My story post 33

I went to a take out restaurant here in Ventura with my son today that was one of the places that Blinky turned me onto for a good burrito when hungry after surfing. It got me to thinking…..

There were a number of places we’d go to after work or surfing to fill our bellies back in the day. One of the spots was right down the street from the point, Fiesta. Fiesta was where almost every surfer would go to at some time or another. So close to the beach.

Then there was Ted’s Sizziling Steaks out toward the college. This place was the after hours stop. Not really great but cheap and filling. Back then there were not any steaks houses like what’s out there now but, with the help of steak sauce the food did the job.

The little café at the west end of Main St. was a place for good hearty breakfasts. I remember the first time I went there around 1965. I was really hungry one morning and had very little money… actually not money, just some change. The change was enough for a bowl of oatmeal. For about 35 cents I got the best bowl of oatmeal I’ve ever had, to this day I still remember being so hungry and worried I’d go hungry for the rest of our surf trip but the loose change in my pocket and the little café made the day.

How ‘bout the Galley? They had a burger basket that was great! Only one block from MP, sometimes we’d go there for lunch during the work week. I remember Cooper running there for some grinds, sitting at the counter talking story and chowing down.

Now in downtown Ventura there are more places to eat than imaginable. A couple years ago my wife and I counted enough places to eat in the 4 blocks of down town that we could actually eat out everyday for a month and never eat at the same place twice. How nuts it that? But those places listed above? Except for Johnny’s where my son and I went to today are all gone. Fiesta is where Bad Ass Coffee is now. The little café was knocked down and the spot it was in is a parking lot. The Galley building is still there but the building is empty… no burger baskets there. Ted’s…. gone. Seems as time goes by all we end up with are memories.

D.R.

Looking up the beach from the pier back in the day didn’t look anything like this either.

The Second Anniversary.

Two years and over 6,000 page views ago I start this blog not really knowing where or how long I would go. Now with 93 posts … 94 counting this one, that all started on September 9, 2006. I thought I’d do a little anniversary post and link some stories and posts for your reading pleasure.

My story post number 1

My story post 6

My story post 10

Duck tape has many uses

My story post 14

Growing up as a surfer

My story post 20

Another foam count down

My story post 30

Doing this has been a good thing…. for me anyway. It’s helped me remember what I’ve come through and apply that memory to my practice of crafting surfboards. I’m up to post 32 of my story now, actually “The day Slipcheck got colorful” should be my story post 33. But we’ll let that one slide.

So here's to the past 2 years and 93 posts, God willing, more to come. Thanks for checking in, hope you enjoy reading. As well, to those that take the time to post a comment… a special thanks. It’s nice to hear from you.

D.R.

Photo by Nathan Dorn

Surfing is a performance based endeavor.

Of course it takes hours and hours of practice and conditioning but, once you have that and can move in, out and through the surf, your performance will be to a large extent based on your mental contribution. If you think you can pull some maneuver you can or will.

As I’ve gotten older I take notice that sometimes I get shaky in attempts to pull off certain moves. Sure there is not the agile body and quick response that I had in years past but sometimes I think I’m unable. If you think you’re unable then the mental games is lost…. You usually won’t pull off the move.

When it comes to nose riding on a long board your mental game really needs to be solid. It’s curious that for some time I’ve felt tentative standing on the tip lately… not as confident as in younger days. All the while thinking geez, what’s wrong with me.

Reading the book by Paul Holmes… Bing Surfboards, fifty years of craftsmanship and innovation… you’ll find this quote from Donald Takayama “Noseriding is one of the hardest things to do in surfing. To be able to hang ten and keep your balance as you go through sections and all of that is a very difficult thing to do and it has a lot to do with total mind control. It takes 150 percent concentration just to stay up there”.

Like walking across a room with a full cup of hot coffee. Stay cool and calm as you go, not really thinking about the cup but that you will reach your destination without spilling it. Or, you’ve seen a carpenter walking across the top plate of a framed wall? If he thinks he’s going to fall off the top of that three and a half inch wide wall he’ll get shaky and possible fall eight or more feet to the ground or floor… but he doesn’t, it’s a mental thing.

A few days ago I was surfing inside point in the afternoon. The surf had some shoulder high sets was clean and fun. As I was paddling back out to the line up, along with three or four other guys one of the local guys took off on one of the set waves and proceeded to step up to the nose turn around and hand heels right through the pack of us paddling out. If he would have fallen I would have taken the rail of his board in the face, I was that close. But he pulled the move off as if no one was around… in total control, no second thoughts about it.

If you think you can, you can. If you hesitate, if you question and have doubts, you probably won’t make it or not even try. With surfing and all performance based endeavors you’ve got to have your mental part down.

D.R.

Travis Riley... fin first take off.

The day Slip Check got colorful.

One Saturday in the summer of ’67 my friend Pete Robinson and I were messing around at the MP shop spraying some Slip Check on Pete’s new 8’9 Snub. Pete worked for MP in the fin department so on our day off it was OK for us to come by the shop and do stuff to our boards.

Pete had gotten a really nice knitted doily table cloth from his mom and had thought it would be nice if we draped it over his board and sprayed the Slip Check through it so the pattern would be left on the board. Instead of a solid color like all the other boards with Slip Check his would be different.

I’m not sure Pete’s mom knew that once we did this the doily was not going to decorate a table anymore but, in didn’t seem to bother Pete so we went straight ahead.

We draped the doily over the nose area of his board and got one of the colored spray cans of Slip Check… If I remember right it was the magenta one… and sprayed the decking through the doily. Let it sit for a few minutes then pulled the cloth off the board and there was the doily pattern on the nose of Pete’s board. I don’t know where Pete got the idea from but we sure hadn’t seen anything like it. I was so stocked I thought ’man, I’m going to do that to my board’.

I got my board, cleaned the wax off and laid the doily over the deck of the board. I thought I’d do the whole deck though, not just the nose. But instead of using a single color I got all the Slip Check colors and began spraying through the doily from tip to tail fading from on color to the other. Lightly layering one color over the other I could even get more colors. When I was done and lifted the doily off my board…. WOW, now that was really different. All these colors with the doily pattern imprinted on the deck was cool. Never had seen that before either.

Well, that’s where it all started… in Ventura anyway. Before you knew it guys all over were spraying multiple colors with doily patterns on their boards. MP even started marketing packets of paper doilies right along with cans of Slip Check.

Pete and I had no idea what we were doing or where it would go…

D.R.