We are one month into winter where I am in the northern hemisphere. That means the ocean temperature is a bit cold in my neck of the woods. How cold you might ask?

Well, lets just say after living in the tropics where the water temps could be easily 80 degrees, maybe a couple ticks to a few ticks lower in the winter months…. That’s translates to a 20 to close to a 25 degree difference for where I’m surfing now. Depending on the time of year.

Do I need to say surfing in the warmer waters is way better? This may have been said before but, it’s been 14 years now since I left our Ventura in town home where the daytime temperatures don’t fluctuate too much. Winter months can and do get chilly. Maybe down to the upper 40’s at night and early morning at the peak of winter. Day time temps will typically be 60 + - or better. With the warmer months being 60’s 70’s and even 80 or so at times.

Now… I’m about 7 miles from the beach. The last couple of days there has been snow on the mountains inland and visible from here. Even visible from the beach in town. Right now as I’m writing it’s 52 at the beach and 7 miles inland it’s 56. At 7a.m. this morning it was 35 degrees where I am and about 48 the same time at the beach.

Did I say I don’t like cold water??? Well, I don’t like cold weather either. A few days ago, I was thinking I’d really like to get down to the beach in the morning and surf….. maybe. I’ll beef up the wet suit and it will be doable. When I got up and checked the temperature outside before I was to head out it was 32 degrees. Sure, it was warmer at the beach by maybe 8, 10 degrees but, at 32 I was not interested in even going outside let alone go surf.

I said to myself…. ‘I’m too old for this’.

Ok, I know… you’re only as old as you feel. Well, I know another thing. If I was in the tropics looking to go surf in the morning, I wouldn’t be feeling old at all. Even if it was the end of January. Now maybe too old if the surf was on the very large size. So, then you just go to another spot that’s not taking the swell as strong and surf there.

Got to love the tropics.

D.R.

 Four of a kind. Delivered to Core Surf in Florida some time ago.

Image nicked from. 

https://www.instagram.com/maclarensstories/

Thank you!

Last month on the 27^th the day before Thanksgiving the sale of our home and property was finalized.  We were given until 11:59 pm Monday December 2 to be completely moved out.

During the process I pulled the outline patterns from my destroyed shop. Then got in the garage rafters and pulled down the outlines stored there. The below picture is the pile I gathered. 

These have come from 57 years of shaping for 11 different surfboard labels or you could say a dozen if you include my own label as well.  I counted them, which I’d never done before. Had no reason to but when I looked at the pile I got curious.

There are 62 hard copy surfboard outlines in that pile. That seems like a lot. With out knowing what might be normal for 57 years of history or what anyone else with a long history in surfboards has…. How would you know what is normal.

I sometimes have customers come to me with a favorite board and ask if I will make them a board like it. My answer is ‘I don’t copy surfboards but, let me grab a couple outlines and lay over your board. Most likely I’ve got something that will match’.  It may take a couple curves to get the same lines but it seems to always happen.

Kind of nice having some nice curves….

Happy New Year!

D.R.

A few customers with their new boards

 This one is a Classic Penetrator

Bradon with his new Classic Machine

Ryan with one DR V and one Imperial

Vince at Rincon driving a bottom turn on The 67

Meg smiling with here new Gadget.

Besides seeing some customers at the beach, which is always nice. Because my workshop is still not usable, I've really been missing seeing and talking surfboards with my customers. 

D.R.

 

 Summer is officially over. And what a summer it wasn’t.

Here in Ventura we received one decent summer swell. And it was during the Ventura County Fair. Getting a nice south swell during the Fair is predictable. It last for 10 days so getting something during those 10 days is likely.

Thing about the fair is that parking gets shut down. The formally free lot gets closed and the pay lot up into pipe is also closed. So the only place to park close to the beach is at inside point. That gets filled up during the Fair before sun up if there is a swell. And that’s what happened the day of the only decent south swell this now past summer.

Fortunately when I got down at the point, when it was still dark, I found a parking space so I could park and go for a walk up the point as the day was just getting light. Check the conditions, see where the swell was focused and of course see all the guys that would have parked up in the upper lot, that was closed, walk all the way up to Pipe. Some guys even running. Not that the surf was that great but it takes several minutes to get up there and then several minutes to get back to you vehicle after you surf. When you’ve got to get to work every minute is crucial.

