A New “How To” Year is Here

So far for 2016 I’ve gone surfing twice. Saturday with the crew and Monday with a buddy in Carpinteria. After all, I had an appointment in Santa Barbara. For the most part, I’ve left the GoPro and Sony Camcorders at home, especially at the beginning of this year. It’s not so much a resolution to stop the madness (a movie every time I surf?), but a commitment to just surf and not have more surfing to do when I get home.

Those movies take a lot of time to put together. So based on a suggestion from one of my surf buddies I’ve decided to make them more of a “How To” vlog. He actually used the word podcast, but I think I’ll just stick to showing other surfers how to do certain things. Of course, not with the “this is the only way to do it” mentality. I know there are multiple ways to probably do some of the things I’ll show, but I’ll show what works for me.

So the first one I did I actually uploaded Dec 30th, 2015, but that’s because I didn’t put my movie on my newest surfboard together yet. It’s done, but I still have to narrate it.

So sit back and enjoy my first entry of 2016 on putting the rope through the center fin box leash hole. It’s intriguing. 😉

Again, I’m sure there are other ways to do this, but always remember to keep that rope short.

Thank you and God bless,

Surfer Yoda

Drainpipes on the Bonzer Egg

Last Saturday, 3/14/15, Pi day, I guess, I surfed with that buddy I’ve been mentioning that got me hooked on different boards. It was a normal Saturday to surf with the rest of the crew: Gooch, Gorilla, Uncle Chris, Spock, Ranger, Forest, etc. However, Cletus finally had a Saturday his oldest didn’t have Rugby and he asked me to go surf with him. I let the rest of the crew know my intentions and planned a day with Cletus.

His original thoughts were somewhere in Ventura County, like Port Hueneme, but it quickly turned to Drainpipes in the Malibu area because of the swell direction and previous day’s reports.

I hadn’t surfed that part of Zuma Beach in years. Multiple years going into possibly passing a decade. When I surf Zuma with or without the crew it’s usually around Tower 12. That’s more at the northern end close to Trancas and shy of Broad Beach, if you even know where I’m talking about. Drainpipes is at the southern end and is right out front of the entrance to Westward Beach. They call it Drainpipes for good reason and I had so many good sessions there when I was younger riding the typical Thrusters of the time.

The wave can suck out off the shallow sandbar and make a nice hollow wave on the right swell and tide.

This day I had my newest additions with me: a 6’6″ Bonzer Egg and a 5’10” Bonzer Bumblebee, both from the Kings of Bonzer’s Malcolm Campbell. Inventor of said board, and artist of the progression still today.

Cletus likes to go a little later than I do and though the rest of my crew was meeting up at our favorite secret spot around 6:30, that’s what time I was heading out with Cletus. He drove and brought two of his own boards. A 6’1″ T. Patterson Thruster and a 6’2″ Bonzer Octafish. That Octafish is also a Malcolm Campbell masterpiece.

As we pulled up to that southern part of Zuma we used to call “Free Zuma” you could tell there were going to be some fun little nuggets. Just in front of the bathroom were little A Frame peaks hitting waist to chest high. But you could see Drainpipes farther south a little bit bigger and with fewer to no people out. So we headed down that direction.

You can see from the vid it doesn’t seem to look as big as it really was, but the sets were pretty far apart, which meant we didn’t get very many of them when we were surfing more inside. I only put the waves we caught, and didn’t put in some we did just because we were out of frame coming into frame at the end, but we sure had a lot of fun. I rode my 6’6″ Bonzer the whole time and really felt like I caught some good waves. Cletus rode the T. Patterson and also had some really nice waves as you can see.

I most definitely want to throw Drainpipes back on the list of places to check. It’s so steep and fast compared to even Tower 12. More opportunities to get barrels. It’s no secret spot, but if I got there earlier on the right tide I’m sure there’d be no other place I’d rather be. And next time I’m taking the Bee out.

I hope to surf there again sooner rather than later, but until my next post, take care and God bless.

Surfer Yoda

PS – I did have the GoPro so here’s a shorter movie with my favorites.

