Is the hand shaped board going to die off? Does a machine blank make a better surfboard? What will surfboards be like when the generation of guys that can hand shape a surfboard get up in years enough to not work anymore and, or pass on?

These are curious questions for sure. I’ve seen this stuff talked about on a couple of the forums to some degree. No one really knows for sure how things will look in the future but it does make for conversation… good or bad.

Some guys say the machine is replacing the hand shaped board and that it does a better job anyway. But guess what? We get hand shaped boards in my shop for laminating by the best guys in the area and their boards are every bit as clean and balanced as any machined board I’ve seen.

No doubt that the face of surfboard crafting is changing. What will it look like in ten years? Will it change as much in the next ten years as it has in the last ten?

Ten years ago I was working at Hawaiian Blades. Most of the boards we did there went to Japan. Fin systems were starting to catch on but still a lot of boards had glass on fins. There were guys getting machined blanks but no where near what guys are doing now. There really wasn’t much in molded boards going on.

I would speculate that the machined blank will become a standard thing, if it hasn’t already. The cost of machining a blank will most likely be factored into the over all cost of making a board just the same as laminating it is.

Molded boards will continue to take market share but the custom board will still be around. Of course if government regulations limit or restrict the use of materials our boards are made of… but who knows if that will happen?

The thing I like about surfboards now is all the diversity. I saw long boards become completely extinct. I’ve seen the sport get so narrow that if you didn’t have what everyone else had for a surfboard you’d get laughed at. Now you can ride a standard short board, a traditional long board, a fish, a hull or what ever you want and it’s cool. Hopefully that aspect of surfing now will not change in the future.

D.R.

My story post 21

I really didn’t have many friends when I started working at Morey-Pope. By that time I had only been in Ventura for a couple months and been going to school. Sure I was acquainted with some of the guys down at the beach but didn’t really hang with anyone except my friend Peter.

I still remember my first day at MP and the first guy I met at the shop. I had walked back to the shaping area and there was this guy in the very back area of the shop gluing stringers in blanks. As soon as he saw me walk in he came right over to me and said “hi I’m Blinky” and shook my hand. Back then a number of surfer guys where given nicknames. I had really never known any of them but… I’d just met one. Man, I was starting to get to the heart of the culture… though back then we didn’t know that’s what it was.

So I was given the chance to make a living in the surfboard industry. Given a job which I showed up for every day, and began shaping the Morey-Pope models. Penetrators, Eliminators and Coopers model the Blue Machine. I was slow at first but eventually got up to shaping 4 boards a day. All in the nine to ten foot range. I made a killer $4.75 each.

Also back then working at a surf shop was like a regular job. We had regular working hours and if you weren’t there at those hours you’d better have a good reason… not “oh the surf was good so that’s why I’m late or didn’t come in yesterday".

All the workers surfed but we went after work or before. As a matter of fact, during the summer Cooper, Dale Herd, Blinky and myself usually headed out for surf everyday after work. The Point, Stanley’s or a trip down to Secos. Yeah, Cooper was the shop forman and he had a really good work ethic and expected everyone else to have a good one too. We worked hard and surfed after. Get home after dark and just crash. Get up the next day and do it all over again.

D.R.

My story post 20

So there the guy was eating his lunch from a brown paper bag. I introduced myself, still dripping wet from surfing, and said something like ‘you looking for a shaper?’ Cooper and I carried on a short conversation which ended with an invite to come by the Morey-Pope shop on Front St. and show him what I could do.

The next day I went by the shop and found Cooper. He took me into the back of the shop where there were 2 shaping bays. One was being used by Richard Deese and the other one was empty. Cooper got a blank and put it in the empty shaping bay, got a template for a board, told me the dimensions he wanted the board to be, showed me where the tools were and walked away.

So there I was, an 18 year old kid in a pro shaping bay with a big hunk of foam which I was suppose to turn into a nice show room quality shaped blank…. What was I thinking?

