Life on Utila – Doc Rail
Last night I went out to see the sunset and grab a beer with friends. We settled down just before sunset at SkidRow, a local restaurant/bar. We pulled two tables together and each made our place to our seats. Conversations ranged from mothering to cleaning up the beaches to island conflicts to photography. As I looked around all of us girls were expats and each has their own unique story of how they made it to the island and what makes them stay.
Before long, an older gentleman made his way to our combined tables and pulled up a chair. Several of the girls greeted him and then introduced the newcomers. Doc Rail. Funny, I had just heard his name the previous night from an island friend who said her dad had worked for Doc Rail when he was a kid. Actually the story was more interesting than just that. Her dad had left the island in his teens to go work for Doc Rail. Doc had a unique career going in the States. He organized and put on water skiing shows. The kind of shows with girls formed as pyramids as they cut through the waters. I’ve never actually seen one of those shows. I don’t even know if they even have that kind of thing anymore. But in the 70’s it was big entertainment.
So, within seconds of being introduced to Doc last night, he grabbed his chair and pulled it right up next to me. He had a knife in his hand and about 8 stems from a palm branch. He wasn’t holding a beer or a wallet or an iPhone. I immediately noticed his beautiful hat “Korean Veteran” and thanked him for serving our country. He dismissed the compliment by saying he was drafted. I repeated my gratefulness and left it alone.
Doc and I engaged in conversation for over an hour, all the while he was whittling away with the knife and palm branch stems. He asked if I wanted a bird? I said absolutely. Not only did he make me a little bird, but when I left SkidRow I had a parrot fish and an angel fish. When I asked him if he charged for his craft. He laughed. It was like he was offended at the idea because he loves to do it and he enjoys conversing with people while he does it. I heard later that he regularly visits the bars and restaurants looking for newcomers to chat with and make them his beautiful handcrafted birds and fish.
Thank you Doc Rail for your kindness and creations!
Great photos and colorful nickname for a Utila expat.
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Thank you. I agree. He is a colorful person:)
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Yes Doc is a very colorful person. I worked for him from 1968 to 1973. He organized ski shows for a marine world in Galveston, Texas and for very special and challenging ski shows in a hotel swimming pool in Houston, Texas! So glad to see he is doing well!
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Ginny, he loved telling me about the shows he used to put on! How fun that you were a part of that!
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Tell Doc Bubba said hello…I pretty much skied in all his shows…
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I am not living there anymore, but that’s great you know him and skied in his shows! Cheers and thanks for reading!
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Hope he is still alive… Thanks for getting back with me… Both my children have lived there and have been scuba instructors not knowing Doc was there… What a character.
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Sadly he just passed away this week. He lived a life many of us could only read about in books. RIP Doc.
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Oh I’m sorry to hear that. Thank you letting me know. He was indeed a unique man.
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Have been missing the old days & crazy stories from my early days in Galveston Texas. Was doing the usual, trying to get through college at Texas A&M, work nights at several of the beach clubs, why not try to get hired at Sea Arama Marineworld, then add some water skiing to the mix that led me to meet Doc Rail in 1976 via his son Paul Rail who I ended up dating off & on till leaving Galveston in 1979. What a crazy time but some fun memories. Was able to take a trip to Utila while dating Paul but traveled with Doc to the island from Houston. Paul was already there & Doc was heading down, so tagged along. So nice to come across this story & read about Doc, then to see the sad news of his passing. Attended the Sea Arama reunion in 2012 & heard Doc was in Utila. Was hoping to meet up with Paul but he went missing as he tended to do. Man of mystery. Wink wink! Now sure if this site is monitored but giving it a shot. Here we are in Jan 2020. Sure could use some island time in Utila & see all the changes. Best diving to date! Thanks Doc for all the fun times. I am sure there will Doc Rail tow bars on many boats for decades to come. Adieu from Miley Mermaid (Sue K.)
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Hi Sue,
What a sweet surprise to see your comment and hear from one of his mermaids:) I lived on Utila for a few years 10 years ago, and have been back a few times since. It is time for me to visit again:) I loved my time there and meeting Doc Rail was definitely a highlight of island life.
I did a google search of Sea Arama Marineworld and came upon this site: https://galveston.wixsite.com/rememberingseaarama/portfolio-c1i4a
I thought I’d share it with you in case you haven’t seen it. Hey, maybe you are even in one of the vintage pics:)
Happy New Year!
