My Story post 13

I went on an overnight surf trip with a few of my buddies one late spring weekend, let see, probably was ’65. The plan was to go up Santa Barbara way after school on Friday, surf and camp out overnight and surf the next day before heading home.

So we motored up to El Capitan state beach and camp ground in time to surf the late afternoon wind swell. Really just a small shore break close out for the most part but sometimes you could get a bit of a nice slide. Not much for a 35lb log but hey, they were waves.

I was on the beach when it happened…. One of the guys, Jim, got a short tip ride, slipped of the nose of his board and got nailed by the board in the small of his back. I can still see the whole thing in my head, didn’t look like anything. But, the guy bounced around in the sand and washed up on the beach unable to move. Me and one of the other guys dragged him out of the water and onto dry sand. The whole time Jim is screaming in pain about his back.

We were pretty freaked and couldn’t figure how such a freak thing could happen. All within the first few hours of our trip. Jim on the sand in great pain and seemingly paralyzed. The camp ranger called the rescue guys and an ambulance came to take Jim off to the nearest hospital, which was in Goleta. While the other guy went off with Jim in the ambulance Navarro and I followed behind in Navarro’s old 52 Chevy. My mind was racing, worried for Jim’s life and now mine because that ole Chevy seemed like it was going to fly apart chasing behind the ambulance at 80 mph.

At the ER Jim was warmed up and given some pain meds. The diagnosis was he had gotten a severe muscle cramp in the small of his back. With some muscle relaxing medication and rest he’d be fine. No he hadn’t been paralyzed, Thank God! We were all relieved including Jim’s dad who had now gotten to the hospital. He must have done a good 100 mph most of the way to get there so soon.

Jim went home with his dad that night and our other friend went too. Navarro and I stayed somewhere that night…can’t remember where but what I do remember was the next morning being cold and hungry. So we drove into west Ventura and stopped at the restaurant right past the highway 33 bridge on Main St., which is not there anymore. Sitting at the counter I had enough money for a bowl of oat meal. It was served nice and hot and was nice and filling. And now it seems an odd thing to remember as part of a very surreal weekend surf trip.

D.R.

Duct tape has many uses. If you’d like to see some of them try doing a Google search on duct tape and see what you find, or just go here. But, the one thing you shouldn’t use it for is covering dings on your surfboard.

The reason… water will penetrate the tape and enter the dinged area of your board. As well, the water that gets inside will not vacate or dry out because the duct tape will keep air from drying out the foam or letting the ding drain. Duct tape has a fabric type layer of material in it and the tape itself will get damp keeping unwanted moisture around a ding.

Moisture is not friendly to the foam core of a surfboard. Depending on the type of foam a surfboard is made from it will absorb water through small cracks in the fiberglass and the longer the board is in the water the foam could act like a sponge and continue to take on more and more water. So you don’t want to have a damaged board in the water very long, if at all.

The best thing to do when you get a ding is fix it or have it fixed right away. It’s a good idea to have a tube of solar rez and sand paper to do a quick fix at the beach… if you’re handy at any rate.

The other quick fix is with clear packaging tape that’s about 2” wide… not the light weight stuff but the one that is a bit more heavy duty. The stuff has good long lasting adhesives and the material the tape is made of is water proof, so water will not penetrate it. Just make sure the dinged area is dry and apply the tape well with no bubbles or wrinkles around the edges with the dinged area completely covered.

Examples:

Unless you have your 10 ½ fin box capped or you have the O'Fish'l glassed in box most likely you’ll see the front side of your fin box cracked. Rarely do people repair this problem that will continue to take on water and eventually begin to deteriorate the tail area of a surfboard.

This is an easy fix at the front of a fin box with regular scotch tape that you wrap Christmas presents with.

I put my thumb through the rail of my board when I got drilled in some shore pound. Believe me, I got hit really hard. Here is the rail fixed with packing tape that has lasted probably a good two years.

This board doesn’t get surfed to much anymore but the ding is still water tight.

D.R.

A California day.

Today was one of those days. Though it’s the 11^th of March and winter still isn’t officially over it was in the eighties. One of those ‘not a cloud in the sky’ kind of days. There wasn’t much in the way of surf but you can’t resist going down to the beach. I surfed anyway…. blue sky, blue ocean, warm weather small but ride able on a 9’8”.

These are the kind of days you live for when you’re a beach nut. If it’s a weekend ok then you don’t get much done around the house. If it’s a work day, you suck it up, but if there’s surf on a work day and the weather is like today then…Aloha, I’m going surfing.