I probably spent the next 4 hours sweating my way through the process. Every once in a while Cooper would come by, see I was making progress and then go on about his business. When I got near finished he’d stop me, take a look at what I’d done and point out where he’d like me to make some changes, then I’d go on until I finished.

When I was done I took a break and when I came back got together with Cooper in the shaping bay and went over the board. He said ‘looks like you can shape’ and asked if I’d like to start working the following Monday…. I of course said yes.

D.R.

The Rileys gave me another video this week, it’s some footage of Travis riding an Imperial and a Penetrator… or as I’ve been calling it these days the Ventura Classic Wing Nose.

So I looked at the video and realized that there is a story behind it in regards to the Penetrator. I’m kind of a sap when it comes to stuff like this but, even still, this is a cool story.

I made the Penetrator for Dan, Travis’ dad, in 1994. One of the last boards I made in California before I moved to Kauai. As I understand it Dan rode the board for awhile and then hung it on his living room wall. Yeah, even his wife said it looked good in their living room. I guess Dan decided to preserve the board and that it looked so nice he’d put on display.

When Dan first picked up the board in ‘94 his son Travis was just 3 years old. Who’d of thought that some 13 years later that Dan’s two sons would get him to take the board off the wall and let them ride it… as long as they took very good care of it of course.

So both Matt and Travis have been riding their dad’s Penetrator that is like 13 years old. And because Matt is the video guy he took some footage of Travis and they edited a little surf flick. When I watched it I got to thinking how cool it was, Dad first rode the board when his son was only 3 years old and probably never thought one day that little guy would have a great time riding his board when he was 16 some 13 years later. I think that is really cool!

A good board can last through generations. One of the reasons I said back when I first started reissues of some of the old boards I use to shape… like 25 years ago, if it works don’t fix it.

D.R.

My story post 19

It was spring time, I had a part time job shaping and laminating boards for Pacific Plastics, went to school at Ventura College and surfed as much as possible.

I wasn’t thinking about summer even though it was right around the corner. I guess having a part time job would be all I needed during summer… I’d have more time to hunt for surf. But, everything was about to change and it only took about a week.

It started one day, maybe a Monday or Tuesday when my friend Peter and I were down at the point between classes looking at the surf. The surf was small, kind of wind swell stuff, but I wanted to get wet so I went out. Peter stayed on the beach… I think he had a class to go to or something. At least I remember there was some reason why he didn’t go out with me. Anyway, I was out for maybe 15 or 20 minutes getting a few waste high slides when Peter comes paddling straight out to me calling “Dennis, Dennis”.

I had to have been thinking ‘what the heck, Peter said he didn’t have time to surf, what happened someone die or something?’ Peter paddles up to me and says “Cooper’s on the beach he wants to talk to you. He’s looking for a shaper and I told him I new this guy that shaped, he’s out surfing right now. Should I paddle out and get him?... and he said yes”

Cooper was one of the surfing icons of the day, a big name, immediately recognizable and it was always cool when someone like that was at the beach or you saw him somewhere, like at a surf flick or something. He wanted to talk to me? About shaping? This was going to be a big moment for me, one like when I talked with Greg Noll. I paddled straight for the beach… well, maybe I caught a wave and rode it to the beach. I found Cooper at his car eating lunch.

D.R.

My Story post 18

When I showed up there were basically 2 surfboard labels in Ventura in 1967 not including the Ventura Plastics guys. They didn’t have a retail shop and really didn’t sell local.

So it was Morey-Pope and Tom Hale. Tom Hale was completely local. He had a small shop and sold boards through that shop. MP had a local shop but also had dealers so the MP label went out beyond the local area. I’m not sure where Tom Hale fabricated his boards, I think over somewhere around Olive St. in the area that is now a shoping center at the west end of Main St. The Morey-Pope shop was on Front St. They had a small retail shop that was integrated into the factory just over the walking bridge from the Ventura pier.

I remember Tom Hale as being the board that the local guys liked. Morey’s boards were different, though there were guys that had MP boards, the name with the local crowd I think was Tom Hale.

