Learning to surf a shapers view post 4

I’ve said this before, beginners should not go out when the surf is head high or more. I think I’ll change that to waist high. If you don’t know how to catch a wave and stand up you shouldn’t be in surf over waist high. Why? Because you can hurt yourself and others, damage equipment and generally be a problem in the water.

This past Thursday and Friday we’ve had a small south swell that by Friday afternoon had some slightly over head sets. Both afternoons I was in the water there were complete novices in the lineup.

Thursday I was at a spot that is not a beginner wave, not an easy spot to surf even when the waves are small and unless you can get to your feet and turn your board in the direction the wave is breaking you will go a short distance to a rocky beach. There were three guys and a gal in the water and only one of them knew what they were doing… a little bit anyway. They seemed to be enjoying themselves but it was clear that the one guy had gotten the others to follow him to the beach.

If you’re going to take your friends surfing that don’t know how to surf take them to a place where they won’t get in the way of others in the water.

If you're going to take your friends surfing take them to a place where they won’t get beat up on rocks. A sand beach is better.

If you’re going to take your friends surfing find them surfboards that will float them well enough to paddle around without looking like a fish that’s flapping around on the deck of a boat. You shouldn’t be paddling with you legs, feet and elbows.

Ok, Friday afternoon the surf had sets of head high and better. I was stoked for the chance to work the Stubbie Qaud in some nice racy waves at inside point. After I was out for 20 minutes or so paddling back to the lineup I notice this guy on a soft top that just didn’t look right. He was paddling for waves in the wrong spot and of course not catching anything. Oh well, another novice I thought.

Maybe five or ten minutes later as I’m traveling down the line of one of the set waves and straighten out on the inside wall off there goes the soft top and rider still laying on his board. From out of no where in a split second down the face of the wave, white water chasing him, he slides right over the top of my board while I’m standing on it. I was able to angle out from under him and get away… lucky that. I could have fallen on top of him and who knows what could have become of the two of us and our boards.

You see, when you get in sizeable surf and don’t know what you are doing and don’t know how to catch a wave the wave will catch you, usually at the most inopportune time when someone can get hurt.

It will take a lot of time in the water to get to the place where you can do what is being done in the below picture. But you’ve got to get started right and stay on the right path. Advance one step at a time, be safe and those around you will be safe too.

D.R.

A frame grab of Travis Riley filmed by his brother Matt surfing their dads 15 year old D.R. Penetrator.

Addendum to my story post 36

To put it another way. I’ve been very fortunate to find work when I needed it in the surfboard business. So much of the time when I needed or wanted a job it would all most fall in my lap. This got me to thinking a few years ago that making surfboards should be what I do until I just can’t do it any more.

Now since I’ve partnered in a lam shop and am able to sell boards through Wave Front Surf Shop in Ventura pretty much all I think about is making surfboards. As an example… I’ve just completed a new model we’re calling the Tip Tool. It’s a combination of designs rolled into one board for small summer type waves and nose riding. A nice turning board because of the tail shape but also a good nose riding vehicle.

But, for me it’s not just the shape, which is primary of course, I want to develop a board that has more than the look of the shape. So incorporating color and lamination schemes for a distinctive look is important as well.

I’ve got so many shapes in the archives that to come up with something is not that hard for me but to work up lamination and color ideas can take some deep thought. To do different color work but still stay within the traditional surfboard color and line parameters can take some time to develop. As well, seeing something in my head may not turn out like what I thought.

It’s a great feeling when it comes together. I’m so fortunate when it does.

D.R.

The Tip Tool

My story post 36

It’s really pretty amazing how many times things have fallen into place for me and surfboards. From my first shaping job in Ventura to shaping for Dick Brewer.

After returning to live with my parents in December of ’67 I hitch hiked across the country and ended up staying that winter in Connecticut until spring broke and I found a Surfer magazine at the New Canaan drug store news rack. I saw those surf pictures in the magazine and had to get back to California to surf.

Yeah, I knew I didn’t belong in New England. I needed to be where I could spend time at the beach… surfing. I had this feeling I was missing out on something and made immediate plans to get back to surfing. Which included quitting the factory job I had, buying a plane ticket to L.A.X. and finding my way back to Ventura.

After making the flight back to California and getting picked up at the airport by my brother who took me to our parents house. My parents, especially my mom, wondering what I was going to do with myself. She could see the far away look in my eyes because all I could think about was finding my way back to where I knew I had friends and could surf…. Ventura.

After a couple days staying with my parents I told my mom I was going up to Ventura. “How you going to get there” she asked.. “ I’ll hitch a ride.” I told her. She didn’t like that but what was she to do? And hitch a ride is what I did.

