I wrote the below two paragraphs last December 31.

Milestones, everybody has them…. an important event or turning point. As well, a marker that tells us how far we’ve gone. For the New Year most of us look back and reflect at least a little and say we made it through another one. The marker.

Important events can happen any time of course, and can be something pleasant or not so pleasant. A turning point? Sometimes we can go a long while before we even notice we had one. Then it’s “hey, things are different now and you know what? It all started way back when”. I’ve been going through a turning point for the last half of this…now past year. So I guess you could say it’s not a turn but a long curve. I’ll save the story for another time.

Now it’s December 31, 2007 so I guess I should tell the story…

Some time during the year 2006 I began to realize that the person I was working for went about the surfboard business and building process in a way that was completely different than what I wanted to be involved with. Aside from the fact that work had slowed down to numbers that weren’t enough to make a living at, my working environment was quite uncomfortable. At the same time I was hearing from people interested in seeing reissues of boards that I had done in my past. The whole retro thing and a more history conscious surfing population has helped that, I think.

I wanted and needed a place that I could put my heart into my work, a place where I could really enjoy what I did and the creative juices would flow. So between Christmas and New Years day of last year I gathered all my gear from the shaping bay I worked out of and began setting up my own place.

The turning point can be looked back upon now that the year is ending. And I’ve settled into a nice high end board craft shop I call home, looking forward with hope, encouragement and plan to be making some of the best performing and best crafted surfboards ever in the year ahead.

And may I say thanks for taking some time to read my stories and your interest in D.R. Surfboards.

Happy New Year!

Dennis Ryder

So what kind of stuff does a surfer guy have on his Christmas tree?

I never realized how beach and surf specific some of the ornaments are that we put on our tree every year. My wife decorated the tree pretty much by herself this year, can’t remember what I was up too. But, I got to looking at her handy work and thought ‘geez, can’t tell what this house is into’.

Gotta have your surfboard ornament… and of course a ‘sshlipa ‘ or two.

The hula girl is a must.

What else was on the tree? A nice Aloha shirt ornament. Among other things, Santa dressed in Aloha shirt, shorts, sandles and a lei around his neck.

What kind of stuff does a surfer guy or girl get under the Christmas tree?

A surfboard would be good. Kind of big but, that would be nice. How about a wet suit. That’s a good one, fits into a box and looks like all the other presents. And of course the afternoon of Christmas day you’ve got to go test the new suit at the beach.

A new set of fins for your board is good too… make an older board seem new and different. A board bag. What about all the surf videos. That can help keep the stoke.

Wax, can’t be without wax. A few years ago my son went to the local surf shop and said he wanted to buy a whole box of wax. The kids behind the counter told him he couldn’t buy a whole box. “Why not?” “well you just can’t” So he started loading the counter with bars of wax until the box was empty and had them ring up each bar one at a time.

I still haven’t gone through all that wax yet! Great present.

Merry Christmas!

D.R.

My Story post 24

1968 was a fun year for me. After returning to Ventura and getting a job shaping at MP things began to turn around pretty quick. The surf scene was changing from the colorful long board days to an underground movement.

I went out to the William Dennis shop after returning to Ventura and shaped myself a stringerless 8’2 Vee bottom. Sprayed the deck with black slipcheck and took the baby to the beach. The board had an OK ride but I never got much of a chance to dial it in because it was stolen. Right from my little cottage house where I kept it, some guy nicked my board. That has got to be one of the most disappointing things… having your surfboard stolen.

It wasn’t long before I was out at William Dennis shaping another board. This time a 7'6 Vee bottom. But I got real cocky with this one. The worker bees at MP weren’t allowed to make boards for themselves at the shop there, so I’d go out to WD and do my thing. It just so happened that Morey had an editorial published in Surfer Magazine about gypsy board builders and how the industry suffered from these underground guys, etc. That was late spring or early summer of ’68 now and all the young guys thought what? We’re going to do what we want… get over it. So here I am… I work for the guy and I go make myself a board, then for fun, I make a label with a hippie looking guy on it with the name Gypsy Surfboards.

The really funny thing was the day I went to launch my new board. It was a Saturday morning, I was walking down Front St. on my way to the point and right when I got at the MP shop… it was on Front St. which was right around the corner from where I lived. Here comes Morey in the MP van to open the shop sales room for the day. I say 'hey Tom check out my new board ' and hold up my board with the Gypsy label in plain view.

The look on Morey’s face…. priceless.

But geez, what a smart ass I was, and went to lengths it seems to be that way. What was I thinking? Gotta laugh though… funny story.

D.R.

Funny how big surf arrives on Wednesdays. Yeah, everybody knows we had big surf this week. Even my mom, who lives inland about 40 miles saw it on the news.

I called my mom on Thursday the 6^th to wish her a happy birthday. She says, “oh I saw the big waves and I just knew you were out there, I was thinking, now he shouldn’t be doing this but… I just knew you would be out there, you wouldn’t stay away”. Too cute, she celebrated her 86^th birthday and she still worries about her son, who’s 59, getting hurt or whatever… surfing.

Now let’s see…. I started surfing when I was 13 so; this has been going on for 46 years? Well not really. Because inlanders that know nothing about the beach and surfing never knew what was going on along the coast, the news media had better things to do. So my mom and everybody else never knew what the surf conditions where like. These days the swells get so advertised, or is it sensationalized, that when the swells do show up it’s almost anticlimactic.

I stopped by the point on my way to the shop Wednesday, as I do almost everyday, to check the surf and conditions. It was really big. And so was the crowd watching. There were no parking spaces. There was a sign at the end of “C” Street warning of high surf and to stay away.

What happened to the days when the surf was big and it was no big deal? When there were places to park your car if you wanted to check the surf. When there weren’t news crews waiting on the sand at the pier to film a rescue and then go interview the person rescued.

I still know when we have big surf. I can hear it at night from my house. I can smell and feel the mist it creates in the air. I can look at a tide chart and determine when the best times to surf are. Yeah all that, then brace yourself for all the commotion at the beach.

I liked it better when you could go about your business and no one noticed. Oh well…it's OK mom, I'm doing fine, no need worry.

D.R.

Today my wife and I went down to the annual Ventura Christmas Street Fair. The city hosts these street fairs where they block off 4 blocks of Main St. down town and rent vendor space to crafters, etc. People come from all over the county… I’m guessing… to browse all the booths. It’s a cool time to find unique Christmas gifts.

There are a ton of people walking up and down the street, you never know who you might run into. So who was it today? Mickey Munoz. My wife and I where at one of the booths that had some nice pictures of Ventura Pier that where mounted on those magnet sheets so you can stick the picture on your frig. Anyway, I see a friend who had just bought one or the Ventura pictures. He comes over and shows me his purchase and then says “did you see Mickey?" Mickey walks over, whom I don’t think I had ever met, we’re introduced and start talking. I ask "what are you doing up here?" 'cause he lives down south somewhere. Turns out he came up to go to Bruce Browns birthday party in Santa Barbara last night. I think he said it was his 70^th.

So this year I run into Tom Morey at the NAMM show. I saw Greg Noll up in Santa Barbara… that may not count because it was a planned event but Kemp Aaberg happened to be there, and now today Mickey Munoz. Who else will I run into this year? Still the month of December to go.

