My story post 45, shaping a spoon 2

There was an article in Deep Magazine March/April issue on Renny Yater page 9. The last 2 paragraphs of the article in reference to the Sacred Craft shape off and the six guys that were to shape a spoon… “They are playing my music – in a different Key” says Renny, who notes that they only have two hours to do what usually takes four, due to the complex design. “It is not going to be easy and I will be impressed if somebody can do it in the time limit”

Well all of us finished the job… and it was impressive. When there were four completed shaped blanks in the display rack my friend Randy said to me “I know which one is yours” Because they all looked so similar I questioned him. He said “go look, it’s the one under the one at the top of the rack on the far side” … “well you know because you saw where it was placed after I shaped it” I told him.

Then I noticed a couple officials went to the display rack and rearranged the blanks around on the rack. So I told Randy “go look and tell me which one is mine now” So he went and spent 3 or 4 minuets looking at he shaped blanks then came to me and said “ I can’t tell which one is yours now!” Mine and the others, including Wayne Riches.. the winning pick, were not at all easy to tell apart.

I had a strategy, to complete the shape in 2 hours I figured I needed to get the thing roughed out in the first hour. If I could do that doing the finish work could be done in the remaining hour.

Since the outline was scribed on the blanks for us once I got set up in the shaping bay I grabbed my circular saw, cut the outline and cleaned it up with my planer and sanding block as fast as possible. Then measured the bottom rocker and started cutting away. You couldn’t stop to think about what you were doing… or really look at what you had done. My thinking was; I’ve shaped enough to know what to do and when, so just go… it was total auto pilot and motor memory.

After the bottom was skinned, rocker cut and bottom roll bands were in place I flipped the blank over and worked the deck… cutting for over all thickness and rail bands. Then I cut the spoon, and during that process the cutting adjustment on my planer froze up, which made the graduating cuts I needed to do impossible.

I stopped, tried to get the planer to work with out success. Fortunately I had also brought my Hitachi so I quickly retrieved it from my tool box, stepped outside of the shaping bay and called for Tim, the guy responsible for room set up. I needed to get my Skill planer off the vacuum hose and the Hitachi connected to it because the Hitachi only throws foam dust in your face if it’s not connected to a vacuum.

Tim wasn’t around so I asked my friend Dan to try and find him… as I went back into the bay and went after cutting the spoon in my blank, foam dust flying all over me and in my face. Tim comes to my rescue to pull the Skill out of the way and connect the Hitachi.
I finish cutting the spoon and made my final passes with the planer to clean up the deck.

I turned the blank back over and went after the bottom with my block plane to feather in the bottom shape. Then set the blank on edge and walked the rails with the surform, one side then the other. A final walk and scrub of the rails with sand paper and I picked up the blank and dropped it on the stand deck up.

There it was, I could finally see what I was after, the blank now looked like a spoon. I still had to do the finish work but the board I wanted was in front of me. It had been at least an hour of none stop motion but I knew at that point I could see the way home. What a relief!

I sanded out the blank, screened in the rails, did some touch up with enough time to step outside the booth and look at the spoon we were replicating just to see the final details.

Back in the booth I did a little final detail stuff, planed the stringers down flush and finish screened the board down in the final 2 or 3 minutes… I was done, stepped out of the shaping bay and let out a sigh of relief as Tim walked the finished shape to the display rack.

There were a couple things I should have done in the process that in the rush I missed… oh well. But the one thing I wished I’d done? Answer my phone when it rang in the middle of shaping.

I thought it would be good to have my phone in my pocket when I shaped the board because I usually have my phone in my pocket when I shape and would feel more comfortable if I did. Not thinking anyone would call… but at some point while shaping I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket. I thought ‘who’s calling me now?’ but didn’t stop to answer.

Later I checked to see who had called… it was John Peck. He left a message telling me he couldn’t get to the event in time because he couldn’t pass Malibu, with over head sets and a light crowd.

It would have been so classic to have stopped in the middle of the shape off to answer my phone and have John Peck tell me he had to stop to surf Malibu and “ sorry I’m late”

D.R.

A couple of the guys that got to do what I've never been able to do.... Watch me shape!

Short video below.

My story post 44 and shaping a spoon.

In 1967 if you would have said to me that in 43 years you will have your picture taken standing next to Renny Yater at a consumer surfboard expo after shaping a Yater Spoon in front of a bunch of people I probably would have said “you’re nuts”. But last weekend that’s exactly what happened.

I first met Renny in 1967 at Bob Coopers 29 birthday party. Cooper was the foreman of the Morey-Pope shop and hired me to shape surfboards that year… I was 18 years old. Renny Yater of course was very well thought of in the industry and really was an icon. Being in the same room let alone being introduced to him was a very big event for this then 18 year old kid. I remember it to this day!

Dale Herd, the guy that ran the show room at MP, wanted a spoon but instead of buying one the thinking was to have me shape one so He asked if I thought I could do it. “Who me? Sure I can do anything, after all I’m 18.”

So Dale got a Yater Spoon from a friend and I put it in my shaping bay with a surfboard blank and went at it. I don’t remember how long it took but I eventually finished the job and after the board was glassed and finished it was Dale’s baby. Dale was happy, he had a spoon. Not too sure Morey or Pope were that happy, their sales guy was riding a board that looked nothing like a Morey-Pope, but, that was that.

I’ve never looked closely at or attempted to replicate a spoon since that time. Then a couple months ago I was asked to be in the Sacred Craft Yater tribute shape off. My first question was “how long do we have to shape the board?” 2 hours I was told. “What? That’s a difficult board to shape let alone do it in 2 hours.” But, how could you pass up an opportunity to be in an event to honor such a good man, someone that is such a big part of our surfing history? It was an honor to be invited to participate and I’m thankful to have had the opportunity… really a once in a life time deal.

There were six guys in the event including myself, Michel Junod, Wayne Rich, Todd Proctor, Matt Moore and Nick Palandrani. All the guys put in their best and did a great job. Win, lose or draw, it was not about the competition. Fact of the matter, I didn’t look at it as a competition at all. To me it was a challenge, a challenge to shape a spoon in 2 hours for sure but it was really a way to honor Renny Yater, but as well to honor the traditions of the surfboard craft. Something that Renny helped cultivate starting back in the 1950’s. The tradition of hand shaping surfboards that has been passed down from men like Renny.

The intimacy of a hand crafted surfboard. Of having something that was made by someone that has put their heart into for a life time is extremely rare these days. To see, to witness what went down at the Ventura Sacred Craft show this past April 10 and 11 and to participate… was truly an honor.

D.R.

My story post 43

I’ve always liked summer, even though winter is when we get the most and biggest surf I’ve always liked summer. It maybe that when growing up summer meant no school and days spent at the beach… but the long lazy days of summer are my favorite.

Though I’ve got memories of good winter surf, good summer days are in there too. Like the summer of 1970. I had moved back to Ventura after loosening my job a Wilderness ended up shaping the summer months for a short lived label called Natural Motion.

I remember this one day, not sure of the month but, probably July. A day with light variable winds and the small residual waves from a south swell were still in the water. We probably hadn’t had much wind in days before this because the water was clean and clear… and a comfortable temp for short wetsuits.

