Where I live there can be surf but it may not be that good. It can range from pretty junk to really good. Good like that picture on the cover of Surfer Mag. a few months ago or junk like.. "I'm not going out in that mess".

What happens in Ventura is wind. Winds that originate off the coast up above Santa Barbara that can blow for days at a time. The winds typically don't have a long enough fetch to generate surf but what we get instead of surf is lumpy local conditions. The summer swells we get can get totally ruined by those lumpy local conditions.... yeah, it really sucks too.

This week we had a 3 day summer swell. It started showing Thursday and there was some bump in the water. But it laid down as the day progressed and stayed that way through the night. So Friday morning the conditions were really good. There's nothing better than surf that is dang close to perfect peeling down the point.

I surfed Friday morning until I started to fatigue. Didn't want to get out of the water but had an appointment to go to so I reluctantly got out of the water and did the responsible thing. With visions of those perfect waves in my head for the rest of the day and into the night. I made plans to get up at the butt crack of dawn and get some more Saturday morning. I seldom surf on the weekend but couldn't hold back.

So guess what happened? The wind picked up Friday afternoon and blew all night long. There was more surf Saturday with more size but, the conditions were lumpy... again. And once again I'd set my expectations to high. The surf was ok but after spending a couple hours in really good surf the day before? ... bummer.

Is it a bad thing to wish for really good surf  2 days in a row?

D.R.

I think maybe surfboards made with traditional materials get a bad rap. The normal line you hear is the 'polyurethane foam and polyester surfboards don't hold up,' and 'they dent and ding easy.'

I decided to refresh the wax on my newest longboard.  I made it last year late October into the first week in November. Then it sat, and finally got it in the water the first or second week in December. So the boards new foam and lamination had a 3 or 4 week cure time.

You know what happens when you take the wax off your board? You get a chance to see what condition the deck is in after 6 months of surfing. This board of mine has a US Blanks blue label core and the deck is laminated with a single layer of 7.5 oz. over a single layer of 6 oz.

After the wax had been cleared and the deck is cleaned should I be surprised to see the board still looks new? At first I didn't think there was even a dent in it. After a good long look I began to see a few dents. One up toward the nose and a few... maybe 5 very small dents in the tail area, no doubt from the ball of my back foot when I'd load up a turn. No shatter in the stomp area and really the dents were so small I could barely feel them. As well, to see them you'd have to get the perfect site and light angle. The board is never left in the sun and I do my best putting it in and taking it out of my van.  Sure if the board is hit it will ding. So do most surfboards regardless of what they're made of. Yeah, once I did loose it into the rocks and got a half dozen shatters along one rail ( that I fixed right away ) but no damaged foam dings from the rocks.

No secrets here, just take good care of your board. Keep it out of the sun as much as possible... except when you're surfing of course. When you get a new board make sure it's got good foam and a good lamination and, let the thing cure for 2 to 4 weeks.

D.R.

These 2 new ones will hold up well when taken care of.

While at the beach this past week I got to talking with a friend after we had gotten out of the water and were giving the surf a final look before we both went home.

The surf had a few chest high waves... really just a small inconsistent south swell. Like so many summer swells, but this afternoon the conditions were excellent and made for some fun long board waves.

While we're leaning against the railing at the edge of the Promenade watching the surf Kevin says " imagine how nice it would be if there were only a few guys in the water"?  I say "yeah like the old days when we were young"

Then Kevin says "When I was younger and working a lot I thought about how nice it was going to be when I got older had way more time and  could come to the Point and get all those waves I was missing because of work... I never thought for a moment that surfing would become so popular and this place would get so crowded. Always envisioned things would pretty much be the same as they were back in the day."

Kevin and I are the same age and as surfers very fortunate. We grew up surfing when times were simple and the population of Ventura was much smaller than now and Ventura's  neighboring towns populations were very small compared to now too.

Because of those small populations there just we're not that many people that came to the beach. As well, because of the giant population increases there are large numbers of people that do come to the beach now.

The roads that come into Ventura from all points inland are so much better than 30-40 years ago and the vehicles we use now are so much nicer and comfortable. Geez, if you came from the Valley to Ventura on a summer day in 1968 on the then 2 lane road through Calabasas, Thousand Oaks when the temps were in the nineties in a VW bug with 4 surfboards on top of the car and 4 guys in the car.... didn't matter what the surf was like when you reached 'C' Street. You were going surfing just to cool off.

Now... come in your air conditioned car, all the windows up so there is no road noise. Killer tunes from your phone playing on a nice sound system. And.... you've checked all the forecasts and cameras so you know what the surf and conditions most likely are going to be like. Other wise you wouldn't waste your time.

California, the beach, it's all so attractive, why wouldn't everyone want to play on a surfboard?  Or at least try to given the chance. I get it.

But no, we never thought things would change. Just thought we'd get older and have a great time doing what we love. And really I still do, all be it with plenty more people.

D.R.

Technology is great.... daily updates on surf forecasts,  look at buoy readings, check the surf from your computer or phone, E-mail a surfboard order.

