If you take your car to the auto body shop to have a dent or ding fixed and the fixed area color matched you most likely will not be able to see any color difference around the fixed area and the rest of your car when the work is finished and you pick up your car.

If you go to the paint store and hand over a color chip the person behind the counter will scan the color or check the color number and be able to mix a new can of paint that will be the color you’re looking for. Body shops have the same type program.

If you go order a custom surfboard and say I’d like the board color to be a medium green you most likely will not get the color you asked for. Why is that?

Well first off, what is medium green? What you see in your head as medium green most likely is not the medium green the guy that mixes colors sees in his head. And, without a color sample the person that mixes colors has no idea what you think is medium green or what ever color you ask for.

So it’s a good idea to pass along a color sample of what color you’d like your board to be with your board order so that at least the person that mixes colors can get an idea of what you’d like. But keep in mind that the lam shop that does the color work on your board, whether the plan is for a spray color or color lamination, does not have an expensive computer color matching program to get exact color matches.

In fact the only program the lam shop has is a bunch of different water base colors for spray jobs or a bunch of different pigment colors for color lams. And the way colors get mixed is by hand, trial and error, until the color that gets mixed is close to the color being asked for. Sometimes they come out real close to the exact color and sometimes they don’t. It all depends on the color. Some colors are good right out of the pigment jar. Some colors need to be mixed with a touch of three or four different colors and getting the right blend is almost impossible. And to think that the person mixing the color is not paid by the hour but takes extra time to work up a color match?

Keep in mind that if you email a color sample the color you see on your computer screen may not be the color the gets printed on the other end for a color sample hard copy. Colors do get lost in translation… in more ways than one.

D.R.

My story post 51

Sometimes you just happen on to surf. This particular time it happened a couple days in a row and it was great while it lasted…

Before going into the shop to work, I think I’ve said this before, Mike, Richie and I would go look for waves. It was summer so there wasn’t much usually. But this particular day there were some head high peaks running along the stretch of beach between Hobson’s and the back side of Pitas Point. I don’t know if there is a formal name for the spot, but I remember Mike calling it Froggy’s.

Usually that stretch of beach is pretty walled off and most of the waves coming through were, but at the end there on the back side of Pitas the waves were well formed peaks. Thinking back I’d guess there was a decent south swell that got crossed by a west wind swell that made the waves so nice. Funny, I’ve never seen the place break like that again.


Anyway, as we were driving down PCH watching these waves we stopped at the last spot you could park before the road side railings that follow the curve at the top of Pitas Point. It was sunny, warm and light variable winds. Not another surfer or surfboard in site. Just us three guys looking at some really inviting surf. And we were on it. I remember get really tired after catching so many waves I went in and sat on the beach watching Mike and Richie. Then paddling back out for more. Then because I had rested I ended up in the water by myself because Mike and Richie whore themselves out.

So much fun, wave after wave with just us guys and no one else in site. We had to have surfed a good 2 hours before the tide and wind got to it. The next day we went and checked it again. It was still going off so we hit it again. Repeating what we did the day before, surfing until we could surf no more.

After that we’d drive by almost every day for a surf check but never could catch it. We’d end up going as far down PCH as Over Head before giving up, turning around and heading up to Santa Barbara to work. Sometimes we’d get a few at Over Head but we never did get Froggy’s again.

D.R.

From my point of view..

Having to choose between a good shape or a good glass job is really no choice at all. Of course it’s easy for me to say, because I make my own boards and don’t have to choose. I’ll make myself a good surfboard from start to finish.

But I also think no one should have to choose one or the other either. But, if you’re not a board builder then maybe you have to choose even if you shouldn’t have to.

The dilemma is cost, and, surfboards are no different from other things that are hand made… you get what you pay for. If you want a board that is laminated well and has a well thought out and tested design it may cost more than what you think you should pay.

There are US made short boards that cost $600 or more. There are US made long boards that cost $1400 or more. They are well designed and well built boards.

I know how much time and effort it takes to make a good surfboard. I also know how much they should cost… especially if the craftsman needs to make enough money to live on.

A good board craftsman knows you shouldn’t have to make a decision on whether you’d like a good shape or a good glass job. Because he will make sure you get both.

D.R.

What’s more important, a good board shape or a good glass job?