My last ride took me to ‘C’ St. just a few blocks from the Morey-Pope shop where I was hoping my friend Peter was still working. Sure enough when I walked around the back of the shop thinking I’d check in the back door, there was Peter. He jumped up and we greeted each other, caught up for a few minutes and then he asked what I was up to. “I’m back” I said, then he told me that Morey was out at the health food store “ go look him up”.

Actually I think Peter drove me there. I found Morey sitting at the counter having a protein shake and told him I was back. We had a brief conversation and I walked away with a shaping job. And just like that I was back at it.

D.R.

Photo by Nathan Dorn

My Story post 35

Sometimes good things come to those that wait.

I was sitting in my VW bus one afternoon at the point all by myself lamenting the junk surf conditions when another guy pulled up in his bus… then the two of us were looking at the junk surf with no one out and nobody else around.

I got out of my car and into his for the company and to complain about the south wind blowing out the surf. We talked story for a half hour…. maybe longer. The wind had actually died out but a south wind leaves the conditions pretty bad for at least a few hours or longer depending on whether or not a west or north west wind picks up to smooth things up.

It really sucks when all you have is time, there’s surf, but it’s blown out. So there we were the two of us with no one else around. The only guys dumb enough to not find something to do but stare at the ocean when the surf was so beat up.

Then we noticed a sweeper set come pushing through the point that left the line up a fare amount cleaner than it had been… we began to perk up. A few minutes later it happens again and with in a few more minutes the surf had cleaned up and the surface conditions were nothing like the junk we’d been staring at. We both looked at each other and said “I’m gonin out!” Because we were the only guys that knew the conditions had changed we had the place all to ourselves.

That was back in 1967. Fast forward to a day in the mid nineties when I had gotten a ride to Pakala one morning and was dropped off to surf. A friend of mine was coming later to join me, surf and then I’d get a ride back home with him. But, the west wind picked up early that particular day and after I was in the water for 20 or 30 minutes the place blew out. I ended up on the beach by myself waiting for my surf buddy to show up… who was not due for a good hour or so. There I sat on the beach waiting to see my buddy walk up with a disgusted look on his face when he saw the surf was blown out.

It wasn’t long before he was to come walking down the beach when I noticed what looked like spray blowing off the backs of the waves up around the corner in front of Pakala camp… the wind was turning off shore again.

Sure enough within fifteen minutes after my friend showed up the off shores had reached around the corner to the main break and we both were on it. And, because everybody had left earlier we had the place to ourselves.

D.R.

A good way to pass the time when you’re waiting for surf.
My friend Mac and I with our guitars at Salt Pond.

Surfing has become to commercial, it’s run by clothing and accessory companies and a few surfboard labels that have grown large enough to control the majority of surfboard sales…. so they say.

I seldom look through the two major surfing publications, Surfer and Surfing magazines. I find them hard to look at and certainly not directed to my demographic. But in the past couple of weeks I’ve bought the latest issues of both. Looking to get the magazine for my son because his picture was in an ad that was in Surfing not Surfer, I made the mistake of buying Surfer. Then bought Surfing when my son informed me I’d got the wrong magazine.

So we had both magazines at the house… I looked through them, the first time in a long time I’ve picked up one of those publications. I wasn’t surprised at what I saw, but I got to thinking. Between both magazines I saw only one picture of someone riding a long board that was part of an article. Only one surfboard brand that had an ad with a long board and only a few ads with a picture of someone riding a long board, excluding the section in one of the magazines of surf schools.

I’m not going to go look now but I don’t remember pictures of alternative boards either. It’s all the pro stuff, which is fine because that’s what those mags are all about. But the funny thing is the modern short board does not hold the highest market share of surfboards sales… at least that’s what I’ve been told.

There isn’t any publication that is dedicated to long boards and alternative boards even though more of this type of board is ridden and in the water most of the time. How can that be?

No adds, no pros, no magazines hyping product, yet people buy most of their equipment at places that sell surfboards made by little known core builders. Not unlike the early days of surfing and surfboards, thankfully, surfing is still mostly the same. As Wayne Rich would say… the underground lives.

D.R

Wayne Rich with my wife and Twinkie the kid hanging ten.

My story post 34

I was in the ninth grade, before there was middle school, it was Junior High then. Junior high was grades 7,8 and 9. High school was grades 10, 11 and 12. Patrick lived across the street and was a couple years older than I. He went to a private high school and sometimes drove his mom’s station wagon… He had a license to Drive!

One day he asked if I’d like to go to the beach with him and a friend… like the next day. ‘Well yeah, but it’s a school day’ I told him. Well, his friend had a cousin that lived in Torrance Beach and he kept a few surfboards in the garage there so we could get away without boards and use the ones his friend had access to.

