In 1978, all Tom Kendrick wanted to do was find and surf some of the fabled waves that roll onto the Channel Islands. Instead, he found a career.

He was living on a boat in Santa Barbara Harbor, trying to figure out how to get to the islands when an urchin fisherman banged on his door and asked if he wanted work for the day.

He spent the day bobbing off San Miguel Island, coiling diving hoses, hoisting urchins onto the deck and generally loving the experience.

"I made $160 that day; the rest was history," he said.

It was the first day of a 22-year career fishing urchins, one that took him up and down the state and ended with a book detailing his adventures, and maybe even a movie about the rough and tumble early days of the business.

Kendrick will give a slide show Wednesday night from many stories in his book, "Bluewater Gold Rush, the Odyssey of a California Sea Urchin Diver." The presentation will be at the Channel Islands National Park headquarters in Ventura Harbor.

The early days of the fishery in the late 1970s and early 1980s are packed with stories of capsized boats, bitter rivalries and races to make more money than the next guy.

"We were a bunch of scalawags," said Kendrick, 56, who now lives in Northern California.

"There were these huge kelp forests, an abundance of fish and sea life, and we were the only ones out there. We were like cowboys. They were pretty wild times."

'I lost everything'

When Kendrick bought his own urchin boat in 1979, the fishery was still pretty young. Kendrick said in those days, urchins were viewed as pests that kept the kelp forests from growing, so divers were encouraged to take as many as they could.

Divers could get 15 cents a pound for the up to 3,000 pounds of urchins they could harvest on a good day. Making almost $500 a day for a guy in his 20s wasn't bad money at all, he said.

The boats would race one another to shore to sell their product first, sometimes turning off their running lights so other captains wouldn't see as they crossed the often dangerous Santa Barbara Channel.

But being greedy had a price.

Kendrick writes about a beautiful calm day off Santa Cruz Island when he managed to get 5,000 pounds of urchins onto his 24-foot boat. The boat tipped over, tossing all his bounty to the ocean floor.

"I lost everything," he said. "The next day I went to get it and some guy was on the spot and stole my urchins and was towing my boat."

Kendrick's friend, an ex-Army Ranger who carried an M-16 rifle on the boat, was able to persuade the man to untie Kendrick's boat.

"We made the rules up as we went along," Kendrick said.

With all the wild stories came tragedies, too.

In 1994, good friend and fellow diver Jim Robinson was killed by a great white shark off San Miguel Island.

In 2000, Kendrick was diving off San Clemente Island when he ascended too quickly and got the bends. Making a living was getting harder, and his wife was complaining he was away from home too much.

Regulations were established

The industry changed, too. Biologists realized the urchins were being overfished and new regulations were established in the late 1980s to help protect the longevity of the fishery. Kendrick is proud to say he helped design those regulations that he hopes will let the fishery continue for years.

Early real estate investments he made in Santa Barbara allowed him to retire in 2000 and spend a few years writing his book.

He funded the first run of 2,000 printings himself and has sold another 2,000. He said a few producers have approached him about making it into a movie.

Which is enough to make any man wonder who might portray him on the big screen. Tom Cruise?

"Too old," he said.

On the Net:

www.bluewatergoldrush.com.