What if you have your most favorite surfboard of all time but it has been laminated poorly? What happens usually is the board just doesn’t hold up very long. Dents and dings easy and generally needs fixing in short order. Patched dings put weight on the board that you don’t want… usually… and over a little bit of time the board almost becomes a throw away.

What if you have a board that the shape is not that great but the board has a primo lam job. The board will hold up better and if you decide you just can’t handle the shape you can unload the board without to much difficulty because it’s in good condition. Besides, you may not like the shape or maybe the shape is bad, but, someone else may think the board shape is nice and like the ride a lot… funny how that is sometimes.

I do know one thing, it’s really disappointing to have a board that you aren’t happy with for one reason or another… shape job or lamination. If you think a board is not shaped to your liking then it most likely won’t surf to your liking either. Surfing is mostly mental so if you think something is wrong then something is wrong until you convince yourself other wise.

Now if you have a board that’s laminated poorly you don’t have to convince yourself, it’s a fact plainly seen, by you and everybody else that sees the board. You may really like the ride but you’ll be disappointed with the lam quality and sooner than later you’ll be “over it”.

I’ve heard guys say that surfboards a disposable. If you don’t take care of them then I guess that may be true. But it’s not suppose to be that way. A board that you like, that is laminated well and is well cared for should last quite a long time, depending on how you surf it at any rate.

Of course if you don’t go the traditional route and get a molded board what happens? You”ll buy a model that is tried and proven, you may not like the ride anyway, but it is tried and proven and you can sell it off to someone else if you don’t like the board. If you like the ride then you’re good to go. Take care of the board and it will hold up for you for what? Years?

What if you had to choose between a good shape or a good lamination? What would you choose?

D.R.

Surfing and injuries.

Lets just say if you have injuries for what ever reason it’s no fun. And of course injuries can keep you out of the water… no surfing when you hurt. That’s double no fun, or that just plain sucks.

Since my thirties I’ve had a few physical problems from time to time that have kept me from surfing. Like when I broke my heal. I’ve also suffered from swimmers shoulder, though in my case it’s surfers shoulder.

The shoulder thing would flare up every now and then and it has again. Though this time not from surfing I went on the injured list just from over work or sleeping wrong or what? I don’t know.

Last winter season we had some really good surf and I missed much of it from January and February because I got a really lousy cold. Now my shoulder went out last week and there has been some really nice surf, as well, the forecast is calling for a string of new swells this coming couple weeks… dang!

At least I seem to be on the mend but, I’ve got to go real slow and let the shoulder heal well before I can put any stress on it. Other wise I go down again and have to start all over with the recovery process.

There is not much worse than an inflamed shoulder. You can’t move without feeling the thing. It screams with every heart beat. The slightest move and.. OUCH! If the prettiest girl in the world came and gave your shoulder the softest little kiss you’d knock her on her butt with your good arm. And all you can think about is, “I hope this dang thing gets better so I can surf… I hope I can surf again”

Actually thinking about surfing may help you get better. I have a friend Kevin, that years ago hurt his leg. The doctors said he may never surf again, that he was going to lose movement in his foot because of the nature of his wound. I remember him saying he’d lay in his bed and look at his feet and try to get his foot to move, because he couldn’t move his foot, and he’d keep trying and trying. He kept telling himself to move his foot. Over time and continually doing this mental to physical exercise he said he started to see the tiniest movement. That gave him hope so he’d stayed at it until he could do what the doctors said he would not be able to.

He couldn’t stand the idea of not being able to surf again so he made himself do the impossible. He got better and went surfing. And, is still surfing some thirty years later.

So I’m getting better, hopefully I’ll be surfing again in a couple weeks.

I was sent a few pictures today from Fabio, he bought himself a new Tip Tool. It made my day!

D.R.

The ability of the human senses in crafting and making things is truly amazing. We don’t think about this much or take much more than a casual look but, what we are capable of making with our hands is pretty incredible.

I got to talking with Sammy the foreman at the FCD lam shop one day this past week about this very thing. Sammy had been setting fins and was showing me his system for getting the fins set right when I sited one of the boards and mentioned that the trailing fin looked off a touch.

We got to talking about how tricky getting fins set right can be when you’ve got to deal with the minor variations that can show up in the production process. For fins it can be a stringer that isn’t quite in the center of the board or is curved a little in stead of dead straight.