“So” Patrick said, “ here’s the plan. I’ll have my mom’s car. We’ll make like we’re going to school but instead drive down to Torrance get the boards and hit the surf at Torrance beach. Surf for a while, take the boards back and head home before school’s out so our parents will be none the wiser… you wanna go or what?”

I was a little apprehensive but what dim wit would say no to a chance to go surfing? OK… it was a school day, but…. I said ‘yes, I’m in’.

The next morning everything went off with out a hitch. We made our way to Torrance and the house where the surf boards were stashed. Got the boards from the garage, stuffed them in the station wagon and headed to the beach. Lucky thing Patrick’s friend knew where we were going because I sure didn’t.

It was such a nice day. Warm, sunny, light variable winds and the surf was about shoulder to head high. I’d never been to Torrance Beach, don’t remember ever going back but I still remember this particular day… the surf was fun!

Finally after surfing and hanging at the beach for a couple hours we were hungry and decided to find a small market to get a soda to go with our lunch. I packed a sack lunch just like I did every school day and had it for the trip. We ate and flipped the soda bottle caps around the parking lot of the market a bit before climbing in the car and heading back to the house to put the surfboards back.

When we got home all seemed fine. We all made like we were coming home from school just like any other day. I was a little nervous but didn’t think I let on. At home everything seemed normal… until I found my parents setting in the screened in pouch at the back of the house. Actually, my brother told me they wanted to see me. So I walked in and the first thing they asked… “So Dennis, how was school today?”

Geez… right then and there I knew something wasn’t right. They never ask me that, they had to be baiting me. Some how, someone, I didn’t know but, they knew I had ditched. Lucky for me intuition kicked in and beside the fact that I’m a terrible lier answered their question with ‘um… I didn’t go’ “You didn’t go” my mom asked. ‘No I went surfing with Patrick’

My parents were pleased I had told them the truth but didn’t let me off the hook. They wrote a note for me to take to school the next day that basically said I had an unexcused absence. I got something like 7 days after school detention. I remember sitting at a desk in detention doing my home work with maybe a dozen other kids I didn’t know and visions of a nice day at the beach surfing running through my head.

I only ditched school one other time. It was high school senior ditch day. I told my mom I wasn’t going to school that day because it was senior ditch day. I didn’t go to the beach though. I stayed home and worked on surfboards.

D.R.

My son Robin at the same age I was when I ditched school. He didn’t have to ditch, he could surf any day he wanted after school… and he did almost everyday there was a wave to ride…. Lucky kid.

What is it that makes up your favorite surf break? One thing of course is the wave. But what about the times that you surf a particular spot and how the conditions are or your performance that day that help you label a spot as your favorite, or one of your favorites anyway.

While growing up I surfed Malibu all the time. Was it my favorite place? No. That may sound dumb, after all Malibu is an all time place. Yeah, but back then my favorite spot was Secos, or Leo Carillo. Why? There were a number of reasons…. Like there were no where near as many people on the beach or in the water there. The wave is very consistent in shape. It really only blows out with a south wind.. so it’s either glassy or has a nice textured wave face. It’s tide sensitive but you can work around that. But all in all I always had a good time surfing Secos.

I really liked Hammonds Reef when I was younger too. Didn’t surf it very much but still liked going there when ever I did. And again don’t ever remember having a bad time there.

There are a couple other spots I’d say were my favorites too but everyone was a place I’d go to and have a good time. So really it’s not just the wave the makes for a spot being your favorite. It’s the mix of all the other ingredients that make surfing more than riding waves. The look of the water, what you see in the line up when you look at the beach and landscape. The feeling or vibe, the people, or lack of. And if you have a good time, time after time going there.

Visting your favorite spot can really help your stoke level too. I can remember going to a favorite spot when there were no waves just to sit on the beach and dream. Even that can make you feel good.

I’ve had or have a few favorite spots. I don’t go surf them these days so they stay a fond memory. I do think of the days I surfed my favorite spots but that’s as far as it gets. Maybe living at the beach and so close to places to surf makes it that way. I don’t know, I sure would like to go back to Kauai and surf some of my favs there.

D.R.

Secos on a day I sat on the beach and took a few pictures.

How many go outs should you give yourself and a new surfboard to get acquainted?

Lets say you’ve got a new board that is not the same type board you’ve been riding. So how long do you give yourself to figure it out. 1, 2, 3 go outs? I’ve heard guys say if the board doesn’t work for them by the second go out it’s over.

I just don’t get that. But I guess if you think you know what you like and don’t immediately find it…

Really is there a surfboard that doesn’t work? Realistically, if the board floats and you can paddle the darn thing into a wave and the wave scoops you up it works. It may be squirrelly or you may not be launching and sticking giant airs or hanging ten but if you can catch a wave with it I’d say it works.

