E's Surf Report

Left August on a good note. I bailed from work early yesterday and got to the beach by 3:15. The waves were glassy and head-high, though not very consistant. The sun was shining. The water was warm. I wore my 3/2 and was perfectly comfortable most of the time. Almost hot for a while. I rode my new semi that I bought a couple weeks ago and it is sweet. It performed exactly as I had hoped. Yahoooo.

Some NO disaster blogs

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=1647609

Dennis, need more details on the boards. Length, width, thickness, make, etc.

My new schtick.
Length: 6'8
Width: 18.5
Thickness: 2 3/8
Rounded pin
Make: Rusty (it's my second Rusty)
I painted the deck a little with a diagonal triangle in yellow and purple with a few layers of clear coat. Just used acrylic spray paint form Ace Hardware.

wow. dennis i was out about 2 hours after you got out and things must of deteriorated quickly. my session was a series of closeout takeoffs with a few rides in between. still a blast though. hadn't been in the water in weeks.

i'm happy to say that our company is matching any donations that we make to the disaster. corporations aren't all bad. for some odd reason they always seem to wait until several days afterwards to make the announcement.

Sick picture!!!!!!!!!!!

New Merrick board was outa sight last night, but the olas were marginal

How was the surf out there? Damn, this is the 2nd time during this lame Summer that I missed a swell in Nor Cal.

My social studies classes are doing a fund raiser, will your co match us Lerm??

Remember that sick contest that Mike Lambresi won at OB back in 93 or so? Good thing he had those web gloves on or else he would be screwed. Man the fans came out in big numbers for that contest.

My arvo session yesterday was PU. Conditions were fair. Couldn't locate my groove. Had one critical wipeout. Went for the big one comin' my way--Almost bit through my tongue on my way down: late takeoff, lip fling, free fall, closeout pound. OB always has a lesson to offer. On this particular date, the wipeout lesson...though nothing compared to some of those wipeouts in Hawaiian footage of the Bruce Movie. Those are some heavy wipeouts. Pretty amazing the human body can survive. I wish someone would make a good wipeout movie with above- and below-water footage---just to see what the pros/experts go through when they falter.

Wowee! I surf!
Rode the new green board - planted a hoodwinker on the nose - slapped some new decals on it and off I went into the jumbly waves off J street. The board was flying through sections like a pointy spear on fire.
I rip. You will for sure notice me surfin' Sloat.
Share your dimensions with me; me 5'-3" super wide waist like the pugboy I am. Blonde, long bushy side burns carved into a an L shape, and an 8" you know what! You'll spot me best in my yellow and white 'Peterbilt & Proud' hat, blue Chevy Blazer with Da Kine surf racks piercing through the local beach intesections laterally without yeilding or stopping. My chick pretty is pretty much a White Trash transplant sidekick but she sucks a mean dick.

Yo Hillbilly I saw you out there, don't you have those web gloves on to help you catch waves?

seems like the troll is getting an early start today...but Bob I wouldn't call your wife a White Trash transplant sidekick...

Anyone have any recommendations for a high performance- higher volumne board 6'7"- 6'10"

I'm about 6'2"/ 180/ F'ed shoulder

Something that paddles/ floats well, performs great shoulder- overhead and handles DOH on occasion. A good all around travel board that can handle reef barrels too.

I hesitant about epoxy because I've heard of boards "shattering" or being hard to repair abroad, sucking up H2O etc. Always gone custom but the pop-out temptation is there.

any experience w/ these??? Thanks!

http://gettommys.com/customer/product.php?productid=16594&cat=&page=
6'8" HVP Surf Prescriptions
N: 11"
M: 19"
T: 14 1/2"
Th: 2 1/4"

Santa Cruz 6'8"
http://www.scskate.com/surf/04_05/surfboards.php?id=20
LENGTH: 6?8?
NOSE: 10.85?
WIDTH: 19.13?
TAIL: 13.56?
THICKNESS: 2.56?

BVB rules the house yet again.

Way to throw darts Bobby.

mexi, i'll look into it. they haven't handed out the details yet. after the tsunami, i donated some of my friend's money along with my donation, since their company wasn't matching. but, i had to do it under my name, so they couldn't get any kind of tax writeoff for it.

since the waves are still shitty and moods still pissy. anyone want to hook-up for a skate session?

i've been hitting the parks for the last 3 months for the dawnie. all the stoke and aloha you crave when surfing, you can carve while skating.

the only thing missing from my "berts" is the spray.

