Learning to surf.. A shapers view.

One of the areas of my home break is a pretty good place to learn how to surf, at least during the months of May through September. The waves are usually small and the summer swells deposit sand on the beach making the place more casual. So the last few months I’ve seen my share of beginners.

Learning to surf takes time. Like just about anything else some people pick it up quickly and with some people it takes a bit longer. But there are a few things that can help improve the learning curve.

The majority of time spent in the water surfing is spent paddling. Since a lot of rides last maybe 10 seconds, one could easily spend five or ten minutes paddling around for that one 10 second ride. So if you’re going to learn how to surf make sure that you learn how to paddle really well before you catch your first wave.

You may think, “hey, I can paddle a surfboard around what’s so hard about that.”? There’s more to it than one might think. To paddle efficiently the surfboard should be in trim. In trim is when your body weight is positioned on the board so that it will plane across the water without unnecessary drag, the nose not sticking up out of the water to much or poking into the water ( pearling ). To paddle a board efficiently one should be able to maneuver, turn from left to right, while paddling. You should also be able to speed up or slow down while paddling.

If you can’t paddle well you will find yourself getting in other peoples way in the water, which can cause accidents and get people hurt. As well if you can’t paddle well you will have a hard time catching waves. If you can’t catch waves you’ll never learn to surf.

And, if you can paddle well you will begin to develop judgment. Without judgment learning to surf is very difficult.

D.R.

My Story post 5

My older brother did a little illustrating during his high school years and while I was making my first surfboard he took it upon himself do design a label for it. You can’t have a surfboard without a label.

I’d made copies of that label and used it for all the boards I made during my teens. I don’t really remember how many boards I made with that make shift label. I’d guess 8 or 10. The hard part was getting blanks. Unlike the first blank I made a board from that was pretty much already molded into a shape, I wanted blanks to shape. The blank companies, Walker and Clark, wouldn’t sell to a kid working in his parents back yard. So what’s a guy to do?

Some how I found out that Greg Noll made his own blanks and I got the hair brained idea that maybe I could buy blanks from him. What the heck, it doesn’t hurt to ask. So I made the trip to Hermosa Beach walked around the Greg Noll shop until I found the man and when I found him I basically said, “Hi, I make surfboards but kinda have a hard time getting blanks, would you sell me some?”

What was I thinking? A 16 year old kid from nowhere standing in the office of a surfing icon and asking him some dumb questions. As I remember it, we conversed for a few minutes and then he said “ Ok, I’ll sell you some blanks.” So I left that day with a couple blanks and returned some weeks later and got a few more.

Resin and fiberglass was easy to get so now with blanks my little surfboard business was in full bloom. I actually had guys I talked into making boards for. The hard part for me was not sneaking off to the beach with a new board I made for someone and try it out before they came to pick it up.

D.R.

I've worked at this surfboard thing for a long time and one of the things that has bothered me is how much resin gets wasted in the lamination, or fiberglassing process.

It takes a certain amount of resin to saturate the fiberglass cloth over a bottom or deck of a board, but in order to "wet out" the lap the most common technique is to curtain the cloth that hangs down over the rails of the board with a resin pour. It takes a fair amount of resin to get the cloth that becomes the lap saturated and in the process maybe at least half the resin used to wet the lap ends up on the floor. The floors where surfboards are laminated are lined with a covering for protection.

Anyone that has ventured into a laminating room knows… there is plenty of hardened resin on the floors in the shape of a surfboard around the stands. The stuff builds up over time making the floor uncomfortable to walk on. At that point the floor covering needs to be picked up and a new floor covering is put down until the resin builds up again and then… repeat. Some shops build trays that are attached to the stands to catch the lap resin. The trays are lined with plastic so after the resin dries it can be lifted out of the tray and discarded. The floors stay clean longer but usually will need a new covering over the long run.

Photo by Matthias Arni

Some laminators are really efficient in their application and technique using less resin than others do to get the lap done. I for one am not one of those guys. But, over the last month I’ve been perfecting a process using a small foam roller on my laps. The technique provides good resin saturation and tucks the lap at the same time. There is very little resin dropped on floor and easily a third less resin used over all when laminating a board.

They say… “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. Well, this dog is stoked! I am now not only saving material but this new technique gets the job done better too. A better job, a better surfboard.

D.R.

Are you like me… think back to times past and remember a certain surfboard you had and wish you still had it?

Like the first board I made would be nice to have for reference. But the second board I made was a refurbished balsa. Stripped the glass off of a 9 foot something cut it down and reshaped it into an 8’6. I can remember really liking that balsa board. I don’t know though, if I had it now I might be embarrassed to say I made it, who knows what it really looked like? Memories aren’t always real accurate. It was fun to ride though.

A couple years ago my once business partner Blinky heard of an old MP Blue Machine with my initials on it that was back in Maine or someplace east. He made an offer to the owners for a brand new Machine I’d made in exchange for the old one. The offer was accepted and Blinky made the exchange. The board was an early one too, proven by the label that was not like the Machine label once the model got marketed. I really wanted to see that old board when he got it but, when I did see it… well…it was just ok. Yeah, it was an early one, not as tuned in as I’d have liked to see. Humbling.

Yeah, I wish I had a few more of those memories in solid form. Something to hold, look at, feel. An old Vee bottom would be nice, the last MP I made myself… there are a few. Don’t know where I would keep them but it would be nice to have a few more of those old boards.

D.R.

My story post - 4

I don’t remember what the time period was but I’d guess it was by late spring of ’63 I had my board finished and ready to go to the beach. I didn’t live in a beach town so it wasn’t that easy to go surfing. But I did have a few friends that wanted to surf too so I got rides now and again and began the learning curve having gotten all the basics from surfing lessons.

It’s interesting the things that stick in our memoirs. Early memories of surfing for me are scattered around mostly large events like the family vacations to Newport Beach. Six to eight days of surfing in a row was a big help to learning.

The first family Newport outing that I got to take a surfboard on was in ’64. We stayed in Balboa on the bay side down the peninsula at about the Balboa pier. Surfing was done at the Newport pier. So I’d walk the distance between the to piers everyday to surf for a few hours before the black ball went up. Sometimes I’d get my brother to help me carry that 30lb board of mine, if I let him ride it a little. One guy at the nose one guy at the tail, off we’d go to Newport pier. I think I let him ride it a bit less than a little because he lost interest in helping after a few days so I ended up going the distance by myself.

A blanket neatly folded into an 18 inch square was the padding used on top of my head where the board would be perched the mile or so walk for a daily surf. Lucky thing I had a flat top hair cut!

Circa ’64, posing with family for a picture just before we took off for Newport Beach? You gotta believe I would do it if it meant a week of surfing. My mom on the left, my older sister’s friend, next my younger brother and sister then my older sister and me on the right. My surfboard tied to the luggage rack with all the other stuff. We actually all piled into that Rambler for the 2 hour drive!

D.R.