OK enough name dropping. The really cool thing I saw at the street fair was some furniture made with surfboards. Ever not want to get rid of your old favorite ride but not have a place for it either?

Make it into a chair. Or have this guy do it for you.

Those things are really cool! I gotta get one of my boards made into a chair.

D.R.

36 more days left in the year! So what does that mean? The year is 90 % over…. wish I could say I’ve completed 90% of the stuff I wanted to accomplish.

This year had a bumpy start. We… me and my two partners.. signed the lease on a small shop last November to start a high end laminating shop. We didn’t start any work in the place until the end of January. But as the weeks and months moved on we settled into the place and work began to grow until we are now about at capacity. That’s a good thing.

Now that the shop is running good I can get back to more shaping. Since I’ve been working hard in the laminating shop it’s been hard to keep a good schedule in my shaping bay, but things are beginning to change. The new year is coming and I’ve got a number of new boards I’ll be bringing out.

The Quad Long Board is tested enough now, so I’ll be making that available as a new model and I hope to be making a new short board available too. Actually this is what should be called an alternative short board. A stubby built around one of my Greenough outlines with a contemporary bottom shape and multiple fins. The board has been in the water now for a couple months, ridden as a tri and then quad. I made the board convertible so we could test it with the different fin set ups and determine which way gave better performance.

Well, I’m happy to say the board is going off! Similar to a fish in size and foam volume but will draw a good line with excellent maneuverability and down the line speed. About the only thing I need to do now with the board is come up with a name for it and start making them. I’m stoked!

D.R.

The short board alternative

I’m no saint in the water and no doubt bother some because I do go after plenty waves but, sometimes things happen I just don’t understand…I wrote this after surfing one day in the late summer or early fall of 2006.

What is it about some guys? Is it so necessary to be competitive and aggressive all the time?

Today there was a nice fairly consistent SW swell with sets head high + a little. About 2:00 p.m. I went down for a surf at the point and after about 30 minutes in the water the crowed thinned out and there was enough surf to keep the people in the water in a good rotation.

I was paddling back out to the lineup when a set wave bowled up in front of me. I was in perfect position to turn around and drop in but I let it go because there was a kid just above me that started to stroke into the wave. Well he didn’t get over the edge, a good one got by. Oh well, happens all the time.

I get out to the lineup just when another set starts through. The first wave me and another guy are in position and the other guy looks at me and says go ahead. I take a few strokes and who hustles across in front of me to get position and drop in from behind is the kid that had just missed that other wave.

‘What? Do you not take notice who’s in the water’? I may be old but paddle strong. Kooks aren’t strong paddlers. I may have been on a tanker but I don’t wear a leash. Guys that don’t ware leashes in head high plus surf usually know what’s up and can surf. Pay attention…..Think.
So the kid and I both drop in shoulder to shoulder. Just as I’m about to set my edge I turn to the guy and say, “to bad you missed the last one.” I turn off the bottom giving him enough room, he turns up behind and above me so I slow down and straighten out a bit so he can go behind me and I can get him in front. Well when he turned off the top behind me, he fell, the nose of his board dropped inches from my legs. No harm no foul…I continued on... a nice ride.

I paddle back out to the lineup and after about a 5 minute lull get the second wave of a new set, one of the bigger waves of the day. Because of the chop I get hung up and ended up making a late drop that puts me a little behind. Fight through a couple sections, slide under some white water and just get back in the green when that same kid drops in on me. Don’t know if he heard me but I said “what.. again?” He squirted out in front, turned back, while I watched, squirted out again and then finally pulled out.

Do you think if a guy has gone that far without falling that he most likely is not going to fall at all and would like to have the wave to himself? Do you think that if you wait your turn there just might be a few slides for you?

Be nice, be courteous in the water. Save your aggression and competitive attitude for contests. If you have to be competitive then be competitive with your friends. Not strangers in the water.

I still remember the surf that day and the episode... good fun surf, funny how some things just get stuck in your head.

D.R.

My story post 23

The beginning days of William Dennis for me were tough. It was the fall of ’67. I went from making pretty good money at MP to making very little overnight. I had also left the room I had been renting so really didn’t have a place to live.

For a time I stayed at Blinkie's place in the Marina area, but eventually left that scene for my van. Yeah! Like a homeless guy I lived in my VW bus for a short time. I don’t remember who the other guys were now, but three of us with our vans would round up at night at the point in Ventura and sleep. There was nothing there but dirt, and no people around, was not patrolled, so it worked.

Then I hooked up with two guys and we found ourselves a small place in mid town. Nice, halfway between the beach and Calens Rd. where the shop was. Though things looked promising with the new surfboard venture, because we had to redo some of the improvements we made to the industrial bay we got, I pretty much ran out of money. Had to sell my van to make ends meet. Started walking to the shop… maybe a couple miles or so… then didn’t have my share of the rent money for the place I had with the guys so ended up back living with my parents. It was a dark time that didn’t turn around until spring ’68.

Morey worked a deal early in ’68 with Bob Mctavish to start making the Mctavish tracker. I went looking for a shaping job and Morey put me back to work shaping. It was me and Richard Deese. As production ramped up into the season, between the two of us we shaped close to 100 boards a week. We used full templates for outlining with a router, hogged the blanks as fast as we could with our planers, used a grinder to sand them out before dialing in the rails and final screening.

It’s all a blur of foam dust now, but an interesting time no less. I found a place to rent right around the corner from the Front St. shop. Had a bicycle for transportation, and was just a short walk to the point for surf. Plus, my friend Peter worked in the MP sales room and had a car so we’d go off and surf wherever after work. It was work and surf, work and surf… with the weekends off to surf.

D.R.

The Quad Journal

I’ve been riding my 8’0 that I refitted with a quad fin set up for the past couple weeks now. Surfed it again this afternoon in some shoulder high waves at the point. I’ve gotten enough time on it to compare the way the 8’0 works opposed to my 9’1 quad.

The tails of both boards are very similar in shape and size. The one thing that is different is the fin system. The 9’1 is fitted with the O’fish’l fin system… my standard or go to system with 4 9/16” side fins and 3” back fins. The 8’0, which was built before I started using the O’fish’l system and is fitted with FCS and has their S4 quad set in it… 4.48” side fins and 3.88” back fins. The FCS fins are made with that newer material, are stiff and the side fins have the concave inside shaped to them. The O’fish’l fins are made of nylon and the side fins are single foiled or asymmetrical.

Initially, and before I actually surfed the 9’1, I was thinking the nylon fins would have to much soft flex to them. However after riding the board I was amazed at how fluid the turns were and how much drive I was getting from the fin set up. Honestly I had never experienced anything like it. I was so excited about how the 9’1 was working I thought I’d make a new 8’0 with the same fin set up. But, I’ve been so busy and my old 8’0 could be retro fitted easy enough I did the refit instead.

Now, the results I’m getting from the 8’0 refit are good enough. A week ago I surfed that board in some really good surf one day until I literally couldn’t stand up anymore, I got pretty worn out. That board was just going off… flying on some excellent down the line racy waves. However the board overall does not have the same feel as the 9’1. The turns and turn backs are good but not as fluid and driving as the 9’1. As well the 9’1 is pretty stable in white water and chop where the 8’0 is squirrelly with little positive movement in white water and tentative in chop. At this point I’ve got to say it’s the fins. My O’fish’l setup is working beyond what I expected, the FCS set is not performing near as well.

