One day left for 2K12. 

 

What I do on a daily basis is a little different… I sold my share of Studio 609 in November. 

 

What 3 different surfboard labels do is different… since Harold Iggy, Terry Martin and Donald Takayama all pasted away this year.   The story of surfing took a big turn because of these 3 passing.

Things change when a company founder is gone.  What the founder started can live on but the story changes from being about the founder to being about the company that was started by the founder. 

 

Interesting to think about… but now with cnc replicated surfboards you could have a board that was created by Donald Takayama and still get a new DT next year that is the same model that you have now.  Donald’s designs can live on. 

 

Ten years from now someone may get a new DT and it will be just another surfboard brand.  “ you got a new board?” “yeah”. “what kind?” “ a Takayama”  “ who’s Takayama?” “ I don’t know, just the name on the surfboard”  That is the sad part.

 

While we’re here we are our own story. When we’re gone we are a memory. All through 2012 the story unfolded. The story of surf we got, surf we missed, friends we have, friends we now miss.  The good times, the not so good times.  After one more day it will all be memories.

 

Good by 2K12, hello 2K13.

 

Happy New Year!

 

D.R.     



 

 

 



 

Southern California has a mild climate, it’s pretty nice for the surfer. 

 

Where I live the water temperature in winter will get in the mid to low 50’s though.  Cold but nothing like up north or the east coast.  You guys that walk over snow on the beach to surf in winter…. I don’t know how you do it.  You’ll think I’m a total wimp if I say I don’t like to surf if the air temp is under 60 degrees.

 

People that live where it snows will ask don’t you miss the seasons?  Or it’s great to see snow during Christmas.  Snow is pretty but, I’d rather surf on Christmas day with air temps in the upper 60’s or lower 70’s.  Not unusual for Southern California.

But really, I miss Christmas in Hawaii. “Don’t you miss the seasons in Hawaii?”  No.  Hawaii has shorter days in winter, like everywhere, and the average temperatures are a few degrees less than summer. I think that’s perfect. Island style Christmas music playing in the stores, cool enough for a long sleeve shirt in the evenings some times.

 

On Kauai some people get into Christmas.  One of the guys I worked with would decorate his house with lights like serious kind.  On the weekends in the early evening he would dress up in a Santa suit and wave to people from his roof top.  Another friend would put on his Santa suit and hand out candy to kids from the back of his neighbors pick up truck as they drove around a few neighborhoods.

 

I’ve only spent one Christmas where it snowed… in New England. Snow on Christmas is kind of magical but I miss Christmas in the tropics.

 

With snow or with trade winds… have a Merry Christmas!

 

D.R.



 

 



 

On Kauai at Christmas my wife decorated the palms in front of the house every year with red ribbon.



The Tropical Santa

Why do you surf? What got you surfing? What keeps you surfing?   

 

Surfing isn’t easy, it takes some time to get good enough at it to catch a wave and ride the thing for a few seconds and not fall.  I watched my grandson catch his first wave this past summer. He had got all wide eyed when he got to his feet and stood on up while being motored along by a wave for a few seconds straight to the sand…. Then hooting.

 

My grandson lives in Colorado,  he wants to come back next summer only stay longer than last summer so he can really get some more surfing in.  Why? 

 

Is it magic?  Really,  If you don’t know,  waves are kind of magic.  They come from nowhere, build up and roll over into a bunch of bubbles, wash up on the beach and clean any lumps, holes, foot prints off the sand.  I see people at the beach watching the waves, each wave does the same thing but each one is different. What makes people just watch the waves? 

 

Reality, waves travel for thousands of miles to finally crash on the beach you may be standing on. And that same wave could be miles long. A band of energy that stretches from one beach town to another.  And there you are sitting on your surfboard about 30 yards out in the ocean waiting for that one wave you’d like to catch and let it’s energy propel you along on your surfboard for 10 seconds until the wave rolls over and turns into a bunch of bubbles washing onto some beach… gone forever.  Then you paddle your surfboard back out to that spot some 30 yards in the ocean and try to catch another one, before it too is gone forever.

 

That’s some kind of weird, and only a surfer knows the feeling!

 

D.R.

 



 

I had another birthday this past week.  Because of the holiday and all we had a little get together at the house this afternoon.  While the family was here my 10 year old granddaughter secretly made a birthday card for me that my wife found it on my pillow on our bed after everyone had gone home.

Of all the things she could have put in her drawing as the theme she chose surfing. 

She knows I surf, and make surfboards. She knows her dad surfs and makes surfboards, stuff that was past from me to her dad. Her dad takes her to the beach to teach her how to surf, just like I took her dad to the beach.

No small wonder that she would choose surfing as a theme.

D.R.

Now days we have performance long boards, high performance long boards.  Before surfboards started to get short there were no high performance surfboards. We just had surfboards.  Making a surfboard high performance was up to the surfer. 