Maybe it's my lack of experience, especially in bigger waves, but I feel like I never really can predict how bad a wipe out is going to be on the way down. Probably the biggest wave I ever fell off of was a fall something on the order of the high dive board, and I seemed to have just gone straight down and popped out the back after a few seconds. On the other hand, I've been worked over by waist high waves where I sommersaulted 4 or 5 times with my head being dragged along the bottom where I was sure I'd run out of air. As you get more experienced, do you find you can tell the type of wipe out, and change your strategy accordingly? Or do you stick to a signular philosophy, whether it be go limp, spread yourself out, or whatever.

Epoxy resin boards don't have to suck in water. Water suckage is a property of the foam. I have a 6'8"x19x2.5 round pin from M10 that uses epoxy resin with extruded polystyrene foam, which doesn't absorb as much water as expanded polystyrene (eps) foam (the surftech foam). You can also get epoxy on Clark polyurethane blanks, which M10 does for the big wave boards.

Long period swells are generally gonna hold you down longer. Long period swells breaking in shallow water are gonna offer violent hold-downs. I put my arms over my head in case I hit bottom head first.

maverick's surfers have the best wipe outs

enlarged flea photo worth it to see it large scale

welcome back mexi!

look forward to seeing you out there.

SAY NO TO POP OUTS!!
little kids and adults build those farking
psuedo surfer boards in heinous conditions in
the 3rd world. and i mean ventalation, toxics
disposal, etc. support your local or not so
local hand shaper. these guys are artists and
if they go away we will all wonder where the soul
went.

I've found, at least in my case, that curling into a cannonball helps a lot. Reduces drag. Even pulling my legs up works a little - especially in shallow where a canonball ain't the best idea. Of course I wish this wasn't such hard won knowledge. :P There are many more 'lessons' just waiting to be imparted...

Cannot fathom a wipeout like Flea's. Near heart attack just looking at it.

Yo Korewin...

that picture of the flea wipeout gives me some begruding respect to that meathead! How can one survive such a thing?

There's a lot to be said for supporting local shapers. I don't think they will ever completely go away, just as there are still people making wooden boards. On the other hand, the movement for competive pricing is going to force manafacturers to work overseas. As for the sweat shop stuff, here's an article from Fortune Magazine aboutr Surftech.
http://www.fortune.com/fortune/print/0,15935,1095782,00.html

I did some research on insurance. Renter's insurance does indeed cover personal belongings against damage or theft wherever you are, and it's a lot cheaper than travel insurance. I just did an online quote from AAA and Allstate and both quotes were the same at $150/year for $20,000 of property coverage. Compare that to the rates for the travel insurance company that I used ($50 for a week, $70 for two weeks, $100 for three weeks of $1500 property & $100,000 medical coverage).

However, there's a $250 deductable with the renter's insurance, whereas with travel insurance there's no deductable, which is significant because that's half the cost of a new board. Also, travel insurance covers emergency medical costs and renter's does not.

I've tried the cannonball form and the legs/arms out to create drag--as well as the straight down and out the back--but that could be perilous on reef/rocks. I'd hate to be wedged in a reef in the fetal position. Anyone have any hard-earned knowledge on technique for that split-second exit strategy? Got kelp around the neck once. That was pretty unnerving. That Flea wipeout is heavy. It'd be good to have a Greg Noll book on surviving perilous wipeouts and breath-holding technique.

Flea's knee is totaly prepared to get jacked in that photo. Who was that QB who's leg break they kept replaying on TV? Kinda like that. Ouch.

nice left-any hints?

Secret spot codename Ram Adnil was surfable mid-morning. Waist-shoulder, close-outty, pretty strong side-shore coyly flirting with offshore, but not junky, and some fun ones to be had. What with the OB sessions, I've lucked into a pretty fun three days surfishly.

Hold-downs: I'm opposed to them.

Kick ass, Davo. On-line quotes are poor reflections of the bill you get, which for me was about $300 for $15,000 in coverage. Then I realized all my good shit was already stolen, I only own about $5,000 worth of stuff, and I canceled it. Most of my net worth is tied up in sporting goods.