Yeah, Technology is great... until it's not. Your computer goes south and doesn't come back, like mine did earlier this month. Shoot, I was stuck doing things the old fashion way, like going down to the beach to see what the surf was like instead of checking the surf cam. Oh wait, I have a phone and can look at the surf cam with it... never mind.

Things happen though. The shaping machine ( technology ) breaks so no surfboards get shaped. My shoulder ( old technology ) has gone out in the past so no surfboards got shaped. Kind of the same thing. Computer ( technology ) goes out so you can't write your blog. Actually you can write, long hand on paper. But, can't get what you wrote by hand on the web without a computer. Well I don't know how anyway.

The computer got fixed just in time for this last swell. Which meant I could follow the latest buoy readings to see how the winds in the channel might be affecting the surf. Check the reading late at night then first thing in the morning... before dawn you can't see anything on the surf cam. but, you can get an idea of what the surface conditions will  probably be like from the buoys. As well, see if the swell is on the rise or not, what the water temps are etc. That's the info you need to know what board to take to the beach and what wet suit you might want. All the tech we take for granted now until we can't access it. But, I'm still going to take a few boards and a couple different wet suits to the beach just in case.

Here's a picture of some old surf technology... and the way it was carried. On the head for the most part. Darn things were heavy, and , we didn't have cool foot ware. Bare foot all the way down a long path to the beach. If the little stones in the dirt didn't tweak your feet on the way down. with  30 lbs. of surfboard on your dead,  getting the bottom of your feet blistered on the way back to your car could be a problem too. Once the sun started baking the dirt on the trail in the summer sun... like walking on hot coals.

Only an old surfer knows the feeling.   

D.R.

How's that.. even one of these guys has a wet suit.

It's a holiday weekend and my grandson is visiting for our annual surf camp trip. He's itchin' to surf... but it's a holiday weekend. What's worse is there is a marathon from Ojai to the beach which ended at the Fair Grounds. And the course goes down our road so if we want to go somewhere we've got to go out of our way a good 6 miles unless we wait 'til after 10 a.

About 10:30 or 11:00 I tell Merrick the race has passed so let's go down to the point and try our luck at getting a place to park. There was a little south swell maybe we'd get lucky.... and we did.

When we pull into inside point there were no other cars on the street looking to park and the very first parking spot was empty, we pull in. Suited up and went out. It was a bit crowded in the lineup but not terrible. After an hour the crowd thinned out. I counted only 8 people at one point. Merrick had a good time and so did I.

When we got back to the van and started getting out of our suits the fun really started. There must have been 4 cars waiting for a parking space. Across from us there were 2 cars getting ready to pull out making their space available for those waiting. Just when one of the cars pulls out a guy pulls around the corner and snakes one of the guys that had been waiting. I turn to my grandson and say "looks like there's going to be a fist fight over this deal", and there almost was. The sparks started to fly but after some heated exchange the guy that had snaked the spot got back in his car, pulled out and left. I think his wife was telling him he'd taken advantage and that she was not happy about what he'd done.

Usually on nice days and when there is surf the inside point parking is jammed up. But, most people that park there to surf know the parking protocol. You wait your turn and hope every other car that comes down the street will be considerate and wait their turn too.

But hey, it was a holiday weekend... 

D.R.

Oh boy,  Ventura made the cover of Surfer Magazine..........

This picture is a screen print from the Surfer Mag web site.

For perspective,  the number of days that look like this in any given year?  If you are lucky, it would be the number of fingers you have on one hand. Sure it gets good, but to be glassy and good all day... kind of rare. Note the sun is setting in this picture. And to have the perfect swell direction at the same time as the perfect weather, yeah kind of rare.

This really is a great picture but don't go thinking the point in Ventura is consistently like the picture.... that would be a fantasy. As well, when and if you happen onto a day like this.... from the picture, I'm counting about 8 or maybe 10 wave sets. You will get your chance with one of the set waves in a rotation of at least 75 other surfers.

Ok, so how do I know? The arrow in the picture points to the house I lived in. Moved into the place in 1974 and sold the place in 2010.  And lived within a few blocks of that place the 6 years before 1974.  I could ride my bike to the pier, check the surf, ride home, put on my wet suit, put my board in my truck, drive to the point and be in the water in very little time. Which I did all the time.  It was really great too 'cause on those cold winter days I would get out of the water and just drive home in my wetsuit, go into the back yard, turn on my out door hot shower and get out of my suit.

The north west corner of Ventura County has 4 points the last 14 miles along the county's coast line. The 1st one is Ventura and the last on is Rincon. What would be nice to see, along with this picture of Ventura, is an aerial pic of each one of the other points on this same day... you know, just for fun. And to be fair, when coming to Ventura, there are 3 other points that are surf able too. If Ventura looks good just think what the other points would be like. Yeah, they're only a few minutes up the road.

So far I haven't talked to anybody from Ventura that is stoked about seeing The Point on the cover of Surfer Magazine.

D.R. 

 Shaping surfboards is pretty much done behind closed doors. That's what Wayne Rich said one day when we were talking about surfboard stuff.