The last year of the long surfboard was 1967.  and reality is in ’67 there were some boards that could’ve been considered performance or high performance boards, but we didn’t call them  high performance boards, they usually had  the words “light weight” or “feather light” along with a model name. Basically a board that was in the low 9 foot range and a little thinner, not as wide as some of the other boards you might find on the rack in a surf shop and also, of importance, was they were laminated with lighter fiberglass cloth… of course that's why the were called light weight models.

These shorter, thinner, narrower, lighter boards were the performance boards of the late 60’s. I designed one for myself while shaping at Morey-Pope in 1967.  A 9 foot 22 inch wide thinned out narrow nosed light weight board that surfed really well. Quick turns, playful off the tail, good speed in trim. Nose rides, coasters, cutbacks, all the great performance stuff.  I liked the board so much and felt you could push it to new and higher surfing performance levels that I used the design in most of the early William Dennis boards when Blinky and I first got started.

I’ve now got a reissue of this board, I call the ’67.  A traditional single fin performance long board with a slender over all foil. Nice curve in the outline back of center with a soft rolled bottom and accelerated rocker out the back for quick turns and playfulness on the tail.  Narrow nose for lighter swing weight and better wave face fit. A long and low rocker curve through the nose for good trim and nose riding.  

The ’67 takes traditional long boarding to new performance levels.

D.R.

Surfing is a relatively young sport.  The history of surfing may span some 80 years or more, the sport really didn't start to develop until around the 1950’s. And, the commercial side of the sport ,making surfboards as a business,  didn't start to develop until the late 1950’s. 

I’d say most of the early board builder/surfers though getting up in years are still apart of the surfing community if not still in business. This year a few of those early board builder/surfers have left us. First is was Harold Iggy, then Terry Martin and just a week ago Donald Takayama.  When I stop and think about these men and how they have impacted surfing and knowing they are no longer with us really gives me pause. 

As well, just over a week ago a long time local surfer here in Ventura past away.  His name, Jack Cantrell, passed a week before what would have been his 84^th birthday. Jack’s passing is significant to local Ventura surfing history. He was a first generation Ventura surfer… one in the small number of people that started surfing here locally many years ago. 

Few know what it is like to surf Ventura with just a handful of guys in the water… and not because of some freak swell that showed up unannounced that no one knows about but you and a couple guys that happen to be a the beach with you. But because there were only a few guys that surfed… period.  Jack did!

Not that many people have seen the changes the shore line has taken over the last 70 years here in Ventura and up the Rincon, Jack did!

Though now there are maybe a dozen guys that make surfboards in the Ventura area,  Jack was here, and surfing, when there was no one that made surfboards in Ventura. So he’s seen it all. Tom Hale, Tom Morey, Pacific Plastics, Morey Pope, William Dennis, Campbell Bothers, Steve Huerta, McCrystal, Wayne Rich, Roberts, Craig Angell , FCD, and the list goes on.  Imagine none of these or even one of the 5 retail surf shops in town.    

No surf racks, no surf wax, no leashes,  no wet suites and, sometimes, no one but you and your surfboard at the beach.  Jack was here and lived through all this history….  And, this too gives me pause.

RIP Jack.

D.R.  

I’ve seen another conversation going on one of the forums about the dying art of hand shaping.

The craft of shaping a surfboard with power tools and hand tools has faded from the production of surfboards for sure but crafting a shape “by hand” will always be done most likely.  And really, the guys that have any complaint about “The Machine” should be guys that were once production shapers and have been replaced by “The Machine”. Of which I am one.

Now days a production shaper is a person that finishes a cut blank.. hardly much skill involved for that.  Evidenced by a help wanted ad for a shaper at CI a half dozen years ago, they wanted someone with one year experience.

But here is the question.  Is hand shaping 10 surfboards a day five days a week art any more than a CNC machine milling a blank in 15 minutes?  What’s more graceful, a guy running around a blank with a planer or the magical moves of the cutting head on a CNC machine? 

Duplicating the same shape over and over again, all be it in different sizes, never seemed very artful to me. It seemed like work… and hard work at that.  Making all the same cuts… sort of like a machine… was the strategy for consistency, as well a necessity for being consistent.  Believe me, when you walk into a surf shop and see a model in sizes ranging for 10’2 to 8’0 or a couple dozen 6’0 to 6’6 boards they are all supposed to look and feel the same and just vary in size. Same rocker, same nose and tail details, same rail shape and bottom contours… just as if a machine had done the work. Doing that never felt like art to me.

Now taking your time and scribing an outline on a blank, making cuts to clean up inconsistencies in a blank, carefully making passes with your planer and hand tools to dial in a shape, and screening it down to a nice clean detail is artful.  The end result being an eye pleasing foil… yeah, that could be called art.

D.R.

Happiness and surfing you’d think go hand in hand. I watched a documentary this past week called Happy. It’s a study that some sociologist types did about what makes people happy, and the effects happiness has on our lives.

