(The Bo’, August 5, 2011)

The Conductors calling…

Sion

This is an interview of the late Sion Milosky.  He tragically past away at Mavericks back in March of this year.  Rest In Peace Bro.




The reason why I am posting this is because I learned more from this interview then any conversation I’ve had with other surfers since I started 4 months ago.  I really just enjoy his enthusiasm and his constant focus and stoke about his path.   It also speaks to the questions I’ve had about which “lines” I should take on a wave, how I have to compromise that line with what my board wants to do and so on.  It also speaks to how a board becomes part of you and the fondness that is created between it and it’s rider.  It’s such a great interview for a novice like I who has a million questions but no one to answer them.  It also makes me feel reassured that my feelings are shared with the greater surfing community.  I also found that I can pretty much understand “surfing language” and wasn’t lost at all.  This is a plus.  If I heard this back in February, I would have been lost.

My First Ding Repair

After doing 3 massive sessions (five hours each), I inspected my board and found that I had 2 major “dings” on the tail end of my board.  “Dings” are defined as damage on a surfboard. If one decides not to repair a ding, their board will take in water and become “water logged”.  If this happens, instead of one’s board floating, it will sink, become heavy, and will die inside out, literally.

This is the first ding on the right side of my board’s tail.  You can see there was resin already applied before.  “Resin” is a thick liquid compound (polyester, epoxy, or urethane based) that is used in the construction of surfboards (among countless other common products).

 
 This is the ding on the left side of my board’s tail.  I think this is a brand new ding.

I had the nose of my board repaired a few weeks ago, but it cost me $30.  I figured that instead of dishing what looks like $60 to repair the two dings on my tail, I could just pay $10 for the resin and fix it myself and other dings in the future.


Above are my tools.  I used Solarez for this repair.  I was told by a Ralph at Sunlight Surf Shop in Pacifica that Solarez is stronger resin because it has a mixture of resin, fiber glass and polyster.  Also in this a picture is a Haagen-Dazs ice cream stick that I will use as my brush to apply and shape the resin.  And finally, sand paper to shape and smooth the resin once it drys so that it fits the contours of my board.



Above is the resin applied to the right tail ding.  It’s just a big chunk, but I shaped it down using the ice cream stick. I did this inside my home, away from any sunlight.  Once the resin see’s the sun, it hardens in 3 minutes.

After applying the resin to both dings, I took my board outside to dry.  I then used sand paper to smooth the resin out to fit the curves of my board.



Below is the finished product, before and after pictures, first the right side of the tail.
Before:


After:


The left side of the tail.
Before:



After:



My brother, who also surfs, was so stoked by my repair that he asked me to repair the nose to his old school Rick Noe board.

Before:



After:

 

I enjoyed repairing these two boards.  There is some sort of artisanship that goes into repairing dings.  I loved sanding the resin down and smoothing down the resin to match the lines of the board.  I fell in love with the dust that came off the resin as I sanded.  My friend, let’s call him “The Duck” has a minor ding on the nose of his board.  I hella want to repair it, but he wants to learn also.  This was such a cool experience and I feel so much closer to my board.  It’s like my board gave itself to me a little more today and I as well.
For more information on how I learned to repair my board, check out this video and do-it-yourself!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZlHsJGilp8&feature=related

The Jetty

Yesterday, I hit the Jetty in Half Moon Bay. The Jetty is just off the “One”, about a mile from the famous “Maverick” breaks. Mavericks is probably the biggest wave on the West Coast of the United States, and during a big swell the Jetty can get a little “sumtin’ sumtin’” if you know what I’m saying.

See that big round ball in the distance? I think that used to be an old Airforce base, but at the end of that hill where the big ball is, that is where Maverick resides. Let’s be honest. I’m never gonna surf Mavericks. I don’t want to. I value my life.

So this is the Jetty. This place rocks when there is a south swell with a slight northwest wind that cleans and forms the waves before they reach shore. My rule is, when Lindamar sucks, I head to the Jetty. On great days, there can be three to four different points to catch waves. I’m usually on the second or third. I give the local surfers respect and try not to get in there way. Plus, I don’t feel like embarrassing myself. The waves are nice. You can always catch a really good right and ride it ten to twenty yards. I surfed here three times before, the first being with my friend the Peruvian and another fella that I met in my early kookhood at Linda Mar. I caught a couple really good ones on this day. I also eat it a couple times. I have been a bit tentative over the last few sessions with my rib injury, which has kept me pretty much passive while hunting waves. I’m usually on the shoulder catching scraps. To be honest, I haven’t had a really good ride over the last few weeks. I’m usually just flying down the wall, making a bottom turn and getting caught in the wash. I figure it’s partly because my ribs and partly just being lazy and not angling my board right. But I figure when I’m one hundred percent, I’ll get back into being “unlazy”. But for right now, I’m just trying to keep myself in shape, surfer wise, and practicing my pop-ups which I have surprisingly been doing pretty well at now, especially on bigger waves. I have also made a greater emphasis on crouching more (including my arm placement) and my foot placement on my board. Foot placement is important because this is where the speed comes from, which I have been lacking.

