Surfing. What a rush, seeing my first surf film (Bud Brown) in 1953! Lots of big Makaha. The hook was set, I had to do it too. Little did I realize that the sport would be a powerful, and defining influence in my life. I had the pleasure of sharing waves, friendships, and experiences with many of the luminaries of the sport. It has been an interesting, and rewarding journey. Just reflecting............What about you? How has surfing impacted you, or changed your life?
Probably more than i realise. I surf mostly knee to head high average waves most of the time, but i can't stop going. Im over a week since my last surf and feeling it. Im headed down to visit my parents for a week tomorrow, who happen to live near a pretty famous surf area ( Rip curl do an event there every year, have been for a long long time ). Probably out of my league, but i'll be happy just to get there and have a look. Im more hanging to get back home and and get some sweet waves at my local though. Here, there are beaches as far as you can drive, north or south, and some pretty damn good ones, but i have 2 or 3 favourites that i just love, and if they're not on, i just go home.
Howzit Bill, The summer of 53' was the first time I got to ride on a surfboard,granted there was a big person holding on to me. But That was when I got the bug also.Then about 3 years later Pete Peterson opened a surfshop at the end of my street so I coud stop in there every day and drool. Aloha,Kokua
Always loved the water - I was the kid who stayed in the pool until my lips turned blue. My dad died when I was eight, I've kinda been on my own since then, latchkey kid, my mom was working long hours and couldn't keep up with four kids, I got a paper route and with my money I used to take the bus(es) by myself from Burbank to Santa Monica with my inflatable raft.
Did that for years, got my first car and a learner's permit when I was 15, my license when I was 16, and I could finally get a real surfboard, 'cuz I didn't have to take the bus anymore! My brother was into dirt bikes, and I used to be too, but surfing won me over. He could never get it - he's like, "I drive by the beach and the surfers are just sitting out there like a bunch of penguins" hahaha, landlubbers!
Moved to Ventura once I graduated high school, my valley friends all said "he'll be back" - Ha! I was pretty hardcore for about 15 years, but when my 4 year old daughter was molested I had to take extreme measures, and move from my beloved Ventura. Had some serious emotional / legal / financial issues to deal with as a result, and put surfing on the backburner. I knew I'd come back to it some day, but time kept flowing by.
Now that my daughter is grown and happily married, I'm back in the lineup! After 23 years away, one day an old surf buddy showed up with an extra longboard, extra wetsuit, and forced me at gunpoint to paddle out in 1' Malibu. I was in horrible shape - but that was all it took, I was back in the game. Not exactly like riding a bike, 'tho, its been a tough battle to try to regain a small measure of my old proficiency, in my mid 50's.
I did kinda miss a lot - just rode my first thruster the other day hahaha. I remember telling my daughter on the phone "I'm going surfing", and she was like, You surf? Yeah, kids don't realize we had a life before they came along LOL.
Now I build boards too - double your pleasure, double your fun, surf and make your own boards!
Last weekend my wife and I took her elderly mom to Cambria. I had pulled a muscle in my leg (skateboarding), and could barely walk. But I still managed to get out on my Morey boogie and catch a few anyway. It becomes a part of who you are.
I knew I was destin to be a surfer from the age of awairness about 4 or 5 yrs old. early 60"s
the teen across the street would be pouring hot parafin wax on their boards
they would let me stand and walk on their boards, I thought they were the coolest !!
then they went to Vietnam and some of them guys didnt come back, I get tears just thinking about it.
Anyway,,,
as I grew up it was obvious that no one was gonna take me to the beach and buy me a board so at the age of 6 or 7 I asked for a skateboard for Christmas.
I recieved a Hobie board with clay wheels, I was stoked!
for years of being lndlocked I skated like a posessed teen, bombing down hills and freestyler extrordanair
making my own boards in woodshop for my friends and myself, I became well liked at school in the 70's.
did a few local skate contests and got first place in them, I was offered a sponsership from a sporting goods shop in Mission Viejo
but home life wouldnt allow it , my step father didnt have the same vision as I did.
so F him ,,, I joined the Navy at the age of seventeen and became a free man. I could do anything I could dream of, the skating slowed and
Kneeboarding became my weekend passion for years then one day, I was married and the kneeboarding came to a halt.
years later one of my highschool buds asks me if I would go surf with him ,,,,, so I did and glad I did and now also shaping and glassing and even skating a little. no tricks ha ha.
oh and I like beer!
