With spring and summer comes increased downtime for surfers as Mother Ocean becomes more mean-spirited and quality waves harder to find (see Ode to Spring). It would be an unwitting mistake to sink into apathy as a result, with a chain reaction of boredom, moroseness and depression lurking close behind. Between bouts of relief during viable swells, when the adrenalin rush subsides and reality sets in, that’s when a land-training program can bridge the gap and break you out of your surfless funk.

There’s no single solution for keeping fit and motivated when not surfing, with obvious cardio benefits from swimming, mountain biking and running for disciplined athletes, stimulating missing endorphins triggered by exercising in the surf. For many surfers, though, these more linear activities lack variety and don’t come close to mimicking the multidimensional stop-and-go patterns of prowling the impact zone, bursting into a dynamic wave face, gunning it down the line and punching through a defenseless lip.

The addictive pull of surfing and satisfaction of complete immersion in the elements spoils surfers for other activities; surfers for the most part don’t make good gym rats. As in life, finding balance is the key, a missing element in many fitness regimes. One surfer who simply sought to keep himself tuned up between swells in Florida turned that desire (and over 30 years of tinkering) into a fulltime crusade for balance. Known to friends and colleagues as the “Balance Sensei, Balance Whisperer and even Indo Man,” Hunter Joslin developed the “Indo Board” from a single balance trainer in 1998 into a full range of indoor core fitness products.

Dry Land Surfing

Hunter basically taught himself to surf by using a balance board back in 1966: “I was a swimmer and not able to go to the beach very often. I did my homework standing on the balance board and rode it constantly. I learned to cross-step and surf better than most of my friends. Now that I’m 56 and running a business, water time is hard to find. The Indo Board has kept me ready to surf at a consistent level regardless of how infrequently I get to surf. It is invaluable, especially in cross-stepping, which on the Indo Board translates directly into smooth footwork.”

In its first incarnation, the balance trainer was basically a combination of a small plywood plank with back-stops on the bottom that perched atop a heavy plastic tube, hopefully with rider attached. Joslin discovered the apparatus as a competitive swimmer in his youth, a primitive version used by his coach to add variety, balance and strength to training regimes. An avid surfer and skateboarder since the 60’s, Hunter originally refined the deceptively simple tool by placing an oval skimboard on a roller. He ran with the concept from there, fully loading his stable of products with over 22 different offerings tailored to athletes of different sizes, skill levels and sporting activities.

The variety of Indo Boards includes the “Original, Mini Original, Pro Deck, Mini Kick Tail and Mini Kick Tail Pro.” That range runs from larger boards for beginners and longboarders to smaller boards designed for skaters and wake boarders aiming to perfect their bag of tricks. The “IndoFlo Cushion” also offers stand-up paddlers and others a means to improve their skills, with an inflatable 14-inch diameter cushion placed under the board, designed to simulate 360 degrees of gimbaled instability, rather than plain old lateral fun.

Going with the IndoFlo

Hunter reckons the IndoFlo set-up is the closest simulation to stand-up surfing on dry land, being very targeted at core balance skills. He even advocates holding a paddle or broomstick while balancing on the board and cushion. For the truly advanced, the cushion can be placed on a small step stool to keep the board from touching the floor. And among the most respected watermen in the world is the C4 Waterman group, who actively use the Indo Board for their land training. Joining forces to refine and develop the stand-up tradition and equipment are Hawaii’s Brian Keaulana, Todd Bradley and Mike Fox who formed C4, along with respected shaper-journalist Dave Parmenter. They are aiming to bring the original beach boy tradition together with a range of modern high-performance equipment to broaden the appeal of the sport. (For more information, visit www.surfline.com.)

Joslin has seen the C4 team in action and marveled at their skills, feathering the paddle either side of the board in the wave face and changing directions as if they were on much smaller equipment. For a glimpse at who’s having all the fun in soft surf, check out this YouTube video of the C4 Watermen in action in April, 2007, at Val’s Reef on the North Shore. Even tow-in pioneers Laird Hamilton and Darrick Doerner have employed the Indo trainer as part of their bag of training tricks in preparation for balancing on the very unstable hydrofoil board in XXL surf, as has Kauai legend Titus Nihi Kinimaka. (See www.hawaiianschoolofsurfing.com)

Indo Therapy

My landlocked surfing brother-in-law gave me a classic version of the Indo Board several Christmases back and I have incorporated it into my intra-swell routine ever since. After suffering a minor meniscus tear in my right knee, strengthening the muscles around my knees became a high priority. Rather than just tipping it back and forth, riding the nose, etc., I added a twist: doing squats while balancing to simulate pumping down-the-line and toning the very same muscles (just add a little hand jive for style points). Likewise, “Indo” push-ups can imitate the technique of popping up to the standing position on a board. Simply place your hands at both ends of the roller and grip the sides of the board as if you are about to push to your feet, or place them perpendicular… and feel the burn! This is just scratching the surface of the tool’s versatility.

In fact, the tube itself can be used like a jumbo rolling pin to iron out post-surf kinks in your back. Place it under your spine on the floor, exhale and gently pull forward on your neck as you slowly work your way down your back and even roll your hips. Your vertebrae will thank you. Releasing tension has become part of my daily routine, alleviating rigor mortis from being chained to the computer desk before getting in the water. Incorporated into a regular stretching routine, the roller can even be applied under tight lats and triceps après-surf to loosen up small muscle tears in that typically overdeveloped area of the surfer’s anatomy. Posture and ergonomics are critical to the longevity of older athletes, especially in our increasingly desk-bound society.

Hunter Joslin made that discovery after lugging 60 pounds of luggage on his back through the Heathrow airport in London one year, when one side of his body went completely numb. Being in the balance business, he researched his options and found that incorporating an IndoFlow cushion and balance board into a standing position at his desk was the solution. To do that, however, he had to order an adjustable desk that levitates into position at the flip of a switch, keeping him mobile and his spinal discs floppy, not hard. Joslin swears by the work routine and even when doing paperwork he balances on a backless stool with a flexible shaft that keeps his spine limber as well. Comical-but-effective, a video of the set-up can be found on his website:
www.indoboard.com.

Outdo Skills

When you consider the hours surfers spend in the water paddling and just waiting for waves, compared to the mere seconds of unbridled joy actually riding, anything that skews that ratio toward vertical time is of benefit. Frankly, in addition to improving balance and therapeutic effects from regular use of the Indo Board, the tool can improve your surfing. More precise footwork, dynamic lower body positioning, tucked-in hips and relaxed upper body can all be practiced and learned. Envision your favorite pro surfers; even their highly individualistic styles have many such elements in common.

Short-boarders can strengthen surf-specific muscle groups and simulate crouching in the tube, switching stance and popping to their feet. Even small foot placement changes have a big place in new school maneuvers—forward for speed, back for shedding it quickly, widening your stance before an aerial. A training video that comes with the package also holds a trove of tips on maneuvers and techniques, such as flipping the board up on the roller, 50-50s, round-the-worlds. Hanging 10, cheater 5s and cross-stepping, on the other hand, are of obvious value to the longboarder. Why not practice that elusive move on land first, before attempting it in the water?

Land Training

Personal trainers have jumped on board the Indo trend as well, and it just depends how much effort you want to put into your land program to take it to the next level. If you are going to put in the time, you may as well make your routine surf-specific. Pumping light free weights in lifts, curls and presses while balancing on the board prime the body and mind for the impact zone and poise on the wave face. The video even features a pair of Indo riders facing each other and tossing a small medicine ball back and forth while balancing. That other rider can represent the wave throwing sections at you and the ball a lip or chandelier falling in front of you. The best surfing is reactive and instinctual—anticipating what’s just ahead while maintaining balance, and with practice comes precision.

Pros like current ASP World Champion Mick Fanning proved last year that core fitness can make all the difference in consistency of results and performance. Often discovered as part of rehabilitating an injury, balance training in combination with cardio work, speed, and strength work, all make eminent sense for those who genuinely want to improve their skills and wave count in the water. Surfing three times a day on multiple boards like Mick, along with gym and balance training, may not be an option for us working stiffs; nor is bronco busting a large Swiss Ball a safe maneuver for other than the most nimble among us. While we all don’t have the time to “Train like the Champ” (Surfer Magazine Surf Tip, May 2008), we can clearly spice up our regimes on a more stable platform like the Indo board. The only downside is the risk of falling off, which is boldly stamped into the non-skid deck grip: “Warning: Use at your own risk.” Staying on carpet and away from furniture will help avoid injuries.

The Sultan of Smooth, Rob Machado, says his personal trainer has him stand on the Indo Board with his eyes closed at the end of his workout session. Lasting only 10–20 seconds per attempt initially, after two months Machado was able to sustain his position for over three minutes—that equates to a lot of tube time with salt water in your eyes. Pros C.J. Hobgood, Shea Lopez and Sunny Garcia all used the Indo Board as a serious part of their knee rehab routines over the past few years.

Olympian Ideals

Hunter Joslin has donated equipment to several Olympic training centers and formed a close bond of friendship with backstroke Olympic gold medalist and world champion swimmer Aaron Peirsol. Originally from Newport Beach, California, Peirsol is not only a world class swimmer, but more importantly a surfer. As a swimmer-surfer himself, Hunter could relate on many levels to the gifted athlete and recommended the Indo Board to Peirsol’s trainer. Peirsol found it made his kick-turns more explosive in a sport where hundredths of a second separate gold from silver and bronze.