I like Rabit Kekai's advice of spread your arms and legs out in a wipe out, so it takes more energy for the wave to toss you and you'll end up being released sooner. As wetsuited surfers, we avoid the pain associated with the "belly-flop" part of a hitting the water in a wipe out. I wouldn't want to fall 15 feet in a pair of trunks.

For breath holding techniques, those of you that bike to work should pick a hill, and see how far up it you can get without breathing...repeat daily. Going home up Page from Divis is a good one. I really don't think my "hold-down" capacity has increased any, but it's fucking cool to ride without breathing.

Randy French hand shaped surfboards long before Surftech. I had a custom 6'2" thruster shaped by him in 81. At the time he was expereimenting with high density styofoam surfboards without resin or epoxy skins. A freind had one it fell apart, I think Randy gave him his money back. Later in life I worked with Randy professionally. He's an innovator and product guy not afraid to try something new in order to deliver a better product or price point. Is there really anything wrong with that in a free market society where consumer choice is king?

I spent time working in the surf industry, most shapers and glassers work in pretty toxic environments, and many have little or no systems to deal with the toxic by products of surfboard manufacturing. I know first hand how hard it is to properly dispose of toxic by products and insure the health workers as I designed and built OSHA and fire code approved composite manufacturing facilities. If someone can innovate a better way that yields less toxic waste and less exposure to toxins to the workers why is this bad?

I don't own a Surftech or have stock in the company. But those McCoy's look sweet and one day, I'll have one.

Hav

http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=344+Dolores+St,+San+Francisco,+CA+94110

http://bob.carillo.has-a-small-penis.com

Hey artifact,
I'm 175lbs and have a f'ed up shoulder also.
I switched to a 6'8" JC hawaii PMM surftech last year and it is the best board I have ever owned.
I was going through a board a year and this surftech does not have a single ding in 9 months.
Specs;
N: 11.4
M: 19.5
T: 13.8
Th: 2.4
http://www.surftech.com/shortboards.php?shaper=32

am i the only one still depressed about the waves?

Yes Bagel. Sorry bout that.

Yeah the real question is are you more likely to get your boards and stuff stolen/ broken abroad or at the Great Highway? Probably right here in town! Nice to have the dual coverage.

Yeah I have always supported the local shapers starting with my first Vince Collier board. Don't want to go Pop- out but some of those board do look sweet. Did Bob Pearson really shape my last custom anyways or send it throught his laser shaper and sign it off? CI's are the same? Much different than Pop-outs? Not that the PA's of CI's really need the business.

So are the urban myths about the new epoxy's surfboard true- or are they sweet? Has anyone "shattered" them or had the sandwhich come apart- impossible to fix abroad?- due standard resin eating the foam?

Many thanks for the all input so far!

Bagel, nah, me too.

The Flea wipeout is insane. Just for the sake of judging size, I used a side edge and measured him against the wave. God damn, that wave is like 6-7 times overhead.

I tried breath holding exercises. It sucks, since I don't have much lung capacity. If I was ran a fast mile and tried holding my breath, I think I could manage 5 seconds no problem. 10 seconds, and I'd pass out. I don't see how those guys do it in huge surf where the average hold down is like 20-30 seconds.

be careful with the renters insurance. had a buddy use his twice in 3 or 4 years, then when he bought a house he had a hell of a time getting homeowner's. Might not have been able to get it at all, except that he had a TIC and managed it through the other owner. homeowner's can be pretty important, lot more important than insuring boards.

safe way to protect against car theft is not to leave anything visible in your car.

artifact, i have a 6'9, 19 1/4", 2 7/8" rounded pin from surf prescriptions that I absolutely love. may want to special order one with thicker than average glass, as mine is about a year old and is starting to delam where my knee hits during duck dives. I had a 6'8, 19 1/2, HVP before that it also ruled. I'm 6'2", 185. At OB, I don't surf it bigger than head and a half, at least on purpose. :)

that flea wipeout made me lose my lunch, gnarly

Artifact,
Surftech's are not that difficult to repair. They do suck up water but as long as you let them dry out prior to the repair, it's fine.
Here are some details;
http://www.surftech.com/repair.php

You can travel with ding dough for needed repairs.

