as a chicken hatches it imprints on the first thing it sees and mimics the form …the o;d farm story about that damn chicken thinks he’s a dog …or that chicken runs with the pigs don’t thet beat all…our mindset is perhaps related to this imprinting pray and prithy varlets whereforth art thy roots grounded?
The first time I paddled out was aith my mom at Kuhio beach in waikiki...I dont even remember if I caught a wavethe most memorable wave was one at ano nuevo when my friend saw me get covered up I was validated...of course I came out ...ambrose...I had all the glass off the first board I ever owned within the first half an hour of ownership
Ah yea Mr. Ambrose it takes me waaaay back.First wave was Kuhio Beach Hawaii 1963,I was a 14 year old geeky Haole who watched the local guys on paipo boards.After a couple of weeks one of the guys took pity on me and lent me his homebuilt plywood board and fins.I was hooked big time after that.The following week my parents sprung for a few longboard lessons from the Beachboys at Waikiki.One month later I met Jim Phillips and we built my first board in the Hickam Air Force Base Wood Hobby shop.
on an old cut in half foam board i found when i was 8. found it in the bushs and thought it was amazing. to big for moms car, but i soon bought an old spectrum for 25$ from an older friend i still surf with.
A very distinct memory–bodysurfing the Bahia de Banderas in my Catalina trunks and Voit fins, 1962, right before the upgrade to a canvas mat and a permanently raw stomach and sunburned nose. Lived in a house in Puerto Vallarta next to David McCallum before he became Ilya Kuryakin, later purchased by Liz and Dick.
Rental blue and yellow canvas mat at Santa Monica, Ca. straight off “over the falls” style. I can still remember looking over at my younger brother as we did free fall take offs - he always had a huge grin on his face. Not sure what kind of imprint it left, but mats are still great fun.
Mat rentals at Long Beach I think. The things would rub your tits of by the end of the day. Worth it, though. First time I stood up was on a family trip to Cocoa Beach. The summer Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. The apartments had two long boards my brother and I dragged into the ocean when we were not out catching lizards, snakes, and turtles. Next to Ilya Kuryakin? That’s way cool. He was right up there with T.H.E. Cat ( the cat burglar forced to work for the government).
It was 1966, Lavallette NJ on my first board a 9’-6" Surfboards Hawaii. I still surf the place as often as I can , and I haven’t been able to shake the habit since. Don’t you ever wonder what happened to all of your memorable old boards?
Must have been around 1964 or 1965- An Army surpluss store air mattress at Zuma Beach was the vehicle- Used to Fold in half on us turning us into little kid sanwiches in the shore pound. Progressed to a Rubber tiped shorter, more functional Mat- Then Mom and Dad bought me a super Bitchen Ernie Tanaka, Green Acid Splash Bottom Pintail form the Used rack-(probably close to 8’)around 1968- The First Legitimate Stand up ride probably happened at Mondos- Dad standing in the line up in Belly deep water, behind me, after pushing me into the wave, hooting as I did a Long and Slow slide all the way to the beach. Life was never quite the same!
went from body surfing w/ my dad holding on to his neck, to mats,to the 9’0" green Gordie in '64, and in '68 getting my first shortboard 7’8" Hansen Mike Doyle Model Vee Bottom. All rides at that time where at the Mantoloking pipeline sand bars. Still have my Dads first fiberglass board- '62-'63 Gordie 10’0". He had made one of the hollow boards in high School before the war.
9th Grade, 1963 or 4, using beach rats 10’, triple stringered faded brown log, wading out Santiago St. SF, after cutting 3’rd period on, everyone telling me to prone it in, but I stood up goof and angled right in the whitewater, jumping off just before the fin grounded. ?? maybe I should learn to get my head wet?
Howzit Brother Brose, My first wave ride was at Doheny in 1953. My older brother’s friend had 2 balsas and took me out and pushed me into a wave. Aloha from the north side, Kokua
ahh, the memory of walking down Kalakaua Ave barefoot, sunburned, with sand in my shorts, carrying a rainbow colored Morey Boogie 136 with white styrofoam bottom. I had just ridden my first wave in the shorebreak at Kuhio beach, just inside of Baby Queens, and felt like a man.
A couple of years later, on the “outside” I did my first bottom turn on a Cippy Cabato single fin, felt the rail and fin work in synchronicity and propel me down the line on a beautiful blue green late morning wall, Queen’s Surf, Waikiki. After I felt that, I never looked back!
Santa Monica beach mat riding rentals and Dextra bellyboards .I was 12 yrs old and took the bus everywhere for fifty cents, no sunscreen, fried first hot day every year.Then saw surfer mag with Greenough and got an el paipo still-36 yrs later ride kneeboard.HAHA and last week got a nuematic–talk about full circle!!!
Forgot to add!!!Went mat riding with my 12 yr old daughter today!! We had such a blast! I will forever remember the laugh we shared as we rode waves together and the look in her young face .It was windy and blownout beachbreak and when we got out she lost the mat and we ran after it laughing So hard as it tumbled down the beach! It’s all it ever was -Just a great time.
Blue and yellow converse mats at zuma 8 or 9(Valley go home or go to Zuma)- maytaged to the max, I remember my sinus’ draining at school the next day-1966?67? Pushed into Zuma shoepound on my brother weber stock model a few years later- board to the head- there was some ‘splainin’ to do.