Even the elite CrossFit training craze for hardened athletes has adopted the Indo Board as part of their non-regime. Variety is the name of the game for this ultra-intense combat-style training program, which relies on strength and conditioning at its core to challenge participants at all levels and scrupulously avoid the routine. If you care to try inverted push-ups, the clean-and-jerk, or truck tire hoist on an Indo Board, watch this video(These people clearly have a lot of time on their hands and probably no children.).

The electronics and gaming industry is taking notice of the balance trend, with Nintendo offering a highly in-demand Fit and Balance Board trainer version of its popular Wii game, designed to entertain players and get them moving at the same time.

Early reviews have been mixed, with the set-up aimed at a weight-loss program of body mass indices and charting goals, along with a limited game selection outside of imitating your personal Mii trainer in a cyber gym or yoga studio. Sure you can virtual hula-hoop, snowboard or head soccer balls… if you like that sort of thing. These exercises may have spawned a whole new genre of YouTube demonstration videos that may improve your Internet surfing, but won’t get you more cred in the line-up.

For the great hoards of the landlocked unfit, the Wii may be an ideal solution, but for more serious athletes and surfers the flat balance pad that resembles a bathroom weight scale doesn’t seem to offer sufficient challenge. With that in mind, perhaps Nintendo will enlist “Balance Sensei Joslin” to help develop the next-generation Kelly Slater Pro Surfer version of the Wii series? Can you picture a Wii board floating on top of an IndoFlow cushion or roller, while riding a simulation of the world’s best breaks? Some Indo fans can and have already taken a small step that direction by playing video games while balancing on the Indo Board.

Until that time, take your land training to the next level with surf-specific exercises that emphasize core fitness, explosive strength, flexibility, and the most important and often overlooked element in surfing… balance.

Mike Wallace has surfed for over two decades on the East and West coasts, Hawaii, Europe and NorCal. Currently a resident of Moss Beach with his family of four, he can often be found haunting the beaches south of Devil’s Slide in search of the perfect sandbar with his blind dog, Moose. Comments? Mike(at)surfpulse.com

Related posts:

1. Ask Beth: Do you recommend using a Vasa Trainer for surfing fitness?
2. What resources are out there about the physiological aspects of training to ride big waves?
3. Any good surf fitness books?

For NorCal surfers, spring is a frozen curse, arriving with all the subtlety of a claw hammer. Winds in winter swing back and forth between the north and south with each passing front, offering shelter for the opportunistic surfer. But the “great spring blow” takes on a more sinister and persistent westerly tack, leaving nowhere to hide. With the consistency of a cheese grater, it shreds the last vestiges of north ground swells without a trace of remorse.

The resulting upwelling of icy water from the depths of the Farallon Escarpment sends local water temperatures diving below the 50 degree comfort zone. Even the most trusty and durable 4/3 wetsuit is taxed to its limits to make the transition into spring without revealing a catastrophically weak seam or pinhole. No, can’t stress over dropping close to four bills on a new one. Perhaps it’s time for that 5-mil beauty with a hood—well worth the price to stay in the water for more than forty-five minutes without losing any valuable appendages. Kiss “goodbye” to that new summer shortboard now.

Like income taxes, spring arrives each year with crushing certainty. Make the most of it; hope for a big refund or an early season south swell to keep your salt water spirit from shriveling up. You repeatedly check the SurfPulse report page each morning like a pale desk-bound creature—perhaps there will be a window today when the wind backs off, my precious, the tide doesn’t drain, and a few workable bowls magically appear?

Instead you read: “If you like doubled-up close-outs in freezing winds with a possible corner or two, today’s the day for you!” The Wise report confirms pretty much the same bleak scenario (without the sarcasm) and the O’Neill report in Capitola is only marginally better. Now, if you can only scrounge up that $70 for a tank of gas for the round trip?

Maybe it’s time for some long-deferred maintenance on the house instead, or an extra-long walk for the pup (pacing back and forth at the beach, of course). Little league games seem to take on all the passion of the majors—or is that just you cheering a little louder to mask your dry, wave-empty soul?

Elective surgery starts to sound like a viable option to quell boredom, judging by the well-timed convalescence of your surf crew. Time to get those ear canals drilled out (Jochen), rehab that pesky rotator cuff (Bruce), fully heal from that malicious strep infection (Scott), or luck out and avoid it all (Phil).

Conspiring against you, those fire hose gusts help Mother Nature reclaim your yard and spread native flora among your cultivated plants and lawn. Those dandelions and clover patches spread like a late-season flu and aren’t going to weed themselves, you know! Too old to skateboard, so maybe it’s time to dust off those Calloways and replace the missing cleats on your golf shoes? Nah, not that desperate yet…

Friends with the time and means plot to escape to more exotic and offshore locales, preferably with Southern Hemi exposure. Names like Punta Leone, Hanalei, Scorpion Bay, Nias and Tavarua are whispered in hushed, reverent tones. No point in bragging openly to those inmates left behind. Mental note: work harder this year, save more dinero, or marry into money.

Fortune smiles and a spontaneous mission to San Diego on a family retreat scores two days of bliss at Black’s. Not exotic, but 4–6 feet, light offshores, and fast, super-clean walls are like liquid antibiotics for spring fever. The quad is really moving now—a pump here, a hack there; let’s just flow into a backside layback as that next section throws, now I remember.

Surreal, instead of scowls and “stink eye,” locals greet you with smiles, nods, and friendly banter even as you hungrily devour every wave scrap in sight. It gets crowded as the sun rises above the skyscraper-like cliffs, but it seems that not only is the water warmer in SoCal, so are the water men and women. Figures, it must get good here a lot; plenty to go around. Suck down some gulps of air after that last set, let the heart rate settle, best not to be too greedy. A few hardy longboarders even deign to trunk it as a heat wave rounds out the week and the residual windswell drops, petering out in time for the brittle, arid return trip north, back up the I-5. No regrets.

A pilgrimage down to Windansea, the wellspring of surfing’s youthful irreverence, reveals a shapely reef that can handle both north and south swells indiscriminately. Inviting Baja-blue water and small sloping walls hint at the potential of the place, especially for longboarding, if the locals let any through. Very likely it was precisely the spring doldrums in evidence that drove founding club members, like the late Woody Brown and Mickey Dora, Greg Noll, Skip Fry and Mike Hynson, to set sail for adrenal-pumping shores of Hawaii and beyond.

In 1968 author Tom Wolfe prophetically captured the ethos of the juvenile California surf counter-culture, which, inevitably, has been absorbed back into the mainstream: “The Pump House Gang lived as though age segregation were a permanent state, as if it were inconceivable that any of them would ever grow old, i.e., 25. I foresaw the day when the California coastline would be littered with the bodies of aged and abandoned Surferkinder, like so many beached whales.” A palm-covered palapa still stands as a tattered monument to their pioneering and mischievous spirit, if not the millions of their more conformist descendants.

Time to head home, knock out a few chores, melt the grey winter wax from the quiver and start fresh. Maybe unload a couple of boards on SurfPulse classifieds or craigslist, and order that new little Christenson fish after all, just in time for “Dubya’s” tax rebates to arrive? If all else fails, cash it all in for a stand-up board and paddle off to Cabo. No, still not that desperate…

You truly know its spring when no fewer than four Maverick’s regulars show up at the Princeton Jetty (aka “Little Mavs”) for that last meager south swell. Armed with an arsenal of longboards and discs, they knife hungrily and shamelessly through the confused crowd on the hunt for the familiar plum little peaks of their gromdom. No names mentioned… but, Ion, dude, that seated take-off and 360-butt spin rates special mention.

This surfing addiction of ours has both karmic and physical facets, a spiritual connection with nature that distinguishes it from most other sports. But that clearly leaves a deep void for many water men and women when the Pacific stops giving, turning moody and spiteful.

Sometimes the best you can hope for in spring is to get a windswell fix often enough to rinse out the tree pollen from your itchy-dry sinuses and keep your wetsuit from contorting into a stiff straitjacket. Or, pray for a flurry of early-season south swells not to be ironed flat by the relentless and cruel onshores.

Embrace spring, don’t fight it. With some inspired creativity, convalescence, or a well-timed trip and a heap of patience we can all get through it together before the dense summer fog obscures the surf altogether.

Mike Wallace has surfed for over two decades on the East and West coasts, Hawaii, Europe and NorCal. Currently a resident of Moss Beach with his family of four, he can often be found haunting the beaches south of Devil’s Slide in search of the perfect sandbar with his one-eyed dog, Moose. Comments? Mike(at)surfpulse.com

Related posts:

1. Redwood Stringer #3: Spring at Dawn
2. Oil Spill is at Ocean Beach on Thursday, November 8, 2007
3. Shark Sighting at Ocean Beach on Friday, September 19, 2008

Over the course of a 21-year surfing career, let’s just say that I have left some skin on the reef, both proverbial and actual. Relying mostly on a spartan medical kit of duct tape, Advil and iodine to patch myself up, regular visits to a physio and my chiropractor have also helped keep me in the water. Plagued by fin cuts, reef wounds, hamstring tears, broken toes, surfer’s elbow, a pinched meniscus, a scapula tear, a butt gouge and a cracked septum (twice)—no, it ain’t easy getting old.

This parade of injuries was not sustained from deep water heroics, far from it. Most of them simply occurred during the odd routine session of shallow water antics at average beach or reef breaks, or even just mistimed entries and exits from the water. In fact, my favorite stunt is simply to pop up after a close-out during a breezy offshore session only to find my board pin-wheeling straight toward me as I blindly struggle to blink the salt water from my eyes. Inevitably, some sharp extremity of the board will take a maniacal aim at my head, apparently seeking vengeance for the indignity of being my aquatic beast of burden, blocked only by a last-ditch sleight of hand.