Here's a look behind closed doors one day last week...with some explanation. When I started working on a new board patterned after a 1968 V-Bottom.  One that I didn't keep an outline of from back in the day. Fortunately a friend of mine had the old board so I could map it. 

First I write in my book all the numbers from mapping the board. Outline numbers every 3 inches, same for rocker and thickness.

Second I mark the outline numbers on the blank I'm using for my board. And pull a tape line connecting all the marks. 

Then I cut one side of the blank and true up the curve where ever needed.

After the outline on the one side is clean and satisfactory I scribe it onto some template material and cut the template.

 I used sheet vinyl for the template, which will hold a line, easily cuts with scissors and  it can be trued up with block plane and sanding block.

Now the other side of the board can be outlined using the new template running along the marks from mapping the original board.

With board outline complete the board is shaped and finished, ready for glassing.

D.R.

Woodland Hills, the place my parents moved my 2 sisters and I to in 1954.

We lived on a street a few blocks south of Ventura Blvd and a few blocks west of Toganga Canyon Rd. Our Aunt lived in Woodland Hills as well on a street up Topanga about 12 blocks and 1 block east of Topanga.

When my mom started working she took me and my sisters to our Aunts house every week day in the morning and pick us up after work. We'd leave for school from there, return after school and play until mom returned to take us home. During the summer me and my sisters would play all day around our Aunts house with the kids that lived on the street there.

At the time my Aunts house was pretty much the last street up Topanga that was developed. Just a couple unpaved roads up from the house was Mulholand Drive. The adventure was to hike up to Mulholand and look around. It was a dirt road where people would dump unwanted stuff... an old chair, matress, misc. house hold things. We could go up there and bust bottles on the rocks, be generally mischievous and not get noticed.

Fast forward to an all day surf with Bob Cooper and Dale Herd. Cooper the Morey-Pope shop foreman and Dale the shop salesman and I took a Saturday surf trip to the spot where Topanga Canyon meets the coast. A small point south of Malibu... Topanga point, or just Topanga. In 1967 Topanga was a private community and the only way you could surf the point was if you lived in one of the small houses on the point or were invited by someone that had a place there. We were invited, so we got to surf the place with just a couple others that happened to be there that day too.

The surf was small and inconsistent so after some time we decided to go off somewhere else for something better... if we could find it. Since home was back up the PCH that's the direction we headed and stopped where Mulholand Highway, the west end of Mulholand Dr. meets the coast...  Secos at Leo Carrillo State Beach.

Little did I know when I was 7 that Mulholand Dr. and Topanga Canyon road both end at  the Pacific Coast Highway and, there are surf spots where each road meets the coast. And 13 years later I would surf both spots in one day.

D.R.

Do you ever wonder how many times you've surfed your go to surf spot... if you have one?  If you're fortunate enough to live at or close to a surf spot then it's most likely the place you surf most of the time.

For me it's been the point in Ventura. Sometimes when I'm paddling out for a surf the thought runs through my mind... how many times have I surfed this place? Ok, maybe I've averaged 3 times a week, maybe 150 times in a year, so over a ten year period maybe 1500 times... though I took up residence in Ventura about 49 years ago. Not that it matters, and it certainly doesn't give you any priority in the water at any rate.

The thing that I think about as well is how much the spot I surf all the time has changed over the years. I'm sure with a little research you could develop a time line showing how the area north of the pier has changed. I'm sure it would be interesting. 

This picture was taken after the big storms of 1969. It's an afternoon minus tide shot so there is a lot of beach exposed in the picture. The red dot about in the middle of the picture is all the debris that was deposited on the beach from the Ventura river.  The dot below and a little to the left you see large rocks that curve from the lower right hand corner to the upper left hand corner of the picture. After the area from the pier to the Fair grounds was cleared of the homes that used to be along the point those large rocks were put along the tide line as a revetment and is what the promenade sits on now.

Note that the dot at the upper left hand corner is where the high tide line was and that there is no sand or play ground area in this picture. There was a massive amount of sand deposited on the beach from the '69 storms. But when this picture was taken it hadn't migrated down from the river mouth yet. Once it did the first jetty south of the pier held the sand and made the large sand beach in front of the hotel... that was built some years later.

The beach development from the pier into the fair grounds is nice and all but I liked it the way it was in my youth.

D.R.  

 The repairs are complete at the top of the point now. 

 This picture is about the same vantage point a year or so after original construction. 

In the mid sixties when I was a teenager making surfboards I'm sure the industry guys would have questioned my motivation. Though when I met Greg Noll to see if he would sell me blanks for my surfboard endeavors, I don't remember anything but positive interest.

Did I know what I was doing? No not really, I learned the old fashioned way, trial and error and learning as you go. A lot of thinking and intuition added to the process. If an opportunity had presented itself for a chance to work at a real surfboard shop no doubt I would have jumped on it. I was not that fortunate, until I moved to Ventura anyway.

After moving to Ventura in the mid 60's I got my first job working for a company that made surfboards in which the owner of the company didn't surf. In the 90's I worked for a surfboard company that the owner didn't make surfboards, that is, actually work in the surfboard craft... at least at first.

