Bob Haberman: Daredevil beach-bum of the Outer Sunset District

Beach-bum Bob Haberman enjoys a sandy stroll near his Sunset District home

photo by Jason Hatton

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Self-proclaimed beach-bum Bob Haberman was born in Lowell Massachusetts on the last day of the Berlin airlifts, September 30th of 1949, and it's clear that the journey to the Bay Area a few years later may be what started him off on an adventurous life path.

"We drove all the way out here in a two-seater MG sports car, so my sister had to sit on the floorboards between my mom's feet and I was positioned on the center console right behind the stick shift," said Haberman, who arrived in Alameda at the impressionable age of seven. "It was a great town to grow up in. My stepdad was fresh out of Korea and got a job with Consolidated Freightways, so that's why we moved out here. It's one of the most fortunate things to happen to me for a number of reasons, and I absolutely love it."

The art of aerobatics

Life took an upward turn for Haberman at the age of seventeen when he discovered he could fly airplanes. Not coming from a military family or any fliers at all, this was surprising.

"When we first moved to Alameda we lived at 5th & Lincoln which, as it happens, lines up with one of the runways at the Alameda Naval Air Station. We were on the third floor and our windows were conveniently placed so I got to see a hell of a lot of airplanes landing there. I wore eyeglasses so I didn’t think I could fly, but that didn’t stop me from being totally fascinated by it.

I got to know this classmate, who was a Navy kid, and he'd been working as a line boy at a flying school in Oakland. I went straight out to the Oakland Airport and introduced myself to this amazing man, Bob Short. If you Google this guy you'll get him as a jazz musician, but I had no idea about that when I met him.. all I knew was that he had a flying school and these aerobatic airplanes. He learned to fly back in the days when it was routine, so I found myself right where I wanted to be.

By the time I was twenty I’d had my first aerial dog fight and I’m still undefeated. One of the guys I’ve had dog fights with was Dieter Dengler, who used to fly an A4 Skyhawk in Vietnam and was shot down in Laos. Werner Herzog even made a documentary called 'Little Dieter Needs to Fly' and a dramatic version, 'Rescue Dawn,' about him. He started both fights but I kicked his ass.

The first time I encountered him was in 1973 when a silver Stearman went flashing by, but he didn't get anywhere near my tail. The next time it happened was 1989 and my dad was in the back seat.. a yellow Stearman comes at me but lost when I did a high-speed yo-yo drop right down onto his tail. Meanwhile my dad was not having a good time. Just as I’d dropped down onto Dieter’s tail I heard my dad in the back saying, 'Robbie, this maybe isn’t a good idea for me' and I said, 'Well Dad it’s okay, it’s over anyway' and I just pulled off. Strangely enough, I never had the pleasure of meeting Dengler on the ground.. only in those two air encounters."

Haberman laments the demise of aerobatics in aviation.

"I started out in an environment where they were encouraging you to do aerobatics because that's what we were selling at the flying school. Bob was a dealer for a plane called the Citabria and I would get called in to help teach. But when the eighties came around owners didn't want their airplanes flown aerobatically because they were concerned not everybody was good at it and it would be hard on the planes. That to me is no good; if I can’t do aerobatics, as far as I’m concerned, I can’t fly."

Earthbound motocross madness

Haberman later dabbled in the safer, more terrestrial sport of motocross, a fitting hobby for a daredevil aerielist grounded by convention. "I still have my bike," he proudly proclaims. "It's an RN250 and it's still quick, which is something I wish I could say about myself."

The universe and other interesting things

Although Haberman hasn't flown an airplane since 2001, that doesn't keep him from gazing skyward.

"I've been an astronomy geek since age nine, when my step-dad bought me a book about it. I was totally absorbed and I’ve been an Astronomy geek since then. Currently I use a Meade 10-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, which is a fairly serious amateur instrument, but the camera I use is good for a laugh because it's a Philips webcam. I take AVI video movies of a planet and turn it into a single image that manages to filter out the noise and distortion. It's sort of like a poor man’s adaptive optics."

Haberman kicks around the Outer Sunset district of San Francisco these days, relaxing in his favorite haunt the "Java Beach Cafe," where he's a regular, and taking frequent strolls on the beach not far from his home of the past twenty years.

"I spend a lot of time on the beach taking photos, and I enjoy my astronomy and planetary imaging, but ultimately what I really want to do is get back into flying for fun. I could do that for the rest of my life."

He's also in the process of compiling memoirs, which he says to file under "Drunken Boasts, Great Lies and B.S."

"B.S. is not what you think," he claims with a sly grin. "It's actually in honor of the late Bob Short. I've had an extremely adventurous youth, way out of character for what most people experience, and I survived my twenties. That was definitely my greatest accomplishment."

Do you know of someone who lives in the San Francisco/Bay Area who should be featured? If so, please contact Dave Rhodes. He's always looking for new people to interview!