Then we got to talking about machined blanks and how they can be off, like one rail being thicker than the other or the outline not centered. We both agreed that it is easier to shape a board from scratch than to make certain corrections that may be needed on a machined blank. I probably shouldn’t but, I do get a bit frustrated when I have to do fixes on machined blanks… Why should I have to fix something a robot did?

Surfboards don’t have to be perfect. You know that as soon as you ride a board a few times the decks may have dents in them and if one side is not exactly the same as the other it may not matter. After all, you only have one rail in the water, or one side of your board is engaged at a time for the most part. And, asymmetrical designs are valid. That said, a good craftsmen can tell when something is off, and we do our best to be accurate… at least I do and others I know.

Reality is with repetition, looking at things over and over and handling things over and over again, you get to the point that you can see and feel the most minute details… in my and Sammy’s case… it’s surfboards. And it really is amazing that we can take a planer and some sand paper, cut and carve a piece of foam, shaping a surfboard and then get another piece of foam and do the same thing and have both shaped blanks be so amazingly close in size, shape and detail that it’s next to impossible to tell if they even are different in some area, like one rail being thicker than the other of shaped ever so slightly different.

So if a machined blank is pretty darn good and the same size and shape board is hand shaped, like a certain model, one machine cut and one hand cut, what’s the difference? Only a human has emotion. Some how that gets transferred into what we make.

D.R.

My story post 50

Moving is not easy… it can completely turn your life upside down. Moving right before the holidays may not be that smart either… but we didn’t have much of a choice, things just turned out that way.

So now I live farther away from the ocean than I’ve lived for some 43 years. But the nice thing is I’m still about 10 minutes from the beach…. The point no less. How could you complain? I can’t see the ocean from my bedroom window anymore but what I do see is oak trees, sycamore trees, peace and quite.

A new routine is getting set up. Gotta have my gear with me when I head into the shop. You know, just in case I need to surf. Gotta be set up with a couple boards when I head out from the house so I’ve got what I need for what ever the situation calls for surf wise.
Gotta be prepared. This is going to be a good thing.

D.R.

The old view

The new view

The pool view

My story post 49

What’s happening with my life?…. The house my wife and I and family have lived in since 1974, except the 9 years we were in Hawaii, will soon no long be our home. We are moving just out side of town to the place we plan to make our family compound.

So, I will be off line for the time being and will talk story after we get set up in our new place.

Until then, happy surfing!

D.R.

My story post 48, surfer attire.

Huarache sandals, you got them in Mexico. White Levi’s, not the white like painters pants. The surfer wore more of an off white Levi’s jeans. Then after awhile there was the light blue Levi’s, not the regular Levi’s jeans color after they’ve been washed a hundred times, but a light blue color.

Converse tennis shoes were good, or Purcell’s. Both were the low cut type not high tops. You were good to go in deck shoes as well. To stay warm you had to have a Pea coat. That double buttoned heavy navy coat.

Plain white t-shirts with a pocket or maybe a white t-shirt that had a surfboard label on it. And over the t-shirt it was the Pendleton.

Honestly I don’t think I needed a surfboard but if I wore the right clothes I was a surfer. Actually I don’t think I had a surfboard when I first started wearing the attire. I was learning how to surf so… I wasn’t to much of a gremmie.... nah, I was the typical adolescent that wanted to be identified as a surfer.

The Pendleton was the shirt though. Not cheap either, so you had to really bug your parents for one or work hard and save some cash to get one. They were only available at certain stores too, so they weren’t to easy to come by. I still like those shirts… believe it or not I’ve got 11 of them. I’d have more but stopped wearing the plaid ones… at least for the past few years. I like the solid color ones, I’ve got two of them. It’s hard to catch my size on sale in the solid colors though.

Did you know that there was a band named The Pendletones? Yeah, they started as The Pendletones before they changed their name to the Beach Boys. That’s probably why they where wearing Pendleton’s when pictured on their first records. With white or light blue Levi’s and a white t-shirt. Don’t know if any of them were surfers, but they knew how to dress like one.

D.R.

Surfing with friends always makes surfing better…. Though there may be a limit to how many friends you may want in the water at any given time.

Friday I took off work at mid day. The first sun we’d had in almost two weeks showed itself late morning. I knew there was a little surf so I took off, got my tip tool (the waves were small) and spent almost 3 hours having some fun and spending some tip time.