I’ve got to make myself a new 8’0 with my O’fish’l set up… more to come.

D.R.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about surfboard prices. Actually the two of us have had these conversations a few times now. Since I’m looking at new local representation, pricing has been on my mind.

In the early days of the surfboard industry… this would be when boards started being made with foam and fiberglass… the guys that made boards dealt directly with their customers. Eventually a handful of guys, mainly in California, had full fledged businesses. These businesses did everything in house. With the exception of blowing foam the process of building boards was done start to finish at one location and this even included a sales room or store front. That’s what we call factory direct now.

Because surfboards were factory direct the finished boards were never given a traditional retail markup. That factory direct price became what the market would bare for the retail price of the surfboard. Then as the various board builders began distributing surfboards beyond their own stores the retail price remained at the factory direct price. That’s what everyone was accustomed to. Consequently the surf shops that sold boards they did not make could not work a normal retail price for the surfboards they sold and had a difficult if not impossible task of making any kind of margin via surfboard sales.

That price dilemma remains today, except for boards that are made overseas. Because the cost of making surfboards in a country like China is so much less than domestic costs the imported boards can and do have a more inline retail mark up. That’s a good thing for the retailer, finally being able to see a decent margin in their surfboard sales.

The domestic builder now being faced with inexpensive imported surfboards and the retailers turning to these boards because of the margins has to show the value of the hand made, domestically made surfboard. With unsurpassed craftsmanship and staying on the cutting edge of design and performance. Offering what can not be made over seas.

D.R.

Surfboard performance is greatly affected by fins. I began learning this after I started working at Morey-Pope. They were once the main supplier of fins to the surf industry and in the mid to late sixties a major portion of the industry used the Morey-Pope fin system.

They were Polypropylene molded fins secured in the boards laminated fin cavity via the wonder bolt. My friend Peter Robinson prepared and package the fins in an area behind the sales room at the old Front St. shop.

I can’t remember all the fin shapes, but I do remember the Greenough stage one, the Yater fin and the Weber Hatchet. I’d experiment with these fins in my boards back in the day. They were easy to change out so when I got the urge after surfing for an hour or so I’d run in and swap out my fin, then go back out and surf again to see how the different fin would work in my board.

We weren’t able to change the fin location… forward or backward… which can make a big difference in performance as well but, just changing fins was enough at the time. I didn’t really like the hatchet so I reshaped one into a long sweeping curve. The fin was quite long and because the end was pretty tapered it would flex a lot. Turning on a wave with some juice would get somewhat mushy feeling and when driving in white water the board would drift as the fin flexed and then the board would jerk and bounce as the fin would return. Interesting.

During my Greenough days we worked on fin placement as well as flex. We only did glass on fins and sometimes would grind off our fin and reposition it to get our boards to work in a way we thought would be better. As well fine tuning the flex, sanding a fin until it had just the right flex and snap.

Most recently I’ve been working on quad fin set ups. And very pleased with the results I’ve gotten on my quad long board. I’m now working on the mini tanker 8’0 I’ve got. Originally I was going to make a new board with a quad set up but, changed my mind and retrofitted my 8’0 instead. Today I took it out in some head high surf, first time with four fins. It’s amazing the speed that is generated from these fins.

I made the mini tanker as a tri fin at first. Then started doing 2 plus one set ups. Now… testing how the quad set up will work with the same model. It’s a good all around board and with each fin set up the board works differently.

Get a good outline, put the outline into a good foil, rail line and bottom contour. Add fins to taste.

D.R.

My story post 22

During the summer of 1967 I found a nice 3 stringer blank at the Morey-Pope shop and claimed it for a new board. Morey didn’t make any 3 stringer models at the time so I grabbed the blank and shaped myself a new stick.

The board shaped into a thinned out 9’2 with out a snubbed or wing nose. I had it glassed with a yellow tint and had the MP label… which I cut so it was only the 2 letters MP… put about in the middle of the board between the rail and the outside stringer. So it looked nothing like a Morey-Pope board. Man did it surf good, I really liked that board.

So then I shaped another board for my friend Peter and had it glassed red and yellow tints. It looked nothing like an MP either. Then I started talking to John Peck about going shorter and lighter and made him a Penetrator that was not quite standard issue.

The result of all this new stuff was a shop wide directive from Morey that in effect said if shop personnel wanted a new board they would have to go through the front sales room door and order a stock MP board. No one could go make them selves a board, you’d have to order one just like any other customer.

Even today I remember the sad feeling I had when that happened. I remember talking to Blinky about it and how disappointing it was. Blinky, by the way, was the guy that invented Slip Check. I was so excited about making new and different boards that would get you to different places on the wave and now… I felt like a kid that just got his balloon popped.

Blinky and I started talking… ‘what are we going to do, we want to make some boards that aren’t like MP’s… how we going to do that?’ Then the light came on. ‘Why don’t we go start our own shop?.... These guys aren’t going to hold us back… heck with them, lets go do our own thing.’

The embryonic birth of William Dennis.

D.R.

In 1967 the boards I made for myself and friends were getting shorter and shorter. Still by short they were like 9 ft. but were also a bit narrower and thinner than what was considered a more standard size board.

There was concern that the smaller lighter boards wouldn’t float good enough for knee paddling, or make knee paddling difficult. I think the reason we all liked to knee paddle was the knee paddle position kept you up and off the water. Which meant you’d stay a bit warmer, if you didn’t get wet by prone paddling… there wasn’t much in wet suits back then.

The sacrifice in paddling was replaced with better performance. Snappy turns and turn backs, and what we used to call roller coasters… or rolacoaster. But, by the beginning of 1968 the surfboard dropped to sub 9 ft lengths… actually I was shaping sub 9 ft. boards in the fall of ’67. My first board in ’68 was 8 ft. and my second board was 7’6. Both of them Vee bottoms.

When Vee bottoms came in longer boards were done. There really wasn’t anything called a long board before boards started getting smaller, there were just surfboards. But, it’s pretty safe to say that when the Vee bottom era came there were new and different things going on… the long board era was gone.

It happened fast and a number of labels were unable to make the change and died right along with the long board. The surfboard industry as a whole went through a big shake down. What was once dominated by a handful of California labels that made hundreds and hundreds of boards per week all but disappeared in a matter of 2 years. The young guys that wanted to keep pushing the limits in their surfing had to start making there own board because the labels couldn’t or wouldn’t keep up. The industry became very fragmented and localized and birthed what we now call the local shaper.

D.R.

Is the hand shaped board going to die off? Does a machine blank make a better surfboard? What will surfboards be like when the generation of guys that can hand shape a surfboard get up in years enough to not work anymore and, or pass on?

These are curious questions for sure. I’ve seen this stuff talked about on a couple of the forums to some degree. No one really knows for sure how things will look in the future but it does make for conversation… good or bad.

Some guys say the machine is replacing the hand shaped board and that it does a better job anyway. But guess what? We get hand shaped boards in my shop for laminating by the best guys in the area and their boards are every bit as clean and balanced as any machined board I’ve seen.

No doubt that the face of surfboard crafting is changing. What will it look like in ten years? Will it change as much in the next ten years as it has in the last ten?

Ten years ago I was working at Hawaiian Blades. Most of the boards we did there went to Japan. Fin systems were starting to catch on but still a lot of boards had glass on fins. There were guys getting machined blanks but no where near what guys are doing now. There really wasn’t much in molded boards going on.