There were a total of five of us. Mike the guy I shaped for, Bob, another guy I shaped for under the Pure Fun Fliers label, myself and a couple other guys. It was such a nice day we all didn’t want to waste it by working. So off to the beach we went.

There may have been a few guys surfing pipe but, honestly I don’t remember anyone but us around. We found this peak in front of the river that kept the five us busy for a good three hours. Nice clean shoulder to head high waves to play with all to our selves.

Two, three or four wave sets every three to five minutes. The warm sun on your back with fun playful waves the company of friends and not much else to care about. I mean, when you’re at the beach with the guys you work for and they are in no hurry to do anything but surf. What more could you want? Even at that if the wave that Bob just took I wished I’d gotten was a short lived thought because if not the next wave there was another one just like it within a few minutes anyway. Slide down the face, lay into a bottom turn, snap off the top….

We all had a blast, so much fun. The kind of days you wished would never end. But eventually you get tired and hungry, which we did and had to get out of the water to rest and replenish.

Funny how after surfing for hours when you get out of the water and start walking back to the car you keep looking back at the surf you’re leavening. You feel satisfied but you still look back, not wanting to leave but knowing you have to at some point anyway.

One more wave, one more look, you’ve left the water but you can still look at what you had. The good days live on in our memories.

D.R.

A big turn back on the H2 Mini

What are you looking for?

Is the grass greener on the other side of the hill?

Will the other board turn better?

Will the other board curiously make you a better surfer?

Do you wish you could do what you see the other guy do?

You can’t make the wave but with that other board you know you could.

You know which one of your boards you like the best, but the one you ride most is the cool one.

Sometimes we just think too much. For the most part if you think too much your surfing will suffer. Thinking that you need a different surfboard will not help you surfing. Thinking that you can over come the hardships you have with a particular surfboard will help your surfing.

When is a good time to think about your surfing? Not during but before or after your session….. Like why did I fall on that particular wave and what should I have done or not done in order to make the wave.

Case in point; Last week I took a bad fall and hurt myself. Maybe a slightly over head wave. Late, late take off and didn’t make the drop. Fell back flat on the water and suffered whip lash to my neck. It took about 7 days to get back to normal. I have replayed that fall in my head many times.

Why did I fall? I didn’t get my feet positioned correctly.

Why? Because for the most part I free fell for a split second on take off.

Why? Because I took off so picking late.

Why? I didn’t want the wave to pass me by.

My thinking? If I made It great, if I didn’t at least I tried.

I never thought about the possibility of getting hurt. I should have thought about the possibility of getting hurt by doing something ill planned like taking too late a take off before I got in the water.

So what’s the big deal about late take offs? Nothing, I do it all the time. But, at my age I could take a bad fall and hurt myself…. So I should plan a little better before I go.

D.R.

I've made a few fish in the past several months. Matt Riley on his 5'8

The surfboards I ride post 2 or, the surfboards you ride.

Did anybody that surfed in the sixties ever hear the words ‘the board doesn’t work‘? I don’t remember hearing anyone say that. Actually, I don’t remember ever hearing anyone say that until maybe the eighties.

What I do remember is getting a new board and surfing it until you figured it out. Sometimes you’d get it down in short order. Sometimes it would take a number of trips to the beach. But, you always worked at it until you knew what you could or couldn’t do with the thing, and then lived with it until you got a new board.

Sure, as we all progressed and wanted to do quicker turns and maneuver more on the wave we ditched the old “D” fins and found smaller aspect fins helped with maneuverability but, did the old “D” not work? Maybe its semantics, “D” fins worked fine until we found out that they limited maneuverability…. Then they didn’t work anymore. But before that they worked fine.

I remember once making a board for someone… like a team rider type… when the guy saw the board for the first time said ‘the board won’t work, the tail is too thick’. How thick or thin the tail was supposed to be for the board to “work” he couldn’t say, but what he saw wouldn’t work. Since surfing is 98% mental guess what? There was no way the board was going to work after the guy said ‘the board won’t work’. I later mentioned what the guy said to another board builder friend, his comment?... “ He said it wouldn’t work before he rode it? Well, it sure won’t work now will it”?

I made a board for one of the pro guys I’ve done boards for in the past. I’d made him plenty boards, but one in particular as soon as he saw it he rejected it flat out. He never said it wouldn’t work though. Of course good surfers can ride anything and look good but, this particular board was not what he was wanting, he could tell by looking at it, so that was that.

Personally, of all the boards I’ve had over the years there have been none that I could ever say “didn’t work” First off, a surfboard has no moving parts…. Unless the fins are loose…. So how could they not work? Each board may ride a bit different than another but reality… they all work. That said, I had one board that was seriously moody. When I first started riding it finding my feet was none to easy. Seems more times than not I’d plant my feet down in the wrong spot on take off spaz through the first turn until I could relocate my foot position for the next maneuver. After a few go outs I even decided to put some markers on the deck for my foot positions…. It helped a little. But even with the board the way it was there were go outs that I had the best time surfing it. So… did the board work or not?

Are there boards you can get that are as close to perfect as possible? Are there boards that “work” great starting with the first wave and every wave after? Is there such a thing as love at first sight?

Surfing... and love.... is a very individual thing. The questions asked in this post; you may have to answer them yourself. What do you think?

Geez, I even ended with a question...

D.R.

What happened in the 70’s ?

At the turn on the 60’s decade surfing seemed to be over it’s first commercial stage…. If you consider the sixties surfing thing as commercial. There were a couple clothing companies like Hang Ten and wet suit companies, nothing like today though. But, there was the Hollywood surf thing in the sixties like Beach Blanket…. something and the TV show Gidget in the sixties.

By the turn of the decade the big surfboard labels had lost their appeal in the industry and small local builders became the place to buy surfboards. Starting in the early seventies surfing seemed to be much more a grass roots or underground type of pursuit. The contest thing had no real traction as surfers became more interested in a non establishment going your own way thing.

The art of making surfboards may have gotten it’s start in the 70’s as the whole mass produced make as many surfboards as you can thing of the big labels in the sixties was replaced with the small board builder. Builders had more time to focus on design and crafting something their heart was into. If you find an old 70’s board you will see some of that craftsmanship. Color laminations and swirls or abstracts, as well as some pretty amazing resin pin line work.

Surfing certainly continued to advance. Surfers every where were still pushing performance boundaries but it was pretty much kept at the local level. There was the localism factor too. Certain places were known to have a local contingent of hard core locals only types that would make things unpleasant for unfamiliar faces in their lineup. I knew of one spot I wouldn’t surf in my home town even though I was a local.

Surfing was a quiet thing during the 70’s. But in the last couple years of the decade things began to change. Surfboard design was moving sum what slow with no real significant notice through most of the seventies. Sure there was the twin fin but it didn’t take over that much, there were still more single fins in the water than twins.

But at the end of the decade surfboard design changed radically and to this day has never looked back… well maybe just a little. What happened? The three fin Thruster.

D.R.

For the longest time tri fins were it. Now….how about a quad?

Growth of an industry.