After an hour or more my friend Donna came paddling out, said hello and introduce me to her friend Rob. The three of us were enjoying the sun and small surf with a small group of other surfers doing the same. Rob would be all smiles as Donna or I came riding a wave down the point while he was paddling back to the line up after a ride.

Rob asked me if I found a new friend when a person dropped in on me at the inside section. Then wondered if I’d just found a new best friend after seeing me hanging on the tip for a couple seconds then franticly back peddling and straightening out, though not fast enough, to avoid banging rails with the guy that blindly dropped in on me as I came flying along. After all, what are friends for?

This morning I went for a bike ride up the beach. I thought it was such a nice sunny morning, besides I wanted to check out how the demolition project was going in the Fair Grounds parking lot. So why not jump on a bike, get some exercise and see what’s up?

I peddled up the promenade through the 2 dollar lot, around the construction work via a detour lane and stopped at the Ventura River. I hung at the river for several minutes watching about 8 or 10 surfers play with the inconsistent but nice clean peaks along that stretch of beach from the back side of pipe maybe a hundred yards up to hobo jungle. I wouldn’t have minded at all to be one of those 8 or 10 surfers.

After day dreaming for awhile about days long past and un-crowded waves I headed back. Down past the 2 dollar lot I decided to see what the surf looked like on the back side of the point and up to pipe.

What’s left of the 2 dollar lot was full. There was a contest at pipe so that added to the amount of vehicles and bodies that wanted to use the short couple hundred yards of beach. And, the number of people in the water, hoping for a chance to catch one of the few waves that came through every 4 or 5 minutes? I tried counting, but stopped at 40.

That’s a lot of friends… I began wondering how many of them actually got out of the water after an hour and got a chance wave? The words survival of the fittest came to mind.

How curious later at home, what my wife called me in from the front yard to show me through the kitchen window. A hawk on the back neighbors garage roof eating what I think may have been a squirrel. Talk about survival of the fittest.

D.R.

Being motivated to surf, sometimes you don’t have it, sometimes you do.

What I remember of my younger years was that I was almost always motivated to surf. So why is it now that a lot of times I go to the beach when the surf is not great but surf able and I’m not that interested in going out?

When I was younger if there was anything in the water that would propel my surfboard I was on it. And in Hawaii, unless the winds were not favorable, which was seldom, or it was over my size limit, which could happen, I’d go surf. On the main land, I look and start thinking… nah, it’s not consistent enough, it’s small, it’s to cold, the wind is picking up so it will blow out by the time I reach the lineup, it’s a waste of time right now, I’ll come back later… but don’t, etc, etc.

Having a surf buddy helps with this type of problem. You get to the beach see something you could surf and say “what do you think?” Your buddy says “we’re here.” You say “yeah.” He says “we came to surf so.” You say “ok, let’s go out then.” Done deal.

After you surf you can make the assessment.. you say “ I saw you got a couple good ones”. He says “yeah, it was fun… you got some too”. You say “yeah, I’m hungry lets go get something to eat”.

When you’re alone you can’t do that. Well, you can talk to yourself, and end up either talking yourself into going out or not going out. But after a go out? Was it worth it or not. It’s almost always debatable, unless the surf was really good and you had a really good session.

So what happened yesterday? I went for a surf check, the conditions were really nice and I saw a couple good sets. Went home and got my stubbie…I’m so addicted to that board right now… but the surf just didn’t have the juice. I should have gone down with a tanker. I got a few nice ones but wished I had a tanker. My thinking stole the fun.

With a surf buddy, we would have debated first about what board would be best. He’d say “what board you gonna take?” You’d say “The stubbie.” He’d say “again? You always ride that board and then complain you should’ve taken a long board. I’m taking my long board, It’s not consistent enough for something short.” You say “yeah, I’ll take my quad long board then.” You both catch lots of waves and have fun…. Get out of the water, talk about your rides as you towel off and get in dry cloths. Then go get something to eat!

D.R.

These three guys have been surf buddies for over 40 years

The changing face of a beach area.

The beach access area in Ventura town is going through another change. If anyone has come into town this past week and gone into the Fair Grounds area you’d have seen the construction is starting… actually the demolition is what’s happening, construction comes later.

The 2 dollar fair grounds parking area and up to pipe is being rearranged. If I understand correctly the parking area is being relocated back to the street that currently runs between the parking area and the fair grounds. The current parking area will be removed and combed over with a more natural cobble and sand approach to the waters edge.