My buddy "shattered" his 10 0 four inch thick epoxy board in three pieces last year in the bowl at Makaha. At some point the ocean always wins. Temps dropping, nights getting shorter, can't wait til the winds turn offshore and the shorebreak is 6' at the beach.

After a month+ in dry dock (continuing bad back problems - I AM SO SICK OF THIS SHIT!), the paddle at my usual Ocean Beach avenue of choice was more than I cared to deal with yesterday - although the waves looked pretty darn FUN. So, I ended up at Pedro with the usual suspects and a couple of new morons gettin' into it with each other over who was the bigger kook. Once again I was dumfounded by folks arguing over waves at LINDAMAR!!!!!!!!!! The surf was tiny and mostly crappy - but a few fun rides were had when the rare set-waves decided to hold up for a turn or two. All things considered, it was more fun than staying home and watching Oprah.
More yoga, more swimming, and more surfing at the kookier spots for a while and I'll be ready for some real waves in the Fall. But I seem to have gotten into a bad, bad RUT. Get ready for Fall; be beat to shit and semi-crippled by mid-January; suffer through weeks-long periods in dry-dock until mid/late summer ... repeat. But what else can I do? I'm not ready to move to Palm Springs and get a walker ... yet. Ok, I'll quit my whinin'. Bendiciones to those suffering the effects of Katrina and all other natural and human made disasters and tragedies.

- I own a tuflite board - one of French's early 6'8 shapes.
- I've had it since August of '99.
- I paid close to $600 for it.
- I use it on most days.
- I surf a lot.
- It only has minor scratches and paint chips - no major dings.
- $600 for six years + of consistent love in the water was well worth it.
- Especially considering in the time I've had the 6'8, I've surfed and retired (buckled, broke or browned out) six traditional foam and glass boards from various shapers.
- My tuflite is a great board and I will be sad when it is gone.
- I will probably buy another tuflite board in my future.
- I will probably buy another traditional foam and glass board in the future.
- I appreciate technological advances in surfing.
- I like surfing.

jimmie.. nice on the session.

gotta say again how much i dig that MXR distortion+. I Use it a ton during every session and have been finding new tones and sounds that it helps produce. Lately have been playing with feedback and the mxr farking rocks!

thanks again man.

had a santa cruz knot 6'4" epoxy. fun board, floated insane, paddled like a monster. one day Johnny Southbay went for a huge 3 foot drop and sent a longboard torpedo right at me. the epoxy board took it to the dome and the nose shattered. got it fixed and rode it again only to have it completely delam and not have the same float/strength characterstics. It sank, it didn't paddle well, and well, it didn't surf that hot either. riding a sol life now, foam gives good feedback IMHO. but I did like the epoxy board when it worked.

e, do you have any of your band's songs available for an online listen? i'm in need of something to wake me up here in cubeland.

hi j. there is some stuff here.
http://www.niceness.org/music/

feelin' you isn't my song but i play a little backup guitar on it.

Radius i wrote and it starts to rock for a spell about 2/3 of the way through.

Silence is again, the old lead-singer's song.

Arabian Dank is the first song i ever wrote, back in '97 i think.

La Soleil i recorded with Dr. X throwing down the French rapping.

Thousand eyes is another from the flurry of shit i did in '97

Thanks dmc, bird, wrestler, Q, kookdom, etc for the input. I guess it'll be just what feels good in my hands as I don't have the patience right now waiting for a shape.

Rip, party, hike, burn, climb, drink, camp, sleep, jam, fish, mack, eat and try not to watch Oprah during this long weekend!

I am surprised at some of you guys who buy Tuflites and surftechs. Especially you Artifact. Your homegrown pics are always amazing and exude so much soul and originality....why would you buy into a fake, computer-made generic board even if it might last longer? Buy local. Shape it yourself. Don't give in.

how is it out there?

Bah..everyone knows the future of surf board material is inflatable.

e - glad the pedal brings you so much stoke.
I've still got that MRX Noise-Gate and an Ibanez Flanger that you're welcome to, gratis. Email me and we'll set up a meet. I'm off to class just now, Sex and the Internet - I kid you not - all part of Human Sexuality Studies. Your tax dollars at work!