Last weekend I went to an event that was held at the Fender Guitar Museum. For a guitar guy like myself it’s a pretty cool place. As well, every surf music band that was, is or has been played Fender guitars… from the Beach Boys to Dick Dale.

As I was taking in all that was there, reading the various stories and captions on so many of the photos in the exhibit I was struck by the thought that in the beginning Leo Fender really had no idea where his little company was going to take Him. That most likely there where people that belittled the notion that his amplifiers and guitars would amount to much. After all how far and how long could this crazy teenage music go?

At the same time I saw how the surf board industry had similarities. Who knew that making surfboards would ever amount to anything? As guys like Dale Velzy and Hap Jacobs, in their twenties, started surfboard businesses did they ever think that surfboards would grow to what we see now? Can you hear the words…? “Yeah, do you really think your little surfboard business is really going to last? Surfing is just a fad fuelled by this crazy music with electric guitars"…. Fenders no less!

As we stand back and look at the history it’s really amazing to think that Fender having started in such humble beginnings grew to a multi million dollar business. And similarly we can see how what was started in the late fifties on the beaches of California making surfboards has grown to an international industry. Leo Fender sold his company to CBS for a rather large sum of money. Similarly Channel Islands Surfboards was sold to Burton for no small amount I’m sure.

I certainly never thought that making surfboards could or would be sustainable over decades. Something that could put food on the table, something that would help provide the resources to raise a family. Something that would over time be looked at with some respect instead of “ Oh, it’s just a passing fad. “ Or, for that matter, be passed on to new generations.

My wife found the below drawing today. I’m not sure what age my son was when he drew it… maybe 6 or 7. But I am sure he never thought while drawing a picture of his dad surfing, wave curling behind and a flock of seagulls over head… note the M’s in the sky, some 25 years later he’d be pictured below (third from left) with his coworkers at FCD doing what his dad taught him, making surfboards.

D.R.

The evolution of a surfboard.

Today for the most part when you go to a surf shop and look at the different boards in the racks you will see models. What people have come to expect is a certain surfboard shaped a certain way. It has a specific name and sometimes even specific color schemes.

If you have a certain model board you particularly like that has gotten well worn from use you can go buy another board of the same model and find it will surf pretty much like your last one.

It’s really pretty easy to replicate a certain shape via the various CNC shaping machines now days but to replicate a shape by hand is not that easy. It takes a lot of hand shaping for a guy to get to that repeat ability factor that so many surfers have come to expect.

Short boards have continued to evolve so that usually what is the hot item this year won’t be next year. Something will replace lasts years models and last years model may not be available anymore. But long board and alt board models once introduced may stay available for multiple years. Actually there are some long board models that have been around for decades.

I make a few boards that were first introduced in the mid sixties. Have they changed? Yes, though the right term would be evolved. These boards, or models, are still identifiable as the same board from the sixties but on close examination they are different. That’s a good thing. Small incremental changes in a design are what should happen over time to get the design to its optimum.

In the Sixties boards where going through rapid changes. Because surfing was advancing at a rapid pace the boards were going through changes continually. Even the models. You may see a certain model made in ’66 then see that same model made in ’67 and it may be noticeably different. Then of course that same model was not made at all from ’68 to ’82 and the ’82 make is different from the ’67 make. If you wanted the same exact board in the old days you may have gotten disappointed because your old board was not replicated well or the model went through some change.

Change was what happened in times past. Change is not what you see these days. Is the way we do things with surfboards today better than the way we did it in the past? Because models evolved in the past bad and now they don’t better?

Well you tell me… does riding a different surfboard, one that you will need to figure out better for your surfing? Does it help you advance? Or riding the same model over and over do that?

D.R.

My Story post 42

It was spring time in So Cal, sunny days and a nice warming trend in the air. My friend and work mate Richard had some how gotten a pass to the ranch. Which meant that he could drive into the lower ranch during the day. How and where the pass came from I have no idea but was sure glad Richard had it.

Having a pass meant you could drive into the ranch to surf, at the time few could. Without a pass if you wanted to surf the ranch you had to launch a boat at Gaviota and motor up. Driving in was much easier… and faster.

Sinse Richard and I worked together shaping for Morey-Pope we could plan a day trip for a certain day during the work week. Get some extra work done the day before the trip so as not to get behind with our work load. Or, find ourselves a little ahead of schedule and take off around noon for a run up to the ranch and an after noon surf.

Not sure how many trips we took, maybe 5 or 6 but what I do remember is that we never saw another soul on the beach or in the water… we were always by our selves.

I still remember one day in particular at Rights and Lefts. A good 4 or 5 hours of perfect head high plus waves with not a creature in site but us guys. Richard myself and our other work mate Donny. Other than the water being a little cool it was sunny and warm with no wind and that beautiful A-frame peak. Take off, bottom turn, climb and drop, maybe a small turn back and ride the wave almost to the beach as it tapered down from over head at the peak to waist high on the inside. Pull out and paddle back for another.

When we got tired we’d sit on the beach and watch that perfect peak while warming up and having something to eat… for me it was trail mix. Then when you couldn’t watch anymore paddle back out and surf again until you were too tired. We could surf until there was just enough light left for the drive off the ranch. Once on the high way if it was dark it didn’t matter.

I went back to the ranch one day 1985, the day after Thanksgiving that year. Got a boat ride with a friend of one the of the guys that worked for me back then. We surfed a few different spots and the last being Rights and Lefts. The whole day there were boats and surfers at all the different spots. Rights and Lefts must have had at least a half dozen guys in the line up. A couple guys that lived in the ranch were among them and weren’t too happy to be sharing the spot with boaters.

I had a good time and got some good surf that day but it was nothing like what my memories hold from earlier times.

D.R.

The essence of foil.

I’ve looked up the word foil in the dictionary but don’t find a definition that comes close at all to what in surfboard lingo we call foil. Unless you think a blunt sword is close.

Once you get bit by the surfing bug and develop your abilities surfing and have handled a few different surfboards the chances of realizing the beauty of a fine foiled surfboard and getting hooked on the look is pretty strong. To the discriminating surfer a surfboard can become a piece of art. Short board, long board and anything in between can be a sculpted thing of beauty.

Simple lines, simple curves and how they are formed and fit together when done well can be something very pleasing to look at. It can take years to acquire the ability to sculpt a piece of art. Taking what you see in your head and using imagination and your hands to make what you see, be pleased with what you see and have others enjoy what has been crafted.

So what is foil? To me it’s the complete package of curves that make a surfboard. From how the deck curve relates to the bottom rocker curve which in turn dictates how the foam volume is distributed nose to tail. How the rail line and rail shape moves along the length of the board, as well the way the deck and bottom is crafted from rail to rail.

It starts with a profile. Cutting a surfboard in half from nose to tail at the center and seeing how the bottom and deck curves relate to each other. The look of a profile will depend on the surfboard itself and the boards intended use. It may have more thickness a little forward or a little more aft or have an even taper. How the volume graduates into the nose as the deck and bottom curves converge, how the tail lines flow. It’s all in the profile.

Deck crown may blend it’s way from rail to rail down the length of the board with more curve forward and flatten out the back as the profile tapers through the tail section. And as the profile tapers the rails turn with crisp edges sharpened for a positive cut on the wave face.

