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.