My Own Surfing Thread!

[Craig T]

Dawn patrol in Ventura....4/3mm wetsuit, 3mm gloves, booties, and hoody. You Florida guys have it made!

[Craig T]

Originally Posted by peteremsley

That looks like the perfect offshore breeze holding it up. Some things are worth getting cold for... kinda.

Pic was lifted from the internet, but this is what we all look like here. It's not that we're still cold in 4/3mm, it's just so confining...almost claustrophobic. Plus, 4mm will give you some nasty wetsuit rash. I have a permanent raw hickey on my neck and have to use Vaseline on my underarms.

When I go to warm water spots (e.g. Nic and CR), it's such a sense of freedom that I'm happy to sit in the line-up in 1' slop.

[Nordwest]

My old friend Charlie send me this picture a couple of weeks ago. Me and a crazy roommate with one of the boards I made back in 1978. Oh, I'm on the right.

Dave

[Craig T]

Originally Posted by Nordwest

My old friend Charlie send me this picture a couple of weeks ago. Me and a crazy roommate with one of the boards I made back in 1978. Oh, I'm on the right.

Dave

Great photo! Where was that photo taken? The board is a nice pintail period example for 78...The year I graduated HS in Orange Co.

[Nordwest]

Hi Craig,

Santa Ana, somewhere off of McFaddon about a mile from Zeb's boathouse.

[Nordwest]

The bug was mine, the van was the crazy roommate.

[Nordwest]

Another picture he sent. Laying down some pin lines on a pintail. Good times they were.

[Baz]

Thanks for the comments on my pic, guys. It was nice to find it among all these oldies I have.

My best to all the daddy's here.......enjoy your day.....you've earned it!

[Geary]

I agree, Peter .. These days I'd rather be out in 2' with a couple friends than perfect 6' and a zoo. But since you're in CR often, you should take a trip down to Pavones. It's changed a lot since internet and surf forecasts, but the end section during afternoons can still be had uncrowded.

Some lousy quality pics of Pavones ..

From our neighbors porch on the hill:


The outside take off area:


Middle section:


Inside section:


Robbie Nash had this special TV series where he'd ride the longest waves in the world. Here's 1 minute into a Pavones wave:


This is 2 minutes into the wave, passing the Cantina, approaching the fishing boat launch beach:

[Baz]

The only water shot of me ever taken (as far as I know).

This is at our inlet.....mid 70's.......

[tevake]

This has been a great page of this thread, thanks guys.
That snappy top turn of Baz got me thinking about how few pics we all have after many years of active surfing. I was at my sister's place in AZ at the time, but started to dig into my memory banks for exceptional moments and great sessions from the past. We all have them to think back on, just so few got recorded.

It was funny, looking out at all that desert landscape yet thinking of so many blue green moments.

I'm back on Kauai now to visit with my boys for a couple of weeks. The road out to the family place near the end of the road on the north shore is a wreak from that storm a while back. There is a doable single lane now open to resendents only, and only at certain times in convoys. But it's great to be back home, what a magical place.

I think Ill have plenty to do while here catching up with yard work and getting the place back together a bit. And hanging with the boys.

That left at Pavones looks like it earns its reputation, epic.

Nice morning pic of the fun surf of SoCal , Craig. But warm is nicer for sure.

Cool flashback with the pintail image Nordwest, that was a prime era for my surfing, had been in Hiwaii long enough to after moving here from Fla, to have gotten in tune with the power and speed here and generally had a good place in most lineups that I surfed all up and down the chain, as I was living on my little engineless sailboat and doing a seasonal migration from the big island to Kauai and back each year, good times!

Cheers Richard

[Geary]

No, look up Rio Claro on the map. Rio Claro empties out right at the center section of the 1 kilometer wave (also happens to be the tubular section), which was part of 17 miles of coastline owned by Danny Fuller (reportedly an old time pot smuggler).

During the time we were there, it was like the wild west. Gun fights between the gringos and squatters, who were paid to steal gringo beach front real estate via "squatter's rights". We were immune from all that, because we purchased up on the hill, from one of the well respected local families. There was a pretty good write up on Pavones in one of the Surfer's Journals maybe 15 years back.

[Baz]

Couple more pics.......

My first girlfriend after I moved back to NSB after working in the central Florida foliage production business for 2.5 years following college. Her name was Kim and she was from Akron, Ohio. She was sitting in a beach side dive when we met. Chatted a bit and then went for a walk on the beach. She was renting one of the 4 A-frames down south past Bethune Beach. Worked for a developer in Daytona Beach Shores. Very classy lady but also very easy going and fun personality. Gorgeous legs too! I think she's the one who took the 2nd photo - me on one of my single fins. This was around 1979-80. Things didn't work out for us but I'll never forget her.....