Sounds all reasonable.. we’ll see how it plays out with what the ocean wants to do over time.

There is another part to the changes which will take place below Figueroa st. along the promenade. If I understand this will change beach access by removing the inside point stairs and relocating them a couple hundred feet toward the pier from where they are now. As well, more large rocks will be added to the revetment in front of the promenade a couple hundred feet above the existing inside point beach access stairs.

The problem with the promenade is that the ocean wants the area where new rocks are going to be set. The ocean wants to remove the inside stairs… the ocean wants it’s space back… and then some maybe. But, a certain group of people wanted to take that space away from the ocean and they don’t want to ever give it back. In order to protect what the group of people did they must add to what they did so as to stop the ocean from doing what it wants to do. Lofty plans that over time have consequences.

Consequences from the first set of rocks for the revetment changed the way surf breaks along the point and, maybe more importantly, how sand is distributed below that particular stretch of coast line.

I remember how the surf at the point was before the current revetment…. It was better. I don’t think adding to the revetment will make it better than it is now, it will probably be a change for the worse… or is it another change for the worse?

D.R.

A flat seven foot high tide winter morning after some rain at the top of the point before the group of people started doing what they’ve done to the area.

Old guys post 5

Something happened to me in the water several months ago that has stuck in my memory. Curious that the great rides are etched in our memory as well sometimes the bad experiences too.

I was paddling back to the line up when a set was coming through. A guy was coming down the line racing along on the nose hanging five. I saw the line he was taking and started to paddle to the left in an effort to stay out of his way. Just as I determined my path another guy… that looked like he didn’t know what he was doing, started to paddle for the wave and would have ultimately dropped in on the guy coming down the line at the same time blocking my path to get out of the way of the guy coming down the line.

The guy paddling for the wave sort of stood up and fell, I had to avoid him so paddled straight up the wave face. I guess the guy coming down the line hanging five didn’t want to let go of his position, even though he could have back peddled and turned around me, he instead came right at me. I slipped off my board and turned it side ways as the guy hanging five went by me within inches and then fell.

The three of us, me, the kook and the guy hanging five almost collided… but didn’t. After the wave pasted I climbed up on my board and looked over at the guy that had fell after just missing me while hanging five. He had some words for me, but couldn’t hear what he said. I smiled and asked if he was ok then heard what he had to say…. “ Why don’t you get out of the way… you should paddle to the left” With rude tone. I thought What? Then said “ don’t talk to me like that, I was paddling to the left” I was immediately pissed and told him off as he paddled away… honestly out of character for me.

A couple guys that had seen what happened confirmed that guy was being an ass. But still stuff like that can really mess the atmosphere in the water.

This past week there was this stand up paddle guy being aggressive in the water that had something to say to one of the local guys in the water after the local guy attempted to drop in at the inside section. But the stand up guy made it under the section then had words for the local guy.

The standup guy was older, I’d guess in his fifties. Well built and knew how to surf and what he was doing. He would not let up on the younger local guy, cussing him and telling him he’d kick his ass, and that riding a stand up was way harder than long boarding… yelling how he should get some respect… on and on for 3 or 4 minutes.

The casual after noon surf turned into a time of tension… for what? I may or may not have been justified in what I said to the guy that almost ran my over. I’m sure the stand up paddle guy thought he was justified in what he had to say. But to go on and on made the older guy look like a total jerk. And to threaten the younger guy made it even worse.

There’s no sense in older guys being aggressive. The older guys that get aggressive only look stupid. And may make the rest of us look stupid too.

D.R.

There is and interesting article in the September/October 2010 issue of Deep Magazine about surf wax. It got me to thinking how things were before surf wax.

First off you didn’t get wax for your surfboard at the local surf shop, you got it at the grocery store. It wasn’t called surf wax it was Paraffin wax. Actually you might have gotten it from your mom or grand mother if they did any canning of fruits and vegetables.

My wife’s grandma used to make jams and jellies…. Good stuff, but when you opened a jar of her jelly for the first time you had to pry and scrape off the wax that sealed the jelly to keep it from spoiling. The wax she used was the same thing we used on our surfboards before surf wax was available.