How Do I Even Start Back?

That is the question. Every hiatus I’ve started with “it’s been awhile since my last post,” or something to that nature. However, it really has been awhile. The last post was about a board I had made for me. My first custom board in 30 years. A 5’5″ Lucky Lucke by shaper Ray Lucke. I wrote that back in September 2014.

Since then, I’ve done some other experimentation of boards that I thought I’d never ride.

One was a 7’2″ Campbell Brothers Bonzer E-Wing Egg. Technically it was a Bonzer5 because it had the Bonzer 5 fin set up. If you’ve never seen the Bonzer 3 fin or 5 fin set up, here’s a link to their website, Bonzer5.com.

Malcolm and Duncan Campbell grew up in Oxnard and first shaped one of those boards with that 3 fin set up in 1972 when the shortboard era was in full swing. You can read on their site their cool story, so I won’t get into it here, but when I started surfing in 1981, I had seen some Bonzer’s. I went the typical route of the time, my first real surfboard being an MR inspired Twin Fin shaped by Greg Liddle (all the Malibu surfers know that name), then moving to the typical tri-fin thruster of the day, inspired by Simon Anderson. I was always afraid of that Bonzer. It just didn’t look like it would be easy to surf.

So here I am in 2015, 48 years old, doing the longboard only thing from about 30 years old to 40 years old, and I’m experimenting, with input from my buddy Cletus (He’s been the reason I’ve even looked at other than Fish alternates and I’m really stoked for his input. Here’s New Year’s Eve morning with me on the 7’2″ Egg and him riding a 6’2″ Octafish Bonzer5).

That Bonzer Egg was really quite loose for 7’2″. But it was 7’2″ and so I had to think about moving down in size.

Next up is one of the shapes they did for themselves between 1973 and 1978 called the Bumblebee. I picked it up from a guy in Orange County. It’s 5’10” and the 3 fin version. It was so similar in dimensions to one of my 6’0″ Fish that I sold that Fish.

The first time I rode it was at waist to head high Rincon. Wow! So loose like my Fish, but it held so much better! I liked sliding the tail on the Fish, but seriously, I just thought I had to live with that. After riding the Bumblebee and feeling the looseness without the slide I was so stoked on it. I even took it out on a knee to waist high day at Leo Carrillo just to see how it could handle the small stuff and it was loose! It was a day the Lucky Lucke would have been better, but I was not at all disappointed in the performance of the Bee.
This is a bigger day on the Bee and before work, so only a few waves. Also in here is a 6’6″ Egg I found for cheap. After selling the 7’2″ Egg and the 6’0″ Fish I had enough to pay back my savings account, and buy two boards!

I don’t know why I got so blessed, but I’m so stoked to have them in my quiver. I’ve had 5 boards in my quiver since I got the Lucky Lucke and with the bartering and selling and buying I’ve done I still have 5. All different. And in the future if I’m in the market, another Campbell Bros Bonzer is in the mix.

I probably will have less and less video of my surfs as I move away from that addiction, but I am also hoping to not start these posts out with “it’s been awhile”. (That reminds me of the band Staind.)

Anyway, take care and God bless,

Surfer Yoda

My New Lucky Lucke – A Mini Simmons Story

I’ve been wanting to write this post for a few weeks, but I had to wait for the board to be finished. As an aside here, since then I’ve put the Magic Model 3 fin set up back to it’s 2+1 set up. It was nice as a single fin, but still best as it was intended.

I won’t bore you with rehashing the story about why I picked this board to be made for me. You can go back to my previous posts for that. Let’s just say, after I commissioned Ray to make my board, it was close to 5 weeks to completion. Mind you, Ray shaped it, glassed it with the resin tint, sanded it, and polished it. He did it all start to finish while losing some employees to laziness (they just didn’t show up for work).

