Just stumbled on this playing around. Brought back a memory and the significance of it that I never thought of before now.
The vid and the comment I left on the page. .
As a 15 yo living in Corona del Mar, I was working in the El Paipo factory in Costa Mesa the summer of 1968. One day Steve Bigler, who was a regular at the shop brought George in and we evidently made his first spoon for him. IIRC, he had a short blank shaped by Dale Velzy who was working for Hobie and El Paipo at the time, that we glassed on one side with about 10 layers of 12 oz cloth, much in the same way we made fin sheets to be cut up into individual fins for the Paipo boards. It was a warm jade green resin mix so as not to go off too fast and become brittle. The next day we took to flipping it over and removing the foam down to the glass leaving the nose and side edges with a little divider half way down the middle for knee separation. Sort of a reverse wishbone with the tip inside. The rest of the interior was down to the glass to the back. The edges became side ribs for both edge bite and torsion bars for turning. Smack a fin on the back and that was it ! He left with it headed for Hawaii and I guess the rest is history. Seeing this video brought back this long forgotten memory and helped me to realize the significance of that moment.
Bonus, I got Dale to shape me an 8 foot mini gun that I glassed and finished up myself. Later that summer, one day up at Huntington, I was out on it and in the zone on a medium size fun day. After a while I noticed that David Nuuhiwa was out and watching me ! This was the summer that the Roller Coaster was invented and I seemed to be pulling them off really well and doing some really nice cut backs. No spray from a mini gun pintail but powerful nonetheless. I was really stoked. David being a fellow goofy foot and one of my heroes.
Thanks for bringing back this warm childhood memory on a cold winter's night in Cleveland, Ohio.Cheers !
The people in the second picture are or seem to be all surfing locals, including the women. The knobs on the knees from paddling are the giveaway. The guy on the far right even has the typical open sore. They were fun, not. Peel off the scab, insert knee in stinging salt water, grimace, then hop on the board putting your weight on the open sore and banzai. I still have some remnants of my knobs from back in the day.
Stumbled on this while looking around for stuff about Rolf Arness.
Old surfers knew of Rick Griffin before he got known for his art and album covers and posters.
Here is some old footage with him actually out on a board, and another Goofy Foot ! At the legendary Hope Ranch ... Some of you might remember the names of the other surfers, too. .
50 years on ain't the world changed kurtster , except for the waves.
Stumbled on this while looking around for stuff about Rolf Arness.
Old surfers knew of Rick Griffin before he got known for his art and album covers and posters.
Here is some old footage with him actually out on a board, and another Goofy Foot ! At the legendary Hope Ranch ... Some of you might remember the names of the other surfers, too. .
50 years on ain't the world changed kurtster , except for the waves.
Stumbled on this while looking around for stuff about Rolf Arness.
Old surfers knew of Rick Griffin before he got known for his art and album covers and posters.
Here is some old footage with him actually out on a board, and another Goofy Foot ! At the legendary Hope Ranch ... Some of you might remember the names of the other surfers, too. .
Back from our lovely sojourn in the Cocos Keeling Islands. Wow , such a beautiful and relaxing place Folks there so friendly and laid back, no crime...cops get around without gun belts dressed in shorts. Generally work starts at 10 am and finishes off at 3pm except when the twice weekly plane comes by from Western Australia. Walked beaches for hours w/o seeing another footprint. Swam ,saw sharks but locals say they are too well fed to worry about us humans.....mmm? On the sad side was told the place is becoming strategically important .OZ government wanting to upgrade airport by $200 million . USA interested too as worried China is snooping around the place. Locals not impressed because the place becomes a target and they don't want burger joints on the islands. This nice video of Zac's sums it up
Interesting. Was not aware of this. Looks like real fun.
The high kick in the nose is really interesting and seems to be very necessary.
Surfing is the only thing left I can think of that makes me wish I was young again.
Haven't been out on my twenty plus years old ski in ages. It lacks that nose lift, but I'd be keen to see what refinements they've made to the tripple skeg set up . There is noway the older models could perform those radical flick backs , just too stiff. Being supper fit could be handy too.
Watching this makes me feel I should be dragging the old plank and paddle out again.
I was most of the way through before realising they were only using a low brace which seems smart because messing up a high brace would rip your arm off.
I understand it's hard to learn how to roll a waveski.
There are just too many sharks nowdays around that Gracetown/Margaret River area to lure a wuss like me back into the water . Good on Laura , gutsy girl.