The local crowd did ride other labels from out of town like Yater from Santa Barbara, or Bing from down south. I rode my own boards, or actually a Bud Cravens, the guy that bought out my Ryder label when I graduated high school, still, boards that I made. Tried to get a couple local guys to ride them too.

It would be a rare occasion that you’d see the likes of Tom Morey out surfing at the point but it did happen from time to time. But the MP label was happening. They had the fin system that was used by all the big labels and they marketed the Slip Check decking spray. MP had a top rated surfer riding a signature board, ran adds in the magazines and Morey even staged the first ever professional surf contest with something like $1000 in prize money.

So the MP shop was probably the place a guy like myself would really have liked to get a job. I don’t know how I would have pulled it off, aside from going to the shop and applying for work that is. There’s a novel idea… that I don’t think ever came to mind. Besides I had a part time job making surfboards already.

D.R.

My Story post 17

Those early days in Ventura were really great. I can remember coming down from the college after classes and trying to time the traffic lights from 5 points to San Jon rd. along Thompson so you’d never get a red one. After all, a couple red lights means you could miss a good set if the surf was good.

Afternoon glass offs sitting in my VW van waiting for the tide to drop some or come up some or, waiting out the wind. You’d think it would be boring, nothing to do but go to school for a few hours and then surf. The only time I’d get bored was when there wasn’t any surf.

There was this local contingent of guys, and a couple gals that would be down at the point almost every day looking for surf. And, if there was surf they’d be out there. Sometimes I wonder where some of them are now. Well, I know where a few are and there are a few still around and still surfing.

So many days surfing you’d think maybe I’d have some memories of some epic surf. I’ve got a couple but mostly the memories are general kind of things. Like enjoying fun surf with the local guys. Or, sitting in a guys van watching some pretty junk south wind conditions, the surf all blown out. Then seeing the wind die out and a sneaker set come through that would clean the place up, and within minutes the surf was clean and not a sole around but me and a surf buddy.

BTW, we mostly surfed what I consider inside point. Often called the cove now. We wouldn’t surf much above Figueroa St, and not to much up at pipe. Funny, I here pipe called pipes now days. Why I don’t know, but for the record there used to be this big pipe that dumped this black slimy stuff from the oil fields into the ocean at the tide line right at the edge of the Ventura river. That’s why the spot was called pipe. The surf would get good there but the water could be pretty ugly.

You know I can remember the point getting pretty crowded sometimes back in the day. But it was always limited to the area below Figueroa St. Now? Geez it’s almost spooky seeing the number of people in the water on a weekend starting at inside point and going all the way to Ventura river.

You could complain about crowds in the old days but even still there were always the local guys out and everybody would know one another. Yeah, I never surfed alone back then because even if there were only a couple guys out they were always guys I new.

D.R.

What would you say if you were asked to fill a void on your high school surf team long board division but you really didn’t long board much?

Travis Riley was asked and he said OK. This was for the 06-07 ISF season. Travis had surfed long boards but didn’t consider himself a longboarder. Not being a longboarder got him started after the first surf meet at tied for 35^th, or dead last.

It seems that didn’t affect Travis to much because he continued surfing in the meets and continued to advance and rise in the standings. And come June there was one last surf meet to be held for the final standings and a surf off between the two rival teams Santa Barbara High and Ventura High.

Travis had his pick of boards to ride and at first he was going to ride my new prototype quad long board. The event was held at Pipe in Ventura and the surf… as usual for a surf meet… was not looking that great. So, Travis decided to ride an Imperial, thinking it to be the right equipment for small and somewhat sloppy surf and, his plan paid off.

Travis surfed in 3 heats. The first one was the team heat where Santa Barbara and Ventura went head to head. Travis took first place. The second heat Travis won as well which advanced him to the finals. Then he went on to take first place in the final beating out the leagues 1^st, 2^nd and 3rd place contenders and putting himself at number 4 in the over all standings for the season. From 35^th to 4^th and winning the final event! Way to go Travis, and doing it on a D.R.

