Montara, plus BOARD HISTORY!

Session: 12
Date: Sunday, 5/1/05
Place: Montara
Time: Again around 2 or so until around 4 or 5
Waves: Rather Scarce, not very big
Stokemeter: 6 (due to the nice weather)

Again a beautiful day, but this time I didn’t get the same level of cooperation from the ocean. It was nice and sunny and calm and clear again – but just not as many good waves. I bought a new (used) wetsuit today also from Sonlight Surfshop in Pacifica. I for some reason didn’t have access to mine – and wanted to surf – so I just went and got a 3/2 suit. It was only $70 and it will be nice to have in the summer months when the 4/3 suit will simply be too hot. Even now I have had to unzip my 4/3 a little bit to let in some cold water to keep from overheating, on occasion. It is a good quality O’Neill wetsuit and I think a good purchase.

Anyway, as I said, the waves just didn’t work out this time. I met Nic and Mike at Montara and they had already been out for around 30 minutes, but hadn’t gotten many rides to show for their time. Anyway I got out and was immediately greeted by a very long flat spell, the first of many. But the weather was so nice that it didn’t matter. I fortunately put on some sun-screen – Mike didn’t, and I’m not sure about Nic – but I saw Mike later and he was a little crispy. Today I got to ride Christina’s 7’2” Cino board (Thanks Christina!) and it is a very nice board. Thick, so it paddles nicely and catches waves fairly well (but not like Nic’s longboard) and once in the wave it feels responsive and fast. To be honest, I really haven’t ridden that many boards in my surfing career…Let me make a list of boards I have ridden at least a few times (as best I can remember – and the order might be a bit mixed up).

-10’6” or something Classic beater longboard. 2+1 fin setup, I think. A complete battleship of a board. Huge, caught everything, couldn’t turn to save it’s life (but I wasn’t good enough to turn anyway).

-9’0” Wave Riding Vehicles higher performance longboard. Thruster fin set-up. I was allowed to ride this board a little bit until it was taken away from me by crazy woman Lyn. This board was very fun to ride and I enjoyed it. I still wasn’t good enough to do much with it, but it sure turned easier than the 10’6 Classic.

-9’6” Hansen Triple-stringer longboard. 2+1 fin setup. I think this might have been the first board I bought. Got it from Lyn – she liked me I guess at this time because it was a good deal. Anyway I rode it a bit and didn’t initially like it. I found out later that it was partially because I had the fins setup all wrong – with the center fin way forward in the fin box. Buddy helped me move them several months later and it was like it was a whole new board. After the fin move, this was one of my longboards of choice for small Tonggs and neighboring breaks when I was starting to become a more accomplished surfer.

-8’6” Classic longboard. This was a very unique board and has become one of my sentimental favorites. Thruster fin setup. Broken in half and repaired at some point and purchased at a garage sale in Kailua for $75. I rode this a lot and it helped me get much better with general wave skills. Also almost everything I know about board repair I learned on this board. It had so many dings and little problems it was like a floating wreck. It was also very old-school, yellow, and with some cool 80’s or early 90’s inspired designs on it. When Nic came to visit, it was his board to ride, and he rode it alright, rode it into 2 pieces. He broke it in half at Old Man’s when we were surfing there with Mike on about a 2-4 ft Hawaiian south swell. Ahhh what fun that was. Anyway I then made a table out of it and then I moved to Cali and had to leave it behind and then Josh threw it in the dump.

-7’10” FSC funshape. Thruster. Great board. Took my surfing to the next level. Matt and Mike always wanted to ride it but I never let them. I remember when I first went out to Rice Bowls – this board made me feel confident enough to take on that much more advanced break. On this board I could still paddle like on a longboard, but then it was so much more nimble on the wave. It was the perfect board for me at the level I was at – a great way to get on something smaller and more responsive than a long board without the trouble of flailing around on a typical shortboard shape for months on end. I really liked this board and surfed it A LOT while developing my skills.

-7’2” Dick Brewer Mini-Gun. Thruster, pintail. What was I thinking – that I was gonna go surf double-overhead pipe?? This board would have been perfect for that – but for me and my skill level it was fairly useless. The board was an impulse buy, got it for $80 I think from a guy at Hickam AFB. I do remember taking it out a couple times on 3 to 4 ft Hawaii swells and enjoying it – but I really wasn’t a strong enough paddler to make this very thin and very narrow board move much. But, if I could get it into a wave, it felt extremely stable. The pintail made it really hold well. All in all though, not the right board for me or for the surf I was taking on.

-6’10” S. Rotella Stinger-Fish. This has been my board of choice ever since I got it. I remember when I first took it out – Diamond Head, nothing that big. I struggled with it for at least 10 waves, then got a nice one and it was so loose through the wave – I was gliding along and going up and down like I had never done before. I bought it almost new – it was custom shaped for some girl but she didn’t like it for whatever reason – so I got it for I believe $325. It doesn’t really look like it’s 6’10”, but it does float and paddle very well. It is a fish shape, so it is a bit wider through the whole board than a shortboard of the same length would be. It’s about 2 5/8 thick, I think. The tail tapers down to a small swallow-tail with the stingers bringing it in just above the fins. I have surfed everywhere and everything on this board – it has been pretty much my staple board for the last almost what, 2 years? I have used it on waves from maybe 6-8 Hawaiian to ankle high, on soft shoulders, in barrels, North Shore, South Shore, East Side, West Side, Frontside, Backside, Santa Cruz, HMB, Pacifica, soon to be San Francisco too. An excellent board that is starting to show it’s heavy use – I have had to repair the same fin plug twice, have fixed multiple dings, it has numerous pressure dings, and worst of all is suffering from some pretty bad delamination which I am considering trying to repair myself sometime soon. The board has been out of commission for a couple weeks now due to my laziness in repairs, and I am really missing it.

-7’2” Cino funboard/shortboard shape. Thruster. Christina’s board – she named it Jack. I have loved this board too, from the first time I rode it. I got it for Christina to use and she really likes it – but since she doesn’t surf nearly enough I make sure it sees the water every now and then. It’s a very pretty board with the shiny glass job that looks good. It surfs great too – I really like it and if possible I try to use it if available for the bigger stuff. An excellent board – Use it more Christina!! And thanks for letting me use it too.

-6’1” J. Poko Shortboard. Thruster. Wafer Thin, a super small potato chip board. Mike bought it when he was thinking he was Rob Machado, and then he found out that he’s really a 200+ pound chunk of meat who wouldn’t be able to make this thing float in the Dead Sea. So since I’m ~20 lbs. lighter I thought I’d make it work, and I took it off his hands for a good price and have tried to master it. I think that I have found it is too small for me too. I seem to bog it down, even when I get in a good wave. It is super snappy though and still fun to ride, but I think I really need a little bit thicker and longer board. But try riding this for a couple weeks – then go back to your regular board – and your surfing will be so much better it’s pretty amazing! The Poko requires you to do many things right – and due to it’s small size is very unforgiving. When you transfer that over to the larger board it makes surfing it seem very easy.

So that’s the list. There are more, but I’ve only ridden them a couple times so I don’t know enough to really list them. I have lots of learning to do on boards and fins and gear – I will be going into surfshops and talking with the guys more often to get more knowledge.