Hb,
I'm interested and always pro-technology, I haven't bought one yet just checking out the options. Technology and inovation allows for personal limits to be pushed.

Always supported the local shapers, small shops and will continue to do so. However in need of a board and was interested about people thoughts on the technology and I don't want to wait 1-5+ months for the local shapers coming into peak season. So now for the first time was considering buying "new" off the rack, probably old school non- epoxy, like I always have.

Shaping a board myself- would be an enviornmental and fugly disaster- better leave that to the pros, since I already need all the help I can get!

Hollow argument there HB.

Fake? no...the board I've got is real - it catches real waves, carves real lines, paddles to real speed and has taken real poundings (without breaking).

Buy local - I have...and its been good, but my best board to-date is still my tuflite - one in a quiver of seven.

Shape yourself - working on that too...primarily a restoration project due to lack of time.

Don't give in - in to who or what? Thanks for telling me what to ride in the water and what's soul and what's not soul. You should post the guidelines of what's "soul" so people know how to not "give in".

e,

cool tunes. The guitar on Silence reminds me of an old king crimson tune with I think Fripp on guitar. Can't remember the name. Need to go and dig through my stacks of old 33s. Latz

Sorry to be grouchy, but just a little bent out of shape after watching coverage from New Orleans of people who are doing exactly what authorities have told them to do and not receiving any help (water, food, etc.) - no preparation, no air-drops, nada.

I'm stoked on my tuflite, so being called souless for not conforming to someone's view of soul pissed me off and threw fuel on the fire.

Cheers and surf.

HB wrote:
"....why would you buy into a fake, computer-made generic board even if it might last longer? Buy local. Shape it yourself. Don't give in."

Do you realize how many polyester boards are computer shaped?
There are a ton of polyester shapes such as Lost, Seven, etc. that are made elsewhere; spat out in volume.
These boards are as fake and generic as any epoxy board.

You should watch FOX-News

Someone post some more guitar tunes. Anyone has any Alvin Lee? Man, I'm dying to hear some rippin' blues from the 10 Years After cd's. Maybe some Stevie Ray would be cool, but, nah, Alvin is the man.

I might have to post my ripping hard guitar skills on here. Be prepared for a nylon string guitar pump fest!

post em up msg!

thanks for listening moss man... though.. robert fripp is the MAN!

there isn't really much guitar work going on in the songs with the singing. I kind-of chilled in the background.

RAWK!

we want some Kdalle tunes!

Understood Artifact.

DMC, I know that hence I don't buy shitty Lost or Seven etc boards. Why would i want to watch Fox news?

Go to a smaller-time shaper then where you can talk to him and he can give you feedback and stoke your stoke.

Anybody own a Johnny Rice or Mobley log? curious to see see what folks think of it.

I gotta tell you something, we got five or six hundred letters before the show actually went on the air, and no one - no one - is saying the government is doing a good job in handling one of the most atrocious and embarrassing and far-reaching and calamatous things that has come along in this country in my lifetime. I'm 62. I remember the riots in Watts, I remember the earthquake in San Francisco, I remember a lot of things. I have never, ever, seen anything as bungled and as poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans. Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be dropped to those people in the Superdome. What is going on? This is Thursday! This storm happened 5 days ago. This is a disgrace. And don't think the world isn't watching. This is the government that the taxpayers are paying for, and it's fallen right flat on its face as far as I can see, in the way it's handled this thing.

We're going to talk about something else before the show's over, too. And that's the big elephant in the room. The race and economic class of most of the victims, which the media hasn't discussed much at all, but we will a bit later.

Go George Go....

Hey Andrew why don't you just get an Uli Board

http://www.uliboards.com/

we should get a soul-o-meter. that way we can compare souls.
while we are at it.. we should get a rip-o-meter and get a ranking for ripping.... then we can plot our findings, get a legitimate pecking order and move on. this way someone cuts you off, you can ask to see their numbers... if you are better ranked, you can yell at that person and tell them to get lost. if by chance your ranking is less than the snake, then you just have to bite your lip and hope that it doesn't happen, go watch more donovan frankenfranken videos, grow a stache and go surfing again, thus increasing your ranking...

and why do swells always arrive on wednesday?