Summertime.

We’ve been having a really nice summer this year here in Ventura. Usually the sky becomes overcast sometime in May and rarely breaks until sometime in July. This year we’ve had many sunny days and when it has been overcast the sun has been breaking out at some point for at least a couple hours. And I’m always saying…’if it was like this all the time I wouldn’t think about moving back to Hawaii so much’.

The water temps are in the 60’s so not to bad, and we’ve had some surf. At least something to ride, though pretty small, about every week so far.

I don’t know about you but, I’ve always like summer. Is it because as kids we didn’t have school and could just hang and do what ever and that feeling stays with us? Or, maybe when I was younger without responsibilities after shaping I'd go with the crew and hunt for surf. The days being long we’d still have plenty of time to hit Stanleys for a wind swell or run to Secos if there was a small south. We could surf right at the point too if it hadn’t blown out. All those great times and memories ingrained in the feeling of summer days.

I like summer swells a lot. The more casual surf, warmer water. Here in Ventura the south swells are a bit more steep, fun to ride, a nice hot dog kind of thing.

You can surf before work because it gets light by 5:30A and you can surf after work because it’s not dark until after 8:00P. I got some nice surf with light crowds with this last south swell. Went down to surf between 6:30p and 7:00p a couple days in a row and had a great time.

I think maybe I’ll get up early tomorrow and surf before I go into the shop…. Summertime.

D.R.

I’m a Lucky guy part 2.

My shop had been in need of a cleaning. The floors haven’t been redone for 6 months. As well there were a few things I’ve been wanting to upgrade around the place.

Well, I decided Friday, Saturday and if need Sunday to take care of putting down new floors and the upgrade work. My son helped with the floor along with the Riley boys on Friday. The job took about 3 or 4 hours and went well. Thanks so much guys!

My wife was out too, with food, snacks and hydration. And she helped out around the place as well. As a matter of fact, she came out about mid day Friday and stayed with me working and cleaning up until about 7 p.m.

Then Saturday she came out with me and continued to help out all day Saturday. We didn’t leave the shop until around 5 p.m. Went home for dinner and then went out to Lowe’s to pick up the material I needed to complete the projects I started earlier. This morning, Sunday now, we went out for breakfast and then my wife came with me again to the shop and spent the whole day helping around the place until I was finally finished at 6 p.m.

She is so supportive and helpful, hanging with me until we’re done. I’ve got to be one of the luckiest guys.

D.R.

Growing up as a surfer… you get started early. In this case 6 years old. Go for paddle outs with your ole man on his tanker.

When you graduate to going out on your own it’s with the ole man but on one of his other boards, not your own. And when you finally get your own board it is special made, it’s 6’0 but only as wide as the length of your arm so you can carry it to the beach by yourself.

The only way you go surfing is either with your dad or your mom takes you when the ole man is busy. Though eventually you get to go on your own. And because you live within walking distance to the beach, a nice point by the way, it’s not that difficult. As a matter of fact, the ole man makes you a rickshaw so the trip is made easy on your bicycle.

Surfing becomes virtually an everyday thing. So much so that when your dad comes home from work and needs you for something but you’re not home he knows right where you are. One of three locations along the point, where you always surf.

Your parents never worry about you being at the beach by yourself because your ole man has plenty surfer friends and they all know you and keep their eye on you when you’re surfing. So in reality you aren’t alone anyway.

As you grow up surfing is ingrained into who you are and what you do. Though you do other things you love the beach and most likely will always surf. And when you do, alot of the times it's with your ole man, just like when your were young.

A short story of my son Robin.

D.R.

The difference between boards.

Having videos is really a nice thing. Being able to review how a board is riding as well as how you are surfing is made easy via replays of video.

We’ve got video of Travis Riley riding the Quad and an Imperial. The Quad being a high performance long board that weights around 15 lbs. and the Imperial, a retro long board or traditional single fin that weights around 23 lbs.

