By Doug Curlee | Editor at Large

David Shockey, like many people do, became interested, then fascinated, with how indigenous people may have lived centuries ago in our area.

He studied everything the Kumeyaay University program could teach him, but that wasn’t enough, so he decided to try to recreate some of the things the ancient records say the people created.

That explains the 17-foot boat in his back yard, made entirely of five bundles of tule reeds tightly lashed together with strands of braided yucca threads, which he gathered from Mission Trails Regional Park.

“It is the most traditional boat made in San Diego for probably over 100 years. It’s pretty much the way they did it back then, maybe thousands of years before Cabrillo sailed here and landed on Point Loma,” he said. “It’s certain that the people came out to explorer’s ship in boats that looked like this one. The native people didn’t have much, but they knew how to work and live with what they did have.

“They’d make the boats and use them to fish and transport things for several months, until they finally became waterlogged and fell apart, but boatbuilding would have been a never-ending process, continually replacing the damaged or oversoaked ones with new boats. There was always plenty of raw material.”

That Shockey is able to recreate all the ancient processes is no real surprise, because all the elements the native people used are still not only available, but abundant here today. Between Mission Trails Park and the San Diego River, there is essentially a never-ending supply of the tule reeds, the yucca plants, the willow trees and everything else that went into making the boats, the weapons and the tools Shockey has recreated.

“I have the largest collection of pre-historic tools and weapons of San Diego in existence,” he said. “I make everything to archeological specifications and take them to the same places they were used.”

It’s become something of a lifelong quest for the 53-year-old Shockey, who keeps the lights on and the roof over his head as a professional hairdresser. It’s way beyond a hobby, but it’s one he pursues and will continue to pursue as long as he can.

“I’ve never been paid for anything before, but I will be now. This boat will be in a movie the Cabrillo National Monument folks are making about the Cabrillo landing.”

In the film about how Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered San Diego, Shockey’s boat will be paddled by two Native American actors alongside the Maritime Museum’s recreation of Cabrillo’s ship, the San Salvador.

“This boat will easily carry two people for as long as is needed to make the movie, or at least the boat’s part in it.”

You get the firm idea from talking with Shockey that as soon as this boat is no longer, he’ll probably make another one. He has a deep respect for the people who originally did all this many centuries ago.

There’s also the chance he’ll come across something they did back then that he hasn’t tried yet. If he does, you can bet he’ll be chasing that.

—Doug Curlee is Editor-at-Large. Reach him at [email protected].