Since surfing makes people happy I wondered if there would be someone interviewed in the movie that surfed. Sure enough a guy from Brazil was interviewed about how surfing makes and keeps him happy. 

What is it about surfing that makes you Happy?  I really don’t know what it is.  But I do know that when I’m feeling down, or stressed a good surf will rinse those bad feelings away.  Had a bad day? Go surf and feel better. Stressed out with the kids? Go surf (if you can ) and feel better.  Someone got you irritated? Go surf and be un-irritated.  

Amazing how that works.

I got to thinking about bad vibes in the water, and how out of place tension in the lineup is. Really tension in the lineup is counter to what surfing is.  And to me it gives off the  feeling like there is some kind of pollutant in the water. When someone is not nice or unpleasant in the water it’s like a pollutant. The best thing to do if the water is polluted is go to a spot that isn't polluted…. Surfing should be a happy thing.

Also got me to thinking that maybe the reason my wife doesn't mind me going off for a surf. She knows I’ll come home happy…. I’d best not talk about what a great time I had too much though… it’s not good to be too happy.

D.R.

Tip Time

Scott Beckley

Matt Riley

The model I make for nose riding... the Tip Tool.  Both Scott and Matt finding tip time with the tool for the trade.

D.R.

Here’s another thing… The beaches are cleaner now.  50 years ago when you went to the beach in southern California you’d almost always had to clean tar off your feet at the end of the day.

There is a lot of oil under the ocean floor between the coast and the channel islands. Before oil production started in the channel there was natural seepage that would work its way to the beaches getting deposited at the waters edge with the tides.  Continually working its way into the sand on the beach.

Small 1 and 2 inch patches of tar. When you stepped on it, which would always happen, it would stick to the bottom of your foot.  If you sat on some, it would get on what ever you were wearing.  Lay a towel down in the sand… you got it on the towel. 

No matter where the tar got stuck first… if you knew it or not, it would migrate from one body part or clothing to something else.  You’d get it on your board, in the wax etc.

We didn’t have any citrus cleaner back then so you used solvents to get it off. Dealing with tar was part of going to the beach here in So Cal. Some people would carry a small can of solvent in the trunk of their car for clean up after a day at the beach.

I can’t remember the last time I had to clean tar off my feet now.  Never see it.  All the places that the stuff seeped from back in the day is now where the oil derricks are out in the channel.  And, most likely any residual leakage is mopped up so it never reaches the beach.  I guess you could say we have tar free beaches now.

D.R. 

The Miramar Hotel on the beach in Santa Barbara provided these for their guests.  That was some time ago, before the hotel was demolished.

Another post on changes to surfing over the past 50 years.

My son has an iPhone.  When he gets to talking about going for a surf he hits his phone to see what the tide is at that moment, maybe he’ll view a surf cam, and or look at a forecast.

50 years ago if you were planning to go surfing tomorrow and knew of a friend that went to the beach yesterday or today you called them to get a report on how the surf was.  But, you didn’t call him on his cell…. He didn’t have one.  You called him on a land line.  If he was home he’d pick up and you’d talk.  If he wasn’t home you didn’t leave him a message…. There were no answering machines.  If he was on the phone talking to someone else the line didn’t beep him for call waiting… you got a busy signal, there was no call waiting.  One way or another you may or may not have gotten a surf report. 

If you didn’t get a report and you went to the beach anyway it was going to be a trip to the beach to check the surf and surf if it was there.  If it wasn’t there then you looked somewhere else, or just hung out for awhile then called it a day.

Gas back then was about twenty cents a gallon… so if you drove to the beach for nothing it wasn’t that big a deal.  I guess it’s a good thing we’ve got all this technology now… with gas at $4.25 a gallon who can afford at trip to the beach nothing?

D.R. 

 Tim Nesbit on a D.R. Stubbie Quad

Matt Riley on a D.R. Fish

Vince Felix on his '67. Streamlined for advance performance.

Pictures are frames from video taken by Matt Riley.

D.R.

I like going down Pacific Coast Highway from Ventura in route to LAX… had to take family there this past week.

It was a nice warm summer day and as we went past Zuma Beach. Seeing the crowd of beach goers along that stretch of sand brought back memories.  When I was growing up Zuma was the beach the family would go to for day trips. That’s the beach I got really interested in waves… body surfing, playing around in the surf. Skim boarding and laying around in the sand.  I got stung by a bee that was stuck in the wet sand along the waters edged one time too.  That hurt.

I don’t quite know what the attraction is of the place.  Everyone that goes there has to drive some distance… a serious destination spot.  The wind will start to blow almost everyday  by 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. and a decent summer south swell will beat the crap out of you.  But, nice rest rooms and changing rooms a good size snack bar, life guards. 