“Surf Smart” with SurfCo
SurfCo Hawaii was founded in 1986, established to market and distribute the company’s first product, the “Nose Guard.” Entrepreneur and CEO David Skedeleski of SurfCo co-invented the protective rubber device with renowned shaper Eric Arakawa, currently with Hawaiian Island Creations (HIC) Surfboards. After several well-publicized incidents, the two first distributed their new product on the North Shore free to surfers. David’s own son, Michael, was cut off early in his promising competitive surfing career at age 14 by a wicked slice to his leg from a fiberglass fin that took 125 stitches to repair. Traumatized, he has only just returned to surfing 16 years later at age 30 and was one of the prime inspirations behind SurfCo’s second major product, “Pro Teck” fins.

David recalls learning to surf in placid Waikiki, sharing a rental board with his sister as a child and knowing from that first ride that it was the sport of kings. His first board was a used Velzy that his dad carefully re-glassed for him. Later, tragically blown off the roof of their car after a session, the Velzy was run over by a drunk driver and had its fin unceremoniously lopped off. David remembers always tinkering with his boards, repairing and even shaping a few. He even taught Craig Sugihara to surf, who later became the CEO of Town & Country Surfboards.

David almost died in fast-rising surf at Haliewa in the pre-surf report days at age 16, when that beach break became one with the raging “Avalanches” next door—the very same thing that happened to me as youth. That formative event taught him to value life and respect the power of the ocean. Today, as SurfCo CEO, he’s a busy guy, but he still finds time to longboard 2–3 times a week at his favorite haunts, like Ewa Beach and Barber’s Point on the South Shore, and Mokule’ia and Chun’s Reef on the North Shore.

A Painful Education

SurfCo has won many fans over its 22-year history and continues to attract unsolicited testimonials from amateurs and pros alike. Considering that the company does not sponsor any surfers or pay to have them use their products, that’s quite a compliment. In fact, the company has a deliciously gory “testimonials” section on its website below. Just like the Driver’s Education movies of our teens, with footage of mangled drunks and their victims, this hall of surfing horrors makes for sobering viewing:

http://surfcohawaii.com/shop_content.php?coID=32

Even the pros get unlucky from time to time. Hawaii’s Pancho Sullivan, World Tour rookie in 2006 and #7 in 2007, recalls an incident during the Pipeline Masters at Ehukai Beach on the North Shore in which he was struck in his face with the tip of his board. “If I did not have a Diamond Tip on the nose, I would have been seriously injured! I think it’s foolish for a surfer not to use a Diamond Tip or Nose Guard on their board,” he said. Pancho, who favors red for all his accessories, is an easy sell for the entire product line.

 

Other surfers who have gravitated to the SurfCo products after close encounters with their equipment include Pipeline Master Gerry Lopez, who tried Pro Teck fins after an incident in Indo. Tow-in specialist and WCT commentator Mike Parsons has used them as well, along with Buzzy Kerbox. Hawaii’s big wave free surfer Shane Dorian has also tested the fins at the urging of his shaper, John “JC” Carper, who uses them on his own boards. Charger Jamie Sterling’s Maverick’s gun this year had a black nose guard, which came in especially handy when the board was tipped over on stage at the contest awards ceremony. Most have learned the hard way and sought SurfCo products after the fact.

Tube documentarian Brian “My Eyes Won’t Dry” Connelly falls neatly into that category, and should consider SurfCo’s product line after a horrific and deep gash in the back of his left calf, inflicted while filming in mainland Mexico. Towing and paddling into double overhead hurricane surf, Connelly’s group had been going deep and coming out clean. He got caught a little high after exiting a tube, was clipped and sucked over the falls with his board. He was “squirting blood” out of a 3-inch fin slice and knew when he came up this was unlike other incidental contacts with his board. Quick actions by his friends, who applied a tourniquet and rushed him to the local hospital, were followed with deep internal sutures to close the wound. Graphic footage can be seen at the end of the following video…not for those of weak constitution:

http://www.surfline.com/video/video_player/video_player.cfm?id=12138&mv=ncl

Another Brillo Production

The unofficial spokesmodel for the SurfCo line is Huntington-based Darrin Brilhart, who as the Director of Brillo Productions makes his livelihood organizing high-profile WQS surfing events like the Cold Water Classic in Santa Cruz. At the Maverick’s contest, when Surfer Editor Chris Mauro comically couldn’t find the results sheet at the awards ceremony, it was Darrin who handed him a back-up copy. While you may not have heard of him, in all likelihood you’ve seen a gruesome image of him in the major surf mags. Darrin impaled the nose of his board right into his face, tongue and roof of his mouth. Ironically, Darrin had been with Brian Connelly a year before his accident and had offered Nose Guards and Pro Teck fins to the film maker in Pasquales, Mexico, which he said would be well suited to “going down the line” in the barrel with a helmet cam.

As Darrin describes his own episode back in September 2003: “I pulled into a close-out barrel, as I was under the water my board shot through my jaw into my tongue and punctured the roof of my mouth. If I would have had a Nose Guard, I don’t think it would have done so much damage and if it punctured my throat or eye, I could have been done for good. I actually got very lucky!” Images of his jaw scar and his repaired tongue sticking out at the camera offer a cautionary tale horrific enough to send a chill down the spine of even the most hardened veteran.

 

Reflecting on that event today, Darrin says he healed pretty well and was lucky to miss the main nerves, but he still has no feeling on the right side of his face. Two months later he was again speared by his board, this time in the arm, but had learned his lesson well: a Nose Guard protected him from further insult and injury. With little prodding, he says that David (SurfCo CEO) “is an unreal guy with a great product.” As a result, he distributes the products gratis as an emissary for the SurfCo line to budding amateurs and professionals on the tour. While the pros can be a bit more finicky due to relations with their sponsors, he’s pleased to report that the groms have been more sensible and open to the devices.

Local Knowledge

Hawk: Former Surfer Editor Steve Hawk has used Nose Guards and soft-edge fins for years—almost since they first came out. “I’m a puss about that stuff,” he said. Like others, he has not been immune to fin cuts or other board-related injuries, having been stitched up numerous times, but he’s been fortunate enough to not have suffered any catastrophic hits. In his time at Surfer, Hawk said he heard many scary stories about people losing eyes, getting deep facial scars or nearly bleeding to death as a result of fin wounds. He recalled one particularly disturbing letter from a reader who took a fin shot to the family jewels and, upon peeling down his wetsuit to take inventory, had to spool in a dangling testicle before shuffling to the emergency room.

Tjogas: Local charger Jim Tjogas of Montara suffered a kidney stab from a board fin at a state beach along the San Mateo coast a couple of years back. In hollow and dredgy head-high surf, he took off on a left and lost his footing after a characteristically hard vertical frontside snap on a suck out. He felt icy water rushing into his warm wetsuit after his board knifed him in the back. Built like a linebacker and with the balance of an alley cat, Tjogas knew something was wrong after the wound, and friends who examined him said he was very lucky with the near miss. His vital organ was badly bruised, but fortunately not destroyed. He recalls excruciating pain for a week, urinating blood for longer, and sleeping uncomfortably for over a month, though he still didn’t miss many sessions in the process. Jim admits that Pro Teck fins would have significantly reduced the damage.

Alfaro: Like it was yesterday, Mark Alfaro recalls the time he nearly lost his eye and his life in playful conditions at Ocean Beach in San Francisco several years back. He was taking full advantage of small, clean, shoulder-high surf when he still lived in the city. Going fast on a right, the wave closed out and shut him down. Mark ducked under the lip and made the exit out the back, but his board didn’t, snapping back up under his body underwater. It grazed his eyelid and hit the socket so hard that he nearly passed out. Ironically, at the tip of the board was a hard plastic early-model guard (not from SurfCo) and yet the board was still crushed some three inches back from the nose, stringer and all. Mark uses the softer rubber Diamond Tips on all his boards now.

No stranger to hard blows from martial arts competitions, he is convinced that even a slightly different trajectory could have driven the board through his eye and easily killed him. His surf buddies were over a hundred yards away and couldn’t hear his call for help, so he had to get to shore under his own power. Blinded by the blood, he inquired from a friend on land, “Is my eye okay?” His friend replied that his eyeball was intact, but he “looked like crap!” Emergency room nurses and doctors’ jaws dropped and eyes widened at the sight of Mark’s injury, all the more alarming given the trauma they were accustomed to in the E.R. on any given day.

In the end, he was patched up with several stitches on the side of his nose and was very lucky. Alfaro knows first hand that it’s easy to let your guard down in small, shallow conditions, and personally knows two guys who have lost an eye in tiny surf, including Mark Froke (below), who didn’t get a second chance. He has even used rubberized Pro Teck fins for the past nine years on his Maverick’s guns. After several fin impacts in various conditions, Mark has only received minor welts from Pro Tecks, rather than cuts or a potential loss of limb.

Marshall: Mike Marshall of Performance Surfing Products distributes the SurfCo product line along with other surf product lines to shops on the mainland from his Half Moon Bay office. An irrepressible surfer and businessman, Mike uses Nose Guards on all his boards, though he has a bad habit of jamming them nose-first in the sand while suiting up. A wealth of information, he notes dryly that about 30% of new boards are sold with Nose Guards, but somewhere between the surf shop register and the beach he sees far fewer than that in the line-up. He infers that buyers must be having second thoughts about the “coolness” factor somewhere along the line. With the tone of someone who has seen and heard it all, however, he chides, “It’s not when or if, but how bad you will be hurt.”

