Smiling from beneath a pair of sunglasses and wearing cheery yellow, Ducky, a squat affable fellow, was the picture of popularity Sunday at Vasona Lake Park in Los Gatos. Children hugged him and parents clicked away with digital cameras.
Then, rolling down the road on a sleek Segway, came the man who made everyone say “Ducky who?” He was chubby. He was wearing yellow, too. And his sunglasses and smile were joined by a Bad Boys Bail Bonds lanyard. Soon, the adoring crowds were clinging to the charming interloper instead.
But Ducky took it all in stride. The new guy, after all, was Apple co-founder (oh, and “Dancing With the Stars” favorite) Steve Wozniak — and he had arrived on a very important mission: kicking off a “race” of some 15,000 rubber ducks down a shallow stretch of Los Gatos Creek.
“You think he uses an iPhone?” Jon Levinson of San Carlos quipped to his son, Randy, soon after Woz waded into the water to help get the race going.
The event, (in)formally called the Silicon Valley Duck Race, was created last year by Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley to help raise money for South Bay nonprofits left scrambling by the stumbling economy. Beyond the race, it also includes a festival with food and music, as well as a raffle.
An official tally of how much had been raised wouldn’t be available until this morning, organizer Sandi Gaertner said Sunday. But the haul, for nearly two dozen groups, was expected to be several thousand dollars. A sizable portion of that came from the donors who paid $5 to “adopt” each of the rubber ducks and who then showed up by the hundreds to watch their plastic progeny course down the creek.
That was where Wozniak came in. After slipping on a white T-shirt, taking off his socks and trading his sneakers for a pair of water shoes that were two sizes too big, he hazarded his way to the middle of the creek and began a countdown that ended with the dumping out of seven massive sacks of ducks.
In a minute or so, the yellow cloud was bobbing past his calves and delighting the oglers along the creek. Children were hoisted onto shoulders, and cameras and video recorders were switched on to capture it all for posterity.
Of course, figuring out which duck to root for was easier said than done. They were all yellow. And they all had tiny pairs of sunglasses, like Ducky. The only thing distinguishing them was a serial number, and that was under water.
Still, Michael Underberink of Campbell, holding his 10-month-old son, Cole, was confident his duck was in the lead: “Of course!”
“It’s right out front,” he said. To which a friend replied: “Yeah, the one with the sunglasses.”
Eventually, the current carried the ducks a few hundred feet downstream, where volunteers were waiting to collect them with giant nets for use next year.
Wozniak emerged from the water, too, only to find himself in another sea mostly made up of young admirers. “I hope you’re a computer person,” he asked one boy.
Meanwhile, Wozniak’s new wife, Janet, wondered whether they would make it back to their Segways in a reasonable amount of time so they could get home and relax. The afternoon began, she said, with a session of Segway polo.
Woz wasn’t complaining. He didn’t even mind having to get a little wet, especially for a good cause in his hometown.
Although maybe, just maybe, some thicker-soled water shoes would’ve been nice, to help him navigate the rocks. But with only his feet wet, it seemed his newfound dancing skills were put to good use.
“I love anything ever in my life that I’ve done with water,” he said. “I’m very happy when I’m in the water.”
Poor Ducky. Outshined even in the pool.
Contact Denis C. Theriault at dtheriault@mercurynews.com or 408-275-2002.
