for hydrofoil to Catalina just to get there.
26 miles open ocean.
We're talking about in her sixties and seventies.
So like most people, when it was time for Grandma Murphy to have a ride, it's like everybody
would hide because you know, it was going to be a minimum of one hour in the boat.
I mean, she was endurance rider.
And when Mike invented this sit down hydrofoil, he taught her how to ride it.
She loved it.
And it's a lot less pull.
So she decided that she was going to start riding to Catalina on her birthdays at age
79.
So every year from age 79 to 88, she rode the sit down to Catalina Island and back for
her birthday celebration.
Yeah.
Crazy.
So her maiden name was Mikulich.
So that's the name going back over there.
But it became quite a thing.
Like you know, Ripley's Believe It or Not did stories on her and she had Guinness involved
and like new stations would film and they had the body glove boat out there.
It became a big deal.
So I'm like when I was about to turn 40, what am I going to do?
Grandma does this cool thing.
And it just, you know, having a couple of beers with buddies, it's kind of like, okay,
I'm going to ski 40 miles, you know.
Oh, I could do that in 40 things.
Are there 40 things?
No, there's not 40 things.
So hanging out with Uncle Mike, we always try different stuff.
In fact, you think we invented stuff.
The first list had 27 items, you know, slalom ski, kneeboard, trick skis, double skis, jump
skis, you know, sit down hydrofoil, like 29 items.
Oh my gosh, I'm like, you know, how many short?
Then I had to start getting creative and start asking people about old devices, new things,
crazy things.
And that's kind of where it started.
So I just became obsessed with pushing myself, but also again, doing something different.
I just kind of got bored with a barefooter, one of the world's best barefooters and often
consider the world's best all around skier of all time.
Brett Wing once told me, I go, Brett, why did you retire?
Why did you retire from barefooting?
He was the best.
Nobody could beat him.
He said, well, mate, I can't put any more water in my glass.
Like his glass was full and that's, I just thought about that.
Like after you went so many titles and championships, what's one more?
You already know what's there.
It's not anything different.
You're sure it feels good, but it's not the same.
So I just kind of kept jumping to sports to break new ground.
And then it became, how many things can you ski on?
So that first 40 for 40 was tricky.
I started going to garage sales and thrift stores and asking people and digging up the
history on the sport and getting things that were written 50 years ago, 60 years ago and
making things and just a cool journey that just kind of captured the imagination of a
lot of skiers.
And it kind of kept me relevant because let's face it, you know, sports in general or young
man's sport, how do you stay relevant if you're getting past 40 or 50?
I became the historian of the sport and just started riding crazy stuff and showing the
youngsters, okay, this is what it's done.
Are you looking for a country with a stable economy, low unemployment and a high standard
of living?
Then it's time to consider becoming a citizen of Croatia.
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So there's been something of a movement of a few guys now, which you see these guys writing
things, you know, a snowboard or a table upside down.
That's another thing I've written.
You'll see guys writing this stuff now or just trying things that aren't normally written
on.
So that's the journey.
I mean, after the, you were talking about the 40 for 40, when you turned 50, you did
50 things and I hear you're turning 60 in two years and you're going to do 60 different
things in one day.
Do you have any new leak, maybe one or two new items that you plan to do?
Well there's no leak.
I mean, it's just whatever is new and whatever I can think of.
So you know, the latest development and we're right in the thick of it because of the family
connection to hydrofoiling is these wake foils.
I don't know if you've seen them or not.
You kind of mostly see them in surfing right now.
It's basically a surfboard or a wakeboard that's got a hydrofoil underneath it that
you use to surf on the waves.
So for us as boaters, you surf on the wave that's made by the boat.
Well they started in skiing, they went to surfing, they went to windsurfing, then they
went to surfing and now they came back to the boat.
So that'll be a new item that I'm writing on.
There's just other devices that I have been seeing made.
There's this device that was made for barefooting back in the 80s that people know that I'm
looking for stuff.
They reach out and say, hey, I'm going to get you this device.
Where do you want me to ship it?
And boy, all these devices that are supposed to make it easier, they don't always make
it easier.
So that's been one new one.
But just the standard stuff.
I'm working on writing the guitar and the table and the pieces of wood and just kind
of whatever is big enough to get your foot on is big enough.
I have been trying to get a Guinness record for this situation and they've just turned
me down because they say it's too specific.
So in protest, one of the items that I always write is literally the Guinness Book of World
Records.
