Quest for gold
At first I didn’t recognize him. Jeans and, despite his profession as a (personalized) shoe maker , running around on half-work boots. Tense he walks back and forth between the double deposition. To his wife and back. Adrenaline is visible running through his body. He still knows how it was in the early days. In that time he drove himself. Now his son Isjen is steering with his mate Noah Kuijpers beside him. Just watching seems to be even worse. Hanging over the ribbon he can almost touch the two young brave warriors. ‘Don’t cuddle damn, on the gas!’ The boys are plowing their way through the deep sand. They’re doing their best. He knows. The struggle is on. Gerton is able to see everything in the right perspective. ‘They are so young and not yet experienced enough to know what it means to hit the bottom’. As a father and manager, he tries to analyze the races afterwards. “They did great in the first heat. In the second they let their heads hang down too fast. I guess it has to do with the food or so. You’ll learn something like that every time,’ he laughs. If you want to climb to a certain level, you have to do a lot and surely let even more. ‘It all costs a lot of money, so they have to give it their all if they want to be able to keep doing this’. Hard and clear language, but it’s nothing but the truth. When the checkered is waving he walks to his wife. Steals a kiss and then heads to the boys. The boys that will be men one day. Gerton Kops. He knows how it was, and what it is. What’s to be done. Follow-up in progress …