The owner of the company in the 60's simply made a surf product and had a way to market what he made all over the US coastal areas. At first the surfboards where generic but eventually he did a licensing deal with some well known surfers to make boards with their name on them, even though the surfers didn't necessarily ride the boards,

On the other hand, the company in the 90's.... the owner was a professional surfer. He may not have been able to make one of the surfboards he sold, but knew what a good surfboard was, not just if it was built well but if it surfed well... and he could surf the boards that had his label on them and input design recommendations.

To one it was a business that sold a product. To the other it was much more than a business that sold a product.

You know what? Now.... whether you know anything about surfboards or making them, it's pretty easy to make surfboards, and ones that a surf shop would be interested in putting in their store. Actually you don't have to make them, You can pay other people to make them for you. Wait... if other people make your surfboards then you aren't really making them are you?  OK, maybe who makes them isn't important... it's the end product that's important. After all, the end user is the one paying for and surfing what they buy.

Here are two words..

Authentic = an author or maker, one who does any thing by his own right.

Genuine = real; natural; true; pure; not false or adulterated. actually produced by or proceeding from the alleged source or author.

When it comes to surfboards do those two words mean anything or matter? Is a surfboard just a product or is it much more than that?

D.R.

You know what sucks? 

Loosing your new board, not being able to get to it before white water pushes it to the beach... when the tide is just high enough to have your new lost board get pushed into the rocks.

Yeah it happened. I got lucky though, there was a guy at the waters edge retrieving his board right where mine was and he picked my board up with his and pushed mine to me. So, the board didn't get bounced on the rocks for 3 or 4 minutes before it got picked up.

I say to my son " lost my board, it took on some shatters" . He says... "you know how to fix it, so...."  Yeah, so.... still sucks. Shiny new board, only been ridden 4 times and now it has half a dozen shatters on one rail. Who likes that?

I should have said "OK, how did you feel when that guy ran you over and dinged your new board...  remember that?" Poor kid, I saw the collision from the beach. Robin was all of 12 years old at the time, surfing his new board at pipe, he was so upset walking up the beach to the car.

That's got to be  one of the biggest surfing downers... getting your first ding in a new board. Yeah I hate that, and now I've got to fix the pickin' thing. Like I don't have enough things to do already.

Only a surfer knows the feeling.

D.R.

A 7'6 Gadget with some color going on.

In the on going story, Ventura Point post of  08 November 2015 I said that a few of the palm tree planters most likely wouldn't last the winter.

It was only a short 4 or 5 weeks later with a couple days of high surf and tides that one of those planters went down, the pier got damaged too. The City of Ventura from what I understand has a contract with a company to repair the pier damage so in short order there was a crew working on that.

The other thing I said in the November post was that the cobles were on their way to the pier. That has happened too, and are stacked half way up the height of the pier.  As well, the cobles stretch all the way to first jetty. Not sure what the City will do with them but it's a big treacherous mess. When spring and summer get here beach goers will have a tough time getting to the waters edge with out getting hurt in the process unless the cobles are some how removed.

The past couple weeks repairs have started on the beach at the top of the point, there is a  sign that said repairs are estimated to be completed in April. From word floating around, the City obtained an emergency permit from the Coastal Commission that allowed them to immediately move forward on fixing the erosion problem without any community input.

Roomer has it that the City will be putting in a 300 ft. long by 15 ft high wall in front of the palm tree planters, though the sign at the point says it's a Revetment . Currently the work being done is large rocks are being put in front of the ledge or small cliff created by the surf and tides. It also looks like the machine operators are digging below the tide line and dropping a course or two of rocks so the 15 ft height may start a few feet below the tide line.... just guessing.

The surf at the point has been affected by what the City of Ventura has done to the beach from day one. It all started with an eminent domain deal with the beach property owners along the point, back in the 1960's.  Surf will be affected by what is being done now too, depending on how far in front of the palm trees the revetment is put. It's really a wait and see deal right now. 

D.R.      

The surf and tide pull down one of the Palms

  

 The cobbles stones half way up the stairs at inside point. As the surf and tides move them to the pier.

 Cobbles piled half the height of the pier by surf and tides.

 Equipment operators pulling material out in front of the palm planters

Large rocks being placed for the revetment.

I graduated High School in 1966, six years into my life as a surfer.

'66 was the year Nat Young won the world contest in San Diego. A picture of him surfing is on the cover of Volume 7 number 6 of Surfer Magazine that year.  That's the seventh year Surfer had been in print and at that point was a Bi monthly publication having graduated from a Quarterly at it's start.

Flipping through that issue the ads for surfboards counted 10 full page, 1 double page and 1 half page ad.  There were of few smaller page ads as well, the larger ads were from Hobie, Dewey Weber, Morey Pope, Jacobs, Con, Greg Noll, Hansen, Bing, Dave Sweet, Rick, Harbour and Gordon & Smith. Interesting.... The Dave Sweet ad top line of copy said "$130.00 buys a new 9'6" Dave Sweet".