I would speculate that the machined blank will become a standard thing, if it hasn’t already. The cost of machining a blank will most likely be factored into the over all cost of making a board just the same as laminating it is.

Molded boards will continue to take market share but the custom board will still be around. Of course if government regulations limit or restrict the use of materials our boards are made of… but who knows if that will happen?

The thing I like about surfboards now is all the diversity. I saw long boards become completely extinct. I’ve seen the sport get so narrow that if you didn’t have what everyone else had for a surfboard you’d get laughed at. Now you can ride a standard short board, a traditional long board, a fish, a hull or what ever you want and it’s cool. Hopefully that aspect of surfing now will not change in the future.

D.R.

My story post 21

I really didn’t have many friends when I started working at Morey-Pope. By that time I had only been in Ventura for a couple months and been going to school. Sure I was acquainted with some of the guys down at the beach but didn’t really hang with anyone except my friend Peter.

I still remember my first day at MP and the first guy I met at the shop. I had walked back to the shaping area and there was this guy in the very back area of the shop gluing stringers in blanks. As soon as he saw me walk in he came right over to me and said “hi I’m Blinky” and shook my hand. Back then a number of surfer guys where given nicknames. I had really never known any of them but… I’d just met one. Man, I was starting to get to the heart of the culture… though back then we didn’t know that’s what it was.

So I was given the chance to make a living in the surfboard industry. Given a job which I showed up for every day, and began shaping the Morey-Pope models. Penetrators, Eliminators and Coopers model the Blue Machine. I was slow at first but eventually got up to shaping 4 boards a day. All in the nine to ten foot range. I made a killer $4.75 each.

Also back then working at a surf shop was like a regular job. We had regular working hours and if you weren’t there at those hours you’d better have a good reason… not “oh the surf was good so that’s why I’m late or didn’t come in yesterday".

All the workers surfed but we went after work or before. As a matter of fact, during the summer Cooper, Dale Herd, Blinky and myself usually headed out for surf everyday after work. The Point, Stanley’s or a trip down to Secos. Yeah, Cooper was the shop forman and he had a really good work ethic and expected everyone else to have a good one too. We worked hard and surfed after. Get home after dark and just crash. Get up the next day and do it all over again.

D.R.

My story post 20

So there the guy was eating his lunch from a brown paper bag. I introduced myself, still dripping wet from surfing, and said something like ‘you looking for a shaper?’ Cooper and I carried on a short conversation which ended with an invite to come by the Morey-Pope shop on Front St. and show him what I could do.

The next day I went by the shop and found Cooper. He took me into the back of the shop where there were 2 shaping bays. One was being used by Richard Deese and the other one was empty. Cooper got a blank and put it in the empty shaping bay, got a template for a board, told me the dimensions he wanted the board to be, showed me where the tools were and walked away.

So there I was, an 18 year old kid in a pro shaping bay with a big hunk of foam which I was suppose to turn into a nice show room quality shaped blank…. What was I thinking?

I probably spent the next 4 hours sweating my way through the process. Every once in a while Cooper would come by, see I was making progress and then go on about his business. When I got near finished he’d stop me, take a look at what I’d done and point out where he’d like me to make some changes, then I’d go on until I finished.

When I was done I took a break and when I came back got together with Cooper in the shaping bay and went over the board. He said ‘looks like you can shape’ and asked if I’d like to start working the following Monday…. I of course said yes.

D.R.

The Rileys gave me another video this week, it’s some footage of Travis riding an Imperial and a Penetrator… or as I’ve been calling it these days the Ventura Classic Wing Nose.

So I looked at the video and realized that there is a story behind it in regards to the Penetrator. I’m kind of a sap when it comes to stuff like this but, even still, this is a cool story.

I made the Penetrator for Dan, Travis’ dad, in 1994. One of the last boards I made in California before I moved to Kauai. As I understand it Dan rode the board for awhile and then hung it on his living room wall. Yeah, even his wife said it looked good in their living room. I guess Dan decided to preserve the board and that it looked so nice he’d put on display.

When Dan first picked up the board in ‘94 his son Travis was just 3 years old. Who’d of thought that some 13 years later that Dan’s two sons would get him to take the board off the wall and let them ride it… as long as they took very good care of it of course.

So both Matt and Travis have been riding their dad’s Penetrator that is like 13 years old. And because Matt is the video guy he took some footage of Travis and they edited a little surf flick. When I watched it I got to thinking how cool it was, Dad first rode the board when his son was only 3 years old and probably never thought one day that little guy would have a great time riding his board when he was 16 some 13 years later. I think that is really cool!

A good board can last through generations. One of the reasons I said back when I first started reissues of some of the old boards I use to shape… like 25 years ago, if it works don’t fix it.

D.R.

My story post 19

It was spring time, I had a part time job shaping and laminating boards for Pacific Plastics, went to school at Ventura College and surfed as much as possible.

I wasn’t thinking about summer even though it was right around the corner. I guess having a part time job would be all I needed during summer… I’d have more time to hunt for surf. But, everything was about to change and it only took about a week.

It started one day, maybe a Monday or Tuesday when my friend Peter and I were down at the point between classes looking at the surf. The surf was small, kind of wind swell stuff, but I wanted to get wet so I went out. Peter stayed on the beach… I think he had a class to go to or something. At least I remember there was some reason why he didn’t go out with me. Anyway, I was out for maybe 15 or 20 minutes getting a few waste high slides when Peter comes paddling straight out to me calling “Dennis, Dennis”.

I had to have been thinking ‘what the heck, Peter said he didn’t have time to surf, what happened someone die or something?’ Peter paddles up to me and says “Cooper’s on the beach he wants to talk to you. He’s looking for a shaper and I told him I new this guy that shaped, he’s out surfing right now. Should I paddle out and get him?... and he said yes”

Cooper was one of the surfing icons of the day, a big name, immediately recognizable and it was always cool when someone like that was at the beach or you saw him somewhere, like at a surf flick or something. He wanted to talk to me? About shaping? This was going to be a big moment for me, one like when I talked with Greg Noll. I paddled straight for the beach… well, maybe I caught a wave and rode it to the beach. I found Cooper at his car eating lunch.

D.R.

My Story post 18

When I showed up there were basically 2 surfboard labels in Ventura in 1967 not including the Ventura Plastics guys. They didn’t have a retail shop and really didn’t sell local.

So it was Morey-Pope and Tom Hale. Tom Hale was completely local. He had a small shop and sold boards through that shop. MP had a local shop but also had dealers so the MP label went out beyond the local area. I’m not sure where Tom Hale fabricated his boards, I think over somewhere around Olive St. in the area that is now a shoping center at the west end of Main St. The Morey-Pope shop was on Front St. They had a small retail shop that was integrated into the factory just over the walking bridge from the Ventura pier.

I remember Tom Hale as being the board that the local guys liked. Morey’s boards were different, though there were guys that had MP boards, the name with the local crowd I think was Tom Hale.

The local crowd did ride other labels from out of town like Yater from Santa Barbara, or Bing from down south. I rode my own boards, or actually a Bud Cravens, the guy that bought out my Ryder label when I graduated high school, still, boards that I made. Tried to get a couple local guys to ride them too.

