Steve's California Business (?) Trip

Although I travel constantly on business, I have never had the pleasure of traveling to Southern California on business. In October of 1998, that was to change. I had a series of business meeting scheduled in and around the Los Angeles area. I was hoping that I would be able to visit some of the numerous Koi dealers in the area since Southern California is the "Koi Mecca" of the United States.

I finished my meetings early on Tuesday of that week and called a friend and AKCA certified judge, Burt Ballou. Burt was gracious enough to meet me and take me to three dealers and also some Koi ponds, including that of Joan and Bob Finnigan. During dinner that evening with Burt, he informed me that the ZNA Orange County chapter was going to have a one day Koi show on the coming Saturday and Burt suggested that I stay for the show. I quickly decided that I would change my Saturday morning flight to Late Saturday.

As the week wore on, I could only dream about the upcoming show. By Thursday I had talked myself into buying a Koi to enter into the show. I stopped by Asahi Fancy Koi and ask my friend and the owner, Henry Nakamura to help me select a Koi. I advised Henry of the price range I was looking for and he Bowled up 5 gorgeous fish. I quickly admired a 14" Shiro Utsuri and asked Henry for his opinion. Although Henry also liked this fish, he advised me that the 13" Kohaku would probably fare better in the show. After much debate (all of 2 seconds) I informed Henry that I would take both fish. I asked Henry if he had any show packets and he advised me to call Joan Finnigan for further information.

That evening I called Joan and asked her about entering fish into the show. She started off by letting me know that this was a "young" koi show, meaning that it was limited to koi between 12" and 24". I let her know that this would not be a problem since "both" of my fish were around 14". She then let me know that it was an English style show and each entrant would have his/her own tank. In order to make sure that they had enough tanks and entrants, they had a minimum of 5 fish and a maximum of 10 fish per entrant. Now this was a problem since I only had 2 fish. I graciously thanked her for her time and resigned myself to only being a spectator. And to having my new Koi shipped back to Oklahoma.

I finished my business meeting much earlier than expected on Friday and went to the show site to offer my assistance in setting up the show and the show tanks. Joan and Bob Finnigan were there and Joan apologized for the fact that I had purchased fish and would be unable to enter them in the show. Joan kept after me all day Friday to buy 3 more fish. I knew I was in hot water already with my loving wife Cheryl and that I was going to have a hard enough time explaining 2 fish, let alone 5! But, the hobbyist and competitor in me finally surfaced and I did in fact buy 3 more fish. After all, how often does a relatively newcomer from Oklahoma get to compete against the likes of the Finnigans, Galen Hanson, Steve Drake, Burt Ballou…etc.. Well Saturday morning came and I was the first to show up at the show. When judging started I was thrilled. Size 12" - 15" Kohakus were first and low and behold, the Kohaku that Henry Nakamura advised me on won first place! But it didn't stop there, after all of the 12" - 15" classes were judged, my Kohaku was then selected as Best in Size! After the next sizes and classes were judged, it was between my Kohaku and Steve Drake's Shiro Bekko for "Young Champion". Since Steve's Bekko was a size bigger and was a magnificent example for its class, I just knew it would beat my Kohaku. Steve and I set a small wager on the side, he was betting on my Kohaku and I was betting on his Bekko. Guess what, The Bekko won but I won the bet, $1.00. I offered to exchange the $1.00 for the award.

You may be wondering how the Shiro Utsuri and other fish fared? Well, the Shiro Utsuri took 2nd behind Burt Ballou's but all of the other 3 took 1st place in there size and class, not bad for a flatlander between the mountain ranges. I presented a Friendship award on behalf of the Oklahoma Koi Society to a beautiful 23" Shiro Utsuri. Shortly after the awards I thanked everyone and headed to the airport, trophy in hand, dreading the inevitable encounter with my loving wife Cheryl.

As I walked off of the airplane that evening, trophy in hand, I began to shake and perspire, waiting for the inevitable encounter. Immediately upon noticing the trophy, she frowned asked me about the trophy and then said "Congratulations"! I was so thrilled and upon telling her of my adventures, so was she except now I am not allowed to go to Southern California or Koi shows without her!

Steve Childers