As a kid thumbing through Surfer magazine was a big deal. Seeing pictures of team riders and pictures of the latest iterations of foam and fiberglass, dreams and fantasies racing through your thoughts. Or having the chance to visit one of  the surf shops.... that was a big prize. There were the Santa Monica shops, the South Bay shops, Seal Beach, Dana Point and further south Gordon and Smith in San Diego.   

I don't remember why the family took the long drive to San Diego one time. What I do remember was when we started heading home. Just as we started driving through San Diego on the freeway I happened to look out the window at just the right time to see a large Gordon and Smith surfboard label on the side of a building off the highway. My eyes fixated on what I saw, head turning as we passed until I couldn't see it any more. There it was, the place where Gordon and Smith surfboards were made. All the elements, the moon the stars had aligned and I got the chance to see that magical place. even though it was just in passing, didn't matter.    

The drive to San Diego was 3 hours long, and we were just getting started on the 3 hours back. But I was in heaven, seeing that building and sign.... made every minute worth while. The image of what I saw... still there even after some 50 years.

Of those 12 names listed above, the pioneers and founders of the surf industry, six of them are no longer with us. The latest one, Larry Gordon of Gordon and Smith, passed  on the first day of the new year. Sad another gone, R.I.P. Mr. Gordon.

D.R.

Surfer Magazine Vol. 7 No.6 Gordon and Smith ad.

As mentioned in my post of 7 December 2015 there are 2 types of finishes for surfboards. The sanded finish and the gloss and polished finish.

Either way surfboards get sanded, which also fits into the labor not the creative part of making surfboards. Sanding is typically done with a grinder spinning up to 5000 rpm. And depending on how a board will be finished the grinder pad will have between 60 to 320 grit sand paper one it.

Grinding a surfboard takes finesse. It's pretty easy to ruin a nice glass job while sanding it. Good surfboards sanders have pretty secure jobs in the industry for that very reason.... As well, because it's possible to change the shape of a surfboard in small ways while sanding, the high performance guys rely on sanders to dial in specifics of their boards.

It's a dusty dirty job, can irritate your skin and lungs. Many people also don't  know that  sanding dust is flammable and an explosive. So don't go walking into a sanding room with a lit cigarette, or toss a fire cracker into a sanding room as a practical joke.  Yeah, how stupid... but it did happen to my son while he was working through a stack of boards to sand one day, a guy tossed a fire cracker into his room. 'Bout scared him to death,  fortunately the only boom was the fire cracker.

Each step in the process of making a surfboard is important. The guys that sand are specialist and pretty much go unnoticed. That's ok because a well made surfboard you don't notice the sand job, no, it's the poorly sanded boards that you see the sand job.

D.R.   

With a soft pad and board on rail the sander makes things smooth.

What happened to 2015...?

 It's been an El Nino year, when SST's  ( that's what the weather guys call sea surface temperatures ) are higher in the northern pacific.  And because ocean temperatures affect weather, for us Californians it means we could have a very wet winter.... and maybe plenty surf. Stay tuned to that.

As far a that water temps.... I only wore my winter wet suit once all year, not counting the week spent at Secos. The water was so cold that first week in June while we were camping.... a 1 hour surf was all I could handle. As opposed to the year before? I wore a spring suit the whole week. A real head scratcher... if that's a word. The water has cooled now though, we've had wind. 

A few surfboard things this year.  I did a reissue of the very first surfboard I made as a teenager and called it the Model 50. And, added 2 more models, the T&G Slider and the Dream Bar Double "E". Both of which I'm really happy with. I made myself a Double "E", I've only gotten it in the water  a couple times so far, and a nice ride it is.

Maybe the most significant thing for D.R. Surfboards this year....?  to some anyway,  I finally entered the 21 Century late July and got myself a smart phone.... it was a business decision. And ok, I like having it, so far anyway. The nice thing about the phone is the camera. I can take pictures all the time, and amazingly enough, I think there are some 284 pics on the darn thing already.

The other thing about the phone and entering the 21st century.... I got tired of my son bugging me about the social media thing, finally gave in and started an Instagram page. I'll be posting pics there as I acclimate.        

That's 2015 in a nut shell. Thank you to all my customers through out the year and all that have followed my blog, or is it notes from the shaping bay?... If you've just surfed into this spot, come September 2016 will mark the 10th year I've been doing this, a fare amount of writing and reading fyi.

Happy New Year!

D.R.

Model 50 photo by David Puu

Having a surfboard blank, the first step in making a surfboard is shaping the darn thing. Most people interested in surfboards shaping is the part they're most interested in.

The finish of a surfboard is the last step. It will be either sanded or polished. People interested in making surfboards are seldom interested in the last step of making them. Shaping a surfboard is considered the creative part. Though I'd argue that if the board is CNC cut then the creative process is done already and finishing the CNC cut is more labor than creative. Sanding and polishing a surfboard definitely fits into the labor part of surfboard construction... So who cares about that?

In the old days we didn't polish our boards the way we do now. The process of glossing a surfboard ( the final coat of resin ) leaves a seam along the rail apex that needs to be sanded and then polished. In the old days the seam was sanded and then just the rail was polished, we called it rubbing rails.