Of course, it’s not without some first hand experience that he makes that claim. While surfing, Mike has broken his leg, injured his wrist and elbow, lost teeth and had over 100 stitches at last count. He recalls one particularly harrowing incident at Sunset Beach on the North Shore when he managed to catch his thruster fin cluster in the crotch, somehow narrowly saved from that truly gruesome fate by the middle fin snaring him in one cheek, which stopped the other two from pursuing their primary objective. In another close call, he was stabbed in his facial cheek bone with a board protected by a Nose Guard, suffering only a bad bruise as a result.

Nose Guards

The range of Nose Guards runs from the “Diamond Tip” for the short board to larger nose and tail guards for longer equipment. There are even categories for sailboards and snowboards, as well as a “Paddle Guard Kit” for those who stand-up paddle. I have used these guards for years on most of my boards, though I have admittedly been less conscientious of late. It’s kind of like Russian roulette: you’re probably fine most of the time, but you never know when your number is up.

As documented, gouges from the nose of a board to any part of the body can inflict serious injury, and a surprising number of talented surfers have made contact this way with dire consequences, especially after misadventures in the barrel. Other than ego or the bravado factor, there is little justification for not placing one of these gems on the tip of your board; there is no drag or other impediment from the guard. I was a little more skeptical about the “Tail Guards,” which seemed likely to alter performance by redirecting water flow off the back, but in order to give the product a fair shake I modified one to fit the pointy tips of the swallow tail on my 6′-4″ Fish. To my surprise, if anything, it gave the board a tad more projection and lift, like a small bump wing or step in the rail.

 
Pro Teck Fins 

These fins have a rubber compound that surrounds the perimeter of a flexible, hard plastic or stiff carbon core fin. Skedeleski says he found his inspiration for these from Dolphin fins, which are flexible on their outer edges, as well, much like the Tuna fin that provided the template for the flexible skeg invented by pioneering kneeboarder George Greenough. Two-time world champ Tom Carroll once infamously impaled his trailing thruster fin “where the sun don’t shine” during a competition in small shorebreak in Japan, requiring stitches to repair an unnaturally large hole that mother nature never intended.

According to Matt Warshaw’s The Encyclopedia of Surfing, a Surfing Medical Association (SMA) study found that 60% of injuries were board-related. 55% of these injuries are from being struck by one’s own board, and 40% of these are lacerations from fins. Most injuries sustained from other surfers come from the nose of a loose board. Another study found that 70% of surf-related injuries take place in waves under head high. So the eye or thigh you save may not just be your own.

SurfCo offers a variety of highly engineered fin set-ups, for thrusters and longboards alike. The orange “Super Flex” fins are designed with the beginner in mind and have the greatest flex range for more forgiving and fluid turns. Both the core fin and rubber compound on the perimeter offer the most pliability for the greatest safety. From a liability and ethical standpoint there is no reason that any surf school worth their salt water wouldn’t have these fins as mandatory on all equipment. The same goes for any shops renting Soft Top boards to novices.

One well-known big wave warrior started up a surf school and bought a handful of Soft Top boards for that purpose. David Skedeleski was the distributor for those boards in the Islands and recommended the instructor install Pro Teck fins on all the boards, but the guy said he couldn’t afford to at the time. His very first clients were a husband and wife who paddled out single file into the surf. The husband lost control of the board in the shore-break, and it squirted straight back into his wife’s face, gashing her in the forehead with its stock plastic fins. After a trip to the emergency room at the school’s expense, fortunate to not be sued out of existence, the chastened proprietor retrofitted the rubberized fins on all his boards.

The next step up is the “Power Flex” series, offering a clear core fin with colored outside edges and a medium flex characteristic, designed more for intermediate surfers or those who wish to loosen up their board with a more springy snap-back acceleration out of the turns. SurfCo’s “Performance” fin series has a stiffer core flex that creates more drive from bottom turns and off-the-top cutbacks, but still combined with a soft outer edge for safety and fluidity. Another innovation at this level is the option of a regular (75A) and stiff (85A) flex for the edges of the fin, with the former providing a looser feel and tighter turning arc over the latter which creates more drive and projection. “Performance” fins are designed with the intermediate to professional surfer in mind. The ones I tested were cleanly finished and all fit tolerances with other manufacturers’ fin boxes were appropriately snug.

At the apex of the SurfCo fin pyramid are its “Carbon-X” fins, created for expert to professional surfers, with an “extra rigid” core, maximum lightness and the stiffer 85A outer edge for the greatest combination of speed, drive, projection and fluidity. These fins have a carbon-grey core and black trailing edge. I tested out a pair of Carbon-X fins on two very familiar boards and found them to be a respectably responsive alternative to the Vector II and Scimitar Futures fins that I tend to favor.

The Carbon-X fins surf very similar to the FCS G-5s and generally offer comparable control to their counterparts, with little sacrifice of speed or projection. One area that SurfCo is looking into is the foiled side fins, similar to Futures, which offer extra traction and lift in top and bottom turns. The popularity of quad (4-fin) clusters also suggest another avenue for SurfCo down the road, along with new materials choices and other innovations pending that would nicely round out the high end of their product line.

I have often imagined that in the event of a shark attack I’d jam the tail and sharp fins of my board in the gaping mouth of the animal to teach him a lesson and buy some time as I bolted to the beach. Of course, with rubberized Pro Teck fins that would be more like flossing his teeth squeaky-clean if he hasn’t already done so with the leash. But the very real statistical truth is that you are infinitely more likely to be chewed up by your own board than any grumpy cartilaginous creature.

Hot Grip Traction Pads

These are brand spanking new clear and tinted one-piece traction tail pads, first of their kind on the market. In a slight departure for the SurfCo product line, they take aim at performance and esthetics, rather than safety per se. Beautifully designed with integral air pockets and channels that direct water flow out the back, these pads also have structural ribbing that gives them more positive feel. Rider feedback during early tests has revealed that under the increased G-forces of turns in larger surf, the more rigid design and air cushions really spring to life underfoot, increasing grip at speed.

My colorful Fish got a transparent Hot Grip deck pad and the integrated traction device responded willingly to my spurs and seemed pretty lively under foot. In 51º water temperature and with booties on, however, it was less cushy than I expected when installed, but still very positive and solid—like upgrading to a Nike Air or Reebok Pump training shoe and going for a jog at high altitude. I would imagine in more tropical climes, where the Hot Grip was developed, the ride would be more noticeably dynamic.

The company also claims that the more rubbery compound reduces chafing on the legs when surfing in board shorts. Considering I’ve had other top-of-the-line tail pads pull up and come apart with regular use, the single piece of the Hot Grip pad with the same primer-adhesive system as bullet-proof Nose Guards would seem a distinct advantage. Not having to wait 24 hours before entering the water until after the adhesive has bonded, like some other traction pads, is also a bonus—who’s really going to want to do that with a new board anyway? One disadvantage is the pad’s weight, which is a tad heavier than the competition’s. In addition, the ribs could possibly use some detuning for cold water action.

Quick Fix Repair Kits

SurfCo also offers a full product range of ding repair kits suited to just about every board material and repair possible, including UV cure, putty and rubberized solutions for both poly and epoxy boards. The company also distributes ergonomic wax scrapers, board-mounted key holders, sunblock, adhesive leash plugs, and leashes. I have used the economical repair kits successfully over the years, but would highly recommend seeking professional help for anything other than small dings. EPS board cores, for example, soak up water like a sponge even from small leaks and need to be thoroughly dried and sealed, or else they will become quickly waterlogged and ultimately drown.

Paranoia Sets In

Researching this piece and documenting the injuries of other surfers has given me renewed appreciation for being more proactive about my equipment, if not a little paranoid. A good board can be your best friend or your worst enemy, if it catches you unawares. Recently, even as I was putting the finishing touches on this article, I took off too deep, went over the falls and hit the deck hard at a shallow and turbulent local reef break. While the Nose Guard and Pro Teck fins I was testing didn’t save my ass or ego from a deep purple bruising, the incident sure could have been much worse…

While balancing safety against performance is a very personal matter, especially for fins, there’s the hard way and then there’s the SurfCo way.

For more information on SurfCo Hawaii’s product line, visit www.surfcohawaii.com.

Mike Wallace has surfed for over two decades on the East and West coasts, Hawaii, Europe and NorCal. Currently a resident of Moss Beach with his family of four, he can often be found haunting the beaches south of Devil’s Slide in search of the perfect sandbar with his one-eyed dog, Moose. Comments? Mike(at)surfpulse.com

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Like the shaping industry itself, Randy Cone is at a crossroads. His passion for surfing big waves and hand-crafting precision surfboards drew him to the heavy water Mecca of Maverick’s at Half Moon Bay. But his young and growing business in Pacifica is competing for his attention and energy, even as he strives to provide for his new family.

Randy’s experience is not all that different from of the rest of us. Enslaved by the siren call of waves, attempting to juggle careers, family, friends and the daily grind, we try to find an all-too-brief window of recreation that aligns with Mother Nature’s fickle moods. But only for a rare few do all those competing demands intersect in the dynamic and hyper-competitive business of board-making, which has inevitably become globally industrialized.

In Randy’s case, that trend has profound implications for his future; marquee shapers are evolving more into board designers, with production outsourced overseas. Yet, the infinite three-dimensional curves of the surfboard remain a wide-open canvas for innovation and experimentation, both in materials and shape, as never before in the post-Clark Foam era.