That’s extreme I know but what’s also realistic is it may take some time to get a certain board down. There may be a longer learning curve with some boards than others. Of course one of the problems these days are the crowds. We don’t get as many at bats these days so you don’t want to waste the few waves you get on your go out with trying to understand a new piece of equipment.

It’s best to try new stuff in good conditions not sloppy junk surf.

If a board seems stiff it may be the fins not the board.

As well if the board seems squirrelly it may be the fins.

If the board has more foam volume than you’re used to slow your moves down.

If the board has less foam volume than you’re used to keep a low stance or center.

Think and move through one maneuver at a time… like a bottom turn. After the turn let the board follow through before you set up another move.

If you continually have trouble ask someone who knows surfing for some help in figuring the board out. Figuring out new equipment will help your surfing, even if it is finding out what you don’t like.

D.R.

After a nice session with old or new equipment it’s always nice to have it set in your memory with a scene like this one.

Photo by Matt Riley.

What drives surfboard design? Is it the pros, the shapers that build boards for the pros? Is it the regular core guy that asks a shaper to make a board a certain way? Or….?

It’s probably all of the above…. To some degree anyway. The pro boards are pretty generic. There is a direction professional surfing seems to move and everything and everyone that follows it stays in that narrow design parameter. Pro riders have there own ideas for what works for them, so boards are made around those ideas.

For instance, when I worked at Hawaiian Blades and shaped boards for Kaipo Jaquias in ’97 he liked a pretty flat board over all. As well, he liked a wider nose on his boards. So we made his boards to his interests. And the boards that went to Japan under the Kaipo model where like his boards. I can’t imagine any of the pros that don’t shape there own boards being any different.

The local board builder may simply follow what is happening around him. See a particular board and make one like it. Surf it and have the guys that ride his boards surf it and get feed back on how it goes. Make changes and develop a board design that way.

Now, as has been said, the field is wide open. Surfboard design has almost no boundaries. And surfers are not adverse at trying deferent things. Because of the interest in trying different things it’s seems board design has moved away from the narrow pro board parameters.

Core shapers get ideas and develop those ideas via the guys that ride their boards, refining what works along the way. As these new and or different designs get noticed interest is built and surfers begin to buy the boards they see the local core guys riding. This isn’t any different than the way pro board designs get developed really.

So… surfboards are designed by surfers, at least the ones that work. It’s an evolving process that circles around the core and pro surfers that want to improve their surfing and explore ways to ride a wave.

D.R.

I’ve been reading the book “Surfboards” by Guy Motil. Loaded with interesting reading about surfboard history, it’s full of pictures of surfboards from redwood planks to modern day pro boards and everything in between.

The last chapter, Contemporary Surfboards, gets into what the writer calls the alternative surfboard or alt boards. With a quotes… one from Duncan Campbell “ I think the alternative board movement is good because it focuses on technique; surfboard design isn’t just pro-driven anymore.” And shaper Scott Raymond Henry “We went through design evolution so quickly the first time around… every three or four months we were onto something new” With Gary Linden adding “ Nowadays shapers get a chance ot reevaluate the old designs and see what’s valid from a futuristic point of view; when things are progressing rapidly you tend to forget what basic design elements work”

I can relate to those comments, as well, that particular chapter of the book. Though I’ve shaped plenty of tri fin short boards, or Thrusters, and even shaped boards for a top 5 ISP competitor, I personally have only had one standard Thruster type board, which I liked very much BTW. And it hasn’t been until now that I’ve got a name for all the boards I’ve built for myself over the last 3+ decades…. Alternative.

The very first tri fin I made for myself was different, it was egg shaped, I got laughed at, but now a tri fin egg shape is real common. I had been surfing a 6’3 single fin hull for about a dozen years until 1982 when I made that first tri fin for myself. It seemed natural to make one egg shaped because I’d been riding an egg shaped board for so long. I change the foil and rail line of course but it still was not the run of the mill look. The board worked great and I moved on to yet other boards that weren’t run of the mill.

Now that the alt board thing is around doing something different is even more fun than in times past. I get nice comments about my perimeter stringer stubbie quad every time I take it to the beach. One of the guys that rode the 5’11 stubbie quad I’ve got being passed around right now said “this board is hilarious”. He was riding it really well, so I think has comment was a compliment.

I like being different.

D.R.

My story post 33, the lost files…

My long time friend Bob told me a couple months ago he had a board he’d like me to look at and tell him if I thought I shaped it. It was a board from the early seventies under the Pure Fun Flyers label. I remember the name but… So, this past week Bob came by the shop with his seventies board and the story of how he got it.

