Surfing divination!
Have you ever gone to a psychic? A man or woman gifted in the arts of divination? I never have but imagine the comfort of receiving advice about this or that decision would be comforting. Still, it’s the psychic’s ability to tell the client about his or her own past, without foreknowledge, that has always impressed. Anyone could say anything about the future, who could argue? But the past is set in stone.
Defined.
On this note, I feel I could tell you everything* about your past if you told me the dimensions of your first custom order hand-shaped board.
Do you recall first time you waltzed into the surf shop or weird backyard shed, chatted with the sketchy, possibly wanted man running the place and filled out the paperwork?
What did you write?
For me it was 6’4 18 2.2 and built lovingly from epoxy.
1994, Huntington Beach, California.
Exactly what you would have guessed had I not told you. I’m sure the board stunted my development as a surfer by years, if not forever, but who needs skill when you’ve got a potato chip?
Now what about you? Tell me your dimensions and I’ll show you the world* .
*The rough decade in which you had it shaped.
2007, 6′ 2” thruster from Jon Pyzel, who was recommended by the Peter Cole family (I think Jon used to rent their Rocky Point house). Reading all these other guys’ “first shaped boards” makes me feel pretty young! I knew most of the commentators on BG were older, mainly due to their vocabulary and historical knowledge, but seeing the dates on their boards just makes me feel . . . youthful, exuberant, and full of young life! (disclaimer/affirmation: i always treat older dudes with tons of respect, unless their kooks).
I meant to reply here about getting a dog from mick manolas. Good bloke. Great dog. I’m told his boards were awesome.
I got a dog from Mick Manolas. No really. A dog. Called Ozzie. Cutest little fella ever. I can’t recall his dimensions but for a little guy it took a fucken big hole to bury him. Tha t was about 4’10” by 3’6″ by 5’0″. That wasn’t my first surfboard or my first dog.
6’3″ x 18″ x 2 1/8″ carbon strips like Kelly, K-Grip & glass on purple fins Island by Vaughn Platt
is there a video? was it before the KK video that started it all. and Derek where is the pro surfer sex tape that we all had heard about?
6’3 shaped for me in 2000 by a top local shaper’s wannabe protege, who I later reaslised was quite useless with a planer. But not before a few years and a few boards later, while wasting the peak of my physical strength and endurance on third-rate equipment. It was the low price that got me. Those boards marked my transition from “beginner” into “post-beginner”, but I’d only crack the seal of “intermediate (perpetual)” in 2006 when I got my first board (6’1, was it?) from a real shaper, and my surfing abilities increased twofold the first time I stood up on that miracle foam and fibreglass creation.
I had been saving my pocket money and the meagre profits from slingin foilys behind the cricket nets for a solid year and finally had my money right.
I contacted my uncle in Burliegh who was glassing and finishing Bros Nielsons and a few young up and comers like DHD so I knew he’d be good for a hook up.
“No fkn dramas mate give us a couple weeks to sort it” says Unc.
Fucking sweet ! Says I.
5 weeks later I pick up a bubble wrapped package from the train station, hmm.. feels a bit big …drive the 45 mins home tear open the bubble wrap to discover a 6 fkn 8 by 17 / 3/4 pintail fkn indo gun with ” for Barton ” down the stringer.
Perfect for the gutless waist high wind slop I was stuck surfing at the time..
A Victor Ford shaped baked bean 4’10” x 22”! (a la early McCoys). The bizarre thing was when I went over to pick it up, I had to take it to another guy to glass, he wasn’t working on it in the back shed, he was in his Mum’s living room sanding the blank across his lap watching TV – there was foam dust covering everything – my Mum would have literally keeled over!
I’ve just realised – fuck I’m old!
Hot Buttered ‘Cut Loose’ model by Russell Lewis. 5’10” single roundtail with the curved channels. Couldn’t afford a spray, so it just had a multi colour pin line.
Around 1979/80, cost me $210 IIRC, which was raised by mowing a fair few lawns.
Spoilt little shits just get given them these days.
