my story
Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2013 7:50 amI grew up in Hawaii and learned to swim in a tidepool. Used to be really into bodysurfing and sand sliding. I learned a different style of body surfing that allowed me to do roller coasters and bottom turns and a 360 degree lateral spin. I held my arms at my sides and locked my elbows on my abdomen pushing myself out of the water on takeoff so that on a wave with at least a 6 foot face just my hand and fins contacted the water. On bigger waves like 10 foot faces or bigger I would end up skipping along the surface of the water like a stone flying sometimes as much as 3 or 4 feet in the air during my skips. I would then stick my ocean side arm down while in the air resulting in a 360 rotation sideways in the air the I would take off again since that would slow me down to where I needed to swim into the wave to keep going. By the time I was 15 I had body surfed waves with 15 to 20 foot faces.
Then a friend let me use his paipo board. I had used my sand slide board as a paipo board and the commercially available spoon shaped paipo boards but never really liked them but my friends homemade board was the bomb. I made one just like it and started paipo boarding. I rapidly went to bigger and bigger waves. I worked at making a better paipo board and included a front handle to hang on while getting pounded and developed a concave surface board with no fin but the back of the board was the widest point so it held a rail while turning. However on big waves I would skip like a stone bouncing 6 feet in the air and did the same maneuver where I stuck my hand down spun around 360 and took off again.
From there I started knee boarding still on a finless paipo board and I spent 2 weeks making a nice finless plywood board fiberglass reinforced with a nose kick and concave bottom and handles. I had just turned 18 and my parent gave me a 6' 10" surfboard made by Strada who was a really good shaper in those days. I tried it a couple times but was really into kneeboarding so put it in the corner of my room. One day though I broke my new kneeboard trying to sneak out a doggy door on a big tube and got hit by the lip. I decided to give the surfboard another go and went out. After a few times I could see the advantage of standing on the board as you could weight and unweight it really much more than kneeing or laying down. So I asked friends who surfed how to learn and they all said just go as often as you can so I went every day for at least a couple hours and more on the weekend when I was off work.
Anyway I surfed a lot and then I went to college at UH and surfed over there. Then went to Colorado State and it was too far from the ocean to surf but I did on breaks and during the summer between college sessions (managed to go windsurfing on a reservoir in Colorado). I got a job and still surfed on the weekend but started being on call and stopped surfing for 11 years. About 3 years ago I bought a used board and started surfing 30 minutes a week. I have worked at gradually getting in to better shape and now I surf two 30 minute sessions a week. A year ago I bought a new board which is a quad and only recently I have gotten used to it and I am starting to really enjoy surfing again. My advice to all of you is do your best to not stop surfing.
Then a friend let me use his paipo board. I had used my sand slide board as a paipo board and the commercially available spoon shaped paipo boards but never really liked them but my friends homemade board was the bomb. I made one just like it and started paipo boarding. I rapidly went to bigger and bigger waves. I worked at making a better paipo board and included a front handle to hang on while getting pounded and developed a concave surface board with no fin but the back of the board was the widest point so it held a rail while turning. However on big waves I would skip like a stone bouncing 6 feet in the air and did the same maneuver where I stuck my hand down spun around 360 and took off again.
From there I started knee boarding still on a finless paipo board and I spent 2 weeks making a nice finless plywood board fiberglass reinforced with a nose kick and concave bottom and handles. I had just turned 18 and my parent gave me a 6' 10" surfboard made by Strada who was a really good shaper in those days. I tried it a couple times but was really into kneeboarding so put it in the corner of my room. One day though I broke my new kneeboard trying to sneak out a doggy door on a big tube and got hit by the lip. I decided to give the surfboard another go and went out. After a few times I could see the advantage of standing on the board as you could weight and unweight it really much more than kneeing or laying down. So I asked friends who surfed how to learn and they all said just go as often as you can so I went every day for at least a couple hours and more on the weekend when I was off work.
Anyway I surfed a lot and then I went to college at UH and surfed over there. Then went to Colorado State and it was too far from the ocean to surf but I did on breaks and during the summer between college sessions (managed to go windsurfing on a reservoir in Colorado). I got a job and still surfed on the weekend but started being on call and stopped surfing for 11 years. About 3 years ago I bought a used board and started surfing 30 minutes a week. I have worked at gradually getting in to better shape and now I surf two 30 minute sessions a week. A year ago I bought a new board which is a quad and only recently I have gotten used to it and I am starting to really enjoy surfing again. My advice to all of you is do your best to not stop surfing.
Then he offered to carry our boards back. I was so out of breath I don't know if he heard me agree.