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Hi Jill, hopefully I am doing this reply in the correct area, line etc. It bounced back to the online link. Anyway, thank you so much for the reply. Very kind of you & nice to know there is still conversation going. I have found pretty much zilch about Doc Rail & his passing. Very surprised since he was so involved in the Ski show, ski boat, pool table making industry. His real name was John Humason, but Doc Rail was most common. He had a beautiful home in Nassau Bay. I think his divorce really ripped some of his soul away. Was a dark time for him. He had been going to Utila with his wife for years & I remember the home down the road from the main airport or only airport. Was pretty much a dirt strip that you just closed your eyes or had an extra cocktail before landing. Think one of my favorite memories of Utila was the smell of the coconut bread baking in the morning. We would head down the main road to see what was going on that day plus get your reservation in for a fresh lobster. Those wonderful red beans cooking to go with the rice, yummy!! Something about cooking at sea level is the best. We live in Denver, so altitude cooking can be more difficult. Wish I had grabbed the recipe for the coconut bread, must be a secret plus they would use the coconuts that had just fallen from the trees. Thank you for the link to the Sea Arama memories. Have not checked it in a few years. A few more photos have been added. I have a ton of Sea Arama photos & memorabilia, did share some but still need to add some photos. Yep, I am in one of the brochures & the 2012 reunion photos. The brochure is a scream since I am underwater feeding Alpha the dolphin, then the other one is of the dorsal tow, which is hanging on to their dorsal fin for dear life while they pull you to the other side of the tank while trying to look graceful at the same time. I was their first year round mermaid, so doing this in Galveston outside when days were hitting 35 degrees was less than fun. Oh the memories. Want to read some of your stories. Thanks again for the reply. Hope you have many great adventures! Sue
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Wow, Sue! What great stories you have of Doc, Waterskiing and of Utila! I bet he would have loved to see you again before he passed.
I don’t live on Utila anymore. I moved off the island in 2014. But I can tell you when I went back for a visit it was changing and yet still had all the same Utila vibes:)
I live north of Seattle now and my wife and I have a small business in town and online. My friend whom I first moved to Utila within 2010 stills lives on the island so every so often we catch up on Facetime and she fills me in on the island news.
While I lived on Utila, I wrote a bunch of stories of my time there, but now I write about other things here on my blog.
I wish you and yours a great 2020 and if you’re ever coming through Arlington, WA, send me a message and it would be fun to meet!
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Sadly he passed away this week. He was a kind man that led a life worthy of a book. RIP Doc.
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RIP Doc!
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Hi Jill, I was just back in Nassau Bay TX after more than 40 years and it made me think of my water skiing days with Doc Rail. A little googling and I found your article. Thank you! He taught me everything I know about skiing, driving boats and being part of a team. I am one of those girls in pyramids. In a tutu no less. We also skied 7 in a line holding the ropes with our feet. And I was a ski jumper and slalom competitor and did a very little bit on trick skis and one time flew up in the kite. Fell out of that pretty quickly. We skied year round wearing wetsuits in the winter and taking off from the ski hut ramp and landing back on it dry as a bone. I was very proud of my custom made Rail sky. In some Houston TV station’s archive someplace there may even be footage of shows we put on in the Nassau Bay and once in Galveston bay that the news folks came out and filmed – and put on TV! I have wondered many times whatever became of Doc. I am so happy he lived such a long life and ended it perfectly in paradise. Thank you, Betsy R.
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I wonder if we met…
Bubba Brandenberger
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Maybe on Utila?
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Something steered me here today to see if Doc Rail was still living. I’m so sorry I waited too long. I only met Doc once, but somehow I kept “just missing” him since I first heard his name in 1963. I was 18 and working my first job as the receptionist at the downtown Houston Oshman’s store. I was engaged to a guy who was a ski fanatic. All he could talk about was his custom slalom ski and the man who made it…Doc Rail. Our engagement didn’t last, but the name Doc Rail wasn’t so common that I would forget it when a man came to Oshman’s to build a pool table for an upcoming exhibition by Minnesota Fats. The man was Doc Rail. All week I got to watch him build it. I even was called upon to drive him home one day. It seems like he and his family lived in Glenbrook Valley, or at least somewhere near there. I lived nearby myself. Several years later I was working for Philco near NASA, and at happy hour one afternoon at the King’s Inn a friend was wearing a woven hat when I walked in. She said that a really nice guy named Doc Rail had just made it for her, but he was gone by then. I hope one day I’ll know why he was skirting my life in various ways. For someone I hardly knew, he made quite an impression on me. Rest in peace, Doc.
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