It had to be an hour’s drive from where we lived, even still when the family took off for a day at Zuma Beach I couldn’t wait to get there. Except for the one time when my sister fell off my skim board and got the wind knocked out of her which meant that we all had to pack up and go home… only after being there for maybe an hour, every time we went to Zuma it was fun.

No body really surfed the spot until the late sixties. I’ve surfed there a few times, always when it was pretty small and never got it on one of those good days I’d hear about from time to time.  Seems now if you go by the place in the morning on any day there are guys surfing the north end.  Sometimes it does get good, and I’m sure that if I drove by the place on a regular basis I’d surf there when it got good and have a lot more good memories of Zuma Beach.

D.R.

Did you ever spend a fair amount of money on a new pair or shoes and find when you start wearing them they are uncomfortable? 

Did you ever order a custom surfboard, for no small amount, and find when you first start riding it the thing doesn’t respond as well as you expect?

Maybe new surfboards are like new shoes... sometimes you get new shoes and they are great, comfortable, easy on your feet, soft with a nice spring to them. But, maybe more times than not new shoes take time to break in.

I saw my friend George at one of my favorite clothing stores some months ago.  He was walking rather tentative, so I asked if he was OK… he said “yes, I’m just breaking in a new pair of work boots”.    

When I paddled out on my first ever perimeter stringer quad long board I was rather tentative.  I’d never ridden a board with 4 fins.  So when I turned around to catch that first wave I took it slow.  Got to my feet, did a casual turn, stepped into trim… slowly feeling how the board felt and would respond.  And each wave after the first I’d test how the board would react through different maneuvers.

I’ve had new shoes that gave me blisters!  Like, ‘I can’t wait to get these things off my feet’ kind.  The next day or two I put them on again. Over time they get worked in and become the best every day shoe in the closet.

After a few go outs I learned how responsive my quad long board was.  How much speed and drive I could get when I set it up, where I could place it on the wave face.  How nice it was for big cut backs and redirects. 

I hadn’t ridden that quad long board for a long time, But I’ve been using it again and just like before the board is responsive,  works just like I remembered… kind of like putting on a nice pair of comfortable shoes.

D.R.   

This new board went to the customer in a box. New shoes come in boxes too.

I surfed “C” Street or The Point, a few times this past week. We had a small tropical south swell that when hitting the point can be pretty lined up, and actually wall off and close out.

The first day I surfed this week I passed a friend coming in from surfing as I was going out. She said “it’s just closing out”. And it was for the most part.  There were a few waves that would hold up but, most were pretty racy and not holding up.

The tropical swells have a steep east slant to them so that’s why they line up so much and as I’ve mentioned before the point isn’t what it used to be because of the revetment used when the 'powers that be' developed that area of Ventura beach.

Before the development there was actually a point. Not much of one now because the revetment has held in the sand and changed the overall configuration of the beach from Figaroa St. to the first jetty.  A new inside sand bar could develop but so far… not.

D.R.

The point shape as of today.

The point shape some 70 years ago.

I made a custom H2 mini for Mitch Bloom. It’s a short one… 5’2, with twin keel glass on fins.  After riding the board a couple times he called to tell me how it went.  His words “ it’s like a little magic carpet”. 

Funny how sometimes in conversation words just fall together. I think the H2 has a new name…. The Magic Carpet.

D.R.

I’ve mentioned how moms play an important part in the life of a young surfer here. 

I’ve mentioned at the end of this post how my mom would get frustrated when she found sticky resin on the phone. Even still she was happy with me and my surfboard thing. 

I mentioned how my mom was worried about my surfing big surf here.

I know without my moms support when I was a kid, and even later when I was on my own I would have never gone very far with surfing and surfboards.  I remember talking on the phone with her once when I’d gotten really sick. She said she worried that maybe the chemicals…resin and stuff,  that I worked with might be taking a toll on me… I was nineteen. 

She always showed interest in what I was doing. Even though mostly what I did was surf and make surfboards. She was such a good lady and a great mother to me and my sisters and brothers.  She was up there in years and getting frail the last couple years.

She passed away yesterday, Saturday June 23 about 1:00 p.m.  The best mom I could have ever had.  You will be missed mom… rest in peace.

D.R.

Years ago now but, my mom on the left, me on the right with my sisters and brother and one of my sisters friends ready to go on a two week outing to Newport Beach. It was fine with my mom for me to bring my surfboard... somehow strapped to the top of the car with all the other stuff.  

Another year and another week of camping and surf.  Except for the first day when the overcast sky didn’t burn off until mid afternoon, and one night that got pretty cool the weather was great and we had surf the whole week. What’s become the annual week of camping and surf that this year started last Sunday and finished Friday was great!

My son always likes taking a half dozen boards to play around with and this year was no different. He surfed his twin keel fish, a 40 year old single fin hull and my 7’0” two finned hull as well, taking his daughter for a spin on the Tip Tool. I followed and the last two days got off my stubbie to surf a Tip Tool and my 7’0” two finned hull.  I haven’t surfed the Tip Tool for a couple years and haven’t surfed the two finned hull for at least 4 years.  But, when you have all day to surf… you can mix it up.

