SURFING.....


      Growing up in HB meant summer days spent at the beach. Mom would pile us in the station wagon and drop us off at the Pier with a promise to return at say... 4:00 pm to pick us up. My first surf craft, acquired at age 11 was a kneeboard  shaped by OLE when his shop was in Sunset Beach, before moving to Maui. It was in essence a takeoff on a Greenough spoon, heavily dished, with a Greenough inspired high rake fin and rope handles. With my trusty Voit duck feet I learned to catch a wave and turn my kneeboard., surfing across the face of glassy summertime waves at the apartments or the pier.

   We spent so much time in the water that I literally sanded my nipples off from contact with sand trapped in my wax. In addition my cheeks and lips were covered in scabs from constant sunburn. I am sure i will pay the price for that behavior in the near future... we didn't know much about skin cancer then...This type of behavior would surely earn a visit from Child Protective Services these days...

   I outgrew the kneeboard and longed to surf upright as kneeboard surfers garnered little to no respect in the pecking order of surfing at the pier. That still holds true to this day...

  I asked "Santa" for a new surfboard for Christmas... Mom went with me to the Windansea shop on PCH. It was an old gas station converted into a surf shop.It hand sand on the floor...lol Im not sure if they still shaped and glassed at that location but the place smelled heavily of polyurethane resin...I picked out a board that I thought was just right for me...Got the awesome tshirt  and prehistoric leash thrown in....My surfboard was then unceremoniously moved to the home of my friend Bobby Judge where it stood in the corner of his room to be admired by all...I would have to wait for christmas...

   I remember it like it was yesterday... the smell of the purple Wax Research wax. and neoprene of a new wetsuit... a cold winter day. Paddling out into small but fun surf at Poche in San Clemente with Mike Davis. on my new orange swallowtail missile ... . Little did I know that this beautiful surfboard would set my surfing back years due to the fact that it was close to impossible for a beginning surfer to learn on...Narrow , thin and not so buoyant . But it sure looked good under my arm at the beach and in the corner of my bedroom... the kind of things a 13 year old surfer might consider important.

   Mikes dad owned a record store in San Clemente located oddly enough like Windansea, in an old gas station... It was fun to go with Mike and his dad to San Clemente where we would ride skateboards down the gnarly hills leading to the ocean.Mike was to be my copilot / wing man during the first years of my surfing experience. We met in junior high... I asked him if he surfed because he kinda looked like he did... he lied and said yeah... we became friends...mike scored his first board from Midget Smith at Natural Design which was the Kool shop in San Clemente. Mike was smart eneough to pick out a board that was well suited to a beginning surfer... wide and stable, easy to paddle and turn. On this board Mike started to develop the fluid style that I always admired in his surfing... meanwhile I continued to flounder on my orange torpedo.