Reinaldo Padrino, seen under the Spanish River
Boulevard bridge, is a commercial diver and bridge
inspector who writes short stories and works
with a writers group at Highland Beach Library.
Photo by Tim Stepien
When Reinaldo Padrino talks about his life, people often tell him he really needs to write a book.
“Well, maybe someday,” Padrino says. For now, the 52-year-old commercial diver and bridge inspector concentrates his writings to short stories. And he appreciates the feedback he collects from his friends at a writers group that meets at the Highland Beach library.
“It is relaxing and my fellow writers like my quirky stories,” says the Cuban-born wordsmith. “Plus it is something I can do when I am not able to run around diving on bridges or climbing [and inspecting highway] signs.”
Working as a commercial diver in the offshore oil industry, Padrino has done and seen things most people never get to do or see.
“I worked on the [construction] of the Shell Cognac rig in 1978, which at the time was the deepest (1,025 feet) and tallest (1,350 feet) fixed oil rig in the world,” he explains. “Because I am bilingual, the company sent me to jobs in Mexico, like the Ixtoc blowout in the Gulf of Campeche, which took 10 months to cap and spewed 30,000 barrels a day —a 1979 accident similar to what just happened in the Gulf of Mexico with BP.
“I also worked in Guatemala on the Rio Dulce, where a French company was building a pipeline practically through the jungle and they needed divers for the river crossing.”
Closer to home, Padrino was the fellow who found hungry, wood-boring insects chomping away on the Royal Park Bridge (the middle bridge to Palm Beach from West Palm Beach).
The Highland Beach man is still inspecting bridges large and small, including the many little bridges at Disney World.
He has always been comfortable around water. His grandfather, Domingo, taught him to swim before he learned to walk.
“We had a summer/weekend house on Jaimanitas beach west of Havana that was enclosed within a seawall, which made it like a swimming pool with marine life,” Padrino says.
He enjoys kayaking in the Atlantic just off the beach from his condo and is delighted when he finds himself surrounded by dolphin or little spinner sharks. He and his wife, Gail, a physical therapist, like to travel and snorkel.
His colleagues in the writers group like to hear him talk about his experiences working with his father’s limo service in Miami. He helps out during special occasions, like when the Super Bowl is in Miami.
His clients have included boxing champ Muhammad Ali, retired astronaut Frank Borman, and Gloria and Emilio Estefan, who, he says, are very, very nice.
“Gloria always invited us in for pastelitos.”
— Mary Thurwachter
Q. Where did you grow up and go to school?
A. I was born in Habana Cuba; my family immigrated to this country in 1967, when I was 8.
We came on the Freedom Flights and settled in Miami, near the airport. I went to Kinloch Park Elementary and Junior High schools, then graduated from Miami Senior High in 1976 and attended George T. Baker aviation school as a high school elective. I got my commercial diver degree from Al Mikalow’s Coastal School of Deep Sea Diving in Oakland, Calif.
Q. How did you choose to make your home in Highland Beach?
A. I got lucky. I used to drive by along on A1A admiring the condos and homes. Then on Dec. 17, 1995, I saw an ad in the Sunday paper for a condo on the beach. Even though it was out of my price range, I decided to take a look. Once I stepped out on the balcony and saw the ocean, I decided that I would somehow figure out a way to make it happen.
Q. What is your favorite part about living in Highland Beach?
A. I love that I can snorkel, kayak and walk along a dynamic beach that sometimes feels like my private beach.
Q. What are some of your interests outside of work?
A. Snorkeling and kayaking, which is something I do right here in Highland Beach. I love to travel with my wife, Gail. We recently hiked in Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon, snorkeled with whale sharks off the Yucatan Peninsula and with manatees in Crystal River, Florida. And after seeing the humpback whales in Maui, we are hoping, maybe, next year to spend a week snorkeling and swimming with humpback whales along the Silver Banks, 70 miles north of the Dominican Republic. I also dabble in photography.
Q. What got you interested in writing?
A. One day a couple of years ago, I saw a flier at the Highland Beach library for a writing workshop and decided to try it out, and really liked it.
Q. What is your latest short story about?
A. It is about a young woman whose office is in 86th story of the World Trade Center. She has a meeting at 9 a.m. on the morning of 9/11 on the 62nd floor and decides to go to the meeting early rather than endure somebody’s intoxicating perfume on the elevator and avoids being above the impact area. I think it is a story about fate, how a person’s life can be changed, doomed or saved by the flip of a coin or a sudden decision.
Q. If someone made a movie of your life, whom would you like to play you and why?
A. Telly Savalas, Yul Brynner or Curly Howard, because of the physical appearance and toughness of the first two and the wackiness of Curly.
Q. What music do you listen to when you need inspiration? When you want to relax?
A. I listen to the blues on Sirius Satellite radio for both.
Q. Have you had mentors in your life? Individuals who have inspired your life decisions?
A. I got my work ethic from my parents and grandparents. My father started working at Miami International Airport on the midnight shift of the day we arrived from Cuba, and within a year we owned a house near the airport and had started a limousine business, which is what he did in Cuba. My mother, who had been a home economics teacher, started working at a clothing factory back when Miami had a big clothing manufacturing industry and many Cuban women worked in them. My grandparents, who were in their 60s, would get up at 4 a.m. to go pick tomatoes in Homestead. Also, Richard Barthold, who was my mentor, diving partner and friend. He taught me the intricacies of underwater bridge inspection.
Q. Who/what makes you laugh?
A. My taste for comedy is eclectic, from Sasha Baron Cohen to Sarah Silverman to Howard Stern. I like Johnny Knoxville and his Jackass cohorts and I also enjoy British humor like Fawlty Towers, Absolutely Fabulous and Monty Python. However, the comedians I grew up with are still my favorites, like Steve Martin, Rodney Dangerfield, John Belushi and Richard Pryor.
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