D.R.

Sand Castles and Surf

Son with daughter hanging 10 fingers

Tracking on my wife’s question about changes in surfing over the past 50 years, I got to thinking that back then there were no long boards…. there were no short boards either. No, just plane ole surfboards. They were a bit long though.

As well, it wasn’t until 1967 that there was much thought to how much your surfboard weighted. I can’t remember ever actually weighting a surfboard back then but, all the major labels started making what everyone called a light weight model. Instead on 30 lbs maybe they were 25 lbs. I really don’t know… never weighted one. By today’s standards even the light weight boards were heavy though. Of coarse today’s short boards may be a little under 6 lbs, but even a modern long board could be just under 14 lbs. 

Until the mid sixties when Morey Pope started distributing removable fins all surfboards had glassed on fins. So what ever fin was on the board you had that was that.

When you got a new board you learned how it rode.  If it wasn’t going to well when you first started surfing a new board you stuck with it until you figured out how to handle the thing. 

I don’t remember hearing anyone say “this board doesn’t work”.  All surfboards worked and if your surfboards didn’t work then you had to figure out how it worked. And once you figure out how it worked that was that.

In the old days we were a little concerned about how well your board floated you.  We didn’t have much in the way of wetsuits so when it was cold you would paddle on your knees.  If your board floated you good then the deck of your board would be above the water, knee paddling meant that you would not get wet working your way to the lineup. Not getting wet meant you would stay a little warmer and could stay out in the water a little longer.

The way we made boards back then was different too.  Back then there were no surfboard specific materials. All the fiberglass materials we used were barrowed from the boat industry.  It wasn’t until the late sixties and into the seventies that we began to see surfboard specific materials.

Now with the retro movement guys want that old look to some of their boards. Getting that old look with the new materials is a whole ‘nother story.

D.R.

My story post 56

50 years ago I had a skate board I made myself.  My brother David made one too.

These boards were nothing like what you see today… not even close.  Why?  Because what you see today didn’t exist.  My skate board was made with a 2 X 4 and a single metal skate the would normally strap onto your shoe. David made his board from the other skate in the pair.

We took off the part on the front of the skate that was a clamp that would grab the front of your shoe and we flattened the back part of the back section of the skate so it would mount flat to the 2 X 4.  With a few nails those old skates were fastened to the 18 inch piece of wood and off we rolled.

What a treat… side walk surfing.  Only when you fell you hit concrete or asphalt not water, and that hurt. But we could not be stopped, on the prowl for streets with a slope. Long gentle slopes were nice but after awhile the challenge would grow and we wanted more thrills.  Like the guys riding big waves in Hawaii, we started looking for those steep hill streets.

I don’t remember how long we’d been using our skateboards, working on what to do when you’d get the wobbles or how to control your turns so the metal wheels wouldn’t slide sideways on you and land you on your butt.  The day did come when we decided to ride our bikes with our skateboards up to this street that was really steep and tackle the big stuff.

We talked about doing this for maybe months and finally got the nerve. After biking to the hill and parking at the bottom of the street we stood looking up the hill and discussed how we should take the drop. “ maybe we should go about half way up and call that good, what do you think” I asked.  “How ‘bout we just walk up a short distance and do a test run”? David said.  “Good idea, lets go”.

So we worked up to going about half way up the hill a do the serious run. Walking a ways up and stopping, giving a look down, then a little farther, a little farther, …OK here. We set our boards down and stepped on to them. Take a little angle to the left then the right and before we knew it we were racing down that hill, and going to fast to make any more sideways moves to slow down. Then we both got the wobbles and that was it.   

This was a long time ago and I still remember the look of the asphalt as I hit it. Hands first to break the fall, then the elbows and finally the shoulder we both went head over heels as our skate boards rolled past us.  “Are you ok”? “I think so”  OUCH! Oh man, as we worked our way back to our feet and hobbled to reach our skate boards and get to our bikes for the painful trek home.

Skateboarding really was birthed from surfing. 50 years ago it was way different than it is now.

D.R.

Last week my wife asked  “what is it like having been surfing and making surfboards for 50 years?”

I thought What?... oh wait… it’s 2012, I started making my first surfboard in 1962, so I guess it has been 50 years.  Then she asked “how have things changed, you’ve kind of seen it all right?”

The question has been rolling around my head since she asked. And right now I know I can say this about being around surfing this long. When I got started the guys making surfboards were in their twenties, a good 10 or more years my senior… so now after 50 years, getting up there in years.

After losing Harold Iggy the first of the year, now this week Terry Martin passed away.  I was not fortunate enough to have ever met Terry Martin. Of course I knew who he was and what he did. Thinking that he is now gone and will no longer do what he did gives me a very sad feeling that I’m not sure I can explain. I’m not sure words can adequately express the loss to surfing and the surfboard craft.