When Ray called me to let me know my board would be ready for pick up in a couple of days I was so stoked! It was a Thursday and even though I wasn’t surfing that Saturday, I so wanted to go get it and my wife joined me to go pick it up. That was two weeks ago. I was sick that weekend, Hurricane Lowell was showing itself and Marie hadn’t yet gotten us to Big Wednesday. Leave it to illness to keep you out, but I knew by last Saturday I had to get that board wet no matter how weak I still felt. But I’m jumping ahead of myself.

So my wife and I went to pick it up and Ray had to make a trip to Santa Barbara so he wasn’t there yet when we got there. The cause of one of those surfers he employed not showing up for his assigned work day. One more aside – If you get a job, show up for work on time, all the time. It helps all who need you there and shows you care about more than yourself.

The unique and cool thing about that is I got to sit there and video him sanding and polishing my board. I really wish I could have videoed from start to finish, but that just isn’t possible living an hour away from his “surfboard factory”. I did get to video him resin tinting the glass one day, and also the sanding and polishing part. So I’m pretty stoked to hang out with him to do that. Ray is a very nice guy and likes what he does. He puts a lot of love and care into his creations.

So I took the board home and put it away for a week, taking it down to look it over and check it’s lines every once in a while. (I was in Bakersfield for Hurricane Marie’s Big Wednesday, and still up there Thursday, so no surfing on it, not that I’m sure I would have those two days anyway.) I finally got to wax it up that Friday before my surf with the crew. It was Labor Day Weekend (last week) and I was going to surf both Saturday and Monday. I even coaxed Spock into letting me use his Solo Shot for the day (Monday when he was back from Colorado) so I could have other footage of my days. You see, I didn’t want to mount my GoPro to the nose of my new board, yet. 1. It’s a new board, and 2. It’s only 5’5″ long and I wasn’t even sure it would get me above the waist when it did record.

So Saturday rolled around and I had borrowed a camera from my daughter to set up on the beach while I used my GoPro Wrist housing. What a fun first day! (I have my typical YouTube video, but decided to only post one video for this writing.) That board was so fun to ride. My buddies were making fun of it’s size, but really, it wasn’t that hard to catch waves. It’s got a longboard outline and it’s 22 inches wide, so with the shallower rocker, it made for catching waves as easy as on my Fish. It really was made for my favorite surf spot, too.

Lucky Lucke Mini Simmons from Shaping Room to Surfing from Surfer Yoda on Vimeo.

From the vid you can see one point where my buddy Spock dropped in the wave just in front of me and the speed I got on it catching up to him and then cutting back into the white water. It is the fastest board I’ve ever ridden. That Monday the conditions were even better for our favorite surf spot so the beach cam stuff also came out nicer.

I would soooo recommend this board for anyone wanting to go to a smaller board and wants something different. With all of the retro/alt board choices out there, this is definitely one you should have in your quiver. There are a lot of choices and when my buddy Dirk was helping me make my decision on which one to go with I had considered the Infinity Tombstone or the one he rides shaped by Larry Mabile called the Ghostbuster. I’m sure I would have loved any of those boards, but I really am glad I got my Lucky Lucke from Ray. We have mutual friends and even if we didn’t, he is very friendly and fair on pricing.

Here are some links to his stuff – Ray’s own blog spot; His website; and the Deep Magazine interview.

I was in the San Luis Obispo area this last week, Wednesday and Thursday. I usually try to surf up there. The waves weren’t that great and I couldn’t meet with the sales rep Thursday I had set up to meet, so I headed back towards home. I looked at the waves as I was driving through Ventura and ended up going out for an hour at South Ventura Harbor Jetty. The Lucky Lucke was the only board I had with me. It’s a little more pounding at that beach break and even though it was waist to chest high, it can be a powerful wave. The board performed really nice in steeper, hollower waves. I really believe this will be my “go to” board for the future.

Thanks so much, Ray, and I look forward to the next board I get and having you shape it!

Thank you and God bless,

Surfer Yoda

So I Pulled the Trigger

In past blogs I’ve written extensively about the longboard I ride and why I think it’s the best longboard. I ride a 9’0″ Walden Magic Model 3 epoxy made by Boardworks, who hasn’t made Walden’s for well over 5 years now. That should be a testament to the quality of the board, though. I haven’t needed a new one and I still think if I could only have one board, that would be all I need from ankle snappers to 3 feet overhead and beyond. It’s a great longboard whether I walk to the nose old school, or choose to do some cutbacks and off the lips with it. It’s a very versatile board.