Paraffin is hard, and it didn’t go on a surfboard easy like the surf wax of today. Waxing your board for the first time was a big undertaking compared to now. It worked best if you got the bar of wax warm and soft. Then if you rubbed it on the board with just the right pressure you could slowly build up a base and get an OK layer of wax down.

If you lived and surfed in warm water and climates paraffin wasn’t to terrible but in colder conditions the stuff would get sum what slick and slippery. Nothing worse than being in the water and having your board get a little slippery, take off on a wave, slip and fall on your first turn. Then if you couldn’t catch your board when you fell you may be in for a swim to the beach. I hated that!

Problem was after retrieving your board rubbing some fresh wax on it wouldn't necessarily make things better. What I would usually do after retrieving my board is grab a hand full of wet sand and rub that into the wax. The sand would get imbedded into the wax and render the wax dirty but not so slippery any more.

There were no wax combs back then either but I did use a hair comb to scratch the stiff hard wax. That helped too but it wasn't to comfortable to lay on, but we mostly knee paddled.

It was nice when surf board specific wax came around. It wasn’t the easiest stuff to get a nice bead of wax on your board with at first. It would kind of spread down in an awkward way without really beading up nicely. You had to work with the stuff and rub with the right touch to get a good clean layer down.

According to the article in Deep it wasn’t until the early nineties that the surf wax guys found a formula that made the wax bead up nicely. Yeah, the wax of today is great. It goes down on your board quickly with a nice sticky bump to it. When it gets dirty you can scrap it off and put down a fresh coat without much effort.

We don’t think about it but the wax of today has helped us all surf better. We can do things on a surfboard now that would not be possible with the old slippery stiff grocery store stuff. So, to the guys that worked up the surf wax formulas… Thank you!

D.R.

Funny I still have a box of the old stuff.

My story post 47

There have been times when life went a direction that for one reason or another kept me out of the water for extended periods of time.

This year, junk surf and cold conditions has kept me out of the water for much of the summer… but that may not count. The time I spent in New England was one. But when spring came and I found a Surfer magazine at the local drug store news stand that was all it took to get me on a plane back to California and the surf. As soon as I got to Ventura it took little time for me to shape myself an 8’2 stringer less Vee bottom at the William Dennis shop, glass it and get in the water.

In the seventies I traveled a lot. Most of the time I wouldn’t be gone more than a week or two. Our route home on a longer two month trip brought us back via Hwy 126. I still remember reaching Santa Paula and feeling the ocean air in the wind coming up the river valley. What a rush, knowing within 20 minutes I’d see the ocean. As well, know that I could go surf.

In ’77 I went on a trip that lasted 4 months. I was gone from the first week in July to the first week in November. I did fly back home a couple times so there was some relief. One return visit was timed perfect for a nice south swell with great conditions. A few days surf fix and off I went again.

When you live close to the ocean it’s hard to be without it. The oceans lure, I don’t understand but it is real. When I haven’t been in the water for awhile and then get back it just feels right. Walking up to the waters edge, jumping on your board, seeing and feeling the water, the vantage point and look into the surf zone. When I get to that spot after being away I just feel better. I feel right.

My wife was born and raised in Ventura. She never lived more than a half mile from the ocean her whole life until we moved to Kauai. So she knows the feeling of living by the beach. The funny thing is… we lived on an island but were a good mile from the ocean.

D.R.

A mile from the ocean but the view from the lanai wasn’t terrible.

24 days left for the summer that wasn’t. Should we be happy about it?

I’ve said I like summer a number of times. I like the warm weather, the long day light hours and, when we get surf, I like the swell direction. We don’t get much in the way of surf here in Ventura during summer. What we do get is usually small and inconsistent, but the water is warmer so if you have to sit waiting for a set at least you don’t freeze to death… except for this summer.

I think most know that the Southern California coast has been unseasonably cool, because the water temperature has been unseasonably cold. Here in Ventura the water temperature has been an easy 10 degrees colder than it normally is during summer. About 2 weeks ago the water temp was as cold as the dead of winter… in the middle of August? Geez that sucks.

There hasn’t been much surf, which is typical but even when we’ve gotten some there has been to much wind. Of course the wind is what makes the water cool. The cool water makes the air close to the ocean cool. The wind off the water makes things cooler still.

Usually I turn the thermostat in our house off at least by June and leave it off until sometime in late September or early October. This year? We’ve been running the heat some in the morning and at night all summer long. Because we live about 3 block from the beach… it’s been cold.