The summer right out of high school was rough for me. After I had sold my little surf board business I got a job as a draftsman. Yeah, an architectural major my first year at college so a drafting job made sense but, not for the surfer. Setting indoors on really nice summer days knowing the beach is just waiting for you….I called in sick a lot. Sometimes if I went outside on a break in the middle of the day I’d get sick and have to leave work. After I got to the beach I felt much better. I didn’t make it through the summer at that job.

It’s irresponsible, it’s a disease, you can’t help it.

My shaping bay at Morey-Pope was on the beach side of the building. The bay door was always open and I had a pretty good look at the Ventura pier. If it was a nice day I had a hard time shaping because I could see out side. Take a lunch break and go down to the Point. There was no point in going back to work. If there was surf…forget it. If it was a nice day I hardly ever made it past 2 O’clock.

I guess I’m lucky because the beach in Ventura through out the year does not see that many nice warm sunny days, especially with surf to go along with it. In the summer we get that marine layer and won’t see the sun for days or even weeks at a time. Lucky thing, other wise I’d probably be a beach bum.

D.R.

In the tropics almost every day is warm and sunny.
Me and my son.

What is the right surfboard? To answer the question you have to ask another question… What type of surf are you going to use it in? Actually there are a few questions to ask when you want the right surfboard.

What is your preferred surf spot, or most frequented?
How often do you get in the water?
What is your body size?
What is your physical conditioning?
What level of surfing are you at?
Along with surfing level, are you a tail surfer or a rail surfer? Or maybe another way of asking the same question is… In your surfing style do you use your upper body more or your lower body more?
What would you like the board to do under your feet?
Long board or short board?

If you say you’d like a good all around board you’ll still need to answer the above questions. For me… I had a nice all around short board I used on Kauai. At 5’10” and 148-150lbs, ok conditioning, level of ability and age it was a 6’10” X 20” X 2 ¼” tri fin. The board was good for surf from 2ft to 6ft. ( Hawaiian ). Now that same board here in Ventura? No can, not enough juice plus, I wear a wet suit which adds a few lbs and cuts down on physical response. A 7’2” X 20 ½ X 2 5/8” would be a better all around board for me for Ventura surf. But I’d only like to surf it in waves about head high or better. Under that and it’s a tanker. Or I probably wouldn’t go out. If the surf was small with some juice to it, then ok but, there’s not much juice in the small wave of Ventura.

All around boards are good to have, they’re reliable. If you take it to the beach you’ll most likely have an ok time regardless of what the size and condition the surf is. But, if you want to dial into specifics you really need more than one surfboard.

For me the all around board would be good with a nice single fin long board as a second board. Why a single fin? Because I like single fin long boarding. If I had to travel some to get to the beach I could take both boards. The 2 board quiver, a nice all around set up.

D.R.

My Story post 12

Even though my parents supported me and my surfing interests and put up with my little high school surfboard business. They never took me to the beach to surf. Well, except for a couple summer vacations at Balboa Bay anyway.

When I reached driving age with my friends and school buddies I had a couple friends that surfed and either had cars of there own or could use there parents cars for surf trips. My parents wouldn’t let me just go off with someone to the beach. Had to be someone they knew of and approved. One of those guys was John Clark.

John had a ’53 Ford that we could take the back seat out of and stick our boards in through the trunk. We used to have a blast together in that old car going off on all day surf trips.

Those older cars windshield wipers worked off of engine compression. If there was a leak somewhere in the system they didn’t work to well. I remember one day it was raining so hard and the wipers weren’t working well enough to even see. John had a great idea… for me to reach down under the dash board, feel around for the windshield wiper arm and try to move it back and forth manually so he could see to drive.

So here we are racing down Pacific Coast Highway in the pouring rain, me with my feet where my head should be, my head stuck down under the dash board and with my hands reaching up trying to find the wiper arm. If I would have pulled on one of the wires stuck up there I could have been fried. ‘Hey, I think I found it. How’s that?’ “That’s it Dennis, don’t stop I can see the road again”. Me, the windshield wiper guy all the rest of the way to Hobsons Park.

Or how ‘bout the time we were cruising along and all of a sudden there was this loud pop? ‘What was that?... what happened to the car?’ We both almost having heart attacks. Then we see the Coke bottle on the seat between us squirting Coke all over. We started laughing so hard we almost crashed. The bottle had been there bouncing along the whole trip until the pressure in it blew the cap off the bottle.