Just to stick it in their face a little bit or what?
Well, it's not in your face.
I'm not like that.
Just to kind of fun, like, okay, well, if you're not going to get me the record, here you go.
Yours is going to be one of the items.
So basically on any situation like that, what I do is I'll get up on a ski with my opposite
foot forward.
So normally I ride my stronger foot forward is right.
I'll get up on a ski with my left foot forward.
I'll have the book in my hand.
And then once I'm skiing, I kind of have to perform a little bit of gymnastics maneuvers
to get the item, in this case, the book on my foot.
So now basically I'm skiing with a ski on one foot and the book on the other.
And then you kind of get the speed set just right.
And then you kick the ski off and now, hey, I'm writing the book.
How long can you stay like that?
More than a few seconds or?
Oh, that one?
Oh yeah.
As long as I want to.
I mean, depending on the item, I could ski a mile on that, you know, if the conditions
were proper.
That's nuts.
Yeah.
But I mean, that technique has helped.
There's a lot of guys doing stuff on, you know, paddles, oars, books, computer, keyboards,
just like people just find random stuff and do it.
So I'm glad they've started a little something, I guess.
Yeah, that's definitely cool.
I was watching, I believe it was your 50 for 50 video that you sent me and that I'll include,
you know, links down below for everyone to click on and watch if they want.
Definitely looking forward for the 60 for 60.
And you know, I want to go back to Vese a little bit here at the end as we're down to
the last couple of minutes or so.
Well, first of all, before, you know, we sort of talked about the wine tasting in our show.
Have you been water skiing on Vese or do you plan on doing anything there?
Yes, I have twice.
So in my youth, in the 70s, I did.
And from what I understand, it was a big hit for a long time because I barefooted, I didn't
have any ski equipment and someone rounded up like just some random piece of rope that
they use.
And I was, you know, probably a hundred and some odd pounds.
So the fishing boat went just fast enough.
So I literally they had they lined up all the people on the Revo down there and I barefooted
along the shore right there in the 1970s as a youth.
And my aunts just they talked about that forever and ever, you know, but then they would get
stuff because my my uncle and father supported them for the years financially and in letters.
So they would be sending them the covers of the magazines and the posters and stuff like
that.
So when I got in the house, it was a trip because I just didn't think about I found
pictures of myself as a kid all the way growing up and then stuff from my water skiing.
So they were definitely proud, definitely proud.
But the art show and the second time I skied was we just took a tour with some guy, Davor.
He's like this this adventure is on Milna on the other side of the island.
And he's got a little like a boat that's fast enough.
And he had a wakeboard, which was a little too small for my style.
I wrote it, but it was just wasn't me.
But he literally had a wood pile out there.
I go, well, I'll just write on this piece of wood over here.
So I pulled a piece of wood that was like about four inches wide by six feet long out
of the pile and took a ride on the piece of wood.
That was about two years ago.
Wow.
So you're already a local legend over there.
Well, I don't know about a legend, but you know, my attorney said when we finally get
back there, you know, in full force that he'll talk to the harbor master and we're going
to try to organize some sort of show in the harbor like, you know, Native Son comes home
and do a show and all that business.
So oh, wow.
That'd be awesome.
Yeah.
So our Croatian adventure took a big turn here.
We thought we were going to rehab the family house.
And all of a sudden we ended up to great surprise to everybody purchasing a house over there.
It was such difficulties in rehabbing with the architects and the permissions and what
we could and couldn't do.
It's just been a process.
And we have a girlfriend, Kathy, a friend who's a girl who she wants to join us in the
adventure and help us.
And she's wanted to help at the house and stuff like that.
So she so much so that she's even dreaming of purchasing a home there.
So on one of our trips that she's been with us, we went to look at properties and she
loves Mama Mia, like love, love mom.
Yeah.
And I don't know if you know or not, but Mama Mia too was shot on the island.
So that connection is like very strong with her and we stayed at the house that Terse
Brosnan stayed at.
And so there's all these amazing connections.
So she's going to be at the house, help us with our endeavors.
And she's going to be like the girl in Mama Mia who's on a house in a foreign country.
It's so exciting.
And we're looking for her, but the real estate guy goes, I got this waterfront one.
I think you guys should see.
And I'm like, no, we got appointments.
Let's not.
We walk into this place.
And as you know, it's difficult to find one-to-one properties and it's difficult to find properties
that are done and ready to go.