Now the whole board is polished from rail to rail, nose to tail, deck and bottom. And it's a lot of work. especially if you want to get all the tiny scratches out from the very fine sand papers that are used before the rubbing compound is applied and polishing starts.

In my area Cooper Fish surfboards really set the bar high for polished surfboards through the fine work of Jeff Pupo's very shiny without a scratch polish jobs.

I've never really liked polishing.... it was stressful. Aside from being hard work and taking a fare amount of time, and back when we started polishing the whole board many boards had glass on fins, some with 3 glass on fins. If you caught the polish pad on a fin while it was spinning at 5000 rpm the board could get thrown across the room from the force. Those heavy Milwaukee grinders can do some serious damage.

Now with the removable fin systems it's not so stressful. There is some time to the process but the end result... a shiny new surfboard... it's worth the effort. I've got these cool ear muffs now that have an audio input so I can listen to music while polishing. Smooth jazz... I remain focused on the job unaware of the time passing and relaxed. It's still hard work though.

D.R.

If this plane could speak.... what would it say?

I bought this Block Plane in 1969, and first used it during my days at Wilderness Surfboards. My little trusty and usually dusty plane has been pushed across every surfboard I've shaped since the day it first was put in my shaping bay at the old Wilderness shop on Cabrillo Bl. in Santa Barbara, and has been in every bay I've worked in since.

That little plane has cut a lot of foam and wood, covered some ground and water, having gone back and forth between Hawaii and California a few times.

Over the years it's gotten a few new friends.  Though I'd gotten a couple other block planes ole number one was not replaced but complemented.... I'll have 3 planes set up each with a different depth of cut so I don't have to mess with blade depth adjustments while I'm working. Makes life easier for a production set up.

Block planes are a shaper's friend. I'm always on the look out for them when out at a garage or estate sale, flea market or swap meets.  Ole number one is the only block plane I've bought new. Don't remember what the asking price was back then, these days a nice Stanley plane can be 100 bucks new. Even refurbished ones can catch $30.

Wednesday the 18th Suzi and I went to the mid week swap meet at the fair grounds. There are usually plenty guys selling used tools, seen a few block planes there in the past but never anything that nice for the price.  

This time I see a box of planes... I stop... look over the box, pick one up and ask "how much for this plane?" The seller comes over looks down at the box and says "why not buy the whole box?" I say "I like this one.. but" seller says "I'll make you a deal you can't refuse... let see" as he counts out how many planes are in the box. " Ok, there are six plus some parts, how 'bout 35 bucks for all of them, you can have the parts too?" I say "deal" and hand him the money before he changes his mind. When I get home with the box I find the parts make up another plane. In all I end up with 7 planes.

I've really quite the quiver of block planes, finger planes and razor planes now. And, ole number one will still be number one. All be it with a number of stand bys.

D.R.

What happens when you take the rocker curves, deck lines, outlines, rail profiles and rail apex lines from 3 different surfboards mixed together with a couple new ideas?....  you get the Dream Bar Double "E".

D.R.

Two  9'6 Dream Bar Double "E" each with wedge stringers and abstract deck ribbons.

The on going story of Ventura Point.

Part of the development of what the city of Ventura has named Surfers Point was the installation of a parking area at the end of Figaroa  St. Planters with palm trees in them were put on the beach side of the promenade that runs in front of the parking area.

It's all real nice but there is a problem.... it comes from nature and is called erosion. The problem is exacerbated by a couple things.

1. When we have little to no rain for a few years no new sand is deposited on the beach from the Ventura river.

2. The winter long shore currents scrub the point more now because of the revetment that the promenade sits on from the pier to the point.

A couple of years ago the city of Ventura spent time, energy and money in a attempt to stop the erosion. Dumping tons of cobble stone at the top of the point, in front of the palm tree planters. The idea being this would keep the ocean at bay. It was really only a very short term solution.... if a solution at all.

Waves and beach currents have a way of moving things. Cobble stone? Nature moves them with ease. Think about it... the cobbles on the beach in Ventura have migrated down the Ventura river from miles up stream. Winter storms wash and roll those rocks onto the beach and the ocean waters move them and place them along the coast. The reef at the front of Ventura river is cobble stone, as well, the point is cobble stone.  

All these cobbles were way up at the top of the point. 

Actually on the back side of the point.

So, the cobbles dumped at the point aren't there anymore. The ocean has moved them from the top of the point to inside point. They are on their way south to the pier. No protection for the palm tree planters now... a few of them most likely won't last the winter.

There are some cobbles left in front of the planters.

Obviously not enough.

The Ventura Marina inlet has been dredged in the past because sand would move around the seventh jetty and fill the opening of the marina. So to keep that opening... open... the sand was vacuumed up with a dredge and dumped on the south side of the south jetty so it could move on down the coast..

Maybe the city could do something similar with the cobbles. During the afternoon minus tides that we get every couple weeks a big dozer could be used on the beach to scoop up the cobbles from inside point and drive them up to the top of the point and deposit them where they were originally put. It could be an on going thing... every couple years when the cobbles move back down the point move them back with a dozer.

Yeah, that's the ticket... your tax dollars at work.

D.R.

