Why Herf?

[massphatness]

I returned to Massachusetts on Sunday from a weekend of herfing in conjunction with the Ybor City Cigar Heritage Festival in Tampa. I’ve been doing a great deal of thinking about herfs in general since I’ve been back, and while a lot of the inmates in the asylum have been around the block on this topic a few times, I’m writing this from the perspective of a relative noob.

I attended my first big herf – NERF – in Boston earlier this year, but that was more a fundraiser than a true herf. I also hosted a couple BBQ herfs this summer at my house, but nothing – NOTHING – prepared me for what lay in store during the weekend in Tampa. Maybe it was because I was too busy organizing and cooking during my own herfs to notice, or maybe it was because I already had met a lot of the guys I had invited, but travelling to Tampa to hang with a bunch of people I only knew through posts, PMs and the occasional phone call was a mind-bending experience in a lot of ways.

It had nothing to do with the festival and really, very little to do with the cigars. It was finally meeting some of the guys and gal (Hi SailKat!) whom I’ve had the opportunity to interact with through posts and PMs, bombs and trades, phone calls and e-mails that really made this special. There are people on this site whom I referred to as friends though I had never met them – guys like TripleF, awsmith4, ir13, av8tor152nd, rck70 and goodfella. Having now met them, spent time with them, laughed with them and shared cigars with them, well, those friendships have been cemented for me. Going forward, it’s going to be so much more fun to interact with them on and off CA.

Then there were the guys I was a little intimated by … in Tampa, SailChaser fell into this category. I don’t know why, but I was always hesitant to really interact with him in any significant way prior to the Tampa herf. Call it what you will. Intimated by his reputation, knowledge, etc. I don’t know, but I was a little nervous about meeting the guy. Turns out, I’m a big stupid head for thinking that way. Chris was one of the friendliest down to earth guys you could hope to meet. It was a true pleasure to get to know him and his wife (Hi again, SailKat!) better.

Finally there were the guys who I see around the site, and for whatever reason, I just never had the opportunity to get to know that well or perhaps at all. From ucubed to Barbourjay to S0leful0ne to ScottishSmoker, CBI_2, Rizzle, landhoney, wolfgang, joetownhound, jbonnefsc, Tenor CS and Mikepd – all these guys were there, and I had the wonderful opportunity to hang with them and get to know them. Some of them I still don’t know as well as I would like, but with others I formed the beginnings of some friendships.

I smoked some rockin’ sticks during the weekend. No doubt about it. But I came away from the experience not so much remembering the cigars, but the people.