And with all of our difficulties, it's like, here's this house and it was listed in January.
So nobody knew about it.
And we were there at the right time in January.
So we make a run at this house and it's on the, it's literally on the Reva on the water
and coop right there.
And we just don't think it's going to happen, but we just keep going down the pathway and
about halfway through.
Oh, by the way, nobody knew that this is a national historic monument.
Like you have to get permission from the city of Vise, split the county and the country
to buy it.
So like, oh, here's another obstacle.
Then Ukraine war happens.
And you think like, oh, that seems awfully close.
It's just so many obstacles, but it ended up taking nine months.
We took control of this property in September, the Villa Machiavelli.
It's on the Reva in Coote.
And this is where the art show story comes in.
So we have met a couple from Zagreb.
They're right there in their hometown.
And we met them touring in Amsterdam, I think.
And I just, I recognized a few words and I recognized the voices.
So I go over and chat them up and we have a drink and then we meet up and we've since
met in various places all over the world with them.
And she's an art lover.
Her family's home in Zagreb was the center.
They were the salon for decades and decades.
So all the top artists came.
She grew up with the top artists coming to her house.
There's paintings from these artists in the house.
And it's just, it's special.
She knows a lot about it.
And as I was telling her about this house when I was driving back to the Split Airport,
the thought came to me, if we get this house, we're doing an art show at the house.
I've done lots of shows for skiing, but the fact that this was going to happen just came
to me like just a vision.
I get these pictures in my head.
And when we got the house, I was just joking with her, are you ready for that art show?
And we just kind of laughed about it like you're crazy.
Well, our first day in the Villa Machiavelli, I literally, an elderly English gentleman
comes kind of wandering in.
Where's the owner?
We want to invite him for drinks.
We have the house on the other end of the Riva.
So we're like bookends, come over for drinks.
So we come over and it ends up that his wife is Ivana, Ivana Mestrovich, the granddaughter
of the famous artist, right?
Crazy.
And I guess we passed the test because after hanging out and drinks and they had some friends
over, she goes, oh, let's go to the gallery.
So literally it's like Yaksha Palace is the place where they live.
It's many rooms and the gallery, it's a private gallery.
And the works that are in there are the works that Yvonne used to make the famous works.
So it's like, I don't know what you call them, the practice works or whatever.
So he has one very famous one in Chicago, I think it's called the Archer.
It's a big, it's like an Indian or someone with a bow and arrow.
And this thing in real life is gigantic.
Well the one in the gallery is only like three feet tall and Jobe and like all these famous
works that you know are there in the gallery.
And she's kind of talking through each one.
And at some point, I had only talked to her for five minutes the whole night.
She's just being the perfect hostess.
And she's speaking over Jobe, which is one of his very famous works.
And I go, wow, Yvonne, that must be so hard for you.
You're the caretaker of all of this.
You're carrying on the legacy.
And this work is so rooted in suffering, which it really is when you see it and you feel
that struggle of the Croatian people that comes through this art.
And she says, it's a burden that I gladly bear.
And I'm like, wow.
And I go, Yvonne, this is the craziest thing, but I dreamed that I would be having an art
show on the island.
And she turns without hesitation and she said, you can have it here anytime you want.
Wow.
And we locked eyes and we like stared at each other.
And this has never happened to me with another human being in my life.
This was inexplainable.
We were like looking into each other's soul for like 30 seconds.
Everything else went away and we both got kind of emotional.
Like we weren't speaking.
And when we came out of it, my wife goes like, whoa, what was that?
And I go, I don't know.
And I go, Yvonne, did you, we didn't, because she came to our like open house party and
I go, did you feel that Yvonne?
She goes, yeah.
I go, what was that?
She goes, I don't know.
And I go, I think that means we're supposed to be doing stuff together.
She goes, yeah, we are.
So to literally on the first day that you're like have a resonance in the country that
you can, we are always airbnbs, the first day that you have a resonance in the country,
you meet the granddaughter of the artist when you're claiming you want to do something around
art.
Yeah.
So that, and then because of the legacy with wine, I just think we want to try to set something
up with, with wine and wine tasting.
Because when people come to the island, oftentimes it's on the boats or you can't really get
to the interior.
So you're kind of just stuck.
You don't really get to see what's happening.
And there's not really places there that cater to supporting all the different wineries.
There's lots of great wineries, but it's like so many things in Croatia, there's not ours.