I’m getting old and may not remember… but really I don’t remember a summer like this. Last year was a little cool but not like this year. I can remember summer when we hardly ever saw the sun because of the heavy marine layer, over cast days for ever. This year we’ve had the sun show up a fair amount but still the air is cool. Instead of over cast sky’s ever been getting fog. Fog in August? That’s odd. Maybe June, maybe October, but not August. Geez, that sucks too.

I was looking forward to riding my Tip Tool… I’ve ridden it twice since June. I could have gone out a couple of other times but because it was cold and foggy I passed. I don’t where shoes when I long board and I didn’t want to get numb feet!

September can be a real good month for surfing… I hope so. And while I’m hoping I’ll hope the water warms up some too.

D.R.

When the weather is junk, I long for the tropics... even if the surf would be small.

I was asked a question this week…

How serious is the threat of shaping machines?

There may have been a threat 30 years ago but it’s over now because the machine is everywhere. They are affordable, every major label uses them or has their own. And, many of the small guys use cutting houses for a large portion of their orders if not all of their orders.

Sure there are guys that hand shape most or all of their boards but I think it may be the exception rather than the rule now.

This is a little of what I’ve seen…

Six years ago there was this young guy that really was interested in getting into the surfboard business. He really didn’t have any experience but he was determined and landed a job laminating part time for a busy label. Within a month or so he had enough know how to laminate ok.

His shaping was another story. His first boards were pretty crude. That’s fine, everyone’s first shapes are crude. But, he kept at it. Then he went to the local cutting house and suddenly his shapes were really nice. Within a year and a half of getting his part time job laminating he found a place to set his own place up making his own boards. The machine was a major factor in that happening.

Another guy used to have his own designed boards made to order through another builder. He’d never really shaped any boards before but he had some nice designs going. So he connected with the local cutting house, got his boards cut, set up a little shaping bay, cleans up the machined blanks and takes the finished shapes to the local lam shop. His boards came out fine right out of the gate with no real shaping experience at all.

Then there is the avid surfer type. He has gotten a connection with someone that can get blanks cut at one of the machine shops. He wants a new board so he gets a machined blank through his connection. Finds a place to finish sand the cut blank and takes the finished shape to the local lam shop. Three weeks later he has a new board that looks as good as most other boards you might see… at least from a distance. Because of the machine.

There’s this old blues song, “The Thrill is Gone”. Well, we could change the words a little and say “The Threat is Gone”.

D.R.

Doing it the old fashioned way.

Is there a difference in what goes on in a shaping room different today than 40 years ago?

In some ways definitely.

One day this week I got to talking with one of the shapers that bring us boards at the lam. shop about the process of board shaping. He’s been making boards for close to forty years so knows what’s happened and the evolution process in surfboards. His name is Malcolm Campbell.

The conversation developed around this weekends Sacred Craft Expo that took place in San Deigo. One of the events was a thing they called The Young Guns of Shaping. The write up went like this….

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Four shapers, each 25-years-old or younger, are given two hours each to shape a surfboard out of a massive 10’10” stringerless chunk of foam. They can shape anything they want. The shapers use their own tools. The finished blanks will then be judged Saturday afternoon by legendary San Diego shaper Rusty Preisendorfer.
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Shaping a surfboard from a big chunk of foam is no easy task. So the four guys really had their work cut out for them. Probably the best approach would be to shape something you were really familiar with, of course, something you knew really well.

The boards you do over and over again are in your head. You should be able to see it in your minds eye from the get go. Look a that piece of foam you’re given, see where the board in your head fits into that piece of foam and hack away until what you’ve seen in your head is cut out of the that piece of foam and right there in front of you.

Simple enough. But, what if the board you wanted to shape you had never seen before? You had an idea of what the board should look like, because it is in your head but in reality it has never been made before. And, since it has never been made before that shape or design in your head has never been ridden before.

Well, about forty years ago that’s exactly what Malcolm did. As well, so did many of the guys that shaped surfboards back in the early evolution days including myself. We saw stuff in our head that we wanted to ride that we thought may allow us to move in places on a wave face that we’d not been able to get to before.

Some of those boards were pretty crude. But, after a couple refinements they came around. We had never seen the stuff we made, we didn’t know for sure what would work well and what we needed to refine. The young guns of shaping in the past had nothing to go on but intuition. The young guns of shaping in the past had not seen anything like what they were making.