It would be a rare occasion that you’d see the likes of Tom Morey out surfing at the point but it did happen from time to time. But the MP label was happening. They had the fin system that was used by all the big labels and they marketed the Slip Check decking spray. MP had a top rated surfer riding a signature board, ran adds in the magazines and Morey even staged the first ever professional surf contest with something like $1000 in prize money.

So the MP shop was probably the place a guy like myself would really have liked to get a job. I don’t know how I would have pulled it off, aside from going to the shop and applying for work that is. There’s a novel idea… that I don’t think ever came to mind. Besides I had a part time job making surfboards already.

D.R.

My Story post 17

Those early days in Ventura were really great. I can remember coming down from the college after classes and trying to time the traffic lights from 5 points to San Jon rd. along Thompson so you’d never get a red one. After all, a couple red lights means you could miss a good set if the surf was good.

Afternoon glass offs sitting in my VW van waiting for the tide to drop some or come up some or, waiting out the wind. You’d think it would be boring, nothing to do but go to school for a few hours and then surf. The only time I’d get bored was when there wasn’t any surf.

There was this local contingent of guys, and a couple gals that would be down at the point almost every day looking for surf. And, if there was surf they’d be out there. Sometimes I wonder where some of them are now. Well, I know where a few are and there are a few still around and still surfing.

So many days surfing you’d think maybe I’d have some memories of some epic surf. I’ve got a couple but mostly the memories are general kind of things. Like enjoying fun surf with the local guys. Or, sitting in a guys van watching some pretty junk south wind conditions, the surf all blown out. Then seeing the wind die out and a sneaker set come through that would clean the place up, and within minutes the surf was clean and not a sole around but me and a surf buddy.

BTW, we mostly surfed what I consider inside point. Often called the cove now. We wouldn’t surf much above Figueroa St, and not to much up at pipe. Funny, I here pipe called pipes now days. Why I don’t know, but for the record there used to be this big pipe that dumped this black slimy stuff from the oil fields into the ocean at the tide line right at the edge of the Ventura river. That’s why the spot was called pipe. The surf would get good there but the water could be pretty ugly.

You know I can remember the point getting pretty crowded sometimes back in the day. But it was always limited to the area below Figueroa St. Now? Geez it’s almost spooky seeing the number of people in the water on a weekend starting at inside point and going all the way to Ventura river.

You could complain about crowds in the old days but even still there were always the local guys out and everybody would know one another. Yeah, I never surfed alone back then because even if there were only a couple guys out they were always guys I new.

D.R.

What would you say if you were asked to fill a void on your high school surf team long board division but you really didn’t long board much?

Travis Riley was asked and he said OK. This was for the 06-07 ISF season. Travis had surfed long boards but didn’t consider himself a longboarder. Not being a longboarder got him started after the first surf meet at tied for 35^th, or dead last.

It seems that didn’t affect Travis to much because he continued surfing in the meets and continued to advance and rise in the standings. And come June there was one last surf meet to be held for the final standings and a surf off between the two rival teams Santa Barbara High and Ventura High.

Travis had his pick of boards to ride and at first he was going to ride my new prototype quad long board. The event was held at Pipe in Ventura and the surf… as usual for a surf meet… was not looking that great. So, Travis decided to ride an Imperial, thinking it to be the right equipment for small and somewhat sloppy surf and, his plan paid off.

Travis surfed in 3 heats. The first one was the team heat where Santa Barbara and Ventura went head to head. Travis took first place. The second heat Travis won as well which advanced him to the finals. Then he went on to take first place in the final beating out the leagues 1^st, 2^nd and 3rd place contenders and putting himself at number 4 in the over all standings for the season. From 35^th to 4^th and winning the final event! Way to go Travis, and doing it on a D.R.

Summertime.

We’ve been having a really nice summer this year here in Ventura. Usually the sky becomes overcast sometime in May and rarely breaks until sometime in July. This year we’ve had many sunny days and when it has been overcast the sun has been breaking out at some point for at least a couple hours. And I’m always saying…’if it was like this all the time I wouldn’t think about moving back to Hawaii so much’.

The water temps are in the 60’s so not to bad, and we’ve had some surf. At least something to ride, though pretty small, about every week so far.

I don’t know about you but, I’ve always like summer. Is it because as kids we didn’t have school and could just hang and do what ever and that feeling stays with us? Or, maybe when I was younger without responsibilities after shaping I'd go with the crew and hunt for surf. The days being long we’d still have plenty of time to hit Stanleys for a wind swell or run to Secos if there was a small south. We could surf right at the point too if it hadn’t blown out. All those great times and memories ingrained in the feeling of summer days.

I like summer swells a lot. The more casual surf, warmer water. Here in Ventura the south swells are a bit more steep, fun to ride, a nice hot dog kind of thing.

You can surf before work because it gets light by 5:30A and you can surf after work because it’s not dark until after 8:00P. I got some nice surf with light crowds with this last south swell. Went down to surf between 6:30p and 7:00p a couple days in a row and had a great time.

I think maybe I’ll get up early tomorrow and surf before I go into the shop…. Summertime.

D.R.

I’m a Lucky guy part 2.

My shop had been in need of a cleaning. The floors haven’t been redone for 6 months. As well there were a few things I’ve been wanting to upgrade around the place.

Well, I decided Friday, Saturday and if need Sunday to take care of putting down new floors and the upgrade work. My son helped with the floor along with the Riley boys on Friday. The job took about 3 or 4 hours and went well. Thanks so much guys!

My wife was out too, with food, snacks and hydration. And she helped out around the place as well. As a matter of fact, she came out about mid day Friday and stayed with me working and cleaning up until about 7 p.m.

Then Saturday she came out with me and continued to help out all day Saturday. We didn’t leave the shop until around 5 p.m. Went home for dinner and then went out to Lowe’s to pick up the material I needed to complete the projects I started earlier. This morning, Sunday now, we went out for breakfast and then my wife came with me again to the shop and spent the whole day helping around the place until I was finally finished at 6 p.m.

She is so supportive and helpful, hanging with me until we’re done. I’ve got to be one of the luckiest guys.

D.R.

Growing up as a surfer… you get started early. In this case 6 years old. Go for paddle outs with your ole man on his tanker.

When you graduate to going out on your own it’s with the ole man but on one of his other boards, not your own. And when you finally get your own board it is special made, it’s 6’0 but only as wide as the length of your arm so you can carry it to the beach by yourself.

The only way you go surfing is either with your dad or your mom takes you when the ole man is busy. Though eventually you get to go on your own. And because you live within walking distance to the beach, a nice point by the way, it’s not that difficult. As a matter of fact, the ole man makes you a rickshaw so the trip is made easy on your bicycle.

Surfing becomes virtually an everyday thing. So much so that when your dad comes home from work and needs you for something but you’re not home he knows right where you are. One of three locations along the point, where you always surf.

Your parents never worry about you being at the beach by yourself because your ole man has plenty surfer friends and they all know you and keep their eye on you when you’re surfing. So in reality you aren’t alone anyway.

As you grow up surfing is ingrained into who you are and what you do. Though you do other things you love the beach and most likely will always surf. And when you do, alot of the times it's with your ole man, just like when your were young.

A short story of my son Robin.

D.R.

The difference between boards.

Having videos is really a nice thing. Being able to review how a board is riding as well as how you are surfing is made easy via replays of video.