Randy Cone, reshaping the future of guns

Shaper-Rider

Honed by a quarter century of annual pilgrimages to the North Shore of Oahu, and several years of getting Maverick’s dialed, Randy has a rare and potent bond of big wave and expert shaping experience. He has paid his dues in the water and behind the planer, having cranked out 7000–8000 boards in his career, working at the rate of 20–25 per month and 4 to 5 a week, translating into 70–80 hour workweeks. For those in the know— experienced surfers who can appreciate his obsessive craftsmanship—his boards are lethally effective equipment that can sharpen anyone’s performance level. Randy will shape you exactly what you want, but has found his niche with traveling boards, semi-guns, guns and Maverick’s big-game chasers.

Raised in Goleta, California, just north of Santa Barbara, Cone keenly remembers riding his BMX bicycle across the railroad tracks to the beach as a grom and smelling the tropical scents wafting from the Sex Wax factory before it was uprooted to a larger facility down the road in Carpenteria. Perhaps that formative experience cast a cartoon-like olfactory spell over him, drawing the young man with a vaporous crooked finger toward his destiny with surfing and shaping.

Among others, he credits Kirk Bjerke as his principle mentor in terms of “big wave surfing knowledge and a lot of big wave gun knowledge.” But when he was 14 years old, he apprenticed for Haakenson Fiberglassing in Goleta, which brought him close to a unique band of shaping legends: Rich Reed, David Puu, Al Merrick, George Greenough, Malcom Cambell, Kirk Bjerke, John Bradbury, Bob Krause, Jeff Bushman and Steve Huerta. Channeling these gurus, Randy shaped his first board (a stout little quad) at age 16 and then shaped and surfed for David Puu of Morning Star Surfboards for the next few years. After a couple decades shaping and competing around the world, all currents eventually drew him to Maverick’s, which he began to surf in 1998 before settling in the area in 2000.

Downsizing the Gun

While quick to pay tribute to the master shapers of the past, Cone has taken a different approach to applying their cumulative knowledge and his unique talents. In a counter-intuitive and deceptively deft stroke of shaping alchemy, he has downsized the Maverick’s gun. As he succinctly puts it: “giving a shorter board a bigger board outline.” As a result, his boards look familiar, but somehow vaguely different. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but the first time you ride one the performance gap becomes clear. “If you do that, naturally, the nose and everything is going to look a little wider, because you’re holding your curve of the bigger board in a smaller board,” says Cone. As a symbol of this evolution, Randy recycled a large geriatric gun with the new smaller shape rising out of its back to create a new masthead over his shop, a literal sign of the times.

Downsizing the gun, a sign of the times

And forget the nose-flip fad of the past as well—he’s over it. A shallower entry rocker is an integral part of this design progression, allowing the rider to get up to speed faster. As he notes with a twinkle of irony over all the focus on the front of the gun, “Once you’re up, the nose of the board doesn’t even come into play, since you’re riding on the back third of the board.” Otherwise, “If you’re gonna pearl, you’re gonna pearl.”

While he’s been applying this theory to his guns for years, and other shapers have been comparing notes and adopting this progression, too, Randy sees these elements creeping back into the short-board evolution as well. The “potato chip” competition thruster has started to put some carbs back into its diet and it’s livelier and more fun to surf as a result. Cone religiously watches all the ASP WCT “Dream Tour” events via the Internet and he has witnessed board outlines of the pros becoming straighter and flatter. “Now they’ve gone wider, too, and word gets around, like, ‘Hey, what are your measurements?’”

Twiggy Borrows a Board

In paddle-in big wave surfing, those specs may be the difference between standing up on a mountain-sized wave and actually surfing it. Cutting the gun back down to size—by over a foot—to 9′ 0″ made all the difference for Grant “Twiggy” Baker, who came over from South Africa and rode one of Randy’s boards to victory at the Maverick’s contest on February 6, 2006. Baker came to the contest after securing a controversial write-in nomination—thanks to the energetic voting of his countrymen— and having borrowed a 10′+ gun from his friends, and fellow contestants, the Long brothers. In an early pre-contest warm-up he pearled badly several times and fell flat on his face.

Shaken, Baker asked what went wrong. Maverick’s charger and film-maker Grant Washburn quickly diagnosed the problem: not the rider, but the board. Having witnessed Baker’s heroics first hand in equally gnarly Dungeons in South Africa, Washburn said with conviction of a fellow charger: “That kind of big wave rider can surf anything, so Long’s board clearly wasn’t right for the wave” at Maverick’s. He warned the rattled Baker that he would “get killed” if he continued to attempt waves on Long’s board.

Wandering back to the drawing board in search of a replacement, the pair stumbled upon the dark forest-green 9′ 0″ gun in the shop that had been earmarked as a “wall hanger” for Randy’s folks. Baker had his doubts about the relatively dwarfed size of the board. Despite being competitors in the same contest, Maverick’s devotees Washburn and Cone prevailed on Baker to try it out. The gun was cut from a blank with a thick half-inch stringer with a strange evil twist in it; hence the dark color choice to cover the flaw. But that twisted board changed the fate of the three and may as well have been a lightning bolt stringer struck from the hammer of Thor (or the hand of Gerry Lopez, for that matter). Baker’s confidence grew exponentially as the board went “insane,” and he fully admits that “I would never have won that event without Randy’s help.”

Grant "Twiggy" Baker en route to victory on Green machine; Maverick's, February 6, 2006

As Baker recounts, “It all started with the fact that I don’t like to travel with big boards. Anything over 8’0″ is a major hassle and I find it much easier to beg and borrow big boards, when and if I need them.” He used Rusty Long’s “big yellow guy and it just didn’t seem to fit in the bowl and I had some crazy wipe-outs o
n the thing. Then for a while I tried using a really short board that was 7’6″ and, even though I could catch the waves, I kept spinning out at the bottom and had some even crazier wipe-outs because of it.”

Washburn then convinced Randy to lend him a board. Baker recalls, “When I first looked at the Green machine, I thought ‘here we go again.’ It was like nothing I had surfed on before, with it being super narrow and thin with the two-plus-one ‘widow maker’ fin setup and super heavy for a 9’0″, not to mention the fact that it had been made as a display board for behind a bar! But after my first wave on the board, I knew we had something special. It was really fast to paddle for how small it was, and dropped to the bottom like a stone and turned like a short-board…basically everything you look for in a big wave gun.”

In addition to the board, Baker suggests, “I do feel that one of the biggest factors in winning the event on that board was how much we surfed Maverick’s leading up to the contest, and the fact that I only had one board and that really helped me get a feel for how the board went and I got so used to it in all conditions.”

While the board is still leaning in Randy’s shaping room for inspiration, Baker has been riding a Cone 8’0″ that’s “one of the best boards I have ever had” and a 9’2″ he surfed all winter in Cape Town “that goes even better than the Green machine.” The bottom line is that “his boards are amazing and I definitely feel that’s because he is one of the few shapers that surfs the waves he makes his boards for. It helps with the end product and I can’t wait to see what he has lined up for me to ride this winter.”

Randy Cone testing out his equipment; Maverick's, February 6, 2006

Randy Gets it Dialed

Randy himself has been a regular invitee to the Maverick’s contest and team riders consider his shapes at least two years ahead of the curve, both for guns and their natural extension to everyday boards. Reflecting on that fateful green 9′ 0″ that Baker rode as an example, Randy notes that his guns are becoming shorter, glassed heavier, with lower-volume rails, less than 3 inches thick, and wider at the nose and tail than a traditional rapier-like gun. Cone says this alters the “swing weight” of the board and, in combination with the critical glassing that is still done in-house, fine-tuning of the edges, fin placement, and glass weight, it all adds up to a board that can ride radically better in the water than any mass-produced plank. And his latest creations have moved even further along that continuum from the “Green machine.”

The evolution of Randy Cone's Maverick's quiver

The confidence that breeds when you stand up on the edge of the abyss on a ledging peak at Maverick’s can make all the difference. The only disadvantage he sees with a smaller, heavier board is in being held down deep after a fall in big surf, where less floatation can make it harder to get back to the surface if you’re used to climbing your leash. On the other hand, if you prefer spending more time on the surface, you’re more likely to make the wave in the first place if your board is killer.

Randy confirms that a variety of tail shapes are functional finishing touches on his Maverick’s guns, mainly by achieving “a longer water line” and allowing for a margin of extra purchase on the wave face. Shapes he has favored include small swallows and diamond tails on the guns and rounded pins on more multipurpose semi-guns for the heavier Northern California surf. He expects tail shapes will keep evolving amid experimentation on smaller equipment, along with fin set-ups.

Work in progress; this one could be yours

Intrigued by the quad (4) fin cluster, a futuristic throwback gaining popularity over the more functional and established thruster (3) fin group, Cone has doubts about the performance of quads in beefier surf. They have cropped up on the professional tour and at Pipeline on the North Shore, but tend to “stick” on bottom turns, not as loose and drivey as the thruster. Peering at the Monster Energy Pro on his computer in January, Randy watched an otherwise masterful Danny Fuller seem to hit a hitch as the two inside fins grabbed on one bottom turn; “There it is, see!” At the Boost Mobile Pro in Trestles, tour stalwart Mark Occhilupo tested one out in the early heats, but went back to the familiarity of his tri-fin in the later rounds. Yet in hollow, fast surf, the 4-fin clearly offers a different “feel” of speed and agility for those who make the adjustment, while in softer conditions less pumping down the line can be a distinct advantage.

