New developments are always in the making, that's what makes life so fascinating. But to make them come through action is required. For example, my intention is to build a surf structure to repair and shape boards and to build it to my specifications. I want a steel pipe frame structure, like the pipe used on chain link fences. It won't cost more than $500 to fully construct and enclose but different opportunities keep manifesting and the sturcture has yet to be built.
I had the opportunity, for example, last weekend to go on a surf in my newly fixed car with a friend, my dog and another friend in his car, his dog and his dad from the bay area. we went to santa barbara and caught some surf. the surf wasn't great and we chickened out at jalama. it was big and rolly there, sets breaking out the back and it looked fun but i don't think i had the right boards for that. plus i pulled a muscle in my side while stretching our 2nd night there tyhat has been healing really well with the workouts and stretching i've been doing. work hasn't been affecting it at all which is really good, it's pretty superficial but needs to be monitored so it goes away before i charge hard again. but the 'highlight' of the trip had to be getting sprayed by a skunk with my dog the first night there. luckily we weren't too close to it, but it got my car and my friend's car pretty bad. the smell is finally going away and i didn't notice it at all in my car today, which reminds me. i drove to santa barabara and back today so i could buy a surfboard i saw yesterday, or rather last evening, on CraigsList. It's a model called "the biscuit", a 5 foot 6 inch long fat little stick that looks like a dinner roll. it's the smallest board by 8 inches that i've ever had fun on and the only reason i know is because of the board demos Channel Islands Surfboards runs up the coast in the summers. The last 3 times they've come I rode this board with these dimensions and I loved it, so I've been waiting for a chance. The guy who sold it to me said he got 5 or 6 other replies in the 16 hours he had the board on the net, so it was a pretty high demand little piece.
The board is 5' 6" long, 20" wide in the center and 2 3/4" thick in the thickest part. It came with fins, and there are some small scratches and dings, some uniform yellowing over the board from age, $222. I thought it was $250 so that's what I handed him, didn't feel like haggling...not for this board!...and he says he listed it for $225, so i look in my wallet and I am $3 short but he's in a late model import sedan so he's frying bigger fish than this. I drove to the CI (Channel Islands) store near the harbor and looked at their boards. I tell you, you could go in there with $500 and walk out with planty of change and a sick, repeat, SICK, board. They not only have their main selection but they had a small room with sale boards of some sort, $500 down to $350 I saw. The new boards in the store are $660, pretty much. The spankingest newiest models are $745 (!). I paid $440 for my first board in january 2002, an 8' rusty shortboard. so all in all i got a fair deal on the exact board of my choice. without the dings it probably would be more like $300, and fixing them myself saves the scrilla.
But I had to use some saved cash to pull off this preemptive acquisition to the quiver. It puts me back a bit in getting this surf shack built but it's a very important board, this particular size and shape. I feel like it will make small surf sessions more rewarding and it is the beginning of a quest by myself to start finding ways to expand my own performance envelope to use the engineering parlance. The commitment to surfing can only take a person so far. It should be something that is pushed by the other things in life as well as drags them futher along behind it in to the higher levels of practice. Dialing in the equipment; wetsuits, boards, transportation, this is what it's about right now. Derek Ho says on Hawaiian Surf Stories that if you're not on the right equipment, you're not having fun. Ain't that the truth. If you're not performing at the level you wish on a given day, you either need to reexamine your own commitment or the design of your experience visavis your wave riding technology.
I wish I could give you some ilustrative representation but i don't have a camera or a scanner, so use your imaginations! peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment