There! See it? Over the beach? Look closely. It's a rare creature: a full-bearded Fogel. In a flying boat, no less
He pilots a flying boat. He is an actor. He is a licensed captain. He is an environmentalist, a job for which, fortunately, no license is required. And he is an explorer. The fun part is he manages to combine them, using his adventures as platforms to publicize environmental concerns. He rode a motorcycle from Alaska to South America, lived for a time with a primitive tribe in Ethiopia, single-handed a 30-foot sloop around the South Pacific, lived in a tree house on an island near St. Martin with his family, kayaked the Intracoastal Waterway from New York to Miami, explored the Yangtze River in China by kayak.
Come to think of it I don't much like this guy. He's only 58. He's done way too much. And that's not a complete list. You get the idea. He's lived in this area all his life, more or less, and now he lives in Somers Point, but in some ways he's more out there than in here. In Los Angeles he wouldn't get a second look, but in southern New Jersey he is a Character.
Get a few people together. A party. The beach. Whatever. Say the name Joel Fogel. Say nothing else. Then stand back. Some people will roll their eyes. Some will say good things. Some will say he's too hungry for publicity. But I'll make you a bet, a six-pack of Diet Coke vs. your favorite beverage. The bet is this: Mention the name and somebody will say something, a snort of recognition or a laugh or an "Oh yeah, the sock guy, right?"
Nobody under the age of 30 will say, "Who?" The conversation may go on for 15 minutes, but eventually the word "environmentalist" will leak out. Which suits him fine. It is his mantra. Argue with him about a lot of things if you want, but it's tough to question his devotion to Saving What We Have. So the man likes to talk. If he happens to be talking to a reporter, so much the better. In his defense, he gets most carried away when he's talking about the environment, not himself. And what he's been doing for years, corporations are doing in a big way now. That is, they're paying for Big Adventures - Volvo's support of the crewed around-the-world sailboat race I wrote about last week is one example - in the hope that people will talk about those big adventures, thus helping the brand identity. Well, Joel Fogel knew he was a brand. In that, he was ahead of his time.
No question, he's on a mission. Every phone message he left for me was marked urgent. But the longest message he left was an impassioned story about how he met his wife Coty during his motorcycle trip from Alaska to South America. I found myself enjoying it. That's how it is with a Fogel story. Try to resist. You'll get overpowered by the incoming tide:
... So there he is, recuperating in Mexico after a motorcycle accident, and an expatriate American invites him home. The expat was married to a Mexican woman. The Mexican woman had a younger sister. She was 23. Wow.
"Society needs the Joel Fogels of the world," Levinson said. "When you stop to think of somebody's motivation ... I mean, what was Jacques Cousteau's motivation? I believe Joel is firmly committed to the environment, and I believe he is committed to a better place. Did Bill Clinton really want to help the world or was he a self-promoter? All we can do is take people at face value. He's had a remarkable life."
There is one Fogel incident that makes me think of Clinton. Back in 1978, Fogel, back from living with a Stone Age tribe where he wore nothing but mud and a bone weaved into his hair, decided he wanted to wear the minimum to the beach in Margate. So he wore a sock. Or that's what people say, to this day. "Essentially it was a thong," he said.
So what was he trying to prove? "Not a damn thing my friend. Just enjoying life." To this day, mention his name and people say, "Sock Man." 
Is he the real deal? That's not for me to decide. I'm not qualified. He's a 100-ton Coast Guard licensed captain. He showed me the card. His bio says he's led nearly two dozen major expeditions around the world, working with the Smithsonian Institute, National Geographic and the Explorers Club. He's been a member of New York's Explorers Club since 1972, when Lowell Thomas nominated him following his 1970 paddle by kayak from New York to Miami along the Intracoastal Waterway. He has a piece of paper in his scrapbook, stationary that says, "White House," a commendation from then-President Ronald Reagan for the rescue of a young woman from a car that ran off a bridge into the bay.
Money is something else that people whisper about when you mention Fogel. So I asked him what a lot of people wonder about but are afraid to ask. How did he pay for all those Big Adventures?
"My father was extremely wealthy, but once I married I was pretty much on my own," he said. "Essentially all the money I had was the money that I made. I am the son of a rich man, but he trained me to be very frugal."
He said many of the adventures were funded by bank loans, often secured by insurance policies or whatever he could use as collateral. Once the adventure was finished he'd pay off the loan by doing lectures.
"For the first 45 years of my life, I had no credit and I didn't have a credit card," he said. "I didn't have the money to use one. My wife can tell you there are times when it was very, very lean."
Now? "We're not hurting. We have some money put aside. We do have homes in other parts of the world but I prefer to be here, working for the community and the environment."
He could probably be drinking margaritas in a very comfortable place right now if he wanted, but he doesn't appear to need that kind of comfort. Instead he runs eco-tours, sits on the boards of environmental groups, tirelessly promotes environmental causes and creates non-profit environmental groups like WaterWatch, the idea being to induce people to keep an eye on their back yards.
He says it's time to better conserve our next "oil," meaning fresh, drinkable water. Around here that means a move from secondary sewage treatment to tertiary.
Not much slows him down. Not the doubters, not the people who don't buy what he's selling, not the prospect that people won't get what's important about the environment. He smiles. He moves. He talks. He's Joel Fogel.
This is On The Water - a summertime column about the bays, ocean, rivers and lakes of southern New Jersey and the people who enjoy them. To reach Pat Pawling, call (609) 398-6593.