Something really bugged me during this session. There was this young kid getting a lesson from a local shredder who knew just about everybody in the water. The shredder was explaining the art of catching a wave. While explaining how to position oneself in order to catch it perfectly, the shredder told the kid “surfing is like a chess match, not only do you have to place yourself in the perfect position to catch the wave, but you also have to out smart everybody else in the water too.” I really enjoy surfing and I don’t mind the aggressiveness to catch waves. But out thinking other surfers is not why I’m out here. Not only do I want to catch the perfect wave, get in better shape and be in the water, I want to catch some Zen too.

I wondered: Is this what instructors teach kooks? I never had a lesson so I wouldn’t know. But I think it defeats the purpose of what a lot of fellow surfers search for. Instead of being part of something “bigger” and losing oneself to the control of the sea, kooks are being taught to out do other surfers, beat them at their own game and how to checkmate the sea. Is this right? I don’t know. I’m glad I never took lessons and had to hear this bullshit from somebody I had to pay. I’m taking my nephew out to Santa Cruz this weekend for his first session, and instead of using the “chess” analogy, I’m gonna use the “fun” analogy. I’m hoping that unlike the young kook, who after his lesson had his “game face” on, my nephew will instead have a great big smile with tons of laughter and joy after his first date with the sea.

Lakesters

Couldn’t surf because of the injury, so me and my bro cycled 30 miles around Oakland’s Lake Merritt and around Oakland this weekend.

Medicated

I can’t lie, surfing has been pounding the shit out of my body in addition to getting me in really good shape.  These are my remedies, especially for my ribs this week.

Since were talking about “the hurt”, I just read this article and it made me feel kinda young and kinda old at the same time.  It is entitled “Times Betrayal” by Surfer Magazines Rob Gilley.

http://www.surfermag.com/blogs/rob-gilley/times-betrayal/

Clock stops for no one….

Left Out at the Groin

 Today I headed out to the Groin in Bolinas California with a couple of buddies.  In the sake of confidentiality, lets call them the “Peruvian” and the “Brazilian”.  I’ve been surfing with the Peruvian for a about a month now.  He is a stand up guy, high spirited, and a great surfer for only being at it for only 10 months.  The Brazilian is a young, free spirited surfer who learned surfing on a 6’4 board on the beaches of Rio at the age of 6.

The Groin is a interesting place to surf as the Ocean’s waves pour into a small pond during the high tide.  This pond fills the marsh lands that surround Bolinas and supplies an abundant community of wild life with salty/fresh water which it depends on for food, mating and reproducing.

The other type of wild life, the citizens of Bolinas, are of their own thing.  Bolinas is a old hippie town full of independent and free thinking dwellers.  They are open minded, jolly and what the Brazilian defines as plain “Happy”.  Bolina’s peeps are notorious for removing street signs that lead tourist into their little universe.  But yet, they are so welcoming.  They have a great little beach that they share with the public.  All they ask is to pack out your stuff (trash), not to make an ashtray of their beach and clean up after your dogs.  Unlike Santa Cruz, the local surfers are very friendly and always smile or say hi as they paddle or woosh past you.  To say the least, I love this beach and am making it my home beach from now on.

The waves on this day were very long and playful. I characterize beaches this way.  Some beaches are irritable, some are playful, some are chill and some are just all out grumpy.  But as it’s people, the Bolinas Beach smiles at it’s patrons, welcomes them with it’s arms wide open for new playmates.

The one thing that I worried about was the “left”.  The Groin has mostly lefts, which means the wave breaks in a way that you have to ride it left for a longer more memorable ride.  Since my stance on the board is left foot forward, I am much more comfortable going right.  I also been going right all week at Santa Cruz and have gotten so use to this degree that I have tried to all out avoid lefts.  I was having a lot of problems.  I was leaning my body to the left and aiming the board too far left on take off.  Both overcompensations lead me to either go straight or fall on my back.

The Brazilian offered me the best tip of the week.  He said that my body will follow my eyes.  Instead of trying to force the matter by will, either look to the left or the right of the wall and the board will follow.  Every time I caught a wave, he yelled “LOOK AT THE WALL”.  And BAM!  Instantly I was flying left with no problem.  Issue resolved.

My wave catching ability has also vastly improved.  Instead of cuffing my fingers and emphasizing my hands for speed, I let my fingers relax and I stick my entire arm underwater, using my whole arm as a propeller.  This has saved my triceps.  Less burn and more turn!
We started out surfing around three-thirty and end up not leaving until eight-thirty in the afternoon.  The water was so smooth and glossy that around seven-thirty (with plenty of sunlight) the entire ocean looked like an impressionist painting.  It was beautiful.  We had a great time, encouraging each other as we paddled for waves, and fist bumps for great rides.  It was like our own little party.  It was like we were ten again just having fun, splashing around the beach! (Unlike what we try to be which is the cool and collect surfer type).  It was great to surf with good people.  And I think the beach had fun with us as well.