There really is no formula for a nice clean foil. We may have some what standard bottom rockers or typical bottom curves but how the deck lines work with bottom lines? It can be very personal to a shapers hand. CAD programs may make seeing a given profile easy. But, seeing something on paper and then seeing the same thing full scale with all the other elements can be a completely different thing. There is no easy way to a nice foil.

Once you get the look of a nice foil in your head it just doesn’t go away… a picture impression. If you have a finely foiled surfboard you can look at it for hours and never tire it's look.

The beauty of a finely foiled machine, you see it with your eyes, feel it with you hands and almost instantly know it will feel good under your feet.

D.R.

Ventura has been having a good winter season so far this year.

There has been one or two swells come along every week since some time in October seems like. So what usually happens when we get a lot of surf? The crowds thin out.

One morning this past week I thought I’d woke up in the past. I got a late start for the morning and didn’t get down for the daily surf check until about 9 a.m. I figured when I got down to inside point there most likely wasn’t much surf because there were so many parking spaces available on the street.

Surprise number one… the surf had picked up again, there were over head sets.

Surprise number two… there was a grand total of 4 guys in the water from the top of the point all the way down inside.

What? Someone see a shark?

I rubbed my eyes. Am I still asleep? I’m dreaming… that’s it. Then I was talking in my sleep. There were a few guys checking the surf that I normally don’t see at the point so we got to talking, about how strange it was that there were so few guys in the water, with surf like what we were seeing!

That particular swell was short, by the end of the day it was much smaller and not as clean. But then only two days later another swell shows up. That was Friday, today there was still surf. This afternoon there was a very light crowd in the water, a Sunday after noon no less.

I talked with a friend who had just come in from surfing and was walking back up the promenade as I was checking the conditions for my go out. He said “I think this is the best year I’ve ever seen, there has been so much surf”! He was stoked walking back to his car after yet another day of good surf.

It’s nice when there is enough surf to satisfy the surfing population. Enough waves that everyone gets their fill, gets tired and has had enough. It’s nice to look at good surf and think maybe you woke up on that particular day and some how it’s January 1992 again.

Dreamer.

D.R.

Kauai, at a spot you can’t get out when it’s like this. I took the shot with the crazy tourists in the fame for perspective. Nice left.

My story post 41

After that first surf contest I completely forgot that there actually could be surf during a surf meet.

It seemed to me that there was rarely any surf during the days a surf event was scheduled. Even though sometimes there was surf, most of the time there was little. Case in point was the second surf contest I entered.

It was early summer of 1967. The contest was held in Hermosa Beach. Beautiful weather, sunny warm… but the surf? Totally none existent. Unless you call not even knee high wind chop surf, maybe one rogue knee bump every 15 or 20 minutes if that. So with 15 minute 5 man heats what kind of surfing were the judges scoring?

Remember your best three waves count, but getting three waves was close to impossible in the allotted 15 minutes. Looking for something to ride you’d paddle for anything hoping the chop would have enough push to glide you long enough to get to your feet, but then what. You couldn’t generate enough speed to execute a turn without digging a rail. My friend Mike Smith was in the same heat as I was so we just joked around in the water until the horn blew to end the heat.

So once again I walked to the check in stand, tuned in my jersey and continued walking to my van and went home.. hoping when I got back to Ventura there may be some surf because, by then I really wanted to surf!

What I didn’t know was that every time you entered an event you got points. If you advanced to the next level in the event you got more points. Over time you would accumulate all these points that would put you somewhere in the standing of the USSA, or what ever the organization was that did the contests. So if you entered all the contests and advanced through enough heats you could have a pretty high standing at the end of the event year. Never really placing very high in an event.

Oh well, it really didn’t matter to me at that point because it just seemed stupid to hold a surf contest when there weren’t any waves. And it seemed that most of the time there was little to no surf when a contest was held. So I gave up on the whole contest thing.

Contests can be fun and maybe most guys don’t mind them as long as they’re not held at their home break.

D.R.

An old Surfer Mag. photo of a contest winners circle. Steve Bigler wins a TV. Donald Takayama wins… what is that a transistor radio? And John Peck wins the motor cycle. Bigler... 'pretty cool ... a TV set'. John is all smiles on his new machine... with the look on TD’s face…. ‘what the heck’?

My story post 40

My first attempt at surfing in a contest was the fall of 1966. I’m not real sure what organization this particular surf meet was with, possibly the USSA. It was held at a spot called D and W, a jetty spot along the beach that runs in front of LAX.

I didn’t know anyone that surfed in contests then. For some reason I thought maybe it would be a good idea for me to do contests because I could get close to guys in the industry. So I signed up for the event and when the day came I got in my VW bus and drove to D & W by myself, found a place to park and went to find out when my heat was.

It was a cold, dark overcast day and there was a swell running with over head sets. I waited for my time slot to surf, again by myself… I had no friends there or knew anyone at all. When the time came I got my jersey, walked to the waters edge with my board and paddled out with the rest of the guys in the heat.

Once in the line up… at least where I thought the line up was, I’d never surfed the place before, I caught my first wave. That wave was pretty much a non event, a short ride on an inside wave. I didn’t realize how much of an inside wave it was until I pulled out and saw the set waves charging toward the beach… with me inside. I bounced over the first 2 walls of white water and scratched like a mad man hoping to get past the next wave now marching toward me with a clean feathering 8 foot or better face. I reached the wave right in the impact zone, turned turtle and held on with all I had. It didn’t matter, that wave wanted my board and got it in one split second.

I surfaced after the pounding gulping a breath of air at the same time thinking maybe my board would be close, maybe it would’ve bounced out of the turmoil and be in site, a short distance off. No such luck. I didn’t see my board anywhere, which meant it most likely was on the beach. I started swimming, ducking deep a couple of times to escape some white water. When three or for minutes later reaching the beach, I don’t see my board… anywhere.

What the heck? I look up and down the beach and don’t see my board. Don’t tell me it’s still in the water, or what? Thinking It got sucked into a rip and washed out past the line up? Then I noticed it… up on the jetty about half way out. How it got there I have no idea. I walked 50 yards just to reach the jetty and then worked my way over those giant rocks until I got close enough to reach for my board. Waited for a lull and grabbed the darn thing jumping up a couple rocks to dodge the surf. Of course by that time my heat was long over as well maybe the 2 heats after mine. I worked my way off the jetty.

With board in hand and my tail between my legs I walked to the check in table and turned in my jersey. Then kept walking to my van, toweled off, put on some warm clothes, put my board in the van, got myself in the driver’s seat and went home.

Honestly, I had no big ideas or really knew what to expect. But if I started entering contests I’d maybe start networking with others in the sport and that would be a good thing.

When I got home my mom greeted me and asked “how’d it go Den?” I shook my head and said ‘ not so good ‘.

D.R.

Early eighties winners gathering after a surf meet. My son in front of me holding my fifth place yellow ribbon. Notice the lack of surf in the back ground?

It’s hard to believe that another year has come and gone. It really only seems like yesterday we were all worrying if every computer based service was going to crash because of Y2K. That was a decade ago!