Randy has remained adaptable in his approach, getting some of his blanks rough cut by an APS-3000 computer shaping machine. Still, he favors a first computer cut on the deck, while saving the bottom for the magic of the power planer, rather than trying to iron out the computer’s heavier strokes on the critical rocker. With prodding from his cohort Washburn, he is also in the process of testing out some of the early bio-foam blanks by Homeblown Surf Blanks and Foam Systems, which offers a less toxic MDI-based polyurethane foam versus the TDI-based foam that allegedly put Grubby Clark out of business on environmental grounds. These are made up of sugar- or soy-based polyurethanes that leave a much lighter footprint on the environment—and on the blank blowers and shapers themselves. Once refined, the hope is that these alternative blanks will ultimately make a stronger and more resilient choice—a fusing of performance and conscience.

The vast majority of Cone’s boards, however, still use proven conventional polyurethane blanks from Surfblanks Australia. Polystyrene (EPS) blanks are also offered, though the lighter materials, like the epoxy pop-outs, don’t necessarily handle the wind and chop of heavier seas. The custom boards are mainly coated in epoxy for durability, performance and lower toxicity. Experimentation in the glassing cloth is also forthcoming with fine-woven bamboo cloth making a strong statement, picking up where hemp cloth left off. One constant of the new era in shaping is that materials costs are going up, but the trade off is an expertly shaped board that instantly feels right underfoot and lasts longer—not a bad thing in our disposable culture. Just scroll through the long lists of used boards for sale on Craigslist or SurfPulse for failures to get the mix just right, and you’ll realize it’s worth paying a small premium. Like the fit and feel of a fine tailored suit of wool versus buying an off-the-rack polyester blend from Wal-Mart—it’s no contest.

The Odd Couple

Business and surfing partner Grant Washburn sees the shaping industry quite clearly in qualitative terms. Like Oscar and Felix of the Odd Couple, Grant and Randy have a unique working relationship, driving each other in the surf, in the shaping room, and beyond. Cypress-sized Grant towers over most other people, an exception in the shrub-sized big wave community, while Randy is more compact. Grant is animated, enthusiastic and brimming with business ideas, while Randy is very subtle, quiet, wry, focused, conservative and methodical about the board business and his priorities.

Grant Washburn defusing a bomb; Maverick's, February 6, 2006

Grant once said self-mockingly, “I’m terrified they’ll hold Maverick’s one day in small conditions and a surf contest will break out.” Disarmingly humble and friendly, Grant is fiercely opinionated about the direction of board b
uilding and the integrity of his friend, Randy, who he describes as a workaholic and perfectionist—all the qualities you would want in your shaper. Washburn sees the future of independent shapers in the quality of their craftsmanship, materials choice, closeness to their customers and knowledge of their local conditions. Predicting polarization of the shaping world, he sees high-end specialization as where the innovations will still take place, while mid-tier equipment will not be able to compete with the mass-produced, low-priced entry-level boards overseas.

In addition, Washburn is enthusiastic about adopting shaping room practices that recycle the resin, pigments and glass cut from the finished boards. Colorful custom resin tinting is a hallmark of a Cone board and the byproduct is a kaleidoscope of scraps and drips left over in the glassing trays. This same ingenuity and creativity has spawned a side furniture project, as the pair shape the spare materials into Tim Burton-esque chairs with high backs and seats, along with Koa wood feet. Some of these functional art forms have already made an appearance in the Minna Gallery in San Francisco. To date, they have produced three exceptional chairs: an ice-green arm chair (pictured), an opalescent elliptical recliner and a modern blue armless beauty that would make Alice at home in Wonderland.

Randy Cone glasses a chair, recycling shaping materials

Kudos from Down Under

Rounding out his international fan base, Cone’s refinements have touched others overseas. Damon Eastough of Australia thought enough of Randy’s talents to “travel halfway around the world to get one of his guns.” He had an 8′ gun shaped for powerful 10–12′ surf around Margaret River after hearing about Randy’s design theories and working on tow board designs himself. Says Eastough, “The board is suited to take off late without grabbing and make adjustments without being too locked into a line on the way down.” Moreover, “To me it feels like a board that has been made by a surfer who has spent a lot of time surfing guns. I can get a gun in my area, but it’s rare to see the shaper out on them. I found Randy to be very generous with his time and ideas, and the quality of his product shows in the performance. Mass produced boards are perfect for the fashionista—they look good, but don’t cut it if you surf a lot.”

Johnny Get Your Gun

In an era of industrialization, high volume shaping and wide open materials choices, it pays to shop around. So the next time you hungrily fondle a few board curves and rails in the racks at your local board shop, torn between price and value, if you are ready to step it up, work with a local shaper who knows the conditions in your area. Look around you in the surf and see what the local rippers are using—very likely it’s not a pop-out. There is a ton of local shaping talent out there, near every cove, point and beach break. Ask around, do your homework and you just might score a performance board that exceeds your limits. After all, you can bet Randy Cone and his test pilots at Maverick’s are gearing up for winter. How about you?

For more information about Randy Cone’s boards, visit www.randyconesurfboards.com.

Mike Wallace has surfed for over two decades on the East and West coasts, Hawaii, Europe and NorCal. Currently a resident of Moss Beach with his family of four, he can often be found haunting the beaches south of Devil’s Slide in search of the perfect sandbar with his dog, Moose.

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This article, researching the true inventor of the wetsuit, is the first of two parts.

You check the swell, period and wind readings on SurfPulse, cackling at your good fortune that all the signals have aligned for an epic fall session in peaky, head-high, offshore conditions at your favorite beach break. With a muffled and wheezy cough on the cell phone, you call in sick to work and then reach for your wetsuit.

Not the slick, flexible and cozy superhero uniform you have come to cherish in 49-degree water temps. No, you don a scratchy oiled-wool sweater vest with a badly glued layer of paper-thin rubber already delaminating from the last session. Slap on a rubber skull cap and slather some Vaseline on your extremities. Lasting 15 minutes, you exit the water with purple lips and a Slurpee headache; your session is over before it began. Or it would be if you lived in 1949, two years before the dawn of the wetsuit.

Wool swimming suits from earlier days were picked up at Goodwill or the Salvation Army to help keep warm in the pre-wetsuit days. Rich Thompson, Harry Murry and Bob McCullah posed for this photograph.

This is a waterman’s tale of one unsung hero, a patriotic and humble university physicist, Hugh Bradner, who first solved the riddle of keeping mankind both wet and warm in the ocean. What closely followed was the refinement and commercialization of the wetsuit by two well-known rivals, O’Neill and Body Glove, pioneers who nurtured the market.

After the surfboard, the wetsuit is the next most critical piece of technology driving the popularity of surfing around the globe. Sure, in wintertime we’re grateful that somebody had the foresight, motivation and skills to first glue one together. For those of us not blessed to be living within a latitude or two of the equator, however, wetsuits are required year-round equipment taken for granted. The story spans from the very first post-war efforts to battle the cold with ill-fitting woolens to the latest “H-Bomb” battery-powered, Arctic-slaying heated wetsuit from Rip Curl.
(www.ripcurl.com)

Neoprene

Without neoprene there would be little debate over the creation of the wetsuit. If not for neoprene and the nitrogen-infused air bubbles it traps close to the skin, there would be no flexible insulation for divers and surfers. According to About.com historian Mary Bellis, Wallace Hume Carothers was the brilliant father of modern man-made fabrics—inventor of both nylon and neoprene. He left a professorship at Harvard to head DuPont’s newly formed research division in 1928 and ultimately was credited with over 50 patents.

DuPont began producing neoprene in 1931. Nylon was unveiled in 1938 as an alternative to silk when trade relations soured with the U.S.’s main supplier, Japan, ahead of the war. Fast-forward 69 years and that former adversary now produces the vast majority of the best neoprene blends for wetsuits, adding nylon, spandex and even treated wool back into the mix for stretch and warmth. (See wetsuits on www.patagonia.com) Thought likely to have suffered from manic-depression, Carothers swallowed a small dose of cyanide he always carried on his person and ended his life in April 1937, a year before the gift of nylon was delivered to the world.

Wikipedia

The online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, hedges on the topic of the wetsuit’s creator, but does appear to lean towards Hugh Bradner’s principle role: “It is difficult to credit a single individual for the creation of the modern wetsuit. In 1951, while working for the U.S. Navy, Hugh Bradner had the insight that a thin layer of trapped water could act as an insulator. It was a colleague of Bradner’s who suggested neoprene as a feasible material. However, Bradner was not overly interested in profiting from his design and never marketed a version to the public; nor did he patent his design. The first written documentation of Bradner’s invention was in a letter dated June 21, 1951.”

The Encyclopedia of Surfing

Surf historian Matt Warshaw suggests: “The wetsuit was a result of WWII-funded developments in plastics and rubber. In 1951, looking to make underwater work more comfortable and productive for U.S. Navy divers, U.C. Berkeley physicist Hugh Bradner began testing prototype wetsuits constructed from various unicellular polymeric materials, including neoprene. The navy declassified Bradner’s wetsuit designs the following year and encouraged commercial production, a decision that would eventually bring relief to surfers who were then wearing rubber caps and oil-steeped woolen sweaters as a defense against the cold.”