We’ve got video of Travis Riley riding the Quad and an Imperial. The Quad being a high performance long board that weights around 15 lbs. and the Imperial, a retro long board or traditional single fin that weights around 23 lbs.

Travis weights in at 150 lbs. the Quad is 9’1 and 22 ¼ wide. The Imperial in the video Travis is riding is 10’ and 23 ½ wide. He surfs both boards well and with the videos you can see the differences in the way each board works under his feet. The Quad is lively and bounces around a bit. The Imperial being a heavier board you can see the stability and glide. Among other things of course.

Is it a question of which one do you like or what one would you prefer to ride? Or, is it a question of which one should I ride at a certain break in certain conditions? Would you want one over the other or would you want both, and use them as surf and conditions dictate? Or mood for that matter.

D.R.

Travis riding the Quad

Travis on the Imperial

My story post 16

I’m not sure how many weeks went buy after I moved to Ventura and started going to school, but I eventually found a job. My guess is it was probably sometime in April 1967. I know I applied at a small number of locations for a job but the only one I remember right now is Colonel Chicken. Seems odd to me now because I don’t think I’m the type to work at a place like that. Up to that point I’d had a paper route or two, been a box boy at a grocery store, had my own little back yard surfboard business, and worked in a boat yard. Oh yeah, and a short time as a draftsman.

More on the boat yard…. I had the job, among other things, of grinding the inside of fiberglass boat hulls. The task was to feather out the seams where the different layers of roving and mat overlapped. Holding down the power of a 5000 rpm grinder with a 36 grit disc on it, standing or kneeling inside grinding the fiberglass of a boat hull? That was first class job misery. I didn’t last long…. How ‘bout getting inside the hull and doing the hand lay up? I didn’t do that, it was more skilled labor, but there were guys that did!

So one day I heard that this company that made surfboards was hiring, I went and applied. I had a nice looking application for this place because I could say that I was once the owner of Ryder Surfboards. And, know all aspects of board building. I got the job, part time because I was going to school. I’d report for work in the afternoons.

The Company was Pacific Plastics, they made what we all have called popouts. This was the place that made Tiki and Ten Toes surfboards. Though they were doing a different thing when I got there. The company had done a licensing deal with a number of name surfers and started mass producing regular hand shaped and laminated boards with their names on them.

One of my jobs was in the laminating room. I’d work with another guy and we’d team laminate. There were maybe 20 boards on stands in this room all dressed to be laminated. One guy would start down a row wetting out the cloth on a board then move to the next one doing the same and on through all 20. The other guy would come behind him and squeegee out the applied resin and tuck the lap and continue on until all 20 boards were done.

My other job was shaping. And there I was shaping surfboards that would get the names of some famous surfers on them… some of my heros, Paul Straus, Bucth Van Artsdalen, Duke Kahanamoku, not sure of all the names but, I was in Heaven.

D.R.

I think I’m a lucky guy.

Friday, the end of the week and I was feeling a little down. Small things that accumulated through out the week that bugged me is all. So 4…4:30 I head down to the point to see if maybe there’s a little surf, surfing has a way of curing depression. So I see a couple small waves come through the point and think I’m going for a surf.

I call my wife and tell her “I’m at the beach and will be home later ‘cause I’m going to surf for a bit. But, geez I forgot a towel…oh well I’ll wrap up in my shirt or something to change into my wet suit.” She says “OK, see you when you get home”.

I saw a friend and used his towel to change and off I went. After 45 minutes or so I look up on the promenade and see my wife. She waves hello and watches for a few minutes. So I think I better go in and see what’s up. When I walk up the sand she smiles and holds up a towel… and says “Go ahead and surf, just thought I’d come down, bring you a towel and sit at the beach for a while”. So I went back out for a few more while she sat and watched the surf...with her camera.

A few more slides on the quad… photo courtesy of my wife.

As well, it’s fathers day. And what did my son want to do? Go to the beach and surf with his dad. He’s a father too so he gets to do what he wants on fathers day. So we met up with a friend of mine and his son, the four of us had a great time.

Yeah, I think I'm very fortunate.

D.R.

Design talk.

There wasn’t much in the way of surf this week so I didn’t get the new Quad in the water for any further testing. Doesn’t look like there will be much surf for this coming week either.

So I’ll talk a little about the over all shape of this new board….

The outline is my Hawaii long board outline. So the tail is like a short board and the nose is narrower than my regular HPLB. And, the nose is more pointy similar to a Penetrator nose. The Tail has a hard edge through the tail starting above the fins. Rails are tucked and softer forward.

I’ve moved the concave back on this board so it starts about 8 inches back of the nose and runs through mid length and is deepest 3 ft back of the nose. Rather than vee in the tail I’ve run a mild roll that fades out to flat behind the fins. There is also slightly more rocker in the tail than the nose.

The idea behind the design of this board was to make a high performance long board that also would trim well. Usually high performance long boards tail surf well and nose ride good but there is no in between. With the lower nose rocker and pulled back concave combined with the nose flex from the stringer arrangement I’ve got a board that turns well, nose rides good and will work in trim. I’m stoked!

More video on the way. BTW the video in last week post is from a first go out on a small clean day. Testing by Travis Riley.

D.R.

Test riding a prototype part 2.

Getting wave time on the new perimeter stringer quad long board is continuing. This week we’ve gotten into some better waves with a little more juice. Head high reef and point waves in good to excellent conditions.

My test rider spent at least 4 days this week putting the board to test and finding how the board is working in turns and nose rides. As well said he was beginning to feel the boards flex characteristics in the waves that had enough energy.

So I asked him how the board compared to the high performance long board he rides from a well known label. His comment …..

The P.S.Q nose rides as good as the well known label but the turning aspects of the P.S.Q. are much better.

I myself surfed the board on 4 occasions too. The best day for me was just yesterday late afternoon. The Point had some head high sets with a very light crowd… actually it was one of those rare days when hardly any one was out, half dozen people at the most. So I got plenty waves.

My test riders has yet to have the fins break free on him. I’ve gotten them to break free twice. The second time being yesterday on my second wave. I was standing on the tip for a few seconds through a speedy little section when the fins let go. I was unable to keep my balance and fell. The first time the fins let go I was able to get them to reset and continued down the wave.

Yesterday I found the flex. After setting your edge on a nice steep wall coming out of your turn when the board unloads and springs back you get a very smooth extension out of the turns past what the fins provide. And the big surprise is how well the turn back and redirects flow with this board. The best I’ve ever gotten. With a 2 + 1 fin set up when your redirect after a cut back forward movement is lost and the board usually will need a second to step up to speed again. With the quad the redirects are seamless, with no noticeable loss in speed. Very fluid.

To be continued.

D.R.

First go out testing by Travis Riley

Test riding a prototype.

I’m now in the process of testing a new long board design. Which basically means I’m going to the beach and riding this new board and having some test riders ride it and get as much feed back as possible.

I took the board out twice this week in small surf….there hasn’t been much in the way of surf here for a few weeks if not more…it’s the time of the year for flat spells. Anyway, the first go out we had some small slow peelers at the point that were about waist high.

My observations:

The boards is very responsive. Like really nice power steering with a tight turning radius.

Though the surf was small I could feel the potential for good drive out of turns.

Turn backs were effortless and very smooth. As well, resetting direction after a cut back was about as seamless as I’ve ever felt.

The surprise was how well the board floats. I’m not sure if it’s the new performance foam or the high density foam on the boards perimeter.