Travis weights in at 150 lbs. the Quad is 9’1 and 22 ¼ wide. The Imperial in the video Travis is riding is 10’ and 23 ½ wide. He surfs both boards well and with the videos you can see the differences in the way each board works under his feet. The Quad is lively and bounces around a bit. The Imperial being a heavier board you can see the stability and glide. Among other things of course.

Is it a question of which one do you like or what one would you prefer to ride? Or, is it a question of which one should I ride at a certain break in certain conditions? Would you want one over the other or would you want both, and use them as surf and conditions dictate? Or mood for that matter.

D.R.

Travis riding the Quad

Travis on the Imperial

My story post 16

I’m not sure how many weeks went buy after I moved to Ventura and started going to school, but I eventually found a job. My guess is it was probably sometime in April 1967. I know I applied at a small number of locations for a job but the only one I remember right now is Colonel Chicken. Seems odd to me now because I don’t think I’m the type to work at a place like that. Up to that point I’d had a paper route or two, been a box boy at a grocery store, had my own little back yard surfboard business, and worked in a boat yard. Oh yeah, and a short time as a draftsman.

More on the boat yard…. I had the job, among other things, of grinding the inside of fiberglass boat hulls. The task was to feather out the seams where the different layers of roving and mat overlapped. Holding down the power of a 5000 rpm grinder with a 36 grit disc on it, standing or kneeling inside grinding the fiberglass of a boat hull? That was first class job misery. I didn’t last long…. How ‘bout getting inside the hull and doing the hand lay up? I didn’t do that, it was more skilled labor, but there were guys that did!

So one day I heard that this company that made surfboards was hiring, I went and applied. I had a nice looking application for this place because I could say that I was once the owner of Ryder Surfboards. And, know all aspects of board building. I got the job, part time because I was going to school. I’d report for work in the afternoons.

The Company was Pacific Plastics, they made what we all have called popouts. This was the place that made Tiki and Ten Toes surfboards. Though they were doing a different thing when I got there. The company had done a licensing deal with a number of name surfers and started mass producing regular hand shaped and laminated boards with their names on them.

One of my jobs was in the laminating room. I’d work with another guy and we’d team laminate. There were maybe 20 boards on stands in this room all dressed to be laminated. One guy would start down a row wetting out the cloth on a board then move to the next one doing the same and on through all 20. The other guy would come behind him and squeegee out the applied resin and tuck the lap and continue on until all 20 boards were done.

My other job was shaping. And there I was shaping surfboards that would get the names of some famous surfers on them… some of my heros, Paul Straus, Bucth Van Artsdalen, Duke Kahanamoku, not sure of all the names but, I was in Heaven.

D.R.

I think I’m a lucky guy.

Friday, the end of the week and I was feeling a little down. Small things that accumulated through out the week that bugged me is all. So 4…4:30 I head down to the point to see if maybe there’s a little surf, surfing has a way of curing depression. So I see a couple small waves come through the point and think I’m going for a surf.

I call my wife and tell her “I’m at the beach and will be home later ‘cause I’m going to surf for a bit. But, geez I forgot a towel…oh well I’ll wrap up in my shirt or something to change into my wet suit.” She says “OK, see you when you get home”.

I saw a friend and used his towel to change and off I went. After 45 minutes or so I look up on the promenade and see my wife. She waves hello and watches for a few minutes. So I think I better go in and see what’s up. When I walk up the sand she smiles and holds up a towel… and says “Go ahead and surf, just thought I’d come down, bring you a towel and sit at the beach for a while”. So I went back out for a few more while she sat and watched the surf...with her camera.

A few more slides on the quad… photo courtesy of my wife.

As well, it’s fathers day. And what did my son want to do? Go to the beach and surf with his dad. He’s a father too so he gets to do what he wants on fathers day. So we met up with a friend of mine and his son, the four of us had a great time.