The O’Neill Story

Corporate legend has it that Jack O’Neill “circa early 50’s” water-tested various combinations of wool, rubber, PVC plastic and even “old WWII frogmen suits” (www.oneill.com). Indeed, after serving in the Army Air Corps, O’Neill moved to the frigid waters of Ocean Beach, San Francisco in 1952, and sought the means to extend his water time and earn a living. Dale Velzy and Hobie Alter were generally credited with creating the first board shops in Southern California. But O’Neill was the first to offer the whole bar of wax. He ultimately provisioned intrepid Northern surfers with boards, wetsuits, travel bags, wax and more, staking his rightful claim as creator of the first modern “surf shop” and even patenting the idea.

North Coast Surfers, Pedro Point...1961 or 1962. Left to right: Babe Kane, Don Valdivia, the little boy in front...Michael Ho, now a professional surfer from Hawaii, Stan Ross, LeRoy Pukahi, unknown, Alex Dias, Dave Zarte, unknown, Dick Notmeyer, Charlie Carlson, Steve Krolik (Zen Budda), Bill Craig, Roy Lutzi, Don Briemle, Frank Freitas, Bud Lavagnino, Mal McKenzie, two little kids...Kenny and Hanalei Yasso, Buddy Carlson, Bud Ruegg, Steve Zarate, Alex Matienzo, Jim Thompson, ?, ?, ?, ?

O’Neill history holds that Jack “discovered neoprene foam carpeting the aisle of a DC-3 passenger plane,” though aviation experts cited by Wikipedia dispute this claim, since early neoprene was highly flammable and not well-suited to that dangerous use. This online resource also claims that it was Jack’s brother, Robert O’Neill, who created the first wetsuit designs for the company they founded together. Who knows what sibling rivalry lurked behind closed doors, but it was Jack who took charge of the business.

Regardless of how O’Neill sourced the material, he soon applied it to a variety of designs and his shop flourished. Success eventually drove him to relocate operations to 41st Avenue in Santa Cruz before it exploded into a global company. The business was largely managed by family members. Son Pat was credited with inventing the first practical surf leash, though surf pioneer Tom Blake in the early 1930s was reputed to have invented a leash that was fastened around the waist, not ankle. In fact, it was the recoil from a surgical tubing leash prototype that cost Jack his eye, resulting in the infamous swashbuckling eye patch logo. Jack O’Neill retired in 1985 to a seafaring life of leisure and charity, handing the reins over to Pat.

The line between machismo and hypothermia is a fine one and can likely be drawn right at Rincon Beach Park, south of Santa Barbara, where North and South surf cultures collide. Acceptance of the first Short Johns and Beaver-tail suits was not immediate—those inclined to insulate themselves were considered lesser men by stubborn and hardcore veterans. But increased warmth meant increased water time year-round and more rapidly improving skills. In the end, practicality won out and even the leash, or “kook cord,” as it was first snidely branded, is now virtually universal. Surfers are arguably worse swimmers for it, but better at board riding as a result.

Among the key product developments by the company over its history, O’Neill cites “wetsuit innovation, first surf shop, first surf leash, first surf boot, first glued and blindstitched construction, the Supersuit, the board bag, Animal suit, Zen zip closure and drain hole, double fluid seam weld construction, customized suit program, and the Mutant modular closure system.”

The culture of innovation at O’Neill has helped win customer loyalty and grab as much as 50% of the U.S. wetsuit business, according to a Transworld SURF retail survey. Since 1997, O’Neill has filed for five U.S. patents (1). To be sure, the company deserves credit for many highly useful innovations that have kept water men and women warm and comfortable, though credit for the birth of the first wetsuit may lay elsewhere. As often said, “It’s always summer on the inside.”

The Body Glove Story

Life-long watermen twins Bob and Bill Meistrell were similarly instrumental in the early commercialization of the wetsuit in Southern California and quickly recognized the importance of the developing market given their diving, surfing and lifeguarding exploits. They were brought into the business in 1953 via an $1800 buyout of Hap Jacobs’ stake in the Dive N’ Surf business based in Los Angeles with partner Bev Morgan, who later exited the business in 1957.

The entertaining and informative Body Glove corporate history, “The Story” (www.bodyglove.com) says that the brothers experimented with the usual wool and rubber combinations and found that neoprene backing on refrigerators might make a useful insulator for wet suits. Morgan reckoned they cranked out 1000–1500 orders for surf shops in the early days (2), a pace that burned him out and prompted him to cash out to the Meistrells.

The tag on Body Glove wetsuits to this day proudly touts “Since 53” in a soft jab at their dominant major Northern Californian rival, O’Neill, following apparent legal wrangles on the origins of the wetsuit. That rivalry mirrors the titanic North-South rumble between Huntington Beach and Santa Cruz for the legal rights to claim the mantle of “Surf City, USA,” recently won by Huntington. The Meistrells marketed the suits under the name Thermocline until 1965, when they hired a marketing pro to help them come up with the name Body Glove, as in “fits like a glove.” Under the original Dive N’ Surf designation, Bill Meistrell has three U.S. patents since 1987 (3).

On July 26, 2007, founders Bob and Bill Meistrell were awarded a prestigious granite stone on the Surfing Walk of Fame in Huntington Beach in the category of Surf Culture for “creating the wetsuit.” The Santa Cruz Surfing Museum, which claims to be the “first surfing museum in the world,” having opened its doors in 1986, does not similarly anoint a northern wetsuit inventor on its website, nor does O’Neill claim it outright. While Body Glove deserves accolades for pioneering advancements in the wetsuit along with O’Neill, history shows that the story is more complex and intriguing.

Despite the inference by both O’Neill and Body Glove that they hold the keys to the wetsuit’s origin, due credit for the concept must be shared by a third waterman. In a Los Angeles Times article, “Surfing whodunit,” (4) Dive N’ Surf founder Bev Morgan admitted to trawling the Scripps library in La Jolla, California, and finding a 1951 report on wetsuits for the Navy, admitting that “Hugh Bradner invented the wetsuit, the first to use neoprene and come up with the whole concept.”

The Bradner Story

Dr. Hugh Bradner, 1972

An avid waterman from infancy, according to family lore, Hugh “Brad” Bradner (b. 1915) was chucked off a pier by his father into the water at the age of three to sink or swim…he swam. Bradner graduated from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) with a Ph.D. in physics, where he also coached the swimming and water polo teams, and was one of the first Americans to make a deep water SCUBA dive (5). As a nuclear scientist, he was among a trio who established Los Alamos in 1943 and he worked as a research scientist at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory at U.C. Berkeley.

However, it was his work for the U.S. Naval Ordnance Laboratory that led to his pioneering research on the wetsuit, as a means to keep Navy SEALS warm and insulated against underwater explosions. He rounded out his illustrious scientific career as professor emeritus at the Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics at U.C. San Diego.

Consulted by the military and an active member of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), he was uniquely qualified to fuse science with ocean exploration. On many levels, Bradner worked in an era when the security of the country was paramount and collaboration was the most effective means to that end. It also explains Bradner’s evident reluctance to claim his rightful role as inventor of the wetsuit. That claim was just never important to him, then or now, despite the evidence in his favor.

(Click here for Part 2 of this article.)

Endnotes

1. 6375770, 5913592, 5898934, 5896578, and 5693177 for seam bonding, a water sport boot, neck entry wetsuit, zipperless neck entry wetsuit and an apparatus for adhesively bonding seams
2. The Surfer’s Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, Pg. 49
3. 4915046, 47016673, 5191658 on innovations including seam construction, liquid pack and retention device, and an offset zipper (www.patentstorm.us).
4. Oct. 11, 2005, by David Eisenstadt
5. Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus

Acknowledgements

Thanks go out to Harold and Suzy Ticho for providing the inspiration for this story on the origins of the wetsuit and the life of their dear friend and colleague Hugh Bradner; Debor
ah Day, Archivist of Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Archives was invaluable in providing thorough documentation and photos of the wet suit, and Bradner’s contributions; Carolyn Rainey of Scripps for her intelligent SIO paper (#98-16): “Wet Suit Pursuit: Hugh Bradner’s Development of the First Wet Suit”; and Eric Hanauer for his insightful Scripps Oral History interview with Dr. Bradner.

Mike Wallace has surfed for over two decades on the East and West coasts, Hawaii, Europe and NorCal. Currently a resident of Moss Beach with his family of four, he can often be found haunting the beaches south of Devil’s Slide in search of the perfect sandbar with his dog, Moose.

Related posts:

1. A Waterman’s Tale: The True Inventor of the Wetsuit (Part 2)
2. Hugh Bradner, Inventor of the Wetsuit, Dead at 93 on Monday, May 5, 2008
3. XCEL Wetsuit Found at Ocean Beach on Saturday, November 3, 2007

To be sure, the athleticism, flexibility and hubris to bust an air-reverse over a huge closeout or “go switch” inside a grinding Pipeline tube are truly inspiring for the rest of us mere mortals. Fine if you’re still 20-something (and still have all your anterior crucial ligaments attached), not to mention an endless board supply from Al or Rusty.

But there is a school of surfing that seeks harmony with Mother Nature, not opposition. This act of wave riding is intimate, cradled in the curl, angling along the most efficient high-line to maximize acceleration and length of ride, occasionally dipping to bleed off speed before gathering momentum once again. No “Huntington hop, hack, floater, pig-dog, lay-back slash, tail slide, aerial, or air reverse” here. No butt wiggles, no flailing arms; just slotted, stretched from finger-to-toe-tip. This is the realm of the bodysurfer.

You may scoff and kick sand in their faces, grateful that they’re one rung lower on the aquatic food chain. But witness the apparent disembodied head bobbing in the line-up, usually well inside you, as the backs of waves obscure his stealthy art. Paddling back out you may smugly mock the bodysurfer: “Lose your board, dude?” But he’s heard that one before, and the joke’s on you when you catch a rail or mis-time that aerial; he’s only too happy to pull in, lean, and elegantly finish the wave you nearly wasted. Purity of line and economy of movement are his calling cards. His is an intimate, tactile relationship with the sea.