That said, I also got it used from a friend. The last time I bought a brand new board for myself is probably 2007 and that was off the rack. My last custom board was just about 30 years ago when I had a 5’10” Spindrift tri-fin shaped for me. I loved that board. It was made for me, based on my desires, weight, height, and ability.

So what did I pull the trigger on? I finally ordered a brand new custom board for myself.

I went to a guy I’ve had fix my boards in the past. He’s really good at ding repair and has been around the shaping bay awhile. His label is Backnine Surfboards, but now he’s R.Lucke Surfboards and the board I have him shaping for me is called a “Lucky Lucke”. It’s his version of the Mini Simmons.

It started when I mentioned in the last post that I had stopped at Revolution Surf Shop in Camarillo looking for Kane Garden Twin Keel Fish, only to discover they had none. However, they did have a board I saw Tommy Curren ride in Switchfoot’s “Fading West” movie. It’s a Tomo Vanguard. I took a pic, put it on Instagram, and told the world (well, my followers, anyway) that was going to be my new board. It’s a really progressive looking stealth fighter type shape. Crazy lines and would have been a good compliment to my quiver. I had been back to riding my 6’0″ Huerta/McNair Twin Keel Fish and figured the funkier it looked to ride the better. And I also think it was one of those ridden in the Red Bull series “Decades.”

One of my buddies saw the post and immediately texted me with an alternate to the Tomo Vanguard called a Mini Simmons. I’d heard of them and he showed me his, which is a Ghostbuster from Larry Mabile. At first I wasn’t sure, but he assured me that the way I surf my fish and with my long boarding ability, I’d really like the Mini Simmons.

After a couple of months trying to figure out what to sell on ebay and doing research, I finally pulled the trigger and ordered my Lucky Lucke. It’s going to be 5’5″ and about 22″ wide with twin keel glass-on bamboo fins. It’ll have green resin tint top and bottom for that Yoda look. And I am so stoked beyond belief that I’m getting a brand new custom shaped for me board that I cannot contain myself. Here’s a vid of Ray and how the Lucky Lucke came about:

I can’t wait to surf it! I’m at least 4 weeks from getting it, but I know when I do, it’s gonna be rad!

That’s it. I’ve been surfing my fish a lot and I even have another fish in my quiver: A 6’0″ Roy Sanchez Twin Keel Fish with glass-on wood fins. Who needs another 6’0″? Well, they are two different boards in how they surf and I love both of them, so I’m not getting rid of them. The Sanchez was given to me and the reason I got my Huerta/McNair in the first place, but the Huerta/McNair helps me get into the bigger waves a little quicker. So when I need that, that’s the board I choose.

I hope you get to find your board and try it soon. In the mean time, I’ll just keep writing about what I’ve been doing surfing wise. Hitting my favorite spot tomorrow with the crew.

Take care and God bless,

Surfer Yoda

Where I’ve Been Surfing

At last post I had mentioned that I would try to get back into writing more and today I thought I’d share the spots I’ve been surfing.

Since I started the year out doing my day job in the field more, I’ve made sure to have a surfboard or two in the car with me. That means that I keep my 9’0″ Walden Magic Model 3 and my 6’0″ Huerta/McNair Twin Keel Fish in there when I know I’m headed to the coast. Occasionally I’ve been close enough to my usual spots I’ve just surfed Zuma and my unnamed secret spot. I’ve actually named it as of this year, though. It’s called Staircase and I’ve been surfing it almost 32 years now. I’ve also hit Porto on work days.

Other trips have taken me to the Central Coast where I’ve surfed Morro Rock, Pismo Beach, and maybe Rincon on my way home.

And still others have allowed me the freedom to Dawn Patrol the Orange County area, including Trestls, Huntington Beach, and for the first time, Seal Beach Pier.

