Good, no… great observation Wildy. The boards that you get on and instantly rip on feel wonderful but don’t necessarily stand to progress your surfing. That’s not to say you shouldn’t have old faithful for those primo days, but I know guys that got Yater’s that were the same thing every single time year after year and their surfing was solid yet stagnant. That is NOT a reflection on what Rennie was doing in the least, he has some very progressive boards to his credit even at this point in time of a long and venerable career. I had a magic day on a 7’0" Rennie roundtail that I borrowed from Char Lockerbie and rode on a rare southeaster at Biltmore Pier. The board was in total sync with what I wanted to do… so in my earlier characterization of what makes for magic…
…that board was magic for me, that day on those waves.
Is it the fickle & constant change of Mother Nature that makes for memories and those magic days and boards?
Yes. And if you know some tricks, good ones can be made into magic ones.
Didnt like this board first time out. It took about a dozen iterations to dial in. Once the fins were right the whole board came alive with flex spring. Its magic for me.
(I also had a Natural Art that was magic but that was a very long time ago)
Even if the "Magic" is only in our heads. For every dedicated surfer there are boards that just stand out. I was living down in Mexico on the mainland around 1973. The board I had just wasn't doing it for me. Some guy from Austrailia was heading home so I bought his board I don't recall the make but wow That board was eye opening Lucky for me a Texan bought my old ride so I broke even.
Some of my magic boards were a a Rick UFO about 9'6" 7'2" swallow winger shaped by Sid Madden who worked at Sunset Surfboards in Encinitas. I must have been about 25 and surfed that board all winter at Swamis, Cardiff, Blacks, and northern Baja. It was a combination of having a really good board and getting smart about my surfing.
My next magic board was one I deemed the Angry Inch it was a 6 foot 1 inch single fin round pin tail This was about about a year before Nectar Surfboards and Simon Anderson introduced the tri fin thruster. My First thruster not so magic. number two was better. Number three was an excellent board a longer copy of the Angery Inch in a thruster.
I had a similar experience. My first thruster was a Simon. It took me getting three before I really liked one. I went back to wide tailed singles and even a Hurley triple wing Twin before I found a thruster I liked. One thing that did stand out about them was their ability to hold in. You could really just unleash with thrusters. That was sort of a new feeling I think. Some might call it magic. I now appreciate the other aspects of certain designs…but that was a nice new feel when I was younger.
Well, maybe there is such a thing as a magic board.
A few weeks ago I got my hands on a well used Pavel Speed Dialer. No dims on it, about 6'4" x 21.5 x 2.75. Concave deck, speed dialer fins.
The thing goes like a bat out of hell for me. Took it to the local point and all of a sudden I'm making sections I never made before. Wave count has gone up 50%. Gets into waves so early I think I'm on a longboard. Not as loose as I'd like, until it hits third gear and then it flies off the top. I might get another just in case they stop making them. :-) Compared to the 6'4" McTavish fish I used to have, there is no comparison. I might even say it makes my longboard obsolete, as it goes even on knee-high dribble.
Curious what I'll think in three months, but right now, I'm a very happy man.
Yes I think they do. I have this board that has had the following done to it: snapped, fin box broken out, broke 4 inches off of nose, broke another fin box out, all at different times. Had all of them fixed, and the board still rides insane. That is the only reason I kept fixing things. I tried getting it " duplicated " twice, did not work. Got it scanned, and it came out the same and the new one rides about 99 % the same as the original one. So now I have two. So I do believe. Although I am 42, been surfing since 13 years old and this is the first one ever.
And I have bought an Al Merrick, I think it was MBM model, and a friend gave me a Biscuit model. Neither one of those rode even as well as my " magic " board or the second one that is from the scan. And the two " magic " boards are from garage shapers. Thats my story.