D.R.

Learning to surf a shapers view post 4

Having the right equipment will make all the difference in the world when it comes to surfing. Having someone that knows how to surf and teach the fundamentals is a really good idea too. There are schools that have both.

So what should you look for in a surfboard if you’re just getting started?

A surfboard that will float you well with more rounded features. It will of course depend on you’re body size as well. Surfboards that are between 2 3/4” to 3” thick, between 20” and 23” wide and between 7’ and 9’ long. The boards should have moderately rounded noses in the 16” to 18” range and have tails that are more full in the 14” to 15” width. And the board should have over all moderate rocker.

The reason you need a board that will float well is because they are easier to paddle and catch waves on. If the board is a couple feet longer than you are tall it will glide nicely across the water too, and again will help with catching waves. The wider width board will help with stability after you catch a wave and stand up. And the board with moderate rocker will trim best with less effort.

There are surfboards that are pretty much targeted to the beginner, the foam boards and soft tops specifically. If you go on with your surfing these boards will become obsolete for you after you get to where you catch waves, stand up, turn and maintain some control over the board. When you get to the next stage you will want to ride a more progressive board. Nothing wrong with the soft boards but, keep in mind they will not carry you in the next level, another board will be needed.

D.R.

My story post 11, the day we sailed to Kings Harbor.

It was the last Saturday of surf lessons at the Santa Monica YMCA. The surf class went on safari to Manhattan Beach. There was a good swell running and I think about the only person to actually surf was the instructor. The surf was a bit to treacherous for all us beginners. But the fun was to begin later.

After the class my friend Bob (the guy I took surf lessons with) and I were picked up and taken to Marina del Ray to a mutual friends parents sail boat for an afternoon sail to Long Beach. At least that was the plan.

We motored out of the marina and into the great Pacific only to be greeted by a dead calm. There was absolutely no wind. Hoping we would eventually see some wind as the day progressed we continued to motor along the coast, it was the only way to actually move the boat.

I can remember going really slow, and seeing some pretty good size swells rising and dropping as we slowly moved alone. But, at some point the motor decided to give out so there we sat with no wind and no motor bobbing around those swells in the ocean. And the day was not getting any shorter.

Now the plan was to sail around Palos Verdes and into Long Beach but after a couple hours we had not sailed very far. As the sun set the one thing that I remember being really magnificent was the fluorescent water from the rudder of the boat. We would move the rudder back and forth to try and get the boat to move a little and the turbulence from the movement would light up the water. At one point some seals came along to interact with the rudder movement and the fluorescent water that flowed off of there circling in and under the boat was really something to see.

It was decided that there was no way we would make it to Long Beach. The sail was planned to take place all during day light and it was now a fair time past sunset. So we changed course and headed to Kings Harbor in the dark.

Navigating into Kings Harbor was spooky to say the least. Very little wind to go on, total darkness, hearing the buoy bell and the crashing waves on the breakwater, remember there was a good sized swell running. I was happy to see the dock.

After a day of feeling the power of strong surf and seeing how large the ocean can begin to look from a boat. At 14, I gained a new understanding of what surfing and the ocean meant that day.

D.R.

Making surfboards is a specialized trade. You may be able to get schooling on composites but actually knowing the what and how of surfboard design is pretty much a learn by experience endeavor.

Most people that ride surfboards don’t think or maybe even don’t care about what makes the board they ride work the way it does. And that’s fine, but there are nuts like myself that spend hours processing through ideas about design and trying to work through problems experienced in the last surf session and how the board you were riding might be improved, or, at least how your surfing may be improved by working through a certain board design.

I see the surfboard as mainly a foil. The over all dynamic of the surfboard foil will determine how the board will ride. How much or little curve the foil has on the bottom as well as the top (deck), where and how the thickness is distributed through its length, how the deck and bottom contours are shaped from rail to rail. The curve of the outline. All play together to make the surfboard of your choosing react to wave and rider.

Riding certain board designs will determine how you surf. If you try to surf a board against the way it’s meant to be ridden over all performance will be poor, for both board and rider.

An easy example of this can be best understood by the difference between short board and long board surfing. Short boards must be ridden with a low center of gravity, knees always bent, any body extensions are short and returned to that low center. If you stand straight up on a short board, unless you are moving fast along the wave, the board will sink. A long board on the other hand you will ride almost at a full stand up. Sure you’ll bend the knees but because of the foam volume if you stand straight up the board will continue to glide down the face of the wave.