Anybody new to surfing in So Cal may think that the ocean is quite nice to play around in these days as far as water temperature goes. It may be why there seems to be more people at the point with their Wave Storm surfboards paddling around with out a wetsuit on. The entry price for surfing is much lower if you don't need a wetsuit.

The past 4 months has been a great time to start surfing around here. Why? Because the water temperatures have been unusually high... down right pleasant.  The biggest deterrent to wanting to surf, besides no surf, is cold water. And we haven't had any cold water for awhile.

I had forgotten how nice it is to surf in warm water, being 10 years since moving back from the tropics.. 1. you don't have the restrictions in movement from a wetsuit.... I've been wearing a short john.... short leg sleeveless. 2. You can stay in the water a lot longer. I've been having 2 and 3 hour sessions without getting cold at all.... love that.

Of course no one knows how long these water temps will hang around. I'll put my bid in.... how 'bout forever?

I can't remember water temps to be this high, well maybe at the peak of summer, but into fall like now? never in the past 50 years. But maybe all the years of colder water has frozen some brain cells.

Is there any data on ocean temperatures over the years?  Been looking, but haven't found any. What I did find is average temps for the various locations along the California coast...... Average temps for October in Ventura.... 65 to 62. Today the Anacapa buoy read 73, and the  east Santa Barbra buoy read 73 as well. Can you say 10 degrees above average?

No complaints here.

D.R.

It had to be the summer of 1966. I went off for a day of surfing with my brother in-law... though he wasn't my brother in-law yet, just my sisters fiance. We went to Stables.

It was a Saturday, late morning before the wind got on it to much. We pulled up and stopped in front of the stables, walked between a couple of the horse stalls checked the surf, walked back to the car got our boards and went out. The surf was small... about waist high.

Why I remember this I don't know. But, it was a nice day, there was some clean small waves and not unlike any other day there were only a few guys in the water. Me and Jerry being 2 of the few guys.

The other of the few guys actually took off in front of me on a wave. I caught up to him and gave him a casual tap on his lower leg with the nose of my board to let him know I cared that he'd taken off on me.

No big deal. But odd that with enough waves for all of us and, the whole area with just a few guys to surf the guy would have a need to surf right where Jerry and I were.

After remembering this, a few days ago now... like at 3 in the morning when I was having a hard time sleeping, I thought 'what a difference almost 50 years makes'.

The stables are long gone, well, they're not on the beach but inside the Fair grounds. Yeah, the stables were relocated and now you can park facing the beach right where they once were. Lets qualify that.... you can park after you pay 2 bucks for the day or have a $75 annual permit to park.

As well, it's absolutely amazing how many people pay to park at stables on a nice sunny summer Saturday to surf the place when there is anything that resembles a wave. If there is surf.... yikes.

O well. I did get to surf the place a week ago with just a hand full of people in the water. 1. It was a week day, but sunny and warm.  2. The surf was waist high for the most part, with almost too much south bump on it to be surf-able.

Not quite like the old days.

D.R.

A view of the tri plane hull.

What do you prefer when it comes to surfing style?  The radical fast vertical stuff on shortboards? The slow direction moves of traditional longboards? or ??

When asked, my wife will tell you the sport she likes to watch most is surfing. Not sure why,  someday I'll have to ask her... if I can remember. Or maybe I have asked but don't remember her answer.

For me it's all about style. Good surfing is all about looking smooth even if you are doing radical maneuvers... the good surfers make it look easy, effortless, stylish.

One of the things we all wanted to accomplish when surfboards began evolving shorter was riding tight in the pocket. In, around and close to the curl.  It isn't exactly easy to ride tight in the pocket and be stylish at the same time.  The new board model I've been working on is designed for that cool trim and glide type of surfing that can keep you tight and in the pocket. Even though it is a longboard.

I can get so immersed shaping a new design that once the board is completed I don't want to let it go. Which of course is crazy because usually someone has ordered the board and is waiting for it... so I'm obligated.

I've finished 2 Trim and glide Sliders this past week and both have been hard to let go of. Ok, I could make one for myself but I won't, at least for awhile. Why?  Because I'll be starting another new design next month and the first one is going to be mine.

D.R.

The T and G Slider for in the pocket surfing.

Saw this question on one of the forums this past week.... Shapers that can't use a planer, does it matter really?

Of all the responses only one came back "no".

Watched a movie yesterday called Ride, about an over bearing mother and her son... a surfer. Helen Hunt is the mother. She directed and wrote the screen play. Seems she did her own stunts in all the footage of her learning how to surf in the movie... interesting take on  California and surfers.  Kind of Hollywood....  of course.

So a swell shows up for the holiday weekend. Supposed to hold through Monday and another due Tuesday. I couldn't hold back and went down this morning... I got a couple.

Got back to the van and the guy that parked next to me comes up... he'd just gotten out of the water too. He says ' that was a nice start to the day. I wasn't expecting much and it was actually pretty good, I got a couple nice ones.'  I say ' anymore I think coming to the beach with low expectations is the best approach... that way you won't be disappointed if the surf sucks or you have a bad time.'