One day a guy went by Ventura Surf Shop looking to sell the board. When Blinky saw it he bought it, and got Bob to come by and give it a look. Bob being the guy who had a small shop on Front street in Ventura back in the day, the boards he had made and sold were the Pure fun Flyers. He was of course interested in seeing the board. When Bob saw the board he was stoked and bought it. Really who wouldn’t? it’s in such good shape and besides it’s part of his history.

Bob brought the board to the shop so I could see it and determine if I had shaped it as well, to give it a little touch up work. He has a spot on the wall of his pool room, or is that billiards room, where the board will look nice.

I see the board and think ‘wow that is really clean’ and Bob asks “ do you think you shaped it?” I say ‘ well judging by its looks I suppose I could have but, I don’t remember ever shaping any boards with this label’ Bob says “ what are you talking about? You shaped a bunch of boards for me under this label. Blinky says if you did you would have signed it but there’s no writing on it except the number on the tail 529.”

‘Well, I tell Bob, I didn’t always sign boards back then. As a matter of fact I hardly ever signed board back then. So that doesn’t matter. But the 529 very well could be my writing.’

As we continue to talk some of the pieces begin to fit together for me. I did shape boards for another guy at the time under the Natural Motion label and Bob would have me do his boards too. Since the number is in ink and the board has an ink pin line on it I start thinking I may have laminated the board as well.

Man, how can I have a void in my memory like that and not remember shaping boards with that label. Are there any others out there? Lets see, Ryder Surfboards, Morye-Pope, William Dennis, Wilderness, Natural Motion, a few for Con, Hawaiian Blades, Dick Brewer, John Perry, JD… who am I missing?

I got to thinking about the Pure Fun Flyer and remembered an outline I saw in my archives. I dug it out yesterday and sure enough I think if I lay that outline over Bob’s board it will fit.

D.R.

Knowing your idiosyncrasies is important to having a good time in the water… at least for me it does.

Yesterday I surfed for about two and a half hours. A pretty long go out for me in the winter. Usually an hour and a half is enough of the cold, but yesterday wasn’t to cold so I hung for awhile longer. Reason being, it was way to crowded for the consistency, 3 or 4 slightly overhead set waves every five or eight minutes is not enough waves to fill the needs of 25 guys in a very uniform lineup. I kept hoping the crowd would thin out so I could get a little more action than I was getting…. It just didn’t happen.

One idiosyncrasy, I didn’t paddle out where I had a view of the line up. When I go out at the point or pipe when there is surf of decent size and I don’t get a view of the line up as I’m paddling out for some reason my timing gets off. Funny, even though I’ve surf these places thousands of hours I still get disoriented sometimes if I don’t get a look at the line up a certain way.

At the point if I don’t paddle out going up into the line up I just don’t get a good enough feel of the oceans rhythm to be set up for a good surf session. Yesterday I paddled out at the top of the point. Aside from getting picked off just as I reached the impact zone, another bad omen, I still never got a good look at the line up.

I didn’t catch a wave for at least 10 or 15 minutes either, which is another idiosyncrasy. I’ve got to get on my feet within the first few minutes in the water or my rhythm gets off. As well, the tide was dropping, I do better on a static tide or in coming tide.

So after two and a half hours I got a few OK slides and finally caught a wave that took me far enough down the point to call it quits. I don’t know… maybe the surf wasn’t as good as it looked.

Oh well, I sure have been enjoying the 7’0 stubbie quad I’ve been riding though!

D.R.

D.R. photo by David Puu.

My story post 32

As a teenager I read stories in the surf magazines about guys in Hawaii surfing big waves and being out when the horizon would disappear. I always wondered what the heck that meant…. It sounded ominous.

In winter 1967 I went up to Santa Maria with my sister and brother in-law Jerry to visit my Dad. My bother in-law surfed and we both thought that we would take our boards on the trip. Santa Maria is not that far away from Pismo Beach and some other spots. With our boards we could go look for surf on our weekend visit.

So Saturday morning we set out from my Dad’s house to surf and ended up at Morro Bay. I’d never been there but we found our way out to a spot at the giant rock that sits at the head of the bay. And what we saw when we drove up was some pretty good looking surf… a nice peak that broke into what looked like deep water along the rock where there was a deep water paddle out zone.

Though from our vantage point which was some distance from the surf zone and above the beach the surf looked good, and there was nobody out. So we got on our wetsuits, grabbed our boards and worked our way down the rocks to the waters edge.

When we jumped into the water we where surprised to find that we didn’t have to paddle because the water along the rock had a big rip current that took you right out to the line up. We really didn’t know where the line up was but when we got out to where it looked like the surf was consistently breaking we paddled out of the rip and over to the surf.

One thing for sure was the surf was much larger in the water than it looked like from the car. As well the current along the rock very strong and the size of the rock was spooky…. Then a set came.

