My story post 34

One day this past week Blinky…. my former partner… was by the shop. He was dropping off some stuff he had cleaned out of his Julian St. shop. I was taping off a board when he walked in and said “did you ever think you’d be making surfboards when you were 60?”

Well… I’d have to answer “no”. Geez, 41 years ago when we started William Dennis I didn’t think about anything but surfing and making a surfboard that would be better than the one I was riding at the moment.

I suppose to my discredit as a business person not thinking about the future isn’t really very smart. But, as a surfer that made surfboards the only future was the next swell and how well your equipment was going to work. And, if it didn’t work or you figured out another way your board may work better then you were on the right track.

Funny though when you look back the big labels that were run with more business sense and tried to have some control of the surfboard market actually couldn’t control what was happening because of the speed of design changes and eventually left the market altogether.

How do you really know what’s going to happen in the future. You can plan for it and hopefully things will turn out the way you’ve planned. But, when you’re not quite 19 years old, like I was when William Dennis was started, how could you think that what you are doing at that moment will be around 40 or 41 years later?

It’s really pretty amazing to me, all these years later still being comfortable and happy doing what I enjoy… making surfboards and surfing. I find what I do satisfying, it’s where my heart is. Playing in the ocean is a healthy activity as well as fun and continually challenging.

D.R.

Me and Blinky… William & Dennis 1986 C Street reunion