Honoring My Brother on His 55th Birthday

                                                    Goin’ Coastal Logo

I wanted to take a minute to give the history and explain what this logo really is all about and the meaning behind it. First of all, this logo was a creation that came to me one day while I was sitting at my computer designing a t-shirt layout. While sitting there I kept thinking about my relationship with my brother Chuck Wezensky, who was battling cancer at the time, and about all of the things we had in common in our lives and how our relationship had so many of its own special moments and meanings. Each part of the logo is a symbol and representation of different parts of our relationship that meant a great deal to me.

First up: The Skull. The skull represents our common love of the ocean and everything that came along with that; from the beach, to fishing, to surfing, to the carefree life style that came along with it, it was a kind of “salty Pirate” way of life. Chuck loved fishing the most. We talked about it all the time. I had the pleasure of going fishing with him on many occasions and it was always a great time being with him out on the water. So, what could represent all that better than a Pirate skull?!

Second piece added to the design was the Cowboy hat. Yeah, we loved the ocean, but we both enjoyed the country way of life as well. I like to refer to it as a “country beach bum” kind of life. We would go from fishing on the beach in summer to hunting in the woods come fall and winter. Chuck was a much better hunter than I was. He always had that way about him where deer just seemed to come find him wherever we were in the woods. We loved being in the woods, if we couldn’t be on the beach; we had to be in the woods. We loved our 4x4 trucks as well. He was a Chevy man and I like my Fords. Well, until I got my first Jeep that is. I remember borrowing one of Chuck’s trucks once when we were still in High School. It was a Chevy S10 with big tires on it and I couldn’t get the dang thing to go more than about 40mph. hahaha

The third part of the design came from a special love of Chuck’s that he introduced me to when we were teenagers: surfing. It didn’t really take for me at first, I was always too busy playing soccer and other sports, but he sparked a flame in me way back then and it took awhile, about 30 years, for me to get back at it but one day that little spark caught a blaze. I called Chuck, told him I wanted to go surfing again, bought my first surfboard ever, and we set a plan to go. Chuck was spending the week in the Outer Banks the week before we were planning to go and, luckily, our weeks happened to overlap so we met up and spent the day together surfing. It was like we were kids again and was one of the greatest days we ever spent together. Unfortunately, it was also the last things we were able to do together.

Chuck was soon facing the fight of his life. For the first time ever, the man I looked up to, the man who wasn’t afraid of anything and would never let anything bother him, was scared. He never said it, but I could hear it in his voice. For the next year Chuck gave it all he had and all the while was more concerned with his family and friends than himself. Chuck may have lost his battle with cancer but he won the battle in life, because he not only made a difference in his life, but in everyone’s he met.