Those examples may be extreme but, you can take just about any surfboard design and if you want to get its maximum performance you need to know why it will ride a certain way and not go against it.

Single fins ride different than tri fins. Tri fins ride different than twin fins. Do you want to ride a certain board design? Learn how it works, usually by riding it, and have some fun with it. Think through your moves and try to understand what’s going on. Do you have to ride one certain kind of board? No. Is one design better than the others? Not really, it just depends on what it’s for, so ride it in conditions and style it’s built for.

You can experiment, learn, and grow your surfing.

D.R.

My Story post 10

One of my main spots or surf hangouts during my high school days was Hobson Park. Though a little smaller now because of erosion, at least it’s still there. It was there or Stanley’s, just a ¼ mile up from Hobson’s. Stanley’s is long gone.

Hobson’s is a small camp site right on the beach along Pacific Coast Highway about a 10 minute drive up the Rincon from Ventura. And, it happens to be located right at a coble stone reef. At minus tides the reef is dry, a good place for clam digs.

One of the first times I got to go to Hobson’s was with a friend and his family on a camping trip. Drove up there on a Saturday morning got situated in the camp ground did a little clam digging in the afternoon low tide and the guys mom made fresh clam chowder for dinner. Nothin’ like good clam chowder.

On Sunday morning my friend and I got up early to surf. I remember being a little spooked. Not being real familiar with the place, up early, cold weather, over cast and a bit dark. The surf was a much defined peak and the paddle out was a bit more than we expected. Not hard because of the need to push water but longer than imagined from the beach. This also meant that when we reached the line up the sets were much bigger than they looked like from the beach.

There were two other people in the lineup when we got out. Not that good of a surfer yet, I remember sitting there watching the surf go by. Paddling around so as not to get picked off, and too spooked to stroke myself into one of those, what seemed to be, large peeks. What if I didn’t make the drop and fell or couldn’t get a turn off the bottom and wiped out? The beach looked like a long way off, the water cold and dark. A swim for a lost board seemed more of a panic than the surf itself. So I just sat there.

You know… I think that’s why when the surf has a bit of size these days there are plenty kooks in the lineup. No need worry about wipe outs because they’re leashed up to their boards. Anyway, I eventually came in, probably did a shoulder hop or two but that was about it.

Well, I went back to Hobson’s plenty as my high school years progressed. Made up for that first time experience, and then some I’d guess. I’m sure the place has it’s moments but, I don’t remember the surf being that epic there, even if I went there alot. Now Stanley’s…. that’s the spot that could get epic!

I don't know who took this picture of Stanley's Dinner. But, this site was made into a freeway off ramp. For those that don't know… if you were sitting in that old panel truck and the hood was down, you’d be looking at the Stanley’s line up. Get out of the truck, suit up and grab your board, walk about 100 feet and you’d be at the waters edge. One of the favorite spots of my youth.

D.R.

My Story post 9

Before my friends and I were able to drive I was lucky to have a couple friends that could get their mom’s to drive them and their buddies to the beach on the weekends, sometimes I got to tag along.

One of the guys mom’s would take us to Will Rogers State Beach above Santa Monica along the jetties. Close to where the filming of Bay Watch was done, but like 30 years earlier of course. Anyway, she’d drop us off in the morning and then come back and get us in the afternoon.

So we’d hang at the beach all day, usually three or four of us. Thing was we could only take 2 surfboards. So a couple guys would surf while the others stayed on the beach. Then one of the guys surfing would come in and the guy on the beach got his turn to surf.

Having no wet suit and just getting out of the water, you’d get cold. We had a great remedy though. Not only did we bring surfboards but we brought skim boards too. Believe me, running around chasing a skim board can warm you up pretty good. It was a perfect combination. Go surf, get cold, go skim board, get warm. By the end of the day we were beat.

One of my other friends mom would take us just about anywhere we wanted to go. She was so cool. I remember one late winter day on the way to surf along Malibu. We were probably thinking of going to County Line. But when we got to the top of Malibu Canyon and looked down you could see lines coming in around the point at Malibu.

An odd south swell had showed up in late winter. The point was about head high, and long before there were surf reports or web cams. So guess what? there were very few people that knew. We got Malibu without a crowd! Miracles do happen.

I had another friend whose dad was a salesman and would have to do a fair amount of traveling up and down the coast in Southern California. Because his dad would be driving around during the week summer days he’d get the ole man to drop him and a buddy or two at the closest beach where his dad had to do some sales calls.