Yeah, I think I'm very fortunate.

D.R.

Design talk.

There wasn’t much in the way of surf this week so I didn’t get the new Quad in the water for any further testing. Doesn’t look like there will be much surf for this coming week either.

So I’ll talk a little about the over all shape of this new board….

The outline is my Hawaii long board outline. So the tail is like a short board and the nose is narrower than my regular HPLB. And, the nose is more pointy similar to a Penetrator nose. The Tail has a hard edge through the tail starting above the fins. Rails are tucked and softer forward.

I’ve moved the concave back on this board so it starts about 8 inches back of the nose and runs through mid length and is deepest 3 ft back of the nose. Rather than vee in the tail I’ve run a mild roll that fades out to flat behind the fins. There is also slightly more rocker in the tail than the nose.

The idea behind the design of this board was to make a high performance long board that also would trim well. Usually high performance long boards tail surf well and nose ride good but there is no in between. With the lower nose rocker and pulled back concave combined with the nose flex from the stringer arrangement I’ve got a board that turns well, nose rides good and will work in trim. I’m stoked!

More video on the way. BTW the video in last week post is from a first go out on a small clean day. Testing by Travis Riley.

D.R.

Test riding a prototype part 2.

Getting wave time on the new perimeter stringer quad long board is continuing. This week we’ve gotten into some better waves with a little more juice. Head high reef and point waves in good to excellent conditions.

My test rider spent at least 4 days this week putting the board to test and finding how the board is working in turns and nose rides. As well said he was beginning to feel the boards flex characteristics in the waves that had enough energy.

So I asked him how the board compared to the high performance long board he rides from a well known label. His comment …..

The P.S.Q nose rides as good as the well known label but the turning aspects of the P.S.Q. are much better.

I myself surfed the board on 4 occasions too. The best day for me was just yesterday late afternoon. The Point had some head high sets with a very light crowd… actually it was one of those rare days when hardly any one was out, half dozen people at the most. So I got plenty waves.

My test riders has yet to have the fins break free on him. I’ve gotten them to break free twice. The second time being yesterday on my second wave. I was standing on the tip for a few seconds through a speedy little section when the fins let go. I was unable to keep my balance and fell. The first time the fins let go I was able to get them to reset and continued down the wave.

Yesterday I found the flex. After setting your edge on a nice steep wall coming out of your turn when the board unloads and springs back you get a very smooth extension out of the turns past what the fins provide. And the big surprise is how well the turn back and redirects flow with this board. The best I’ve ever gotten. With a 2 + 1 fin set up when your redirect after a cut back forward movement is lost and the board usually will need a second to step up to speed again. With the quad the redirects are seamless, with no noticeable loss in speed. Very fluid.

To be continued.

D.R.

First go out testing by Travis Riley

Test riding a prototype.

I’m now in the process of testing a new long board design. Which basically means I’m going to the beach and riding this new board and having some test riders ride it and get as much feed back as possible.

I took the board out twice this week in small surf….there hasn’t been much in the way of surf here for a few weeks if not more…it’s the time of the year for flat spells. Anyway, the first go out we had some small slow peelers at the point that were about waist high.

My observations:

The boards is very responsive. Like really nice power steering with a tight turning radius.

Though the surf was small I could feel the potential for good drive out of turns.

Turn backs were effortless and very smooth. As well, resetting direction after a cut back was about as seamless as I’ve ever felt.

The surprise was how well the board floats. I’m not sure if it’s the new performance foam or the high density foam on the boards perimeter.

The second go out the surf was about the same size but had a bit better strength, so I was able to set an edge on a couple waves and lay into a turn. Wow! This thing will fly out of a turn when given the input.

Also on the second go out I wanted to see how the board would trim and handle nose rides. So I worked a few waves on the forward half and third of the board with a couple nose rides. The surprise here is what a high line the board seems to hold in trim and on the nose. I can’t wait to see how this board is going to handle better, stronger and larger waves.

I’ve gotten feed back from one test rider with video too. More on that later.

