I used to surf a lot as you all can tell but quit due to my job for 11 or so years. Then I missed it so much I made up my mind to start again. For about 3 to 4 months I just did shoulder exercises and then I looked in the paper for a used board. I found a woman selling 2 boards a 7' fun board kind of a short long board and a 9'6" big wave gun. I almost bought them both but then thought maybe I would just give it a try with just the gun and see what happens. It didn't take long for me to catch a wave but boy it wasn't anywhere as easy as I thought it would be. I told lots of people that I was going to start surfing and one of them offered me his 7' board to try and I thought perfect till I took it out. I tried to lay on it and fell off repeatedly. It was so much less stable than the gun. I even had trouble just sitting on it and catching a wave forget it. I imagine now with my current conditioning I would do better but back then it was frustrating because I knew I would be riding lots of waves with the longer board. Eventually I gave up and went back to the gun. It was good in all sizes of waves but then I couldn't really turn it much anyway.
Then I ran into the wife of the shaper I used to have and mentioned that I was looking for a board. She said her husband wasn't shaping anymore due to health problems but she knew the perfect board for me. It was a used longboard her husband designed. So I said sounds good. I mean every single board he made for me was great. So I bought this 9'6" longboard and it was even easier to get into waves with than the gun but I had to be more careful with keeping it from not pearling. I surfed that board for couple years and then realized I was getting about to the stage where I needed a better board. I am not a long boarder so trying to throw this long board around has been a chore that I was mastering however I wanted a board easier to turn and even though it was heavier and thus more difficult to turn it also made squirrely tail sliding turns something I only now am getting used to but I bought bigger fins to try to get it to hold better (and it did.) I heard through guys who knew my shaper friend that he would likely shape me a board if I asked him. But I was kind of not wanting to bother him since he wasn't in the best health. He ended up dying before I ever asked him to make me a new board.

Through work I met a guy who made surfboards and just by accident my neighbor offered to let me use his fish made by the same guy. I liked it a lot but it was stable in the foam. I met the shaper again and told him I wanted a board and he made me an 8 foot fun gun kind of a short board design but 8 feet long and thick for extra floatation. I called it my oldmanoverweightoutofshape board. I just recently started to learn what this board can do. I recently tried to do a sharp turn off the top of a small wave (head high) and pushed my rear foot and it did this tail sliding radical turn but I lost my balance and in regaining balance I continued in the turn till the board was point back up the wave. I then turned it back down as the lip crashed over me. I ended up not falling down and moving forward on the wave again and made some more turns on the same wave. I bet that turn looked awesome from the shore and it felt really good although I was off balance a bit. (luck is better than skill) I also tried a couple times on bigger waves to do a hard cutback and ended up with the board popping out of the water and skittering around the turn while my butt sat in the water in the middle of the radius of the turn. I just kept going around till the board was underneath me and I could stand back up. I bet that one looked good too except I didn't try to do that. (Lucky again) I took off on another wave on the left side of the peak wanting to go right and the peak kind of crumbled leaving me a 10 yard section of foam and I just turned on it like I would have normally and accidentally pushed the tail up over the top. Don't know how I did that but it felt good so I did it again and again and then some other turns and tried to do a floater on the end but stuck the nose in the water (pearled). I bet people watching thought "that old man knows how to surf" but it was all by accident.
Now I am waiting for some bigger swells to come in so I can try hard cutbacks again. I can do a hard bottom turn so I figure I should be able to figure out how to do the cutback but need to get some bigger waves to try to figure it out. I also haven't really gotten a stand up tube ride yet and need some bigger waves for that too. I'll try to think of some other stories for you all
So what is worse.... dying or regretting it for the rest of my life? Obviously I chose not regretting it.