The first time I surfed ‘C’ Street was on a summer day when we were dropped off there. Little did I know, at 15 years old, on that nice sunny summer day that I’d grow up and settle down 5 blocks from ‘C’ Street. Once we got to stay at Doheny Beach for a couple days. That was before the break water. Man that place was fun.

The nice thing about good memories. Think back, close your eyes, and live it all again for a moment or two.

D.R.

Milestones, everybody has them…. an important event or turning point. As well, a marker that tells us how far we’ve gone. For the New Year most of us look back and reflect at least a little and say we made it through another one. The marker.

Important events can happen any time of course, and can be something pleasant or not so pleasant. A turning point? Sometimes we can go a long while before we even notice we had one. Then it’s “hey, things are different now and you know what? It all started way back when”. I’ve been going through a turning point for the last half of this…now past year. So I guess you could say it’s not a turn but a long curve. I’ll save the story for another time.

Sometimes turning points can really change your life direction. When it comes to your vocation all of us will usually have a few through out our working days.

I’d have to say for sure one of the biggest turning points in my surfboard building career came one day early in the year of 1967. I was out surfing at the point in Ventura when my friend Peter came racing out into the lineup and said “Dennis, Bob Cooper is on the beach and he’s looking for a shaper. I told him I know a guy that shaped, he’s out there surfing right now. Would you like me to go out and tell him you’d like to talk to him?”

Cooper had come down to watch the surf while on his lunch break. He was Forman of The Morey-Pope shop at the time.

I paddled in, met Cooper and set up a time to go by the MP shop. When I got there I was directed to an empty shaping bay, given a blank and out line and told to shape a board. When I was finished Cooper gave it a look over and said “looks like you can shape” and gave me a job. I was only 18 years old, very fortunate and little did I know it at the time but, my life was going to be changed forever.

At the New Year we look back and we look forward. And who knows what events and turning points there may be. Work hard, do your best and be hopeful.

Happy New Year!

D.R.

Surf memories around Christmas time.

I was given a surfboard blank for Christmas when I was 14 that became my first surfboard.

Got my first wet suit, a farmer john, for Christmas when I was 16. Went to Malibu to try it out in the afternoon on Christmas day with my older brother, he drove, and my sisters boy friend. It was over cast and freezing cold. And Malibu is a summer break not a winter break so it was dead flat. But, ‘ya gotta go out anyway’. Sat there on my board and froze. Farmer john wet suits were about all there was at the time.

It’s nice if you live at the beach, because of the holiday, crowds can be a bit thinned which makes Christmas day a good surfing day.

A few years ago my son gave me a case of surf wax for Christmas. I still haven’t gone through it all.

Tools for keeping my block planes and finger planes sharp… only a guy gets stoked over tool gifts… my wife thinks of everything.

Surfing on Christmas day in Hawaii, forget the wet suit…do I miss that?

Being with family… 5 grand kids jumping around the house, we’ll have a great time.

Merry Christmas!

D.R.

Christmas day wet suit pose.

Learning to surf a shapers view post 3

Learning to surf takes time, a boat load of repetition, the right height to weight ratio surfboard and a good attitude about knowing your limitations.

It really is possible to hurt yourself and others in the water when surfing… or attempting to surf. When I was in high school there was a guy that went with his dad to the Dewey Weber shop one day after school to buy a board. Picked one out and proceeded directly to the beach at Santa Monica to try the new board out. Took the board out, caught some white water and stood up. When he lost his balance he dove off the board into 2 feet of water, hit his head in the sand and broke his neck… true story, I was there and saw it happen.

So don’t be in a rush to go pro! I know first hand how pumped you can get about surfing. But the learning curve can be steep, take it one step at a time. The best surfers are relaxed in the water. Start out by attempting to stay relaxed and as you advance the relaxed attitude will be a part of all your sessions. As well, know your limitations.

Knowing your limitations is part of the judgment thing. This past few days we’ve had some pretty good sized surf….finally! Of the west north west swell variety. North west swells in Ventura bring on a heavy long shore current that sweeps down the point rapidly. The surf was to large and the currents to strong for the beginner or novice surfer. Even so, there were some beginners attempting to go out in conditions way beyond their abilities. What happens is they get swept down the beach in the surf zone and end up at the pier, where they can then get in a world of hurt, being swept through the pier, bounced off the pilings or worse, rapped around a piling and drown. It has happened.

