I cant remember how old i was but it was my first surfboard, i wanted to surf since i could probably talk i guese my parents just didnt get it but finaly my dad talked to a guy burntout on shrooms who was once in the circut had some old boards all around his yard and my dad did some work for him, but the guy loved these things which is the reason i cant get more but he sold my dad a 1970somethin 7’6" stinger for 25$. I know a decent board for 25$, well i was young and didnt really know how to appreciate a classic, it also wasnt the best board for our waves or my size but i went to the beach and rode my very first wave never touched a board before until this day and rode it like a champ. Got real into it so as a child of the 90s got a thruster and didnt like the feeling very much so one strange day my aunt who really has no money to her name just said to me and my cousin pick out a board and i wanted a long board but being around 4ft 9in it was hard to find the one but then i saw this hybrid barely a long board shaped by ricky carrol and this was it felt like a god riding it walking the crap out of it like some old surf movie but me and most people are not fans of hybrids and as i got bigger the board got smaller under me and i new what i liked so i retired that board and it went to the shed. Now my life theres one thing i compare to surfing and that was fishing and so i had an old aluminum boat in my yard sitting for years that my drunken ass father said he would help me fix for me. I was 14 and got tired of waiting and did it my self patched painted built the seats myself. I was 14 and guy i new owed me a favor so he gave me a motor and me and my cousin became pretty well known in central jersey for being nuts fishing where no 12ft boat has fished before. Winter has come board already and need something to do more so that year the boat i put together for couple hundred bucks sold for 1200$ and then an old war vet i new died and me and my family were pretty close and i new he had a 69 boston whaler that he loved dearly and we went to visit his wife and she said she would sell it for the 1200$ i offered and if we did some work around the house. So me and my cousin installed 2 rooms of carpet and repainted 3 rooms and it was mine at the time my cousin had a job so since i put in 1200 he would buy supplies so we patched the hull redid the floors got a guy to adjust our engine and when it was all said and done people walking down the street would stop to congradulate me for restoring this boat and it was in shambles so went to boat school cuz the law says i had to, 6 hours and a test later got my certificate and we were in the water. I was 15 couldnt drive couldnt afford to keep it in a marina so we mored it to an old engine block one of many in the bay except nobody does that anymore so i had to dive to find one and we did and everyday it was fishing, didnt have a dingy so we would take turns swimming to it which was about half a mile and pick one another up in the marina, it was a godsend i think the motor made it the summer and then it was shot hurricane broke are chains before we could get to it and it washed up on the beach filled with sand and water but its a whaler and anyone who knows boats they dont sink so we got it up on the sand on a trailer and here it lies today in my yard ready for a new motor. Now i say it was a godsend because at the very end of the summer someone at school asked me if i wanted to go surfing, theres about 2 surfers in my school and i said yeah but can we pick up my board now i went home grabbed the stinger off the wall in my room cuz i thought i wouldnt ride it anymore and just went surfing and have been everyday since and really learned to love classic surfboards and have been saerching the net for anything about this board and i no i said 25$ but there wasnt any damage on this board except some scuffs on the bottom but the top and color was MINT so since then been riding classics and this being swaylocks started shaping and that hybrid i retired took it out stripped it and made it into a retro single fin mintgreen chocolate stringer and a fin i made out of a crate and stained it 3 different shades so this board inspired me to start shaping. I know this story wasnt important but it led up to me riding that board again and no one signed it however there is a logo and it is (Rise) if anybody has any info about this logo please it would be freakin sweet. Anyway i thought it was a good water story and thougt it should be told
i don’t know who “Rise” is.
but, you’re right, it was a sweet story.
thanks for telling it.
welcome to Swaylocks