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.