The new high performance long board perimeter stringer quad, or, the P.S.Q.

9’1 X 22 ¼ and 2 ¾ thickness. With 2 1/8 bass wood perimeter stringers and high density colored foam rails on the outside of the stringers.

D.R.

An old business statement.

I happened on to the folder of the Ryder Surfboard Co. statement from 5/28/66 to 7/31/66 yesterday. Some interesting numbers in the inventory of my little surfboard business in this hand written document of 41 years ago.

From what was in some of the columns you would think that the numbers were just made up, hard to believe what they say really. Like the sale of a new surfboard was $90. Sheets of sandpaper were 6 cents. Redwood stringers for blanks were listed at 21 cents each? That just doesn’t sound right at all, but that’s what the unit price is listed at.

How’s this for used boards… 9’8 Ryder for $62, 10’4 Ryder for $62, 9’8 Hanson $60 and a 9’8 Jacobs for $45. And then there’s the surfboard blank price of $37.63. There were no such things as short boards back then, well actually there were short boards, 9’0 was considered a short board. So the blank for 37 bucks was probably 10 foot. No doubt the materials to make a blank these days are more than that!

So the cost of a new surfboard was 90 bucks, and now a long board is more like 900 bucks. I wish the cost of housing was only ten times what it was back then. Let see if I remember right, the apartment that my wife and I rented when we were first married in 1969 was 65 dollars a month. If the cost of housing was ten times that now then that same apartment, which is only a couple blocks from my house, would be $650. But, that same apartment is more like 1200 or 1600 now, more like 20 times what it once was.

Small increase is the cost of living and cost of doing business? Used to be it was trying to keep up with the Jones, who ever they were. Now it’s more like keeping up with the cost of living.

D.R.

The book signing.

A couple weeks ago my wife and I went up to Dan Merkels gallery
in Santa Barbara where Greg Noll with author Drew Kampion and Greg’s son Jed were doing a book signing for Drew’s new book “Greg Noll, The art of the Surfboard”.

The book is full of history of Greg Noll’s surfboards and full of excellent pictures of Greg’s boards both past and present. I was unable to put the thing down for a couple days, reading the stories and taking in all the photos. For me the book brings on old memories and is an inspiration to my interests in surfboard design and crafting.

When it was my turn to have Greg sign my book I took the opportunity to tell him the story of how as a teenager I got blanks from him and learned how to shape with those blanks and later I got my first job as a production shaper at Morey-Pope, all because of him. His response….” Wow” with a big smile.

Me, my wife and Greg Noll.

Another moment that no doubt will stay with me for the rest of my days.

D.R.

My Story post 15

Those first weeks in Ventura and Ventura College were a bit dark. I didn’t know anyone and I had a room in a house that had two retired ladies living there too. The two ladies were nice enough and my room was great. But the change of being in a new place and new surrounding took some getting used to.

I thought I needed a job so I started looking but had no luck. I would’ve liked to have some spare money but I did really well with what was provided for me. I got 15 bucks a week for food, gas etc. I drove a ’61 VW bus and I always had a few bucks left over at the end of the week. Gas being about a 23 cents a gallon and hamburgers about 19 cents.

The van had as 10 gallon gas tank so to fill it up and drive a couple hundred miles would not even cost $2.50. That $2.50 went a long way with school only a couple miles and surfing only a half mile from home. Even still, having a job would give me something to do.

Everything really changed when I saw this guy driving out of the college parking lot one day… a familiar face. The guys name was Peter and he had gone to the same high school as I had but moved to Camarillo and then stated going to Ventura College. It was one of those double takes. We both saw each other at the same time, eyes meeting, and the ‘hey I know that guy’.

As it turned out Pete was a surfer too. We hooked up and became good friends… I now had a surf buddy. And as time went on I started becoming a regular a “C” Street. Seeing the same guys in the water almost every day or at least when ever there was surf helps you to fit in. Ventura started to become home.

D.R.