Terry Martin was woven into surfing history.  You really can’t talk about the history of the surfboard shaping craft without his name being brought up. And of course the name Hobie Srufboards is world wide. Hobie Surfboards for the most part was Terry Martin.

RIP Terry Martin.

D.R.    

Sometimes it’s the thought that counts….

This past week I was working on a one off.  Well not quite a one off, but close enough.  I’ve done the H2 mini but this one was about 6 inches shorter than any I’ve done so far. 

It’s usually the outline that takes some time. Blending curves, messing with width numbers and all.  Sometimes you end up with three or four different lines and only one that you think you might like. Then because you’ve got three or four lines it’s hard to see one curve from the others.

So.. I’ve got all these lines and I know one of them is the one I want… I start thinking… ‘man, it sure would be nice if I had some White Out.’

For all those post analog people. White Out came in a small bottle with a small paint brush attached to the cap of the bottle.  When using a Type Writer ( whatever that is ) you used the White Out for typos by painting over your missed spelled word.  The stuff would dry and then you could type over the touched up page area and correct your mistake.

Yeah, so if I had some White Out I could paint over the outlines I didn’t like scribed on the blank and leave the one I wanted.  Then ‘hey, I bet I’ve got some white latex paint in the garage. I could paint over these junk lines and leave the good one’ 

So off to the garage I go. Find the paint, get a small brush, head back to my shaping shack and brush the paint on the lines I don’t like. Stand the blank up at the end of my room, check out the curve I’ve got and…. Perfect. I can see the outline, it looks good. I’m ready to start cutting my blank. 

And someone said… ‘Necessity, the mother of invention.’

D.R.

It happened in the fall of 1986, but it was conceived months before that. A small number of local surf guys started planning and working together for this event. It had never happened before but, these local guys made it happen.

It was really pretty cool, all these people meeting up at Pipe. All day long and into the evening. Gathering, surfing, eating, dancing, happiness. For me, having my foot in a cast mending from a broke heal, I didn’t surf or dance. I got to eat and greet people I hadn’t seen for awhile if not for years. And what I did was take pictures, not officially, I just set off on the side lines and clicked off pictures all day and night.

My 2 favorite surf pics of the event… who are the guys surfing? I don’t know.

The evening stage festivities. Unless they paint their hair, all these people have gray hair now

Actually the first and only.

D.R.

Murphy’s Law is alive and well in the surfboard laminating business….

If something can happen it will, and if something does happen to a surfboard during the lamination process the chances of something else happening to that same surfboard is more likely than not.

For instance. One of the problems we have is stringers gassing off, always on the deck lamination… not that big a deal on a clear lam if you catch it when the resin is still workable. But, if a stringer gases off under the label you’re pretty much stuck. And more times than not, a stringer will gas off under the label. Or, if a stringer is going to gas off it will be with a tinted or color lamination which are very hard to fix without a blemish.

Sometimes shaped blanks can get bumped before or during the lam process. Not that big a deal with a clear lamination. But, it usually happens with a board that gets a tinted lam which is next to impossible to fix without a blemish.

Ok, you have a regular customer that always get boards laminated the same way. Labels in the same place, fabric weights the same, finish the same. So, the one time you don’t look at the order card to make sure there are no changes and go ahead laminating the board like all the others.. you look at the order card after you’re done… the board was suppose to be different from the standard set up…. Oops.

There are supposed to be no oops. Oops is a bad word. A good laminator has no oops. At least most people think so. Reality, a good laminator is known not only for being a good laminator but also known for really well done cover ups too.

D.R.

I ran into Gene Cooper in a down town Ventura store some time ago and guess what we got to talking about? Surfboards…. Surprise.

During our conversation Gene asked me if I knew of any trade or craft that you could spend your whole life working at and after years and years of experience still be trying to figure things out…. Besides glassing surfboards?

The surfboard lamination process is basically simple. You stretch fiberglass fabric over a shaped surfboard blank, cut the cloth so it’s a little larger than the board, saturate the cloth with resin, neatly tuck the cloth over the rails of the board, make sure there is no air trapped anywhere in the lamination and let the resin dry. When the resin has cured you flip the board over and do the same thing to the other side.

After the board is laminated you put a coat of resin over both sides, one side at a time of course. Let it cure, then sand the board smooth and put a final coat of resin on both side again, sand the board again and sometimes polish the board at the end of all that.

Yeah, a simple performance based endeavor that has a ton of variables let alone just having a bad day. Over look something and you can have problems. Like when you get started in the morning your room may be about 65 degrees, but later it could be 80 degrees. So what happens when you catalyze you bucket of resin for the colder temp instead of the warmer temp… and you don’t realize that’s what’s happened until the resin in the bucket starts to gel half way through your 15 minute lamination window?