Not everyone will make the trek up to Pipe so they just go out at the point or surf inside point. Which makes for very crowed conditions. Even though the swell produce pretty consistent sets unless you were really aggressive getting a set wave was though. This ole guy wasn’t feeling very aggressive that day so I got a whopping 4 waves during the hour plus I was in the water.

Days like that have me longing for my younger days when there where fewer surfers and you could surf for a hour or two and get worn out. Getting plenty waves and lots of paddling to get back in the lineup for another go at it.

The other thing about this now past summer was the water temperature…. call it cold. Wearing a winter suit into June is a bit much. But if you didn’t want to shiver for an hour…. Well that’s what if did. It did finally warm up but didn’t stay that that way. Even now the water is just above 60 degrees. The water temps last winter got pretty cold so looks like there could be repeat of cold water  this winter.

With no real summer surf maybe we’ll get some nice fall surf. In my neck of the woods fall can offer up some nice consistent surf.

Hoping for the best.

D.R.

 My wife and I have been going through some stuff we’ve had in storage. In a box of board games this surfaced….

                                                 

Anyone ever seen this. I can’t say I tried playing the game and honestly don’t remember anything about it.

It looks to be laid out like the game of Monopoly. There are 2 sets of cards that a player gets to draw from similar to Monopoly that are labeled Trivia and Challenge. 

So what the heck… lets look at what these cards say.

Challenge Question: What was the first surf magazine called?

The answer says, The Surfer

I don’t think that’s right. I believe it’s just Surfer, or Surfer Magazine.

Ok, another one: What does ASP stand for?

The answer says, Association of Surfing Professionals.

Kind of dated since the ASP is no longer. I’m pretty sure we have the WSL. World Surf League. The games was made in 1996… we’ve moved on from then.

How ‘bout a Trivia card.

Is there really a famous surfer known as “Da Bull”?

Answer says, Yes. But the card doesn’t say his name. Sad that one, The late Greg Knoll may he rest in peace.

One more: When 2 people surf together on the same board, what kind of surfing is that?

Answer, Tandem. Not sure Tandem surfing is much of a thing these days. But there it is.

Maybe I’ll post some more surf trivia question another time.

D.R

I've not updated or uploaded surfboard pictures to my web site for some time.  So there are a good 16 different models listed.

However,  here are some images of a few board models I make that are currently not listed on my web site.

D.R.

Mini T&G

The DR Vee

DR Wing Nose

DR Wing Nose

The 70’s Single Fin

 

Of the 40 some miles of coast line that is inside Ventura County about 30 of those miles one could actually live at the beach or a few blocks from the beach.

Maybe 20 miles are homes on the beach or areas that are beach breaks. Ventura town itself has a short area of home on the beach and there are some condos and apartments on the beach on the point.

As a kid if you were fortunate enough to have lived in one of those beach communities and started surfing…. well, most likely that’s what every surfer would like. The Campbell brothers Malcolm and Duncan lived along the beach in Ventura County in what is called Oxnard Shores. That’s where one of the most world renowned surfboard designs got its start. https://www.bonzer5.com/

Over the years there have been a number of surfboard labels that have come up out of Ventura County that have held up over the years. William Dennis being one of them getting started in 1967 and still being made today. Ventura surf shop is one of the longest established surf shops on the California coast and it is home for William Dennis Surfboard as well as a home for Campbell Bros.

In the early days of surfing there was Morey-Pope that had success and reach outside of its home of Ventura County. In contemporary times I’d say it’s Campbell Bros. that have certainly had success and reach outside of Ventura County. As a matter of fact, Campbell Bros have continued to grow. The reach of their unique design is global. There are very few surfboard labels that have a global audience. Not only a global audience but also a surfboard design like no other. If you know surfboards and see a Bonzer you know exactly what it is…. Not your normal run of the mill kind of shape. As well as many surfers favorite boards.

The population of Ventura County has grown in large proportions. Still certainly not as populated as other places along the coast of California. The more populated coastal towns and counties have certainly contributed to surfing and surfboards in very large ways. And I would say that Ventura has its contributions too. Both in the early days of the surfboard industry and now.

My post this past May got me started writing about all this Ventura stuff because… “I was recently told that a certain surf magazine publication turned away a story about Morey-Pope. The  60’s surfboard company from Ventura  and it’s very significant contribution to surfing and it’s history…..”

Well that Story has been published. In Australia not California https://www.pacificlongboarder.com/

Go figure.

D.R.