GoPro Huntington Beach 7-10-14 Dawn Patrol from Surfer Yoda on Vimeo.

I’m stoked to be riding my fish more than I thought I would. Which had prompted me to stop at a surf shop in Camarillo one day called Revolution. They used to carry Kane Garden Surfboards and they make really nice fish of the twin keel variety. They weren’t carrying them anymore, but I found another board I liked that was a Tomo Vanguard.

I’m going to leave it at that for now because as much as I wanted that board, it looks like I’m going to be getting something else. That is what I will talk about next time.

Until then, God bless and take care,

Surfer Yoda

I Think I’m Back (To Writing, Again)

Well, it’s been awhile (deja vu) since I hit my blog up and I have to say that I’ve missed it a bunch. It’s not that I quit surfing, it’s just that I decided 2014 would be the year I didn’t miss an opportunity to GoPro my surfing days. And I’ve had a lot.

One of the things that has come out of it is a best of 2014 video in the works. Just a vid of one wave from each day I surfed this year so far and so far, it’s about 7 minutes long.

With all of that video making and editing going on, my time for writing has suffered. My day job has also gotten way busier, but that said, I’ve gotten way more surfing time in because of it.

You see, my territory on the coast runs from the South Bay (roughly Redondo Beach) to San Simeon (where Hearst Castle is). A couple of my reps serve Long Beach so I even surfed in Seal Beach one morning when I was meeting up with one of them. I’ve included Huntington Beach before work when I have to be in the office. It only works because it’s summer, but I hadn’t done that in the previous 3 years I’ve worked for my company, so I’m stoked to be surfing more.

Anyway, I’m going to end there because I really have so much more to say with no more time to take writing. However, expect more posts soon as my year has also been less about long boarding and more about riding my Fish. I’m also looking to get a new board, not new to me used, but actually a custom job. So that will be written about, too. Here’s a vid of my first time this year on my old Fish.

In the mean time, Happy Birthday U.S. of A., and God bless.

Surfer Yoda

I Miss Writing (Life Happens to Get Busy, I Guess)

Well, here I am again, almost a month after writing my last entry. I was writing every Sunday for a couple of years, then life just got busy. It’s not like there was one single event that happened, just that it got easier to avoid the computer and not put my thoughts together. (Not that I don’t go to the computer every day, just that I didn’t take the time to write my blog.)

It’s not even writer’s block. I don’t know about you, but I sometimes feel guilty we have all of this technology. It can consume our lives.

Admitedly, surfing can consume my life, too, but that is for a later blog. Right now, here is what I mean: I have an iPhone, with all of my favorite apps and even the WordPress.com app (of course, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, plus games), I have an iMac that I can check my other e-mail accounts (I have 3 e-mails, plus my wife and kids each have thiers), I have my GoPro that I feel naked without if it’s not with my on EVERY surf trip (believe me, I have a lot I haven’t written about), and so on, and so on.

I think it just gets to be too much and something has to fall by the way side. That just happened to be this blog site.

I opened a Tumblr thinking it would be easier to post my videos without having to write much about them and I can’t even maintain that. It literally takes 2 minutes to put it all together on that site.

Anyway, it’s 2014 and I’m ready to tackle this writing thing somehow some way, again. Hopefully I can catch up on some of my surf trips with you. They aren’t really ever that far from home, but they are what helps keep my work weeks in check. My grounding still comes from God and if I had to give up everything for Him, I would do that (as I wrote that it was hard to fathom if He asked me to quit surfing….). Well, that would have to be true because I know there’s no surfing in hell no matter what we want to believe.

I hope 2013 was all you needed it to be, and that 2014 will be even better. I see some big changes on the horizon for me, and that’s just what I can see, let alone the things that come in that I can’t see.

Here’s a little of what my son and I did Christmas Day, 2013.

These movies are easy enough to make, but become time consuming, too. I guess because life happens to get busy.