It’s hard to believe after living on Kauai for 9 years I haven’t been back there for 4 years now.

It’s had to believe that Clark foam was once the only foam company you could buy surfboard blanks from… well besides Walkers small catalog. Clark foam has been gone 4 years and Walker 2 years.. I think.

Speaking of foam… there were a couple foam companies that closed in 09. But we still have a selection of foam brands to work with.

It’s nice to know that you can go to the beach with just about any size, shape and style of surfboard available or not, because it’s all good. As this past year progressed it was even OK to go to the beach with a ¾ inch wood plank to surf.

Now as the new year comes on you could say it’s OK to go to the beach with what one guy laughingly called a ‘pig nosed thruster’. My first tri fin back in the early ‘80s was an egg…. But it was called a ‘pig nosed thruster’ by some. This year I’ve got a Stubbie Quad and every time I take it for a surf guys show interest in the design… It’s all good!

Boards have become shorter and wider as well as longer and heavier. Finless designs, single fins, twin fins, tri fins, quads and five fins… It seems that this past year has seen it all.

It’s hard to believe that surfing has come out of it’s once narrow line of acceptable shapes and designs. Now each design is getting a chance and we are all adding to the data base.

That’s a happy thing….

Happy New Year!

D.R.

It’s hard to believe my wife and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary 12/20/09

Christmas day 2009

I knew there was surf, I saw lines on my way back to the house after picking up my mother in law for our Christmas dinner. At that point it was late morning and a beautiful sunny day in California. I purposely took the route back to the house so I would have a good vantage point at the top of the hill a few blocks up the road from my house where you can see if there are any lines wrapping around the point. Yeah… surf!

After I got back in the house I told my wife I was going down to the beach and look at the surf. When I returned and sat down on the couch picking up a magazine… Surfers Journal… Suzi turns to me and asks “ how’s the surf?” “ It’s really good!” I respond and she says “ are you going to go surf or just sit there reading that magazine?” I should file this post under ‘ I’m a lucky guy ‘.

I got my wetsuit, put it on, grabbed a board put, it in the truck, jumped in the truck, drove to the point, parked and was in the water within 15 minutes of that question!

There were a fair number of people enjoying the day along the promenade and a pleasant number of people in the lineup enjoying some head high sets on a beautiful sunny California Christmas day.

After surfing and going to the train station to pick up my friend Jon from Kauai who came out for a visit we settled into our dinner then the day came to a close.

Happy Holidays!

D.R.

Christmas day 2009... Ventura.

More on the old guys… or is it old days this time? Post 4

Why was surfing more an adventure in it’s earlier years? Because when you went to the beach you never were sure what you would find. Sometimes you’d find the surf and conditions good to excellent or the complete opposite… you wouldn’t know until you got your eyes on it.

You could drive up to Hobson’s at night sleep in the van and wake to south wind onshore slop. You could reach the top of Malibu canyon look down at the point and unexpectedly see lines rapping into the cove in the middle of winter... with hardly anyone around, because it was the middle of winter.

You could venture out to Morro Rock with no one around or in the water, paddle out with your brother in law, both of you for the first time, and find the surf bigger than anything you’ve ever been in…. and be scared sh…tless. Or, you could take a run to Rincon in the spring and surf waist high peelers with the crowd.

Leave the shop in Santa Barbara for the drive home to Ventura and find solid over head surf at Rincon with no crowds because the east winds were to strong but find Little Rincon clean with no one out.

Sit in you car because the surf was junk and wait to see if things changed because you planned on surfing… so maybe, just maybe the winds will turn around and it will get good. You certainly know if you leave most likely within 15 minutes of you leaving the surf will improve and you’ll miss it… The other guy in the other car will stay and the next time you see him he’ll make sure he tells you… “you really missed it!” Which of course really sucks!

No, there were no surf forecasts. There were no big illuminated blinking signs at the end of “C” St that said “ HIGH SURF WARNING” like this past week. No, what you saw is what you got when you got there. The good the bad and the ugly.

I still like to go look to see what the surf is like. Pretty much every morning on my way to the shop I’ll check the surf. Check the tide chart so I know what’s up with that and then will plan my surfing accordingly. Sometimes if I’ve left my computer on all night I’ll look at the surf cam in the morning before I leave. Funny though…. If there is any surf I look to see how many cars are in the parking lot.

Knowing there is surf every time you go to the beach is not as much fun as the excitement of not knowing and finding surf when you reach your surf spot of choice. Sharing the stoke with your friends when you find surf and have been blessed by the forces of nature is now some what lost with all the technology. Surf forecasts, surf cams, surf reports. Everybody knows the when and the where so they’ll all be there…. Me included!

D.R.

The sun has long set on the way it used to be.

So why do the old guys get frustrated? Post 3

I moved to Kauai in late spring of ’94. At that time surfing in Ventura was the same as it is now. You could park in the street parking on Paseo de Playa or in the free parking lot at “Surfers Point” and you could pay to park in the $2 lot. The $2 lot had not been damaged then from high tides and surf. So there were a few more parking spaces back then.

If I went to surf at inside point back then there was always a place to park on the street. “Surfers Point” would fill up on weekends and days with good surf but you could still find spaces in that lot. And the $2 lot was never ever full.

When I returned to Ventura in ’02 I thought it was strange that if I wanted to park on the street at inside point sometimes there was no place to park. And finding a spot at the point when there was surf was not possible…. Well you had to be there at the butt crack of dawn… maybe even before that to get a parking space. Though there are less spaces in the $2 lot I’d never seen it full until this past year.

Granted before the beach was developed and the promenade wasn’t there people didn’t come to the beach to go for walks. As well the beach was not as nice because of the stuff that was dumped at waters edge from the Pipe. And, originally the only paid parking was the $2 lot. The pier and the parking structure were initially free parking areas. So people that came to the beach for a walk or to just visit would go there instead of try to find free parking on the street.

So basically the surfing area in the town of Ventura has changed from a place that once had some single family homes… before my time… to a place that literally only the core surf guys would frequent. “C” Street would sometime attract a crowd but that was rare. And as with all the other places to surf if you wanted to surf you went to the beach. If there was surf you surfed. If the conditions weren’t good you waited for a while and hoped conditions would improve. If there was no surf… you left disappointed. Or, some how you knew there was surf because someone told you. So you went on safari.

For surfers it wasn’t just the surfing aspect of what we did but the adventure as well. Sure we lived in a town. But the Ventura beach area was a more out of the way place. You could go up to Pipe and there would be few other people around… sometimes no one. Paddling out into the surf when no one is around or no one out is quite different than being in a crowd or around others. Some people like to hike in the mountains and get away … being in the surf by yourself has a similar feel. That's part of what the old guys miss.

D.R.

It is possible to surf by yourself these days.

Yeah... though rare it's still possible to surf by yourself.

So why do the old guys get frustrated? Post 2

Taking this a step further into the past before the beach in Ventura was developed into what it is now… and actually the City isn’t finished developing the beach area yet, there is more to come…

I moved to Ventura in 1967 and before then when I’d come to Ventura to surf you could surf anywhere from “C” street to the Ventura river mouth just like today and drive into the whole area but it was much different.