So there we were, in the water all by ourselves and no one on the beach at a place we’d never been and looking at an on coming set that was much larger than we’d thought we’d seen from the beach… As the first waves came at us Jerry took off. I watched to see how Jerry had done with the wave but couldn’t tell because the surf was to big to see a rider from the back, he was gone and I was by myself.

I turned around only to see another set coming at me, but further out than where we were lined up for the previous one. I started paddling out as fast as I could and as I rose up the wave face of the first wave reached its top and looked over it to see what was next all I could see was feathering waves all the way to the horizon. I couldn’t see the end of that set and I couldn’t see the horizon. The wave right in front of me was feathering and so were the waves behind it.

I paddled as hard as I could to make it over the next wave. I thought if I’d get picked off by one these giant waves there was no way I’d be able to stay with my board and without my board I’d be done for sure. As I stroked up the wave face it capped just to my left and I thought I’d made it over. But the blast off the breaking wave caught me and bounced me completely around and somehow I was sliding down the wave face. Now prone and sliding down the wave I thought the best thing was to stay that way because if I stood up and then fell I’d be with out my board and in more trouble. As I slid down the wave scooting back a bit so I wouldn’t pearl at the bottom. I held on for dear life as I reached the bottom and prepared for the white water blast.

When it was over and I was on the beach I knew what it meant to see the horizon disappear.

D.R.

Surf breaking outside the Ventura pier

Care and feeding of your surfboard.

Over the last few times I’ve been down at the beach I’ve noticed a few guys do stuff with their boards that just rubs me the wrong way.

There are plenty of recommended care procedures for EPS / Epoxy boards like ‘don’t leave them in the sun or hot car etc. but in reality about every recommended practice for the EPS and Molded boards is what we all should have been doing with our traditional Polyurethane / Polyester boards.

No matter what kind of board you have it’s best to follow certain do and don’t practices that will help keep your board in good health and give you added use.

If you travel to and from the beach with your board in racks on top of your car always have the board in a good bag or board sock. Without the bag your board will be exposed to the sun for whatever length of time you have it on your car. Even on over cast days the UV exposure is not good for a surfboard.

When you get to the beach never put your board on the pavement…. Unless it’s still in a bag. If you absolutely have to put a board on the pavement turn it bottom up so contact with the ground is only on the nose and tail.

Absolutely never wax your board with it laying on pavement… I saw a guy doing that a week or so ago and from across the street I could hear the sound of crackling fiberglass from the small rocks the board had been set on. Geez… made my skin crawl.

If you hang at the beach for several hours don’t leave your board in the sun between go outs. If there’s no shade and you’re close to your car put the board in it’s bag and set it under your car. If you can’t do that put a towel over it on the beach while between go outs.

Strip the wax off your board every couple months. Give it a complete cleaning and when it’s all clean give it a good look for any small cracks or shatters that may need fixing. Check the fin boxes and plugs to make sure there are no cracks around them. It’s real common to see cracks at the front of the long box on a long board, or 2 plus one set up. Always keep your board water tight.

If you take care of your boards they will give you much more lasting enjoyment.

D.R.

Early 90's surf trip

Three more days and aloha 2008! Time flies when you’re having fun….

It’s been a year to remember, aside from being an election year here in the states, the media and powers that be talking so loud about the big financial melt down, you’d have to say the surf industry is seeing a slow down.

I think one of the best things that’s happened in the surf industry at least in California this year is the blank market has seemed to settle in. We’ve got a few good blank companies now that have worked through most of the idiosyncrasies of surf board foam and the people that buy it.

For me… it’s been good. I’ve got my Perimeter Stringer Long board Quad… the PSQ, which I started selling the first of this year after several months of testing in 07. I am now offering the Stubbie Quad which I will be doing some refinements on in the coming year as well as a couple new traditional long boards I’m planning to work on and offer in the new year and, of course all my other models. My lam shop is in its second year and hopefully we’ll see at least business sustain itself through the coming year. We may even have a booth at the Sacred Craft Expo in May at the Ventura County Fair Grounds.

As the new year comes to us we look back and reflect and look forward to what can be. I look back and am thankful for all the people that have bought my boards and brought lam work our way. I look forward to the work I’ve got now and how I will continue to refine my trade and make a better surfboard.

Stoked and waiting for surf.

Happy New Year!

D.R.

My Wife and I and all the grandkids, Christmas eve ‘08

What does a surfer do when the surf goes dead flat and stays that way for days on end?

The short answer… you go crazy.

If you’re still able… skate board.

Take time to patch dings on your boards.

When the dings are patched strip wax and clean your boards.

Clean the sand out of you car.

Put your wetsuits through the gentle cycle in the washing machine.