You got to know somebody.
You can't just get in your car and drive there necessarily.
So we want to kind of try to bring that to the people.
So when we come to Zagreb and the island in May, we're going to be meeting with Yvonne
on the island and trying to plan this for September.
So we don't really know exactly what it's going to be, but we have an offer of a place
to hold it.
We have a person who's an expert in art.
We have a history in wines.
We don't know what, but we just keep following this pathway and we know we get support.
I ran into a cousin that's producing wine out there and he's just so excited about it.
So we think there's something there and we're going to do it all within hopefully doing
it right because my legacy is the island.
There's a lot of people moving in there and it's kind of sad that the country and the
islands are getting gentrified.
Like it's true.
It's really happening.
And yeah, I'm there too, but I probably have deeper connection because I am from the island.
My heritage is from that island, 50%.
It's different for me.
I'm not just there to make a buck.
I want to share your home with people, but not at the expense of just making money.
You want to do it in a responsible way.
So we're just looking forward to it.
I'm so hopeful and I'm so thankful for you and what you're doing.
So I reach out to any one of the people that are here listening that are in a position
to help or get involved with this journey that we're on, or maybe we can cross promote
with something that you're doing.
My wife and I are here.
We're applying for citizenship and thanks again for what you're doing with the app that's
going out.
We had to do ours with the lawyer and with Adriatic travel helped tremendously, by the
way, that's another sponsor of yours, but they helped with our translations and they
were very helpful, but that's another whole story of the citizenship.
But we hope to partner with people that are doing this stuff so we can do it responsibly
and get with people that maybe have a little bit more of our mindset and to figure out
how to approach this in a way that's beneficial, but it doesn't just put the dollar like Americans
do that the dollar is the almighty, be all and end all.
That's not what this country is all about.
It's much deeper than that.
Yeah.
And I mean, that's a big, you have a big responsibility with a gallery like Meschovitch's.
Yeah, no kidding.
I didn't know that they, I guess that makes sense that sculptors have this sort of first
edition or first sort of attempt at something before they make the big one.
I guess I never really thought about that, but yeah, that's a huge, I mean, that's super
exciting.
I'm really excited to hear more about that.
I want to thank you for taking the time, Tony, to come on the podcast.
I'm really happy to hear that the podcast has connected you with so many different people,
the recipe books with the sponsors that have been on the podcast.
That's really for me awesome to hear that it's doing something, it's connecting people,
connecting the community.
I'll post all the links that you'd like, your email or whatever, so people can get in contact
with you if they want to help out, if they want to hear more about what you're doing.
Even as far as the wakeboarding and water skiing, if they want to check out some of
the videos, they want to follow you for when you're going to do that 60 for 60, which I'm
also excited for.
Although I know you've got a couple of years left, but overall, Tony, I just want to thank
you again so much for coming here on the All Things Croatia podcast.
It's been amazing.
Do you mind if I ask you just a couple of quick questions?
Is that allowed?
I wondered how do you see the podcast and what you're doing having an effect on the
diaspora?
You've got to see something.
How are you seeing that happen?
Because you're obviously finding success.
Yeah.
I see it in cases, much like yourself, how you mentioned, oh, I bought the book of Andrea
Pisatz.
But yeah, that was one of my first, maybe first five episodes.
That was a long time ago that that one went out.
Things like that.
People will message me, oh, I just listened to this episode with whoever.
That was so amazing.
I didn't know about this or I'd never heard about this before.
That's always really cool to hear that people have had a couple of people meet up, two different
people in Australia that I had at separate times on the podcast, ended up connecting
with each other and meeting.
That's always really cool.
Just things like that.
Just things where I'm seeing the episodes have an impact or at least they've enjoyed
the content behind it or they've made a new connection or discovered something new about
Croatia or their Croatian heritage.
For me, that's the goal of the podcast and that's the whole point of why I'm doing this.
Well, that answered my second question because I wondered what your goal was because it's
not often that a young guy with you with a lot of energy does this.
This is a huge labor of love and I'm so appreciative.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for the opportunity.
Thank you for the time.
I hope to see you in Zagreb soon and I invite you to our villa.
I invite you to Vis and anyone who's listening, I invite you to connect with us and let's
do exciting things that are important.
That's my goal.
Tony, thank you so much for the kind words and for interviewing me a little bit for once.
Thanks again, Tony.
I really appreciate it.
It's my pleasure.
Take care.