Thank you and God bless,

Surfer Yoda

Too Long Between Writing

Well, it’s been a few weeks. I’ve surfed a few times in that time frame. I haven’t really had the time to sit in front of my computer to write my thoughts on surfing down. I got some hits on my last piece, about the Red Bull Decades series. Thank you for reading that.

As of today, 3 days before Christmas, Gooch and I are friends again. We saw each other yesterday at Leo Carrillo and it was like there was nothing wrong. It’s better that way because I’d rather have a friend than worry about whether I’d see him again or not.

This week we had a forecast pretty much the same from Ventura to the South Bay, all of the areas I’d most likely surf. So we made the decision to stay near our favorite spot, Staircase. We planned to meet up at 6:30 or 6:45 and hope for the best.

Baby Gorilla had some snore surgery, so he was out, and Rip Van Ronnie had a recent near death car accident he walked away from, but was too sore to surf. We had Spock, the Rev, Uncle Chris, Gooch, and Dave Mac.

As we drove by Leo to meet up at Staircase, Gooch was getting ready to hit it. I knew Spock was probably at Staircase, so we continued up there. He was and had also looked at the surf. Since Gooch and I hadn’t officially made things right between us I wanted to just skip looking at Staircase and head back to Leo to surf with Gooch. After all, I wanted us to be friends again. Gooch had the right idea anyway. There were a few knee to waist high waves coming in when we pulled up.

It was pretty cold getting ready, but it was the place to be along that stretch of coast and I was glad to get a warm reception from Gooch. We all paddled out with a couple of random surfers and ended up catching quite a few waves. It wasn’t stellar, but it is always fun to get wet. There were sets nearing chest high, too, so I can’t say it was even a “get wet” kind of day. I just didn’t seem to have my own abilities together.

It’s kind of funny, but sometimes that’s how we describe things. I remember when I was in high school and we’d drive the canyon roads. If you were on your way to the beach and saw a car with boards on top, you’d give the thumbs up thumbs down sign a few times asking the other guy how it was. Mostly I think it had to do with size more than conditions. I always hoped if I got a thumbs down it wasn’t because the guy just had a bad session. Also, I guess it didn’t matter because I’d find out for myself. It wasn’t like I was going to turn around and go home because of that sign.

Anyway, my session was still fun and even though I didn’t catch all of the waves I would have liked, I’m so glad to have gone and met up with Gooch again.

Afterwards we hit Lily’s Cafe and Pastries and had our favorite breakfast burrito, reminiscing about our morning.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and if for some reason I can’t get back to my writing before then, a Happy and Safe New Year. Thank you and God bless.

Surfer Yoda

The Red Bull “Decade” Series

I know I’ve said it enough that it won’t be a surprise: I love surfing. One of the things I love about it is the variety of equipment you can choose to ride. I admit I’m still not okay with SUP’s in a crowded line up, but I’m not anti-SUP. The stand up guys need to take that paddle and go surf where the lay down paddle guys can’t go. Enough of that.

So on YouTube Red Bull has a series called “Decades”. They put Jamie O’Brien, Ian Walsh, Kolohe Andino, and Julian Wilson on iconic surfboards from different decades while on a trip to the Tuomotu Islands.

I loved it!

The premise to to show where surfing came from, and maybe get a glimpse into the future.

The trailer sets it up, but then they start in the 60’s on a Greg Noll “Elephant Gun”. These are top pros in the ASP riding an 11’2″ longboard inspired by Greg Noll! I have to admit, those guys can surf! It doesn’t matter what you throw at them, they all were able to ride the board and even get it slotted in the barrel.

Next up was a Gerry Lopez Pipeline single fin for the 70’s. Then it was a Town & Country Pang Potz Twin Fin for the 80’s. The 90’s an Al Merrick Kelly Slater thruster, then into the current times with a board from Lost shaper Matt Biolas. After that, some funky shapes come into play.

Just watch the vids below. It really looked like so much fun.

What was really cool to me was Julian Wilson saying, “To keep things fresh and exciting and challenging you need to ride different boards.” I only wish I could have ridden all of those boards in fun surf.

Until I randomly post again, take care and God bless.

Surfer Yoda