There was “C” street up to the point… basically Figaroa st. and then Stables and Pipe, or the Fair Grounds. Stables, where what is sometimes called mid point or middles now was inside the Fair area, as well, so was Pipe. The Fair has stables now that you can see if you drive to the end of the street between the $2 lot and the Fair Grounds. At the end of the street you can see the Fair stables off to your right inside the grounds. Well, those stables use to be right on the beach where the $2 parking lot is now. From about where the guard or ticket shack is and most of the way up to Pipe.

The Fair grounds area was open to visitors during the day so surfers would drive into the horse stables area park in front of them for free and access the surf by walking right through the stables. Almost needless to say but that spot was called Stables. Some still call it that.

You could also drive up a little further to Pipe. There were more sand dunes up there then too, you had to park behind them and then walk over them to get to the surf. Where you now park to surf Pipe was all sand dunes. What’s left of the dunes that were paved over are protected… sort of, by the log fences.

There was also a large pipe that had to be at least three feet in diameter that dumped a lumpy dark colored slop just below the mean tide line on the back side of the reef there. When the tide was high you could only see the top portion of the pipe. But when the tide was low you could see the stuff coming out of it as it washed directly into the ocean at waters edge.

From what I was told the stuff coming out of the pipe was some kind of discharge from the oil fields up river from the beach. Water was used to extract oil from the ground and the material that came out of the pipe was a mix of water, silt and a little oil mix from the extraction process. Don’t know if that’s accurate or not… but the stuff was dumped right in the surf zone at the mouth of the Ventura river. Gave the water a grayish color and smelled a bet different than ocean water usually smells like.

That was Ventura, and that’s why the spot right below the river mouth was called Pipe… and is to this day.

D.R.

A couple 100 year old pictures of the point and Ventura Pier

So why do the old guys get frustrated? Is it only the crowd?

I don’t know when the city of Ventura started its plan for the beach area from the pier to the Fair grounds, but I remember when the big changes started.

It was the summer of 1967 when the big trucks started bringing the large boulders that were dumped on the shore line from the pier to the point. For what? The revetment that is under the promenade. And immediately the surfing conditions were changed along that stretch of beach. The high tide conditions were never to be the same.

Initially dirt was brought in that was used to fill in over the revetment… the promenade was built some years later. So all along the point you could park your vehicle and enter the water to surf from below Figaroa st. That was before the Hotel, Condos and Apartments were built too.

The storms of 1969 and the over flowing Ventura river deposited a tremendous amount of sand on the beach that migrated from the river mouth down and around the point. Over the days and weeks after the storms the sand eventually piled up against the first jetty and filled in the beach from the jetty back up and under the pier continuing up the beach west of the pier and filling in the lower point. The revetment helping hold the sand to this day has changed the way waves break at inside point, especially on south swells…. And it’s not better.

For reference… Harbour Blvd used to go under the pier, the old road is still there but now part of the pier parking area and the waters edge was not far off back then. Before these changes high tides would wash out that area of Harbour Blvd under the pier.

The promenade and bike path was built in stages and the first phase of the promenade ended at Figaroa st. The free parking area came later. The top of the point where the free parking are is now was an unstructured paved area that went right up to the waters edge. It started at the end of Figaroa and ended about where the restrooms and showers are on the point now.

During that period you could park inside at Paseo de Playa to surf or up on the point to surf. And if you wanted to surf pipe you could park at the top of the point and walk up there. You couldn’t drive up or park at pipe or anywhere along what some now call mid point or middles.

So until the bike path and parking area in what is actually the Fair grounds was developed not many guys surfed pipe. It was much easier to surf the point than hassle walking the distance for surf you really couldn’t see, and no one could see you.

D.R.

The Point parking before the free lot.


The top of the old parking area at the Point looking up to Pipe. This is as close to Pipe as you could park. The corner of the photo says June '83. But was taken a few months earlier after large surf busted up the parking lot... as you can see.

After construction started on the free lot high surf deposited a mess for the crews to deal with. This is where all the sand is now with the palm tree planters.

Three days of surfing, one of them rare.

We’ve had a small NW swell here in So Cal the last few days… it started to show a little Friday, filled in Saturday and held through today.

I got a call late Friday morning and was told that a spot just above Ventura was clean with about head high waves… I had hoped the forecasted swell would start to show and maybe go get some waves later in the day so when I got the call decided to take a break and go right after I got off the phone with my friend Dan…. He also said no one was there surfing too… an added bonus.

Sure enough 15 minutes later when I drove up and got out of my car to greet my friends and get a look at the surf it was as I was told… but with 2 guys out. A nice sunny warm day and clean looking lines coming across the reef. I started suiting up.

A few minutes later with wet suit on and waxing my board I notice both guys had come in. There was another guy suiting up the same time as me and we ended up walking up the beach at the same time. As I paddled out the other guy had paddled out but sat over and inside of the main lineup so I was by myself. The other guy only stayed out for about 20 minutes or so and then I was literally the only guy in the water… it stayed that way for close to an hour until one person paddled into the lineup… I don’t remember the last time I’ve surfed by myself. I may have had a certain peak to myself here in Ventura a few times for a half hour or so but Friday I had the whole place to myself with some decent waves for about an hour. That’s rare, and with nice weather really rare.

Saturday I planned my surf for around 1:30p after the tide had peaked. The wind stayed light and the surf was semi consistent, not too crowded. I still had to negotiate the crowd but was able to pick up a few set waves. Though the waves were bigger and more consistent, compared to Friday I had to take or wait for my turn at the waves that came through.

Today? The surf was not quite what it was Saturday but close. But the crowd? Heavy. So it made getting a chance slim. I started thinking at one point how disappointing surfing Pipe is for me. I used to surf there all the time and would always have a good time… but that was 2 decades ago.

When I got home today I thought how extreme… Friday was almost surreal, today radically different. One day like heaven the other…? Well it wasn’t hell but did get the old guy frustrated. But geez… what do you expect? It was the weekend!

D.R.

David Puu Photo

My story and the surfboards I ride.

Today I pulled out the board I rode my last five years while on Kauai. It doesn’t have a date on it but I made it my first year at Hawaiian Blades. So sometime in ’97…. Which makes this board 12 years old. I rode it until I returned to Ventura in ’02 and haven’t ridden it since. My son has and likes it very much though.

The board is a 6’10 tri fin, 20” wide and 2 ¼ thick. I surfed it for all surf in Hawaii up to 6 to 8 foot…. And it worked really well for me. A great all around board.

The bottom has a single concave that graduates in just back of center and through the front fins. This straightens the rocker curve into the fins and gives me a nice planning surface for speed. The bottom flattens back out at the back fin and then I’ve accelerated the rocker out the back to loosen the board up.

The tail is 13 7/8 wide so not too narrow but with a nice sharp edge, all good for holding in the wave face. As well, I’ve got the fins set a bit more forward than what you’d see in other boards. I’ve also always ridden wider boards so hence the width dimension and the nose is 13”… a little wider too. But the outline curve works well with all the dimensions. I’ve had this outline in a 7’2 and 7’0 but this 6’10 has been my favorite of them all.

