while down in Newport we visited…
Pure Glass
FoamEZ
Sakal
but nothing seems to compare to what we have at Fiberglass Hawaii off Waikamilo
my brother went to huntington to look for Chuck Dent’s old shop and Nuuhiwa
all gone
last time we were there was in the 80’s
driving down in my saab 99 le from seattle during mt st helens
picked up my new board from Barry
had a nice chat and saw some nice big guy boards
met his mom (sorry for making you wait Mrs Snyder)
new board is cherry ready for Shark Country and Pakalas
made sure to tip my new shaper, no 6 pack
Stopped at SurfySurfy and talked story with JP
saw some really nice boards manolo’s. his wife’s and gary hanels, christiansen’s, couple of bonzers
including a lightly used maurice cole shiva deep 6 that had us drooling
just too small for old fat guys
bought a shirt
told JP to give Manuel my aloha
still have the custom coke bottle green quad he made for me when he was just starting out
found out DK was running Pyzel’s shop next to Barry’s
the kids grow up fast
went to visit Jim Phillips but he was gone for the day
will try again tomorrow and work our way down the coast visiting as many shops as we can
haven’t seen anything unique in a regular retail shop yet
we may check out the greenroom although I hear Toby is not affiliated with it anymore.
we’re based on shelter island now instead of newport beach
we’ll still need to decide if we want to get wet
water looks cold i hate cold but we have our suits
waves look mushy and onshore everywhere
so spoiled living and surfing in hawaii
and all the shaping options we have within 10-15 miles
thanks for all the offers (john4surf) still have to hook up with surfdog and maybe tanner for a drink/talk story
just found out Keith who we came to visit in pt loma is leaving tomorrow for namotu plus there’s a south back home
he said to surf sunset cliffs anyway. We had a nice dinner with Keith and Judy, the best of the best.
I haven’t got my Dr.s approval yet to surf but i may.
Thursday
Stopped by sunset cliffs watched the waves but it looked crowded for the wave count, nice looking water though
Went to the ocean beach pier and saw all the homeless went to check out the surf and the old greenroom shop which we found gone but bird opened a bigger and better shop in its place. We met and talked story with a fellow old fart Steevo who used to live at Makakilo when he managed Glen Minami’s Blue Hawaii factory in waipahu. He surfed Officer Beach and Swabbie land back in the say when it was military only. He knew all our friends and family who surfed there like CyrIL Huddy… We exchanged board design and shark stories (mostly my brother), saw some really interesting stuff like and old keel fin and brewer from the 70’s that brought back memories. He and Steve Lis have a neat 5-fin design they made decades a ago. Also sat down and played ukulele together singing “hele on to kauai” which he said uncle Carlos Andrade taught it to him. Had a really interesting KALA uke we played. I told him about my kamaka’s (trnor and lili’u) hand picked by uncle Freddy and dad’s martin tenor from the 30’s. The kid at the counter was real nice (also was into making boards) and told us to check out Bird’s shed. Steevo said his bud Steve Lis was coming up to SD to visit and shape. Super nice people. Such a small world.
On the way to the shed the traffic stopped completely on hwy 8 due to a sink hole right on the freeway. Never saw so many a-hole drivers in my life people doing sht that would cause a brudda back home to jump out and punch them in the face. This caused a 30-40 delay to our trip to the shed so after checking out the shed for and hour (the had some neat stuff including some of Jim Phillip’s boards and a gemini) we headed north to see Jim Phillips and missed checking out Skip Frye’s place. Spent a couple hours up north talking story about board, health and his time in hawaii with Jim and by chance met Terry Martin’'s grandson (a BIG but super nice guy) who was cutting blanks for bing. Jim had a couple Japanese guys looking for boards so we left so he could take care of business. It’s a shame he’s not getting more work while all the chinese boards from the name brands stock all the shelves in the shops.
. We headed south to Icons of Surf to see way overpriced and weird but neat shapes. saw a used 5-fin bonzer I wanted (my brother says i have a sickness) and a unique takayama longboard as well as a used Horan single from Solosurfer’s company Revolution Surf, looked like a baby version of the one I have with the red and black motif. l think the boards at The Chocolate brand board from christienson’s brother were noce butthe boards we saw at JP’s were more interesting like the edge boards and more inline price wise. Listening to people walking in and talking to the people in the shop I relaized how bad its all become for the makers.
We visited downtown or tourist part of san clemente and visited the Hobie shop and a discount outlet for Jacks. picked up a neon lime green rash top for Ewa Beach and kauai with matching waterproofed shorts. Must be the filopino influence of my home break where all the cool guys wear and surf neon. picked up a quad set the Nathan Fletcher quads from 3D to try. San Clemente just felt weird especially the tourist place and beach kind of like lanikai/kailua back home.
We then then booked down to the cardiff patagonia to check out and feel up some Maurice Cole big guy boards especially his shiva and dingo models. The guy who was stocking boards was real nice and showed us the xps foam fcd is using and it’s real good stuff compared to blue dow. Just wish it was available on the market. My brother said he picked up some from Petey who used to make boards fro XTR in Hawaii when he split to bali. I told him my experience with the earlier point blanks like the Mako, Rocket Sled and Munoz which I loved but they yellowed up fast.We saw some of the wood boards from nine lights and danny hess and jon wegener’s boards. Still like fletcher’s FCD shape stuff. Wish they had that bonzer versions of the huevo
Heading south we stopped at Surfside since Mitch’s was closed and met Sean Mattison’s wife. We saw some of his boards Working out way back to San Diego via coastal hwy. It was getting dark so we grabbed dinner at CPK down he street. Saw the cardiff kook he looked frail and lonely and no way near Duke’s magnificent statue in waikiki or King Kamehameha’s across the palace.
My brother just commented that outside of moonlight and waterman’s guild most of the gassing we saw in the shops sucked. Lots of burn thrus and stuff us amateurs do.
Three more days of discovery ahead of us
Seems like the water stinks and everything is a close out at the beaches easiest to get to
We’ll see if we get wet
Just wanted to say everyone we met hear was first class
but the drivers not so much
hopefully skip, the museum, bill, and others while we are here.
the more I travel though
the more lucky we live hawaii rings more and more true
must be getting old
but there’s nothing like home
and sleeping in your own bed
the taylor factory tour sounds neat
BTW
we f’d up big time
when we got home around 9 last night we found out and could hear that Stevie Winwood was playing a concert next door everywhere people were sitting around in the marina listening.
we should have bought tickets and gone
Wish I knew when I booked the hotel,
my brother wanted to kill me