Forecast isn’t looking too flash for the Cup weekend, but there should be some 2ft onshore waves. Make sure you get out there (Winki will probably be a bit better, especially on the low tide). The crowd is definitely more difficult to handle than the waves, but a bit of onshore will keep the crowd down, so you should get a few fun ones.
As for the original question, every waking thought revolves around surfing! I’m currently in the middle of an involuntary wave drought (three surfs in two months, but at least one was at excellent Margaret River), so 2ft onshore down the Surf Coast this weekend will be awesome!
Cheers
Paul
Faaark, i hate crowds. More than 5 i get annoyed!!
Faaark, i hate crowds. More than 5 i get annoyed!!
My limit is around three, unless they’re friends who can surf well.
When I was 12 my mom got a job with a supermarket chain that paid rather well (union gig) and the purpose was to save enough money every year to rent a house at the beach during Summer. We lived about 30 miles inland. Two of the local lifeguards at the state beach had gone to college out in California and they took up surfing. I would see them out in the water when they got off work and was fascinated by the whole thing. After nagging them for weeks, one finally let me borrow his board. That was it, for me. The next Summer (1963) I would hitch up to town beach daily and scrounge a borrowed board whenever I could. When I had enough money I’d rent a board for the day. About a year later I got my first after-school job and saved up to buy my own board. A second hand Hansen beachbreak shape. I paid $115. My father said I was wasting good money on something I would lose interest in quickly.
I have lost…girlfriends, jobs, money, time…etc, all due to surfing. I forget who said it, but there’s a quote that says something like “surfing is the most perfect waste of time”. If I had to go back and do it over, I wouldn’t change much.
My first time seeing surfing was watching it on Wide World Of Sports sometime around 1976. Still remember watching Micheal Ho and his name always stuck with me. I was hooked after seeing it once on TV at about 7 years old. Fast forward a few years and my father took me for a visit to his childhood friend Dan Heritage’s small surfboard factory. I grew up 30 miles inland but was hooked. Got my first board at 12. At 14 I remember making it a goal to live as close as possible to my favorite surf spot…7th Street in Ocean City. Ten years later I purchased my house (street address number 710) right up the street from that break. Along the way I’ve built my entire life around surfing and have made both good and bad choices along the way all in the name of surfing. Where I live, Where I work and how I live my life have all been guided by surfing. Now 30 years after I first stood up on a surfboard I’m watching my 3 children ages 6. 10 and 12 surf.
Yea, you could say surfing has influenced my life.
it’s been a lot of fun and adventure at the expense of many girfriends and one marriage. i finally quit trying to explain to them how i can’t just step out and go for a surf,(like i can to go for a run), or block time in to surf( like one can to play 18 holes.) when the surf is happening all things take a back seat-peroid. can’t plan it, set a time or date, just gotta be ready to roll when it’ happens. just like when…hey! the wind changed. gotta go!
i had been going to the beach all my life and always loved the ocean but never started surfing till i was seventeen
at the time i was really into bmx riding and then we had a really hot summer and a good friend asked if i wanted to go surfing one day and i thought go ride my bike in the heat or cool off and try and ride some waves
well after surfing for six mounths i was totaly hooked and started building my own hack surfboards and was always amazide that they actually road half way decent
then after high school i got a job at a surfboard repair shop and learned a few cool things then moved to hawaii to help out some family
when i moved back to the mainland i got a job at a surfboard factory, i did that for a couple of years and now ive been doing ding repair and costom boards for people at my shop for the past two an a half years and i love it all
so ya surfing has definetly impacted my life
summer of graduation I drove down to Galveston Tx from Dallas. Cought my first wave. 2 weeks later I had drove through MEx to the west coast. Stayed for 3 months. Went home packed up and moved to California. did that for a couple fo years. Then started traveling. after 6 years of off and on surf travel I ended up here but its about that time again. Its an addiction that I have chased all the way around the world and all I want to do is do it again…
Ah Hreitage i bought my first board there,Years later Dan gave me encouragement to start shaping boards.Still miss him
Jbird,
How's california....former neighbor.