The board has the FCS fin system. At time we had just started using FCS stuff at Hawaiian Blades and the only fins we got in were the nylon sets. As I remember when I first started surfing the board I felt the fins were to slow. Because of the soft material turning seemed to lack the quick snap that I was used to with glass on fiberglass fins… what I always had before this board. I really wanted to get a set of FCS fiberglass fins but never did. Eventually I got used to the slower feel out of turns and just left the fins the way they were… most everyone that had FCS back then had the same fins so that was that.

The board is made of Walker foam with a 4oz bottom and double 4oz deck. I did a white foam stain on it so that’s why it still looks pretty clean… even though it’s been in the Hawaiian sun every time I took it to the beach for some 5 years straight. And believe it or not the ding in the rail that is covered with cellophane tape is from my thumb. Yeah, attempting to jump over some shore pound that caught me just right and gave me one good whacking…. I held onto the board but the power of the wave pushed my thumb right through the rail. Never underestimate the power of the ocean.

D.R.

Learning to surf, a shapers view post 8, or something I’m not sure.

Once you have learned to surf.. that is you can catch waves, stand up, turn and maneuver at least to some extent and actually ride some waves without falling off your board it’s probably safe to say you’ve learned to surf. Maybe you could say you’re an intermediate or advanced beginner.

But do we ever really stop learning? Well yes and no… you may not continue to advance in your surfing skills but you should continue to learn things that are part of the surfing experience. Like knowing when the conditions are suitable for a decent go out. Tides, weather and wind conditions. How your favorite breaks work in different conditions…. There is a lot more to surfing than paddling out and catching waves that when you first start out you have no clue about. But as your time at the beach accumulates your knowledge of the oceans moods should increase.

One of the things that surfers learn now that you didn’t need to know as much when I started surfing is positioning. Sure you need to know positioning as it relates to a line up… knowing where to take off from but, now days it’s nice if you also learn positioning in a crowded line up. Moving around in the pack so you actually can get a few ‘at bats’ will help your wave count. The more waves you ride the more chance you get to try more and more advanced maneuvers. The more waves you ride the more you learn what your capabilities are and how far you can advance.

I realized something this past week about wave count as it related to my own surfing. I’ve been back from Hawaii… on the main land now for four years. Since I’ve been back I’ve surfed longer boards and have focused on how those boards work. Now when the surf has enough juice I’ll ride a shorter board but because I’ve not ridden a shorter more progressive board since leaving Hawaii I’ve forgotten the possibilities of shorter equipment. With out a good solid wave count it takes some time to regain lost abilities and maneuvers of surfing equipment you haven’t used for a time.

So, wave count is important to learning and relearning or regaining forgotten abilities. The more waves you ride the better. The more quality waves you ride the better your odds of advancing your abilities.

D.R.

Travis Riley

How many years will you continue to surf?

When I was young I couldn’t imagine not surfing. Surfing was such a big thing in my life I couldn’t think of being with out it. All the guys around that were core surfers were the same way… there was just no way they would ever think of not surfing.

When you’re young you really don’t have to worry about being in shape for surfing. If you surf a few times a week the surfing itself takes care of your physical conditioning. But as you age… different story. First you may not get a chance to surf on a regular basis. Or, you don’t surf unless there’s enough surf to make a go out worth justifying time spent. People that live some distance from the beach pretty much can only surf when they have half a day for the time it takes traveling to and from the beach and get a decent amount of time in the water.

As you age surfing becomes more and more a physical strain on your body. If you surf a lot and then stop for a time and go back you find out in your first short paddle out how physically demanding surfing can be. Get picked off by a 5 wave head high set and you’ve about had it by the time you get to the line up and will need to rest for several minutes before going after any waves. Especially if you’re 35 to 40 or over.

When I was in my late thirties I had a complete cardio check up. Did the Holter monitor, echo cardiogram, and tread mill stress test. While being prepped for the stress test I was asked if I did any physical stuff and if I thought I was in shape. You sign a release form just in case you have a heart attack. I told the nurse I surfed… she laughed and said ‘ I’ve seen you guys sitting out in the water’. Apparently she’d been to the beach on a small inconsistent day and watched the surfers in the water sitting and thought that’s surfing. They kept dialing the speed of that tread mill up until I was in a full jog and inclined pretty high before they were through…. I hardly broke a sweat. I was much younger then. Doubtful I could repeat that now. But I still surf, just not as much. It’s harder to stay in shape when you are older. You loose your conditioning faster and it takes more time to get it back.

If you take care of your self and make an effort to stay in shape it’s possible to enjoy surfing for a long time though.

D.R.

Photo by David Puu

Making surfboards.. it’s a craft.

Most people have no idea how surfboards are made. No doubt a large percentage of people that surf don’t know how surfboards are made. Granted now days the process of making a surfboard has expanded beyond the old fashioned way but even with that the boards that are molded came from a surfboard that was made the old fashioned way.

The old fashioned way… the traditional way surfboards are made is by hand. Whether you’re looking at a 6’1 X 18” short board with a sanded finish or a 9’6” tanker all shiny with gorgeous color work the surfboard was made by hand by hackers, slackers or seasoned craftsmen.

The process is pretty amazing actually, and the process does involve using VOC’s, a some what none PC item but, even still an amazing thing to do. If you’ve ever seen an unshaped blank and then compare that to a finished surfboard.... Getting the unshaped blank to a nicely foiled well laminated finished board? Most people will scratch their heads and ask ‘How did you do that”

Each step in the process requires its own special skill set and when done right the end result is something that can be seen, held and used for its intended purpose… surfing, even surfing a specific wave and condition. Whether performance surfing or traditional long boarding.

Getting into the surfboard trade is not easy and, with today’s economy even more difficult. One of the remaining craft trades that have no school or formal way of learning so learning the trade comes via mentoring. Finding a shop or label with an open position for work though not impossible, is difficult. Finding a position as a trainee? Very difficult. Surfboard crafting is a very small trade and has always been difficult to break into. You’ve really got to have a heart for it and for those that do, aside from a meager living, it does offer a great life style.

When I first started we kept regular hours, worked hard and surfed after hours and on weekends. Now we work hard and keep the hours we want making time to surf when it is good. Making sure our work is done in a timely manner of course. But each day working with your hands and crafting attractive surf equipment can be very fulfilling.

D.R.

How many surfboards do you need?

I think I’ve said this before… in the old days, like the sixties, most guys had just one board. In perspective there was not much to choose from when the only surfboard was a long board.

As well, when surfboards began to rapidly change most guys only had one board. We didn’t keep them to long though. Selling a board off to buy another newer design every three or five months was normal.

But today with all the different designs how many boards do you need? For a number of years here in Ventura I had a regular tri fin and a single fin long board. Now I’ve got a 9’4, 9’1 and 9’0 in long boards, a 8’0 mid length, a 7’0 stubbie and a 7’0 hull. Do I need all these? No. Do I ride them all? Well… not at the same time! But yes, depending on conditions and mood. I do have a couple other boards but they stay dry.