My personal opinion is that beginners shouldn’t attempt going out if the surf is bigger than head high. So how do you judge the size of surf? If there are people out in the lineup watch to see what a wave looks like when someone is riding one. If when a rider is standing close to straight up and the wave is curling about where their head is then the wave is head high. It’s also a good idea to watch the surf for a good 10 to 20 minutes to see how far apart the sets are and if by chance when you first get to the beach there has been a long lull between sets and you just haven’t seen the bigger ones. Also if smaller waves that are breaking inside of the surfers in the line up and you don’t see anyone riding the smaller waves it’s most likely because the sets are bigger and the surfers in the water are out far enough so as not to get picked off by the larger waves when they come.

If you get to the beach and no one is out you can judge the size of the surf by perspective. Look for an object that you can tell is a certain size and try to project its image out into the surf zone. You can also walk out to the waters edge and get a pretty good idea of what size of surf is breaking by just watching the surf for 5 or 10 minuets.

Be smart, stay relaxed, think before you go. Develop and use good judgment. And as the life guards say in Hawaii…when in doubt, don’t go out.

D.R.

My story post 8

The back yard of the house my family lived in when I was making and repairing surfboards had a big cement slab that was pretty good for skateboarding. There were some mean cracks in it, but possible to navigate.

The house we lived in before that had a killer circular drive way. The house set below the street maybe about 8 feet. So the circular drive way ramped up to street level on both ends, made for great skateboarding. I would walk to the top on one side, jump on my skateboard and ride down the drive way and up the other side, turn and ride down then up the other side again, back and forth for hours practicing and developing my skills. No doubt all that skateboarding helped my surfing. I didn’t get to the beach but once or twice a month back then but I did the skateboard thing constantly.

But how’s this for a near miss? In 1964-’65 my dad worked for a company in Newbury Park, which was about an hour drive from where we lived. Wanting to live closer to where my dad worked my parents found a lot in Oxnard Shores… a beach community that was maybe 25 minuets form where my dad worked.

The property was bought and an architect hired to design the house for the lot. The lot BTW was about 6 lots up from the beach. Well, right when my parents were shopping for a construction loan to build the house on that Oxnard Shores lot, my dad was laid off his Newbury Park job. They had actually already sold the house we lived at the time so we had to move… all be it not to Oxnard Shores.

My parents rented the house with the circular driveway that I loved to skateboard on in the interim while they found a house for the family to settle into in the same area we had been. All was not lost I guess, because the house we moved into was the house I was able to put my little surfboard shack up at.

Though sometimes I wonder what life events would have developed had we moved to Oxnard Shores. The The Campbell brothers are from Oxnard Shores… we would have most likely hooked up and surfed together… probably would have gone to school together. Duncan I can’t remember ever meeting. Malcolm and I have been acquainted for a long time. Some 6 or 8 years after the would be family move, in the early seventies, Malcolm and I were in the same geology class at Ventura College. We sat next to each other the whole semester. I never new he made surfboards until one day on a class field trip we started talking about surfing and boards. So, it seems we went to school together after all, a curious circumstance.

D.R.

Surveying Oxnard Shores property circa 1964

How much has shaping surfboards changed over the years? What has become normal now was not accepted once, or at least looked at with some scorn. Shaping machines, profilers, even molded boards are Ok. It’s interesting don’t you think, the way the surfboard industry has evolved and changed?

I can remember when one of the first shaping machines in California ramped up their business. They had to try and keep their business location secret so vandals would have a hard time finding them… Yeah, guys thought shaping machines were going to ruin everything… kill the soul of surfing. So hindering their operation was considered a good thing. Now? A shaper could get the impression that if he didn’t send his orders out to be pre-shaped by a machine his boards weren’t ‘state of the art’ and therefore of poorer quality than boards shaped by machines.

There was a time when massed produced surfboards made in a big factory by hourly employees that didn’t know the first thing about surfing was considered ‘not a good thing’. As well, surfboards made via a mold process also were considered ‘not a good thing’. Now? Massed produced boards made with traditional materials or molded sandwich construction or molded hollow core… it’s all considered good.

In the sixty’s surfboard production was pretty concentrated. In the U.S there were maybe about a dozen labels, mainly in California, that made most of the boards we all rode. Then at the turn of the decade things changed. By 1970 the industry started fragmenting. The dominating labels could not keep up to the changes being made to board design so small shops started popping up all over the west coast and east coast. The surfboard became a local thing. The board you rode came from the area you lived in or frequented for surf.