Equipment

There can be little doubt that the forefathers of surfing were bodysurfers, Pacific islanders or Peruvian fishermen stepping out from the primordial ooze to catch a free ride into the beach. Before Paipo and Olo boards, records show that early enterprising Hawaiians lashed palm leaves or bark to their feet for propulsion, a sure-fire path to dry rot or constellation of blisters. Benjamin Franklin reputedly fashioned a couple of wood planks in the shape of art palettes to attach to his feet and enhance his swimming experience, and Leonardo da Vinci also tinkered with the idea: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swimfin

Modern proponents almost exclusively employ a pair of rubber Duck Feet or Churchill fins, invented simultaneously over 65 years ago by Louis de Corlieu of France and Owen Churchill of the U. S., whose patented design was adopted by naval demolition teams and made Churchill a multi-millionaire. It was a fortune he lavished on his addiction to competitive sailboat racing, where he was appointed team captain of the U. S. Olympic Yachting Team for two successive Olympiads.

Various adaptations include vented “jet fins,” sliced “split fins,” swallow-tail “force fins,” and even elongated free-diving carbon fiber fins. Some will even attach small plastic planes to their hands for extra traction and speed, but the basic technology for most bodysurfers has not changed in decades.

Technique

The bodysurfer’s entry point on a wave is similar to a board surfer, but typically deeper. He has eliminated a big step—standing up. True, this can be a near seamless step for an expert bipedal surfer, but the lack of it allows the prone surfer to catch a steep, breaking wave almost instantly, sometimes before it even breaks. Like the athletic dolphin, he may kick inside a swell, submarine-style, arms flat against his sides, exploding to the surface just as the bulge of water transforms into a breaking wave. Mostly, he angles in near the curl, cants his body against the suck-up surge, extends an arm and, with a sharp flutter kick, is off.

Too late, and he may air-drop into the pit, recovering with two arms forward, and using his planing hands like a skeg on a board to pull into the tube or up the face in order to take the high-line again. From there, basic maneuvers include the regal “wave,” with one arm forward and the other bent at the elbow overhead while leaning with the back into the wave face. The “iron-cross” juts one arm forward again, but extends the other straight back, palm dragging on the bending curl. Speed is relative, both a blessing and curse for the bodysurfer, achieved by lifting body parts from the water to reduce drag and knife along on a single plane. Rarely do you see him project out onto the shoulder, but right at sea level the sensation of acceleration is greatly amplified. His body conforms to the wave and on steep, dredging sections, his legs can bend and fins arch up into the lip.

Once well-positioned, a number of other options present themselves on a nicely funneling wave. The pinnacle is to stall back in the barrel, inch up the face and then come flying out on the foam ball. Purists may opt just to trim and fade, until the wave runs out of gas. But after folding arms back to cruise, the bodysurfer can then accelerate with one hand forward, dip a shoulder and pull a “spinner,” rotating around his body axis 360 degrees without missing a beat. This has been elevated to an art form at the exclusive Point Panic on the South Shore of Oahu:

Advanced maneuvers pulled by the experts include a half-spinner, where the bodysurfer ends up on his back on the face of the wave and can fold his arms for effect, stall, and then rotate the remaining 180 degrees back to his belly and carry on. Another is to pull up steeply on the face and, at the apex by the lip, arch his back and launch back down the wave, the equivalent of a surfer’s off-the-lip. For the truly advanced, a rare “El Rollo” is pulled off—achieved when the bodysurfer gets sucked so high in the curl that he can simply roll over with the lip, supported by the foam ball, and land at its base only to be pushed out again on to the face. This is a cross-over move from body boarding, where it is much easier to execute.

The exit frequently ends in apparent outright destruction, mostly an exercise in damage control, with an inability to straighten out, kick out, or effectively launch over the shoulder in large surf. The bodysurfer’s best option is the “kick-flip” into a tapering closeout section, diving down at the last second, flipping the legs over and ducking out the back. This maneuver is a natural application of the same Olympic pool technique, with a roll and kick off the wall, which many have learned from the ranks of competitive swimming. Another less elegant option is the “pile-driver,” plowing head down into a closeout in hopes of just avoiding the worst of the implosion until the wave energy dissipates. The Wedge in Newport Beach offers some cautionary footage from the spin cycle:

The lack of a board also provides a built-in advantage in large surf, where floatation can be a liability as much as a crutch. For a bodysurfer, the surfer’s basic “duck dive” is just one of many choices while swimming back out. He can just slip under the boiling white water with a quick bow of his head, tread water, and dip down vertically or make a deeper dive to avoid becoming snared in columns of energy. Eyes wide open underwater, there is a whole range of options that a stand-up surfer never sees at the surface. When thriving in huge days, unencumbered by a board, an almost mystical experience for some.

As bodysurfer-journalist, and all-around bon vivant, Bruce Jenkins tells it… “It’s all about escaping those whitewater fingers, and it’s impossible to explain, but I’ve had times at large, very nasty Ocean Beach where I had no traumas going under waves. This also explains how experienced Pipeline guys—there are probably about twenty of the highest caliber—go out there on inconceivably giant days and don’t hit bottom when they’re caught inside. This is just one of the many pure, essential relationships one can get with the ocean, but it’s unique to bodysurfers (and surfers who have lost their boards).”

Only Characters Need Apply

There are essentially two primary categories of bodysurfers. The first are the purists, who embrace the sport as their own and, for them, it is their passion and only choice when heading to the beach. Many grew up by one of the premier bodysurfing beaches, such as The Wedge, La Jolla, Pipeline, Sandy Beach, Makapuu, and Point Panic. Their sport defines them as characters and iconoclasts. These are classic human beings from many walks of life, fiercely independent, who work hard and play harder. They couldn’t care less what you think of them. Many were expert swimmers before they mastered their craft, like Mark Cunningham, who defines grace and class as ambassador of the sport.

In the second category are the cross-over body boarders and surfers, who are already world-class, gill-breathing watermen, so intimate with the ocean that they can seamlessly make the transition. Names like Slater, Hamilton, Stewart, Machado and the multi-talented Malloy brothers readily adapt to the art of boardless surfing with style and daring.

Judith Sheridan counts herself among the purists of the sport. Having done her internship at an underground bodysurfing beach in San Diego seven years ago, she matriculated in just a few short months to Ocean Beach in San Francisco in pursuit of her Ph.D. in bodysurfing. A distance swimmer, she had no experience at such a dynamic beach break, nor any wetsuit, and was game for anything the beach could throw at her… and teach her. After cutting her teeth (and hands and knees) at the So-Cal reef, clinging to rocks and ducking under hard-breaking waves, she was on a steep learning curve and used to taking sets on the head.

With the keen observation of a Ph.D. Seismologist, O. B. gave her a new appreciation for the chaos below sea level: “I could see the wave structure, the underwater turbines that surfers never get to see. There is no math to describe the non-linear dynamics underneath a large breaking wave, where rotating turbines (of water and air) spin side-by-side and back-to-back through a feeder zone. After you dive just deep enough, the turbine can push you down to a neutral zone where the water won’t compress any further, or you can navigate between discrete cells until the darkness and silt clears before heading back up.”

An early attempt to apply her water-reading skills in Hawaii nearly backfired. Like a negative image of O. B., the ocean on the North Shore is clear, not opaque. “Brightness above is composed of air bubbles in the turbine (of wave energy). Here you want to avoid the bright spots and head for the dark.” Learning that lesson the hard way, she headed straight out into the line-up at Pipeline; she hadn’t planned on it, but couldn’t resist the beauty and shape of the waves. In her maiden bodysurfing contest at the break, Ms. Sheridan went right at Backdoor, something board surfers do with some premeditation and bodysurfers rarely do. And she made it straight to shore, luckily avoiding the shallow cauldron of reef and caves in no-man’s land.
[To view more photos of Judith Sheridan bodysurfing at O. B., visit photographer Marlin Lum’s website.]

Don’t Taunt Aquaman

So the next time you see that head bobbing in the line-up, don’t smirk. Give a nod of respect, or better yet a hoot, if you’re lucky enough to see him pull in on your way back out. You could learn from his skills, which might come in handy if your umbilical cord-leash snaps spontaneously in double-overhead O. B. and flaps lifelessly around your ankle, while your precious EPS board drifts merrily off to the Farallones to freedom.

As Jenkins observes:

“Getting in, after a session, can be a nightmare at a churning, current-ridden place like O. B. But on just the right occasion, you can pick off a wave from the far outside, go straight down the drop, survive the violence of the broken wave, and ride that thing straight in to the sand. Kind of a cool thing to do under your own power.”

So, share a wave; savor the purity of its energy and beauty. For a change of pace, try going with the natural flow and grain of the curl, rather than above it or in opposition to it. You just might find yourself deeply pitted and blissfully savoring a clarion moment in sync with Mother Ocean, chattering across the dimpled face of a wave. After all, at sea level or below, it’s always overhead.

Mike Wallace has surfed for over two decades on the East and West coast, Hawaii, Europe and NorCal. Currently a resident of Moss Beach, he can often be found haunting the beaches south of Devil’s Slide in search of the perfect sandbar with his dog, Moose.

Related posts:

1. Surfing Lesson: How to Duck Dive
2. Surfing Smart with SurfCo Hawaii
3. How can I work toward surfing bigger waves?