Caught my first wave in 1966 and got the bug bad.
Surfing has always been a major priority, which has thankfully never been a big problem, at least in my adult life.
While still fairly young, I made a promise to myself I'd always be close to the beach, working a surf friendly job or self employed.
Other then the current crappy financial climate slowing business down, I've been very happy.
Despite my physical limitations, I'm now more stoked about surfing then ever.
Exercise, Mental Therapy, Communion with Nature & Creativity all rolled into one.
Stokaboka
OXOMOXO
grew up on a1a in s florida…had what i consider to be one of the greatest childhood into young adulthood upbringings one could wish for down there…walking to the beach w all the groms on a daily basis…skimboarding…boogie boarding…watch my older brother and the rest of the older guys surf all the time. the beach and surfing were introduced so early in my life i would say i was around 6 yrs old when i became aware of all the fun the beach encompassed
i have a hard time actually pinning down an age when i started surfing but it was somewhere around 3rd or 4th grade w my buddy clark…on a heritage single fin…total beater tank of a board w bondo all over it…this was still the time when parents would drop their very young kids off at the beach w board and say see you in 2 hours and you were let loose on it…and it on you
lots of trouble ensued…more fun than i can even recount…i absolutely loved watching surf movies in the hilton ballroom…the ocean manor…the ramada
and at 41 i am still at it and loving it more today than i ever have and my surfing is still solid…in fact i might say its never been better
but surfing being the life altering thing it is it does come w its difficulties for those around you and in your life at times…all i am saying is this simple thing can get complicated
but all i have ever wanted is to surf, and that can be difficult for others to understand; sometimes you know you are on the right path, and surfing is that path for me…casualties have occurred in the past and will continue in the future along the path
but it all makes absolute perfect sense once i paddle out…surfing confirms itself all the time in my life, makes me feel whole and closer to myself and to God…what in the world?? sounds straight lunatic if you don’t surf i guess.
(I LOVE that username , even more than the "only a surfer knows the feeling" billabong catchphrase ! )
Well , I first stood up on a fibreglass board in 1971.
last surfed an hour ago . And will surf again tomorrow , IF there's waves ....
" WHY surf "???
well....
....surfing has given me health , a sense of humour , perspective [has kept me young] , friends , joy , peace and quiet , 'time out' , photos , and GREAT memories ...I'm sure I could think of PLENTY of other benefits too .
before paddling out as a young grommet , I rollerskated for a very short period of time , before skateboarding took over my life .
Then ...down to the beach on the weekends , to surf , went the Chipper clan ! first bodysurfing , then , surf mats , then at 10yo .... a REAL surfboard !!
I can still remember the feeling of going across my first wave at Harbord ['Freshwater' , Sydney] , on my first [ brother Simon's hand-me-down] fibreglass surfboard , in January [our summer of] 1971. BEST birthday present EVER , in my mind !!! [a close second would have been my first camera , a kodak instamatic , in the same year ]
With an older brother who started 'before boards went short' , and a dad who LOVED being at the beach , yep .... saltwater ran / runs through our veins , definately !
[Dad and mum , recently turned 85 , both try to still get in their daily walk on the beach at Coffs Harbour .]
Well, we know we're getting OLD[er] *, when we start getting all nostalgic . Nowadays , I'm just SOOO glad I can still get in the water and surf , any time there is a wave .
I will NEVER take that for granted !!
isn't surfing FUN !!
cheers !
ben
* reminds me of another comment
" you didn't stop surfing because you got old ...you got old , because you STOPPED SURFING !"
[and the joy can disappear , when that happens , if surfing is ALL we ever had . Other hobbies and interests are life / sanity savers, if "the dreaded day" ever comes when we can no longer surf or laugh ]
It's fateful and fatal; If you do it long enough to meet the "Landlord" aka "Mano" etc.