Now it seems it’s been changing into the dominate label thing again. And, with the increase in overseas production in Thailand and China it almost doesn’t make sense for the shaper that produces 1000 boards a year to make boards in the U.S. Because it’s cheaper to have a China production shop machine a shape in mass, produce boards start to finish and ship them directly to dealers.

I don’t know though… I think it’s very strange to see the little labels on surfboards that say “Made in Thailand” or “Made in China”. Call me old fashioned.

D.R.

Back in the day the way to make a surfboard was by hand, though there were a couple of pop out type manufactures in the sixties. As a matter of fact, I worked for one of them. It was early in the year of 1967, before I started working at Morey-Pope.

The company was Ventura Plastics and they made the Tiki and Ten Toes surfboards that were sold all over the U.S. When I worked for them they had licensing agreements with a number of big name surfers and mass produced models like the Duke Kahanamoku model, the Joey Cabel model etc. Something similar to what some of the molded board companies are doing today. They had a fairly large shop on Calens Rd. in Ventura and produced boards in mass. 20 or more sides laminated at a time. Which is probably nothing compared to what Thailand and China factories do these days, but none the less plenty of boards.

As surfing grew into the late 60’s some of the big name labels were making large numbers of boards. By 1969 Morey-Pope was pushing close to 200 units a week out of their Saticoy factory with a board some may remember… the Camel. I worked with two other guys in the shaping department doing Camels. One guy would route outlines on special close tolerance blanks. Me and the third guy would rough the boards out, rough sand them and turn the rails. Then they’d go back to the first guy who would then fine sand them and route the fin box. I would usually spend not more than 20 minutes doing my part.

MP was not the only label doing large numbers. My question is… where did all those boards go? And… why couldn’t those labels continue with that kind of production? More questions… Where are all the thousands and thousands of boards going that are being produced in China and Thailand now? And… how long will these companies be able to sustain the numbers being produced? There is a thing called market saturation.

Even though there are some nice mass produced boards, one thing is for sure, the boards that are mass produced don’t have the emotion of the hand crafted high end boards. Why? Because the high end hand crafted boards are being made by artisans. Making surfboards is an art craft. Art has emotion and that emotion is seen and felt in the hand crafted board. Most people call it soul, and that’s fine, but it’s really emotion.

D.R.

The tail of a RP2.
Chocolate and cocoa butter lamination with soft green and yellow pin line.

My story post 7

From day one of my surfing experience I’ve only had one surfboard that I didn’t make or shape for myself. It was a Phil Edwards model Hobie I bought used and surfed between 1965 and ’66.

Phil Edwards was well known and a very good surfer back in the day and his signature board was the real deal. Having one of his boards was kind of a prestige thing, it was a good thing to have and ride.

Now, you might think having that board would give me a great opportunity to do a little copying or borrowing for making my own boards. And you’re right but, I didn’t borrow anything. Never took the outline, or measurements. Honestly I don’t think I was smart enough to think ‘hey I’ve got this killer board here, let’s just take some numbers and use them to make a killer board like it’. I was to busy hacking away on my own, didn’t really know what I was doing, just did what I did.

Today I’ve got tools to measure boards I never thought of as a kid. Today when I need to or want to make one board the same as another I’ll measure the width from nose to tail in 6 inch increments, and the same for the thickness as well as rockers. Never dreamed of doing that as a kid. Back then it was… look at the blank…think surfboard… and hack at the blank until I had what I thought was a decent surfboard.

A good way to get a feel for a surfboard is via repairs. When you have to fix dings you’ve got to look at the board, handle it, run your hands over the areas on the board that need fixing. Feel if you’ve feathered out your patch job etc. All that can give you sight and touch memories that can be transferred into actually making one. That’s what helped me, it was the repairs I did. I looked at, held, ran my hands over a fair amount of boards which helped me see in my minds eye what a surfboard should look like. Once you’ve got the picture in your head of what a surfboard should look like you can take a blank and cut away at it here and there until the picture in your head is something you can see and feel in real life form.

Shaping surfboards is what I call an alphabet thing. You can’t just start with A then go to B then C until you get to Z and be pau ( finished ). You’ve got to see the whole alphabet all at one time. Yeah, you still start at A but when you are working at A you see B, C, D all the way through all the stages.

Somehow as a kid I could see the surfboard I wanted to make. Then went and made it… good or bad I just wanted to make it. Today I’m still amazed at the process.