Evacuations by boat were halted after armed looters threatened medics and overturned one of their boats.

Widespread looting and random gunfire have been reported across New Orleans. Police told CNN that groups of armed men roamed the streets overnight. (Full story)

Officers told CNN they lacked manpower and steady communications to properly do their jobs -- and that they needed help to prevent the widespread looting and violence now prevalent in the city.

shit is crazy

need some tits and shots today. Can someone help a brother out?

e, thx for sharing the music!

dammit, i got a 1 on elias soul-o-meter and a 0 on the rip-o-meter.

i think it's funny how (what seems like primarily) board sports people are always interested in how core/aggro/soulful/etc. you are. i wish i could get my hands of a few of the old 'boycott burton cause you can't patent fun' bumper stickers and the like from snowboardings first, or was it second, bout of people claiming 'sell out'. that being said my personal choice is to support the small guys whenever possible. buuut, i could give two shits about what someone else wants to ride, as long as you're having fun and being mindful it's all gravy. not that anyone cares.

Watching "Riding Giants" the quote from Greg Noll that stuck with me most is that "sufing was a gentlemanly sport until foam boards came along, then it all went to shit." Does the board make the rider? The hawiians had prayers and rituals for the tree before they cut it to carve out their own board...maybe there is something to it. Surfing on one piece from a single living tree that grew for decades, housing birds, feeding wildlife, part of the forest. I don't think you can even compare what they rode with what we did. This is also coming from a man that plays with an inflatable alligator.

If I were hungry and thirsty, and stuck in a disaster area I would loot like a mutha fucker.

j, i've seen you and gumby surf out at keyboard point... i'd bump your score up a few notches!

and ditto on the gravy/fun comment.

Would you shoot someone for food or water mexi?

Our foam boards come from bits of innumerable trees, plants, and, animals, compressed for millions of years under terrific pressure to yield the sacred fossil juice from which we ritually extract polyester and polystyrene resins, from which dedicated craftsmen who have studied and practiced for years lovingly create surfboards to exacting tolerances.

Would you shoot at someone trying to help people at a hospital?

Nah, I wouldn't shoot I'd just take my search for food down to the next Wall Mart down the street.

The reel of film that CNN rolls over and over again shows a Wallgreens or similar type drug store with people running out of it with candy, diapers, chips, and drinks. I have a hard time thinking of that as looting, given the circumstances.

I'm all for looting for food and beverage, even if it's whiskey. The bad boys are stealing stuff for resale and shooting people for not giving up the goods. One couple saw looters towing away their shed from the back yard. They deserve trial by rope. Where's Clint Eastwood when you rally need him?

Dennis, these are the isolated incidents that the media loves to show. the reality is there are thousands of people without food or water. 80% of the big easy is under water, If someone wants somebody's TV, let em have it, you can't eat electronics.

Remember, we don't get real news here, we only see what the sponsers want us to. I

Jah Rasta Fari

I take back that last statement, I spent the last few hours watching CNN and MSNBC, great coverage, if only our leaders did such a good job, it's hard to believe that that is America.

#1 Looter

This ain't dinner at Boulevard. You don't get to complain and stiff the waitress.

I'll take it. So long as you don't keep complaining like bitches about Bad Vibe Bob for hurting your feelings.

That last girl looks like my asian female roommate who has cerebral palsy. Man, this is gonna sound awful, but I can't stand to look at her when she eats. One time, we were hanging out in the kitchen, and she was eating a piece of meat -- steak or something -- like a god damn wilde-beast. The way she was looking at me, chewin' up her steak in her mouth like it was beef jerky, snarling, grimacing like that rapper Juvenille -- you know the way he's got those oversized gold teeth and them big ass lips and he's always snarling and saying, "Hey, huh, yo eatin', huh, that piece of beef jerky, HUH?!"

After a minute of looking at her in biting the hell out of that piece of meat, I almost lost it.

wow.

Feeling cynical today. Sometimes, when I look around me and see all the bullshit, I just stop caring. More than 50% of Americans voted for Bush (debatable), more than 50% of Californians voted for Arnold. A recent survey showed that 68% of Americans think Creationism should be taught in school. Half a dozen rapes in the Superdome last night. Several assults. How many thousand more years will it take to have a civil intellectual society?