I wish I could do that, it seems more times than not my expectations aren't met. Is there a therapist for this problem? 

I've got a couple new models coming. Just finished one, very stoked about it. Funny... I get back to making surfboards and the unmet expectations of going to the beach completely fad away.  That's therapy.

D.R. 

One of my current favorite action movies is Jack Reacher.  There's a scene toward the end of the movie where Tom Cruise ( Jack ) is talking with Robert Duvall about Duvall's  ability to shoot his rifle accurately. Cruise is concerned a little because of Duvall's age and says.. "sharp shooting is a perishable skill".    

Because there has been such little surf this summer I haven't surfed much... My guess is a lot of people haven't surfed much... anyway, I notice it seems the board I've been riding latey I don't ride as well as I used to. So I start thinking the above comment probably relates to surfing as well and maybe that's why  it seems I can't ride the board as well as I used to.... surfing is a perishable skill.

OK, the old guys can't surf like they used to. Does that mean we can't have as much fun as we used to? The big problem is we don't surf as much as we used to. You loose it if you don't use it.

Sometimes I go for a surf check and see less than exciting surf... actually for a couple months now there has been less than exciting surf for the most part... But I'm looking at the surf thinking it really doesn't look that good, even though it's a nice warm sunny day, I go back in the van and drive off.

Wait, wait, wait...  when I was young I would have been all over what I just walked away from. So what if it wasn't perfect. There were waves enough to ride.  But now??? it's not good enough for me.

So, where do I get that young kine motivation??? I think I've got the answer. I need a new surf board!

D.R.

Since it's summer time going to the beach you always see people that are just getting started in their surfing experience. These days the novice surfer may have one of those boards with the soft top. Though the boards will get you in the water and perhaps catching a few waves. They aren't very well proportioned. Some of them actually look like poor examples of surfboards.

I started thinking after seeing a few people with soft boards that learning to surf on one is certainly doable... wouldn't it be easier to learn on a good surfboard? 

A well made surfboard will paddle well, catch waves easier, glide on the wave face well, and be easy to maneuver. All things that help your surfing not hinder it.

I get the price thing about getting a surfboard... someone wants to start surfing and find an inexpensive surfboard  so why not get the board and give it a go. When you start surfing you really don't know if the equipment you have is helping or hindering your experience. But one thing should be understood from the start.

Having a good surfboard will not hinder your learning experience. No one should hesitate getting a good surfboard to learn on. It really should be a no brainer...  If you take care of a good surfboard and find you aren't that interested in surfing after a time you can always sell the thing and get a good chunk of your money back.

D.R.

 A 7'10 Gadget

A 8'0 Custom Gadget

I'm reading a couple articles in an old Surf Guide magazine from April 1964, and find some really great quotes.... here's one.

 " I can remember camping under the pier for two or three days, completely engrossed in the miseries of learning to surf."

After learning to surf and advancing your abilities you tend to forget what it took to get where you are.  That line really says a lot about what we forget. Like being so excited to be able to carry a surfboard into the ocean, fumbling around on the darn thing attempting to paddle with some kind of control. Being knocked around by the surf. And then trying your hardest to catch a wave... just one wave.

Then you finally get one and try to get to your feet only to fall. Eventually you get a couple more and actually get to your feet for a couple seconds... After that you are completely hooked, and determined that 'you can get this'. 

At the end of the day you're really tired but really pumped. "Tomorrow I'm going to do it again". And you do. Pretty soon you can catch a wave and angle down the line. On you go until you forget.... "the miseries of learning to surf".

D.R.

After 50 years it's still a challenge to shape a surfboard. Or maybe I should say after shaping thousands of surfboards the next one I shape will still be a challenge.

Shaping one surfboard after another after another.... the challenge for the production shaper used to be making all the same cuts over and over again to maintain consistency. Now that consistency is done by a CNC cut.

The low numbers guy that doesn't use CNC... consistency can be a challenge. Now that I'm a low numbers kind of guy the challenge for me is getting those fine details of my shapes to look just the way I'd like them to look.

No 'oops', can't have any 'oops'. Like darn it I just pulled a little to much foam off that rail band. Or, thinking you've pulled enough foam off and after the board is glassed you look and think darn it, I should have pulled a little more foam of the tail.  You know the saying... "the devil is in the details". Well, the details can drive a guy nuts.

I like the challenge. I was talking with one of the local shapers this past week. He was telling me having a board CNC cut is great. You can make a board for a guy save the file and a year later make the same "exact" board again when the guy comes back for another board. That's great for him, he does a lot of boards. Me... I don't make a lot of boards and find no real challenge fine shaping a CNC cut.  They're nice but, cleaning them up can be a bit boring. And besides I know how to replicate.

It is hard work getting a surfboard file just right for a CNC cut though. And, to get the details just right it's possible to go through 3 or 4  cut blanks to reach just the right shape so all the details are what you like. And that's the challenge... even with CNC cuts, getting the details of your shape just right.

One way or another, getting your shape to look just the way you'd like can be a real challenge. And when you're finished with the shape and all the details are just right... the challenge met becomes satisfaction.

D.R.