The second go out the surf was about the same size but had a bit better strength, so I was able to set an edge on a couple waves and lay into a turn. Wow! This thing will fly out of a turn when given the input.

Also on the second go out I wanted to see how the board would trim and handle nose rides. So I worked a few waves on the forward half and third of the board with a couple nose rides. The surprise here is what a high line the board seems to hold in trim and on the nose. I can’t wait to see how this board is going to handle better, stronger and larger waves.

I’ve gotten feed back from one test rider with video too. More on that later.

The new high performance long board perimeter stringer quad, or, the P.S.Q.

9’1 X 22 ¼ and 2 ¾ thickness. With 2 1/8 bass wood perimeter stringers and high density colored foam rails on the outside of the stringers.

D.R.

An old business statement.

I happened on to the folder of the Ryder Surfboard Co. statement from 5/28/66 to 7/31/66 yesterday. Some interesting numbers in the inventory of my little surfboard business in this hand written document of 41 years ago.

From what was in some of the columns you would think that the numbers were just made up, hard to believe what they say really. Like the sale of a new surfboard was $90. Sheets of sandpaper were 6 cents. Redwood stringers for blanks were listed at 21 cents each? That just doesn’t sound right at all, but that’s what the unit price is listed at.

How’s this for used boards… 9’8 Ryder for $62, 10’4 Ryder for $62, 9’8 Hanson $60 and a 9’8 Jacobs for $45. And then there’s the surfboard blank price of $37.63. There were no such things as short boards back then, well actually there were short boards, 9’0 was considered a short board. So the blank for 37 bucks was probably 10 foot. No doubt the materials to make a blank these days are more than that!

So the cost of a new surfboard was 90 bucks, and now a long board is more like 900 bucks. I wish the cost of housing was only ten times what it was back then. Let see if I remember right, the apartment that my wife and I rented when we were first married in 1969 was 65 dollars a month. If the cost of housing was ten times that now then that same apartment, which is only a couple blocks from my house, would be $650. But, that same apartment is more like 1200 or 1600 now, more like 20 times what it once was.

Small increase is the cost of living and cost of doing business? Used to be it was trying to keep up with the Jones, who ever they were. Now it’s more like keeping up with the cost of living.

D.R.

The book signing.

A couple weeks ago my wife and I went up to Dan Merkels gallery
in Santa Barbara where Greg Noll with author Drew Kampion and Greg’s son Jed were doing a book signing for Drew’s new book “Greg Noll, The art of the Surfboard”.

The book is full of history of Greg Noll’s surfboards and full of excellent pictures of Greg’s boards both past and present. I was unable to put the thing down for a couple days, reading the stories and taking in all the photos. For me the book brings on old memories and is an inspiration to my interests in surfboard design and crafting.

When it was my turn to have Greg sign my book I took the opportunity to tell him the story of how as a teenager I got blanks from him and learned how to shape with those blanks and later I got my first job as a production shaper at Morey-Pope, all because of him. His response….” Wow” with a big smile.

Me, my wife and Greg Noll.

Another moment that no doubt will stay with me for the rest of my days.

D.R.

My Story post 15

Those first weeks in Ventura and Ventura College were a bit dark. I didn’t know anyone and I had a room in a house that had two retired ladies living there too. The two ladies were nice enough and my room was great. But the change of being in a new place and new surrounding took some getting used to.

I thought I needed a job so I started looking but had no luck. I would’ve liked to have some spare money but I did really well with what was provided for me. I got 15 bucks a week for food, gas etc. I drove a ’61 VW bus and I always had a few bucks left over at the end of the week. Gas being about a 23 cents a gallon and hamburgers about 19 cents.

The van had as 10 gallon gas tank so to fill it up and drive a couple hundred miles would not even cost $2.50. That $2.50 went a long way with school only a couple miles and surfing only a half mile from home. Even still, having a job would give me something to do.

Everything really changed when I saw this guy driving out of the college parking lot one day… a familiar face. The guys name was Peter and he had gone to the same high school as I had but moved to Camarillo and then stated going to Ventura College. It was one of those double takes. We both saw each other at the same time, eyes meeting, and the ‘hey I know that guy’.

As it turned out Pete was a surfer too. We hooked up and became good friends… I now had a surf buddy. And as time went on I started becoming a regular a “C” Street. Seeing the same guys in the water almost every day or at least when ever there was surf helps you to fit in. Ventura started to become home.

D.R.

My story post 14

Moving to Ventura was the big turning point in my life with surfing. The way it came about was no doing of my own really. I still remember the day my mom asked me if I’d like to move there.

It was the fall of 1966, and my first semester at college… I was struggling with school and personal stuff. For some reason my mom thought maybe I’d do better if I was away from home, that there were too many distractions in and around home for me.

My older sister had done a year at Ventura College so my mom was familiar with the town and the school to some degree. The college was an hour away from home so not to far away but far enough that it would be necessary to live in Ventura while going to school.

Without me knowing it was something my parents were considering for me my mom had gone on a couple trips to the school for my enrollment and checking out housing. After she had made a few arrangements and had tentative plans we had a little talk.

The talk went something like... ‘I know Dennis that you are having a rough time adjusting to college life and it seems you aren’t really happy, maybe a bit disoriented. So your dad and I have been thinking maybe it would be good for you to go away to school. Maybe that would help you be more focused.’ I’m thinking ‘OK.. so? Then she says…’ how would you like to go to Ventura College, you know where Linda went? Move to Ventura and go to school there?’ My answer was an immediate yes.

So January 1967 I had a room at a house in the corner of San Nicolas and McMillan streets in Ventura. About 2 and a half miles from Ventura college and half a mile from Ventura point. At first I was a little lonely, but after a couple weeks I was on track. Being there helped with school, I mean I did better but, it really helped with my surfing.

D.R.

My Story post 13

I went on an overnight surf trip with a few of my buddies one late spring weekend, let see, probably was ’65. The plan was to go up Santa Barbara way after school on Friday, surf and camp out overnight and surf the next day before heading home.

So we motored up to El Capitan state beach and camp ground in time to surf the late afternoon wind swell. Really just a small shore break close out for the most part but sometimes you could get a bit of a nice slide. Not much for a 35lb log but hey, they were waves.

I was on the beach when it happened…. One of the guys, Jim, got a short tip ride, slipped of the nose of his board and got nailed by the board in the small of his back. I can still see the whole thing in my head, didn’t look like anything. But, the guy bounced around in the sand and washed up on the beach unable to move. Me and one of the other guys dragged him out of the water and onto dry sand. The whole time Jim is screaming in pain about his back.

We were pretty freaked and couldn’t figure how such a freak thing could happen. All within the first few hours of our trip. Jim on the sand in great pain and seemingly paralyzed. The camp ranger called the rescue guys and an ambulance came to take Jim off to the nearest hospital, which was in Goleta. While the other guy went off with Jim in the ambulance Navarro and I followed behind in Navarro’s old 52 Chevy. My mind was racing, worried for Jim’s life and now mine because that ole Chevy seemed like it was going to fly apart chasing behind the ambulance at 80 mph.

At the ER Jim was warmed up and given some pain meds. The diagnosis was he had gotten a severe muscle cramp in the small of his back. With some muscle relaxing medication and rest he’d be fine. No he hadn’t been paralyzed, Thank God! We were all relieved including Jim’s dad who had now gotten to the hospital. He must have done a good 100 mph most of the way to get there so soon.