[Bill Douglas]

Umm

[Geary]

A few years back, Maalaea on Maui got a tremendous south swell. The waves down the coast @ Dump's and La Perouse must have been 20'+

[Bill Douglas]

And breaking hard. I wouldn't want to be paddling out and that thing break just in front of me

[Heel n Toe]

You've seen this board technology before... but probably not like this. Heh heh

https://imgur.com/gallery/dPGu1Mr

[Baz]

More artwork by my friend, JL..........

[Baz]

Nice article from Corky Carroll:
===================

TODAY'S COLUMN IN THE OC REGISTER

DUELING WITH DAVID
By Corky Carroll

As you can probably imagine, one of the questions I get asked most is about who I thought were the greatest surfers and who was my biggest rival during my competitive years. Although I have a lot of picks as to who are the ones that I feel were the real greats in surfing over the years, the one guy who fits the bill as not only one of those but also my biggest rival was without a doubt Hawaiian born Huntington Beach local David Nuuhiwa.

I first met David when he came over from Hawaii and was surfing in some local event in the South Bay. At the time Mark Martinson and myself were pretty much at the top of the “young up and coming” list here on the West Coast. Then this skinny young dude shows up who seems to be able to just glue himself to the nose. Humph, is this cause for concern? He was still a bit rough around the edges but none the less impressed me right off the bat as somebody to watch, plus he was a very likeable kid and we became friends. Not every day hang out with kinda friends, such as Mark and I were, but a guy that you looked forward to seeing at events always had an, “Hello, how are ya?,” for, and visa versa.

Over the next couple of years David really blossomed. Both Mark and I had moved up to the Men’s division in the contests and David just totally took over the Juniors. The exclamation point on his dominance of that division came in the finals of the United States Championship at Huntington Beach in 1966. I remember it very clearly. I was sitting on the beach getting ready to surf in the finals of the mens and we were all watching the juniors, or more to the point, David Nuuhiwa. That was where most of those really cool photos of him perched on the nose doing soul arches came from, could have been one of his best contest performances ever. None of us were saying much, just quietly watching. Then, just as they called us to paddle out somebody matter of factly commented, “Whew, sure am glad he is still in the Juniors.” I could not have agreed more.

Starting then the contest circuit here in California became a pretty constant battle between the two of us on any given weekend. It seemed that more times than not it would come down to the two of us. He had this silky-smooth style and just seemed to look good no matter what he was doing on a wave. I always felt he had the chops to get a perfect score at any given time. He thrived in the left-hand California beach breaks, such as Huntington Beach. I knew I had an advantage in bigger surf and probably going backside, but in those days almost all the contests here were in small to medium beach break lefts, his wheelhouse. Not easy to beat him, but for the most part the system worked in my favor. It was best 5 waves in those days. While he had the capacity to nail a huge score, he also could blow it in the process. I won, more times than not, by being able to tally the higher total by being consistent and not making too many mistakes. It was a very heated and fierce rivalry that developed between us in the water, no doubt about that. But on the beach we got along just fine. I do admit that when he would be late for a heat I might have had thoughts like, “oh good, he overslept.” Or something along those lines. And when he took off on a wave a thought might have crossed my mind like, “Catch a rail.” Normal competitive kinda stuff. We both wanted to win.

I am not saying there were no other surfers who were also hard to beat, there were. Mike Purpus, Donald Takyama, John Peck, Dru Harrison, Dale Dobson, Skip Frye and others were all great surfers and top competitors. But the duels with David were the toughest.

Through all the years and still today we have remained great pals. I don’t see him much anymore, but when I do I am happy about it. Always have had the utmost respect for that dude. Always remember those days of watching him wax up before a final heat and thinking, “I hope he accidentally grabbed the bar of soap.”

[Geary]

I remember young & upcoming David from the early to mid '60s @ the South Shore, especially Ala Moana. Ala Mo was where the best goofy footers of our day really shined .. Donald Takiyama, the late Buzzy Kneubal, David, and not so much for his style but rather for his power, Conrad Canha. Then David and Donald moved to Cali, where they became famous West Coast surfer/shapers. A decade later, Gerry Lopez became the hands down top goofy footer @ Ala Mo & Pipeline. (I have a photo to post of Buzzy, but my old surf book is in Bend.)