There are many things to deal with in a short working time with clear resin. Add colors or tints and you increase the “deal with” factor by 2 or 3 times. Come up with a couple cosmetic issues that a customer says are unacceptable and … well, you can become a questionable character over night.

Basically there are a couple of glass shop types. The regular production shop that does mostly clear sand only short boards and the middle to high end type shops that do color spray jobs and color lams on any type of surfboard that comes through the door… though they do more high end stuff they are still a production shop.

Most local shapers sends boards to a production shop for glass work. So the production shop pricing schedule is set for guys that don’t do their own glassing and must be affordable to stay in business. Which basically means that they can only spend a certain amount of time with each surfboard that goes through their shop. The over all cosmetics may be very good but there may be a small percentage of boards that the cosmetics are not that good. And prices being what they are set at means some times a board will be finished with a couple zits.

There are a few guys that build boards from start to finish in house, and the only boards they do are their own. They set their prices high enough to accommodate any and all issues that may or may not come up during the laminating process. So when their boards are finished cosmetically they look flawless or so close you’d say ‘wow, that looks flawless’.

Some of the production shops do very good work but because of financial reasons and market demands it’s not a good idea to compare a production shops work with that of the all in house builder that prices their work to accommodate all their time and effort no matter what happens in the building process.

D.R.

It’s really amazing that virtually every surfboard model has it’s own detail. Hundreds and hundreds of surfboard shapers and each shaper has their own details.

When you ghost shape you get to know what details are important to the designer that you are ghost shaping for. They can get very particular with how they want the tails and or noses of their boards to look. How the over all foil blends into the ends of the board. How much rails are tucked . Exactly how far up a vee will go from the tail on a certail size board. How deep to cut concaves… etc, etc.

I’ve ghost shaped for a number of guys but, I’ve never had anyone ghost shape for me. Just like others have told me exactly how they’d like certain things to look on their boards, I know exactly how I like my boards to look. From nose detail to tail detail and everything in between. With each model or shape comes all the corresponding details and they all need to look just right.

D.R.

A clean shop is a happy shop.

I’d had gotten my new shaping bay set up enough to get some work done, and then some more work done…. and more until it was a mess of things put here and there with enough foam dust on the floor to fill a couple rubbish cans.

I was getting some work done but not happy that the place was a mess. At some point you just gotta stop clean up, and get organized.

Two days of clean up and organized…..

D.R.

A clean shop is a happy shop

Ok, maybe I’m just nuts… actually I am nuts, I make surfboards! But I think shaping a surfboard has been redefined. Because it seems from this article on Surfline that shaping a surfboard has nothing to do with what has always been considered shaping. Now using a CAD program is shaping according to the author.

I just don’t get that. Using a computer to “shape” a surfboard? If you’re using a CAD program to “shape” your surfboard then shouldn’t the program be labeled CAS? And then of course it would be right to call hand shaping HAS. If CAD is computer aided design. Then CAS would be computer aided shaping… right? And then HAS would be hand aided shaping.

When you “design” something with a CAD program you also usually use a CNC machine to actually make the something that you “designed” in CAD.

CNC = computer numerical control. The machines that “cut” blanks that have been “designed” in CAD are CNC machines or …specifically a computer "controller" that reads coded instructions and drives a machine tool, a powered mechanical device typically used to fabricate components by the selective removal of material.

The machines that “cut” blanks into surfboards selectively remove material. You know what? That’s what a “shaper” does when shaping a blank… selectively removes material from the blank.

When you “design” a surfboard with a CAD program you are not removing any material. I think one needs to be removing material to be “shaping.” Sure you can take a little volume out or make an outline change to your over all surfboard “design”. As a matter of fact, you can add more volume and make your outline wider if you decide to. Try doing that after the “material” has been removed. You can’t add “material” when you are actually “shaping.”

Ok, no I don’t have a problem with “shaping” machines. I have and do work for guys that machine cut blanks. From time to time I have boards cut. But I don’t think it’s time to call using a CAD program to “design” a surfboard “shaping”… yet.

D.R.

My serious face... nicked from Surfer... obviously

Replicating is a lot easier with a cnc shaping machine than by hand shaping.

It is possible to be pretty accurate replicating a surfboard by hand. It will take some time, making sure all your cuts are right, checking rocker curves, deck crown, rail profiles etc. But, in the end you can be right there with making one board the same as the other.

To replicate a board with a machine you can either scan the board you’d like to replicate with the machine… if the machine as that capability or, you map the board and input the numbers into the software program and build your computer surfboard file that way.

Basically mapping a board for program entry is the same as mapping a board for replicating by hand. You make a list of all the particulars… numbers… of the board like rocker, what the rocker curve is like at the nose tip, at 6 inches from the tip, 12 inches etc. Then the same for the tail. What the various measurements are of the outline or plan shape. Like width at center, 12 inches from nose and tail, 18 inches from nose and tail and so on. Rail apex point at different potions along the boards length as well as thickness at 6 inch intervals down the length of the board.

Once you’ve got all your numbers then you input them into your computer program and build your computer model for the machine to replicate. If you hand shape you reference all your numbers as you work through your shaping process.

In the end whether you hand shape or use a machine you have your board. The one thing you don’t have when you hand shape is knowing what the over all volume of your board is. When using a computer program you get that information.

D.R.

Balance

You always hated to fall off your board, because it meant you were in for a swim, and possibly to the beach to fetch your board. Sometimes, depending on where you were surfing, your board could end up on the rocks. Almost guaranteeing a ding or two.

Paddling out you had to give it everything you had to hold onto your board if you had to push through a wave or two on your way out to the line up. There is nothing worse than having your board ripped from your hands on the way out, especially if you just got in the water and haven’t even caught a wave yet. Like ‘dang, I haven’t even reached the line up and I’ve got to swim for my board.’

So the smart surfer would always pay attention to the surf. You’d do your best to time your go out between sets. Scramble hard to get to the line up so as not to get picked off. As well, you could plan your paddle out so as not to reach the impact zone when a set wave was on coming. Slow paddle or just sit on the inside and let the wave’s energy diminish some before it reaches you. I even would paddle inside a little to get away from an impact zone if it looked like I was not going to get picked off.

I never forgot getting picked off on a good sized wave at D and W. I tried my hardest to hold onto my board but the wave just laughed at me. Ripped my board away, tossed me around like a rag doll and left me to swim. When I reached the beach I couldn’t find my board… until I looked up on the jetty. There it was resting on top off that pile of rocks. So I always did what needed to be done to keep my board from getting away from me.

Of course sometimes you just get stuck. And, of course now days you’ve got your board velcroed to your leg.. so no need worry about loosing your board. Never mind if you ditch your board on your way out… unless someone else gets stuck by your board… but when does that happen?

My son told me the guy we work with at Patagonia FCD, Cyrus, got stuck by a ditched board. It happened last week. I haven’t seen Cyrus yet but was told the board busted his nose and left him with stitches in his head.

Slip off your board, hold your nose and submerge yourself… from what? Wake up and smell the salty air, and act like you don’t have your board tethered to your leg. Think, plan and hold on tight.

D.R.

http://vimeo.com/34903457

The closest I’d ever gotten to Harold Iggy was when he paddled by me at Malibu one day when the Weber crew were on a surf day from work because there was a good south swell in the water.

I was a teenager, he was about 8 years older than I, so he was in his twenties. Of course I knew he was Weber’s shaper, which is why he was surfing with Weber when they’d show up at Malibu on a good swell. But he could surf well too. Weber was a good surfer as well, so when they came to Malibu they just took over… you didn’t drop in on those guys.

They’d get the good set waves, ride them all the way down the point, pull out and paddle back to the top on the point only in time for another good set wave. It didn’t matter who was waiting for a good set wave. They would just paddle for the waves they wanted and that was that.

Dewey Weber surf boards was a big label. I always thought they were cool boards. And, because Harold Iggy shaped them I always thought he was one of the best shapers. One day I visited the Weber store and after hanging in the store for awhile looking at the surfboards I walked out of the store and ended up walking around the back of the building. To my surprise, I happened on to Iggy’s shaping bay, with him there mowing foam.

Either nobody saw me or nobody cared I was there… I wasn’t in anyone’s way standing off a distance. But I was in a dream, watching the guy I wished I could be, shaping surfboards for one of the big names. At that time I’d maybe made a few boards, and because I was self taught I’d never really seen anyone shape a surfboard before. I’m not sure how long I stood there, if someone finally came and told me to beat it or after a time I thought I should go before I got in some kind of trouble…. Really can’t remember.. I was in a trance the whole time.

A few years later when I was working with the Wilderness guys I got real close to one of the boards Harold shaped for Nat Young. Nat surfed for Weber in 1969 and when ever Nat was in California he’d come up and visit Mike Cundith… Nat and Mike were good buddies.

Well, Nat had gotten this new board that he was really stoked about and brought it up to the Wilderness shop one day. Mike liked the looks of the board so he asked me to shape him one. So I took Nat’s board, nicked the outline, set the board in my shaping bay, got a blank and replicated the board Harold Iggy shaped for Nat.

Nat would rave about how good Harold Iggy could shape, and for good reason of course. Nat said Harold was so good at getting his rails perfect. So here I am replicating an Iggy shape and Nat would come into my room and check the board to see how I was doing. I think Harold Iggy is one of the best shapers ever, I’m copying one of his boards, that he shaped for one of the best surfers in the world. That best surfer is in my shaping bay checking my work… talk about nerve racking!

Harold Iggy passed away this week, very sad to hear about. He no doubt impacted many, many lives. Mine included, even from a distance. One of my heroes now gone.

RIP Harold Iggy.

D.R.