Jeff Kingstad Article

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.madison.com/tct/news/index.p ... mp;ntpid=0

Doug Moe: Cayman life does have downside



By Doug Moe
January 11, 2005

WHEN HURRICANE Ivan hit the Cayman Islands in September, Jeff Kingstad finally found something he couldn't jump over. It wasn't the three feet of saltwater awash inside his rental properties - after all, Kingstad had been a pole vault champion in Madison in the early '70s - but getting renovation supplies through the overwhelmed port authorities was another matter. Suddenly everyone was on island time, and not by choice. It took Jeff nearly two weeks just to claim materials he'd had shipped down from Wisconsin.


If nothing else, it proved nobody can go through this life unscathed. Kingstad was giving it a pretty fair run before the hurricane. This is a guy who showed up in Madison from West Allis without an athletic scholarship and wound up winning a Big Ten championship.

He wasn't sure what he wanted to do out of UW-Madison, so he sent out a bunch of resumes, and who responded? Windjammer Sail Cruises, wanting to know if Kingstad wanted to turn his life into a postcard.

"I had never been on a sailboat," Kingstad was recalling Monday. But he'd worked summers as a lifeguard in Wisconsin, and scuba diving was his passion. Windjammer wanted him to teach diving to its cruise passengers. He figured he'd give it a year, but then Bob Marley's music and the whole lifestyle seduced him. Kingstad stayed 18 years, not with the cruise line, but teaching scuba in the Caymans. Among his clients was Len Mattioli, the hugely successful Madison retailer, who has property in the Caymans.

Kingstad's property management had actually started in Madison. A graduate of West Allis Hale High School and a top high school pole vaulter, Kingstad walked onto Bob Perrin's UW track team, listened, learned and by his sophomore year was awarded a scholarship. His vault had increased a foot and a half in year. By 1974, when Kingstad was a senior, he won the conference championship.

He also by that time had bought a duplex in Madison, living in half and renting the other half out. Kingstad discovered the arrangement was good for his bank balance. So when he landed in the Caymans, one of the first things he did when he wasn't pointing out coral reefs to tourists was buy a two-unit.

"I lived on a sailboat," Kingstad said, "not paying rent, and after a time I was able to buy a place."

In the manner of troubadour Jimmy Buffett, Kingstad was a sunny beachcomber with a dark secret: He paid attention to business, and he was good at it.

By the time Jeff, his wife, Janelle, and their two small boys moved back to Wisconsin several years ago, Kingstad owned two homes and has recently added a third. They're just a few hundred yards from the famous Seven Mile Beach and you can check them out at jeffsresorts.com.

Back here, the Kingstads bought a mom and pop resort, Sportsman's, north of Minocqua, and Jeff has been helping coach his sons' hockey and soccer teams, and, not incidentally, making a determined return to competition himself.

After not having picked up a pole in many years, Kingstad discovered a variety of age-group events that allow him to test himself against the best in the world in his age bracket. In 2001 he won the 45-49 world championship in Brisbane, Australia. Now 52, Kingstad briefly held the world indoor record for vaulters over 50 and won the U.S. national outdoor 50 and over championships this past August.

It was the next month, September, that Ivan hit the Caymans. Kingstad was in Wisconsin but his caretaker was living in one of his homes and reported they were actually fortunate. Some 90 percent of the island homes were destroyed. Kingstad's were filled with water, and everything inside had to be replaced, but the structures, aside from one roof, were still standing.

Kingstad flew down himself in October and spent the next six weeks making repairs. His shipping bill alone was over $4,000 and getting stuff to port was only half the battle: Corrugated roofing ordered from Home Depot arrived, but took 11 days to process.

Kingstad had renters due in early December and worked frantically against deadline to get the properties ready. He made it, and has been gratified to see the rest of the island slowly recovering around him. Kingstad was back in Wisconsin this week but said he's planning three weeks in the Caymans in March with his wife and sons. "The boys were both snorkeling by 2 years old," Jeff said. They're 13 and 10 now and playing hockey, but they still love the water. So does their dad, even as he has a new appreciation for the havoc it can wreak.

[Carolina Extreme]

Nice article! Jeff good luck in Reno if you make it there.