My story post 55. The day I broke into Dick Brewers house.

I moved to Kauai in late spring 1994 but it wasn’t until ’97 that there was full time surfboard work for me. It came via Max Medeiros at Hawaiian Blades. In ’97 Max returned to Kauai and set up shop in Lihue town. We connected and I started working for him, shaping, sanding, and laminating… depending on what was needed.

As his factory got rolling some of the guys that shaped on the island brought boards to the factory for laminating. One of those guys was Dick Brewer. Dick eventually needed some help with shaping, he had more work than he could do on his own, and I got asked to step in and help.

Most of the work I did for Brewer was what I’d call team shaping. 2 guys shaping one board. One guy would outline and rough out and the other guy would do the finish work. I did the finish work and one of the long time Kauai board builders, Mike Wellman, did the rough work… I think we were a good team even though I’d never see Mike.

Mike worked out of his place in Wiamea town. After he finished roughing out a number of boards they would get transported to either the Hawaiian Blades shop or back out to Brewers on the north side. So I would either finish boards in my shaping bay at Hawaiian Blades or drive out to the north side and finish boards in Dicks shaping room at his house.

Since I lived on the south side, when I got called to go out to Brewers it would be a full day deal. The drive was at least an hour so I didn’t want to go that distance unless there was a big load of boards to do, and Brewer guys would always work that out for me.

So one day I got a call to go shape but was told that Dick was going to Oahu and no one else would be at the house. “We’ll leave the key under the front door mat” I was told. And, “all the boards you need to do are in the normal spot out side the shaping bay.” Dicks shaping room was inside his house or at least attached at the end. It did have an outside door but I always accessed it from inside the house. Anyway, when I got to the house and looked under the door mat there was no key. Somebody forgot….

I tried the door but it was locked. I went around the back and tried the 2 back doors, they were locked. I tried the siding glass door at the family room… locked. I’m thinking ‘What????? I’m came all the way out here???” as I’m walking around the house… I stop and look up at the balcony. ‘ Is that sliding door up there open? I think so’.

I walked back around the other side of the house to the new and under construction garage/shop and to my surprise saw the extension ladder… perfect! Grabbed that thing, lugged it around to the balcony, set it up, climbed up and over the railing and in the house I went. Relieved, I unlocked the front door, put the ladder back, went back to the house and shaping room and went to work. Usually there were 10 or 12 boards to do and that day was no different.

A couple weeks later I got a call from Dick to come out and shape some boards. I told him “hey, last time I came out the place was locked up, but, I found a ladder and got in through the upstairs sliding door you know?’

Dick said “now there’s a man that wants to work!”

D.R.

From a page in the log book

My story post 54

My son ,Robin, started learning to surf when he was about six years old.

At first I’d take him out with me on my long board. Then he graduated to riding one of my short boards, which he didn’t like because he couldn’t get his arm around the thing so it was hard for him to carry. It bothered him enough that I made the width of his first surfboard the length of the inside of his arm… just to make sure he could get his arm around it.

When he was still a little guy I would worry about him in the water. Not when the surf was casual but when it got a little bet more serious for the kid. As the years progressed we became surf buddies.

This past week we had a pretty nice northwest swell so the two of us made plans to hit the surf together in the early afternoon Wednesday when the swell started to come on. We paddled out on the back side of the point and surfed our way down inside. The surf wasn’t really big, sets were a little over head but, the sets were strong with a good 8 waves or more.

After we were in the water for 20 minutes or so we both got caught inside… I hate getting caught inside. I was further out than Robin and that first wave of the set pounded me good enough to push me inside of Robin. We both ducked at least 2 more waves when Robin turned and looked back at me with a thumb up. I nod with a smile thinking he’s stoked that the surf is good and this is a great set… even though it’s giving us a lickin’.

I lost count of how many waves I had to push but eventually I was so beat I turned around and let some white water propel me to the beach… the first time ever. I thought I’d go in, catch my breath, wait for a lull and paddle back out.

After about 10 or 15 minutes I started walking up the point for another round when I saw Robin ride a wave way down inside and come in. I waited for him so we walked up the beach together and decided to head back to work.

As we were walking back to the van Robin asked if I was OK. Turns out he was worried that I might be in trouble because I got swept past him on that first wave and then couldn’t catch back up to him. He said ‘I don’t think that has ever happened before. That's why I gave the thumb up, I was asking if you were OK." I said “I was beat, how many waves were in that set anyway?”

As we walked up the beach another set started hitting the line up, so I started counting the waves... 14. “No wonder, I bet there were at least 10 waves in the set that picked us off.”

After I dropped him off at the FCD shop he went in to boast how he out paddled his Dad. Geez, his 33’d birthday was this past September. My 63’d birthday is next month!

Funny though, I worried about him, now he worries about me.

D.R.