Watch surf movies.

Get depressed after watching surf movies because there’s no surf.

Go visit relatives all along not feeling like your missing something… like surf, and you aren’t missing anything because there is no surf…. you keep telling yourself.

Hang with your surf buddies.

Pic from the 1970’s courtesy of Doug Galati.

This house is right on the beach and take notice , the three guys are looking at the camera and the guy on the right ( Mike ) is looking out at the surf. Does he have the look on his face like ‘ is it flat or what’ ? Actually I don’t know if there was surf that day or not, just guessing.

The surf here is pretty much dead flat and has been for a week now. I could say it’s a good thing because Christmas is just a few days away and I don’t have a conflict with needing to do Christmas stuff and surfing at the same time.

Yeah, spent the last couple days shopping with my wife, and amazingly wasn’t conflicted at all. We went downtown Ventura yesterday and went to Carpinteria today.

Happy Holidays!

D.R.

Surfing a hull is different than surfing a multi-fin board. Contemporary foiled multi-finned boards are generally surfed off the tail, with the fins and hard edged bottoms they will hold a high line. Not so with a hull…

No, hulls won’t hold a high line. Saying that will bring questions to most like: Why would I want a board that won’t hold a high line.. that’s where the speed is? That’s a good question but to surf a hull it’s best to understand how a hull works.

There is a method to riding a hull that depends on your ability to maintain control of weighting your board in the right places down the wave face. Taking off you will slide down the wave face and weight into a turn at the bottom. After banking your board over on its rail and weighting into the turn you will drive your board down the line and because you stood up into your turn… weighted…. The board will climb up the wave face. As you come to the top of the wave you must un-weight the board so #1. it will stay with the wave and #2. if you’re on a lined up wall you won’t slip or spin out.

That first set of moves… take off, setting your edge, turn and climb give you a load of speed and once you’ve returned to the top of the wave you are ready to repeat the slide down the wave face setting your edge and climbing back up the wave face and gaining more speed.

There are many variations of where and how you will work your way along a wave face gaining speed, turning back, slowing down, riding in under and through white water but all the moves are dependent on maintaining control of weighting the board.

1. Sliding to the bottom of the wave.

2. Setting your edge for the drive back to the top.

3. Flying across the top.

4. Un-weighting to the bottom.

5. Setting your edge again.

The video clip shows the basic rhythm to weighting down the line and gaining speed along the way. You can see the momentum after Travis pulls out and still slides some distance from the speed generated from surfing a hull.

D.R.

There have always been conscientious craftsman in the surfboard industry but I think for the most part they are usually over looked and as surfboard lengths shortened over time the way we made boards changed as well.

During the seventies as surfboards continued to evolve there was a fair amount of attention to making boards that not only rode well but also looked appealing too. If you find any vintage boards from that decade you see color and line work all done with resin that by 1980 had become all but forgotten. Not that color was absent but the color changed from resin work to air brush paint work.

Air brush color is quick. Take a shaped blank, spray some color on it, let it dry for a couple hours and then go laminate it. You can do fades, panels, rail bands, stripes or even killer graphic art work via air brush. That’s all fine but the interest was to simplify the fabrication process so it didn’t take as long to make a surfboard. By the nineties color was not as much a component of the process. When fin systems took hold and we didn’t have to do glass on fins… making a surfboard was simplified even more. Sanding a board with out fins was the best thing to come to surfboard production sense foam blanks.

With out glass on fins the surfboard became much easier to make and with the ease came the hack job, get it done, get it quick, get it cheap kind of surfboard. “Yeah man, clear free lap sand only to 120… your board is ready.” Short board, long board it didn’t matter. What was important was getting the board done and for as little dollars as possible. Go surf the thing and when it’s lost that fresh feel toss it and get another.

The poorly crafted board at first glance may not look any different than a very well crafted board. Can you tell by looking at the tail of your new board if there is good glass coverage around the corners? Probably not. Can you tell what glass schedule your board has on it by feel or look? No.

If you don’t know that your board was made by a top drawer board crafter you generally won’t know how well your boards are made until after you’ve surfed them.

D.R.

The compound color lam.

The evolution of surfboard weights and consequently strength is sometimes over looked in the discussion of a surfboards life span.

When I started surfing the foam and fiberglass surfboard was the standard. There were a few wood boards around but really weren’t sold much if at all commercially. My second board was balsa but I made it from an old board that I stripped down, reshaped and re-glassed.

For the most part boards in the early sixties were about 30 to 35 pounds, and generally were between 9’6 and 10’ in length, 23 to 24 inches wide and in the 3 inches thick range. The foam was a bit more dense. As an example, the common weight of surf blanks now is between 20% and 40% lighter than foams of the early sixties. That means if you have a 9 foot blank now that weights around 10 pounds the comparable blanks from the early days would be 2 to 4 pounds more. A short board blank, unshaped, that weights around 5 pound would have been around 6 or 7 pounds… of course there were no short board blanks then.