Jim went home with his dad that night and our other friend went too. Navarro and I stayed somewhere that night…can’t remember where but what I do remember was the next morning being cold and hungry. So we drove into west Ventura and stopped at the restaurant right past the highway 33 bridge on Main St., which is not there anymore. Sitting at the counter I had enough money for a bowl of oat meal. It was served nice and hot and was nice and filling. And now it seems an odd thing to remember as part of a very surreal weekend surf trip.

D.R.

Duct tape has many uses. If you’d like to see some of them try doing a Google search on duct tape and see what you find, or just go here. But, the one thing you shouldn’t use it for is covering dings on your surfboard.

The reason… water will penetrate the tape and enter the dinged area of your board. As well, the water that gets inside will not vacate or dry out because the duct tape will keep air from drying out the foam or letting the ding drain. Duct tape has a fabric type layer of material in it and the tape itself will get damp keeping unwanted moisture around a ding.

Moisture is not friendly to the foam core of a surfboard. Depending on the type of foam a surfboard is made from it will absorb water through small cracks in the fiberglass and the longer the board is in the water the foam could act like a sponge and continue to take on more and more water. So you don’t want to have a damaged board in the water very long, if at all.

The best thing to do when you get a ding is fix it or have it fixed right away. It’s a good idea to have a tube of solar rez and sand paper to do a quick fix at the beach… if you’re handy at any rate.

The other quick fix is with clear packaging tape that’s about 2” wide… not the light weight stuff but the one that is a bit more heavy duty. The stuff has good long lasting adhesives and the material the tape is made of is water proof, so water will not penetrate it. Just make sure the dinged area is dry and apply the tape well with no bubbles or wrinkles around the edges with the dinged area completely covered.

Examples:

Unless you have your 10 ½ fin box capped or you have the O'Fish'l glassed in box most likely you’ll see the front side of your fin box cracked. Rarely do people repair this problem that will continue to take on water and eventually begin to deteriorate the tail area of a surfboard.

This is an easy fix at the front of a fin box with regular scotch tape that you wrap Christmas presents with.

I put my thumb through the rail of my board when I got drilled in some shore pound. Believe me, I got hit really hard. Here is the rail fixed with packing tape that has lasted probably a good two years.

This board doesn’t get surfed to much anymore but the ding is still water tight.

D.R.

A California day.

Today was one of those days. Though it’s the 11^th of March and winter still isn’t officially over it was in the eighties. One of those ‘not a cloud in the sky’ kind of days. There wasn’t much in the way of surf but you can’t resist going down to the beach. I surfed anyway…. blue sky, blue ocean, warm weather small but ride able on a 9’8”.

These are the kind of days you live for when you’re a beach nut. If it’s a weekend ok then you don’t get much done around the house. If it’s a work day, you suck it up, but if there’s surf on a work day and the weather is like today then…Aloha, I’m going surfing.

The summer right out of high school was rough for me. After I had sold my little surf board business I got a job as a draftsman. Yeah, an architectural major my first year at college so a drafting job made sense but, not for the surfer. Setting indoors on really nice summer days knowing the beach is just waiting for you….I called in sick a lot. Sometimes if I went outside on a break in the middle of the day I’d get sick and have to leave work. After I got to the beach I felt much better. I didn’t make it through the summer at that job.

It’s irresponsible, it’s a disease, you can’t help it.

My shaping bay at Morey-Pope was on the beach side of the building. The bay door was always open and I had a pretty good look at the Ventura pier. If it was a nice day I had a hard time shaping because I could see out side. Take a lunch break and go down to the Point. There was no point in going back to work. If there was surf…forget it. If it was a nice day I hardly ever made it past 2 O’clock.

I guess I’m lucky because the beach in Ventura through out the year does not see that many nice warm sunny days, especially with surf to go along with it. In the summer we get that marine layer and won’t see the sun for days or even weeks at a time. Lucky thing, other wise I’d probably be a beach bum.

D.R.

In the tropics almost every day is warm and sunny.
Me and my son.

What is the right surfboard? To answer the question you have to ask another question… What type of surf are you going to use it in? Actually there are a few questions to ask when you want the right surfboard.

What is your preferred surf spot, or most frequented?
How often do you get in the water?
What is your body size?
What is your physical conditioning?
What level of surfing are you at?
Along with surfing level, are you a tail surfer or a rail surfer? Or maybe another way of asking the same question is… In your surfing style do you use your upper body more or your lower body more?
What would you like the board to do under your feet?
Long board or short board?

If you say you’d like a good all around board you’ll still need to answer the above questions. For me… I had a nice all around short board I used on Kauai. At 5’10” and 148-150lbs, ok conditioning, level of ability and age it was a 6’10” X 20” X 2 ¼” tri fin. The board was good for surf from 2ft to 6ft. ( Hawaiian ). Now that same board here in Ventura? No can, not enough juice plus, I wear a wet suit which adds a few lbs and cuts down on physical response. A 7’2” X 20 ½ X 2 5/8” would be a better all around board for me for Ventura surf. But I’d only like to surf it in waves about head high or better. Under that and it’s a tanker. Or I probably wouldn’t go out. If the surf was small with some juice to it, then ok but, there’s not much juice in the small wave of Ventura.

All around boards are good to have, they’re reliable. If you take it to the beach you’ll most likely have an ok time regardless of what the size and condition the surf is. But, if you want to dial into specifics you really need more than one surfboard.

For me the all around board would be good with a nice single fin long board as a second board. Why a single fin? Because I like single fin long boarding. If I had to travel some to get to the beach I could take both boards. The 2 board quiver, a nice all around set up.

D.R.

My Story post 12

Even though my parents supported me and my surfing interests and put up with my little high school surfboard business. They never took me to the beach to surf. Well, except for a couple summer vacations at Balboa Bay anyway.

When I reached driving age with my friends and school buddies I had a couple friends that surfed and either had cars of there own or could use there parents cars for surf trips. My parents wouldn’t let me just go off with someone to the beach. Had to be someone they knew of and approved. One of those guys was John Clark.

John had a ’53 Ford that we could take the back seat out of and stick our boards in through the trunk. We used to have a blast together in that old car going off on all day surf trips.

Those older cars windshield wipers worked off of engine compression. If there was a leak somewhere in the system they didn’t work to well. I remember one day it was raining so hard and the wipers weren’t working well enough to even see. John had a great idea… for me to reach down under the dash board, feel around for the windshield wiper arm and try to move it back and forth manually so he could see to drive.

So here we are racing down Pacific Coast Highway in the pouring rain, me with my feet where my head should be, my head stuck down under the dash board and with my hands reaching up trying to find the wiper arm. If I would have pulled on one of the wires stuck up there I could have been fried. ‘Hey, I think I found it. How’s that?’ “That’s it Dennis, don’t stop I can see the road again”. Me, the windshield wiper guy all the rest of the way to Hobsons Park.

Or how ‘bout the time we were cruising along and all of a sudden there was this loud pop? ‘What was that?... what happened to the car?’ We both almost having heart attacks. Then we see the Coke bottle on the seat between us squirting Coke all over. We started laughing so hard we almost crashed. The bottle had been there bouncing along the whole trip until the pressure in it blew the cap off the bottle.

D.R.