The young guns of today? They’ve pretty much seen it all before they ever get started.

D.R.

What exactly is considered a nose ride? What does it take to get on the nose of a surfboard? What kind of board do you get nose rides on? Can you nose ride a short board? How long should a surfboard be made for nose riding?

Traditionally surfboards that are called nose riders would fall into the long board category. But lately I’ve been hearing people talking about getting nose rides on small boards. Just this past week I watched one of the Riley boys get a nice cheater five on one of my H2 mini boards…. The board is 5’6”! Sure I’ve seen guys get cheater fives on regular tri fin short boards. It’s not something you would set out to do as far as maneuvers go but, sometimes it does happen.

I think for the most part a cheater five on a small board though a nose ride is only a little like a nose ride that you would do on a long board. Why do we call cheater fives cheater fives anyway?

The common nose ride on a long board takes place on the forward third of the board… from the tip of the nose to not more than 36 inches back from the tip. And, you should be standing upright in that area. Meaning you have your board fully weighted. Getting in that area is not as critical as getting right at the tip of the nose, curling your toes over the tip with one foot or both feet.

There are two ways to get to the nose area of a long board. The shuffle and the cross step. The shuffle is done by sliding your back foot forward to your front foot then sliding your front foot forward repeating until you’ve reached the nose area of your board. The cross step is executed by actually stepping one foot over the other, also called “walking”. Shuffling is easier. “Walking” is considered the more advanced method, as well, when done in smooth fashion is more graceful.

If you shuffle or cross step getting to the nose and staying there without falling is not easy. Getting all the way to the tip and standing there for a couple seconds is about as close as anyone gets to standing on water. Cross stepping in the last 36 inch area of a surfboard is about as close as you will get to walking on water for that matter. It’s difficult to do, takes wave knowledge, timing and a high degree of wave riding ability to do it well.

Now the cheater five is the easiest nose ride. If done on a short board that is not much over 6 ft or shorter all you need to do is trim in the middle of the board, squat down with your weight on your back foot, extend your front foot forward to the nose. The same can be done on a long board… after reaching the forward third of a 9 ft board squatting down and reaching your front foot forward to the tip of the nose.

When you squat down you have a low weight center, it’s easier to balance as compared to a full standing position, so we’ve always called it cheating. But even still, the cheater five is not that easy to execute.

Sure there are short surfboards that you can get a nose ride on. But I’m the traditional type. The graceful stepping to the nose, with the effortless look of ease. Perched on the tip.

D.R.

The 'Tip Tool' gets the job done.

There was an interesting thread on one of the forums this week about shaping. The main question was ‘how long does it take?’ to shape a board. The response was straight forward at first but then like most threads that get attention it began to develop its own direction. It went from how long it may take someone to how many boards could be shaped by hand in a day.

Of course production shaping is not done any more. My last production shaping job doing hand shaping and cleaning up machined blanks both ended in 2005. I think production shaping now days is mainly thought of cleaning up machined blanks, which is in no way the same as shaping as many boards as you can in a day by hand.

Production shaping is really hard work. It takes a lot of physical stamina as well as strong focused mental attention. It’s one thing to do hard physical work and another to work on something that is mentally demanding. But, doing something that requires both?

Basically what happens in the production environment is you focus in on all your moves… a hand and motion thing. At the same time you concentrate on what moves to make, how much or how little of a move you need to make at a certain stage of your process with what tool and or abrasive. But, you can’t just go hacking away. You have to have the completed picture of what you want to make in your head before your first move. And know when, how and where to make any move you make.

After shaping hundreds and hundreds of boards you begin to develop a procedure that you follow, continually getting more efficient. Eventually almost everything you do in the process becomes second nature… you literally don’t think about what you’re doing, you just do it. The ultimate robot… arms and legs the mechanism controlled by your brain, the computer. The interesting thing is you get very good at repetition, as good as any machine.

There is no demand for the production shaper now, and never will be again. So where does that leave me? With the knowledge, experience and ability to shape any kind of surfboard I’d like. All be it in a much more relaxed mode.

D.R.

The ultimate test for me as a production shaper was shaping a Yater spoon in 2 hours. I got going at such a good clip that I was tossing my block plane from hand to hand. When I saw this short video I laughed out loud!