6’1″ Impact squash-tail shaped by Steve ‘blackie’ Wilson. Scrimped/saved every cent I earnt selling ice cream at the Sydney Cricket Ground, to purchase the beloved sled. Worshipped / slept / gazed lovingly at its beauty and potential for two loooooooooong weeks, awaiting for it to cure. (remember ‘those’ days?). A week later: lent to a mate for his board-riders heat – ONLY if he PROMISED not to pull into the close-out shorebreak – he did and it snapped before my eyes! I cried (I was 15). Cunt never repaid me!!! 33 years later and I’m still tortured!!!
Darren symes 6’2 x 18 1/4” x2 1/8” was 15, Got a lift an hr down the coast to his shaping shed at the back of his old mans house, gave him his couple hundred deposit and hitched back home. Was so psyched cause his younger brothers did all the grom comps i was competing in and were ripping, an I was on the way to getting one of my own after all the hand me down beaters I’d always had.Was such a good board I snapped it twice an got it put back together. Then Snapped it in 3 pieces pulling into a close out an that was the end of it. Was pretty much the blueprint for what I rode for the next few years.
ha! did you ever see the roast she had, where that roaster guy Jeffrey just annihilates her and Courtney Love.. dam.. I think you might have been there too
Dude, unless you’re buying off the rack, you’re part of the problem bro.
6’2″ Gunther Rohn. 83 Ish? Didn’t know or care about anything but length at the time. Kinda like now.
It was a Rusty Hustler – bigger and beefier than they tell you to get them. Worked great until I left it on the side of the road and drove off forgetting to put it in my car.
I did the same thing with my favourite/only 4 3 wetty about 20 years ago. It still pains me to this day. It was an O’neill that had titanium in it according to the front logo – so hard to take off with frozen hands.
7’0 x 18 3/4 x 2 1/2 round pin from Nick Urricio at Semente in Ericeira, Portugal. 1990?
Surfed it In Portugal, Indo, Mexico, before snapping it at 8ft Jardim do Mar on Madeira.
Magic whip.
A banana yellow 5’7″ shaped by my dad for about my 7th birthday. Mid 80’s & the tissue decal on the deck was 4 foot long. I’m sure that will come back soon.
I asked mum and dad to take me to the beach to which mum replied off the cuff ”take yourself’, so I did. A few hours later i strolled home in the dark, board on head, to distressed parents who had no idea where I had disappeared to.
Early to mid 90’. 6’4” 18.5” 2.5” From Steve Huerta’s backyard shed in Oxnard.
First custom was around the year 2000 I saved up $500 for an Islantis swallowtail “fish” 6’2 by 20 by ? shaped by Grem with a cool red lightning bolt that they took the artistic licence to put a black shadow behind – making it even more awesome. It wasn’t really a fish at all (it was a shortboard thruster with a wider outline than normal at the time) but anything widish with a swallowtail back then could have been a fish for all I knew. I still have it under my house and rode it a couple of years ago. It is deeply yellowed and depressed all over the deck and with badly fixed dings on the bottom and tail – I will pull it out again though. The first time I rode it was at a well known reef here and I felt like I was levitating above the water and thought “yeh I’ll defintiely start doing airs on this board”. I never started doing airs. Before and after I always rode Full Circle boards but the guy in the shop said the word Fish and I was sold.
what do you think Pam and Kelly talked about?
Pam “ it’s ok for you Kelly your wearing booties so please let me wear my UGG Boots ? “ …….
Pam “ Kelly can you imagine getting old , going bald and not riding for CI or Quik ? “……
“So, you sit around in the water for a couple of hours with 1 minute of actual surfing? They should call it floating”.
5’10 Saltwater Surfboards six channel thruster shaped by the legendary Bob Davie at Whangamata in 1986. Granny Smith green deck and a clear bottom with rainbow fade logos. Snapped the nose off at the Mount a couple of years later and gave it to a grom at the Mount Surf Club. It was my last channel bottom board and last Bob board.
Be worth a dime now!
My first board was ’70’s Bob Davie single fin with a terribly deformed nose that was pulled out of the roof of an uncles garage. I gave it a horrible repair job and let it give me terrible rashes in the white wash at Waihi beach.