D.R.

My story post 6

Thinking back to my teen years and making surfboards I've got to say I was very fortunate to have parents that supported me and my interests. Without it I would have never gotten that initial experience. All be it self taught.

The church that the family attended was growing and had just finished building a new sanctuary and church campus. There was a small modular building on the church grounds that was used for the construction office and was no longer wanted or needed at the church grounds after the project was completed. The word was put out that it was available. So I asked my parents if maybe I could get one of the modules. I was offered the middle section of the building that consisted of 4 pieces. The sides, floor and roof.

I thought if I got that building it could be put up against the back workshop of the house we lived in and all I'd need to do was make a front with a door and I'd have my own little enclosed place to make and repair surfboards. What a great Idea! I couldn't believe it, my parents said yes!

I don't know how we got that small building the 5 miles from the church to our back yard, but we did. Got the thing standing up and against the back work shop, made the front so it was enclosed, put the stands in it and started working on boards.

And work on boards is what I did. My older sister, 2 years my senior, said because of my little surfboard business she liked me. Why? "You always have money in your pocket" she said. My mom on the other hand…she could get so aggravated. I'd get a fair amount of phone calls, mainly over surfboard repairs. So she would have to go out back and tell me "you've got another phone call". I'd go in the family room where the phone was with sticky fingers from resin and the sticky resin would get transferred to the phone. Then she'd go use the phone and get sticky resin on her hands….DENNIS.. she'd scream. One of these days when we visit I've got to show her my cell phone, before I clean the sticky resin off of course.

D.R.

Learning to surf, a shapers view. Post 2

I went for another Sunday afternoon surf. Sunny, warm, and a fair amount of people out in the small low tide surf. Included in all the people there were a number of beginners or novice surfers in the water.

Once again I noticed how poorly the beginners paddle their boards. One of the things most people say to beginners is start on a longer board. But, even at that if you don’t paddle the thing in trim you will not catch waves. There were a couple guys paddling around on long boards with the noses stuck up out of the water…not in trim. I watched one of the guys paddle like crazy to catch one wave…just wasn’t going to happen with his board/body positioning…sorry.

So anyway, I’ve mentioned judgment. That’s being able to tell how fast you are moving in the water when you’re paddling, whether or not you should maneuver while paddling one direction or another to avoid colliding with someone. If you need to paddle faster to get past a breaking wave, paddle faster or slow down some in order to catch a wave.

Because surfing is about movement, having the knowledge to move freely in the water and being able to tell how your movement will affect yourself and others in the water is judgment.

Example: you‘re paddling out to the lineup, there is someone coming down the line on a wave. Depending on where you are, and the rider is, you should be able to judge if you will get in the riders way and paddle in the right direction at the right speed to not get in the riders way. At the same time if you’re the rider you should be able to judge while you’re sliding down the face of a wave if, when, and how you may need to maneuver so as not run over anyone in the water.

Well, it all that starts with paddling. So what about equipment? Yep, having the right board can make all the difference in the world.

D.R.

Learning to surf.. A shapers view.

One of the areas of my home break is a pretty good place to learn how to surf, at least during the months of May through September. The waves are usually small and the summer swells deposit sand on the beach making the place more casual. So the last few months I’ve seen my share of beginners.

Learning to surf takes time. Like just about anything else some people pick it up quickly and with some people it takes a bit longer. But there are a few things that can help improve the learning curve.

The majority of time spent in the water surfing is spent paddling. Since a lot of rides last maybe 10 seconds, one could easily spend five or ten minutes paddling around for that one 10 second ride. So if you’re going to learn how to surf make sure that you learn how to paddle really well before you catch your first wave.

You may think, “hey, I can paddle a surfboard around what’s so hard about that.”? There’s more to it than one might think. To paddle efficiently the surfboard should be in trim. In trim is when your body weight is positioned on the board so that it will plane across the water without unnecessary drag, the nose not sticking up out of the water to much or poking into the water ( pearling ). To paddle a board efficiently one should be able to maneuver, turn from left to right, while paddling. You should also be able to speed up or slow down while paddling.

If you can’t paddle well you will find yourself getting in other peoples way in the water, which can cause accidents and get people hurt. As well if you can’t paddle well you will have a hard time catching waves. If you can’t catch waves you’ll never learn to surf.

And, if you can paddle well you will begin to develop judgment. Without judgment learning to surf is very difficult.

D.R.