A week or so ago while surfing one afternoon I found Mary Osborne out in the line up. We got to talking about surfboards… of course. Apparently she has a number of boards some she doesn’t ride but won’t unload them. She said “ Surfboards are like shoes. Women need a lot of shoes. I have a lot of surfboards, I may not ride some of them but, I’ve got options.”

Some people collect boards. Some have a lot because they want to try different designs. And, once you have a number of boards you have trading stock to try newer or different designs.

But now days I think most surfers have two or three boards. If you only ride short boards you’ll have an every day board and a step up maybe. If you only ride long boards you’ll have a cruiser and a performance board. If you ride both long and short you may have a fish and a tanker or who knows how many different styles, shapes and sizes?

Now compared to 45 years ago, you’ve got options.

D.R.

So you want to make a surfboard post 4

There are important points in the shape of a surfboard that are sometimes overlooked in the process of actually shaping a board buy the inexperienced. But if you start with a decent blank the end result will be something that will work good enough. And, since the close of Clark Foam the blank choices are better.

I’ve personally gravitated to just a couple blank companies because my needs are met with them and there is no need to look further. Most of the plugs that are used to make the molds that blanks are made from at the new blank companies are better because they were machined. This means they have even foam distribution and are free from uneven spots often found in the molds of the past. An important item for the beginning craftsmen because shaping a surfboard without lumps and bumps is hard enough. If you have to clean up an uneven blank before starting your shape job… will it does make the process more difficult.

So if you start your shape job by outlining the blank or skinning and milling the blank to thickness is not important. What is important is getting a good outline on your blank. It should have an even curve with out flat spots, unless the flat areas are intended like might be seen in the tail area of some with soft wings.

The way to get a good outline is to start with a good template. Taking great care and time in getting your outline clean and without flaw is the first step in getting your blank outlined well. Once you’ve got your template perfect lay it on your blank and scribe the template outline with a soft lead pencil… a nice neat line. Then cut to that line with a saw leaving just enough foam outside the line to clean up with a sanding block so all you see is the pencil line with no flat spots at anyplace on the blank.

Rule number one in the shaping process is.. no flat spots in the outline. If you have flat spots in your outline when you band and screen in your rails later the flats spot will reflect onto the deck in the form of low spots. So not only will you have a flat spot in your outline but you will also have a low area in the deck crown.

Assuming the blank has the rocker you want in it, after you’ve got the outline dialed you can cut the blank to thickness and then band the rails. As well, if you’ve got a blank that is close to the size board you are making getting to thickness and banding in the rails is a pretty straight forward process with a planer or hand plane.

When you’ve gotten to the final stages of sanding and screening the next important thing is making sure the stringer has a neat clean curve to it…. No flat areas.

Rule number two in the shaping process is… no flat spots in the stringer curve on the deck or bottom of the board. Because the stringer is wood and harder than foam if you have a lump or bump in the stringer it will leave the outlying area of foam with a lump or bump too.

So basically shaping comes down to good outlines and good deck curves and bottom curves. If you look at any of your favorite boards that’s most likely what you will see.

D.R.

‘This used to be a peaceful little town…’ A line from one of my favorite westerns, Silverado. It’s in the final gun fight at the end of the movie where Brian Dennehy and Kevin Kline are about to shoot each other.

Ventura has often been called a sleepy little town. For the surfers of Ventura that was a good thing. My friend Peter would come by at dawn, throw rocks at my upstairs window to wake me for an early morning surf… he wanted someone to surf with, at pipe no less. In 1967 hardly anyone surfed up there. Imagine that!

For the second weekend in a row I went to the beach at around 8 in the morning only to find no where to park. Inside point was full, the free lot was full and the fair grounds 2 dollar lot was full. Geez, and I have a year pass for the $2 lot that cost 75 bucks! No place to park. Well, I could pay $5 and park in the fair grounds main lot.

Last week there was a swell forecast, this week there were two surf events going on at the same time. One at pipe and one at the point. Last week I thought I’d go for a surf but gave it up for the crowd. This week I went to hang at the annual “C” Street contest for the finals. So I parked at Wave Front and walked back to the point. Honestly I never thought that one day there may be no place to park at the point because so many people would be going to the beach to surf…. or in today’s case, hang at a surf event.

There were some 80 contestants in the “C” street contest that included guys in their 70’s. Another thing… I never thought about guys in there 70’s surfing. Another 10 years and it will be me… that’s scary.

I wonder if there will be any places to park in 10 years? Maybe I could get one of those electric carts that I’ve seen a guy run up the promenade with. I could rig up a surfboard rack and putt right up to the sand with all my gear. Yeah, I won’t need no pickin’ parking space.

D.R.

This year each contestant at the "C" street contest was entered in a raffle for the board I made below.

Lists, the best of this the greatest of that. I usually find them interesting, and they usually ruffle some feathers… like why this guy over that guy? Or no way is that guy better than the other guy.

Well Surfer Mag. has a new list… The 50 Greatest Surfers of all Time.

List are seriously subjective, they always have some good stuff and some questionable stuff. You really need to take them with a grain of salt. What’s cool about the Surfer list is that each person on the list has a little write up, story or commentary. I’m taking my time and going through all fifty.

My guess is there are plenty people that have not heard of some of the names on the list. So of course the question would be who’s that guy? how come he’s on the list? I never heard of him. What even a body boarder?... who by the way, has long been considered one of the best surfers on the planet.

The short write up about the list says it was compiled by experts that voted their choice of the top 50 then they got the comments and stories together for the names on the list from the different people that voted. There is lots of history and information well worth reading and looking through.

D.R.

My story post 39.

My first car, bought it from a friend with the money I made from the sale of my high school surfboard business. The year was 1966 the car was a 1961 VW bus… the ultimate surf car.

When you’re a surfer but don’t have your own transportation sometimes you can get really stuck. You can hear of great times at the beach but you weren’t there, or even worse with comments from the guys that got a ride when there was no room for you like, gee you really missed it…. To bad. But after getting my first car, and a surf car at that, I could go to the beach anytime I had enough gas money. Hey, I could take a friend and get them to pay for gas, even better.

Talk about gas money… you needed 21 cents for a gallon then.

So the first thing you do is take out the back seat so there is room for a couple surfboards. Then you lay down some carpet on the floor and make a little area you can lay down in for surf trips. And of course you’ve got to have tunes, so I bought a four track tape player. The car had a radio, the AM kind but having a tape player was cool.

I don’t know where the RIAA was back then, maybe nonexistent because the thing to do was go to a place that made custom tapes, pick out a list of your favorite hit songs and have a custom tape made for a couple bucks. You could buy commercial tapes but the custom ones with the songs you liked… that was better. Nothing better than driving up to your favorite surf spot in your cool surf car and you favorite tunes blasting in stereo. Stanley’s was good for this. Sit there checking the surf, turn to your friend riding shot gun and say ‘let’s go out!’

Yeah, with my new surf car I could do all that and more. I could spend the weekend at Hobsons Park. Motor up Friday evening, surf until dark, build a camp fire, have some grinds, crash in the back of the bus and then surf at first light.

A surfer with wheels.

D.R.

I’ll have to find a picture of my first surf car the next time I visit my mom. The last surf car we had before moving to Kauai below...

Sitting in front of my old shop

In use on a surf/camp trip.