Now that dosen’t seem like much but, in the sixties a typical stringer was ¾ inch redwood or maybe 2 inch balsa. Now? A longboard will have a ¼ inch to 3/8 inch stringer and short boards 1/8. The difference in wood weight could be as much as 2 or 3 pounds.

The glassing schedule of the old boards was considerably heavier, and there was a reason… surfboards weren’t attached to your leg back then. If you fell and lost your board it was vulnerable and could get a whacking from other surfers and their boards and or what ever was on the beach… like rocks… the boards final resting place if you couldn’t catch up to it before it got to shore.

The typical glass job before we started making boards lighter was 20 oz glass top and bottom. That’s 2 layers of 10 ounce cloth for the deck and bottom of your board. One layer from each side would lap so you had 30 ounces on the rails. That is a significant difference in what boards are glassed with now.

Is it needless to say that boards held up better before the foams became lighter and the glassing schedules were reduced to less than half of what they once were? So… how did this happen?

For me, I didn’t need a heavy glass job because I got better at surfing and didn’t loose my board so I could glass it lighter…. Maybe 2 layers of 8 ounce. Then I liked the lightness and went to one layer of 8 on the bottom and 2 layers on the deck. When boards got shorter we wanted them lighter as well so a layer of 8 on the bottom and a layer of 8 on the deck with a 2/3 8 patch was good. It kept going, next it was 6 once cloth instead of 8. 8 ounce cloth is actually 7 ½ once by the way.

Stringers kept getting thinned down too, from ¾ inch to ½ to ¼ . Some boards in the late sixties and into 1970 had 1/16 stringers.

When guys started attaching their boards to their legs and didn’t have to worry about a lost and probably dinged up board in the process we started glassing boards with 4 ounce cloth. And all along the blanks were lighter too.

It was surfers that wanted lighter boards. As boards got lighter and lighter I don’t remember anyone complaining that they also got damaged easier or even broke. Now… it’s not uncommon for surfers to complain that boards don’t last long and get bust up easy. Yet it’s been surfers all along that have wanted their boards made the very way they are now… light and destructible.

D.R.

It was a few weeks ago when Blinky came into the shop and asked if I ever thought I’d be making surfboards when I was sixty. At the time I wasn’t quite sixty… my birthday was this past Friday the 21st.

My wife, son and daughter decided to host a 60th birthday party for me and was planned for yesterday. It may have taken my wife a month to get an invite list from me, not that I procrastinated but I’m so self conscience about stuff like that. Anyway, come 6 pm yesterday evening people began arriving until the house was full. What a great time!

My wife told me she was thinking about having the party catered and asked what I thought of “ L & L” the local Hawaiian BBQ place. I said ‘are you kidding? That would be great! ‘ I love that place, Suzi and I go there all the time…. Geez, Friday special Lau Lau, Spam musubi . She was afraid some people wouldn’t like it, but I said don’t worry about it, I like it and how could anyone not? Well, she followed through and we had the best grinds a party could ask for.

When David Puu walked in and greeted me he said “ I didn’t even bring my camera”. I replied saying ‘that’s good, you should be able to go somewhere relax and not worry about missing out on a good photo moment'. Funny though, when everyone filled in and he saw the depth of the gang he said “ I should have brought my camera!”. Of course if he had his camera he would’ve taken the picture instead of being in the picture. We got a group shot of some of the guests.

From left to right kneeling: in front is Rachel Jorgensen one of the few female board crafters, also one of my partners at Studio 609 Board Craft. Then David Puu, though now a photographer, a long time board builder under the Morning Star label.

From left to right standing: Steve Huerta, Huerta-McNair Surfboards, Spencer Kellogg, Surfboards by Spence, Sammy Cammack, Sueno Surfboards and also production manager of Fletcher Designs Surfboards, Wayne Rich, Wayne Rich Surfboards, Bill ‘Blinky’ Hubina, William Dennis Surfboards, Myself, Chris Fallon, the most talented paint and line guy in the 805, as well as my partner in Studio 609. And finally Mike Smith, though not a board builder he does have his own ‘Mike Smith nose rider model’ for William Dennis and just happens to be the Mayor of “C” Street.

I had a party for my 30th birthday and was told back then I was over the hill. Now at 60 I’m told I’m over the hill. So what? I wasn’t over at 30 and I’ve been still climbing the hill for the past 30 years? No wonder I’ve been so tired all the time.

D.R.

The Hostess, My beautiful wife Suzi.