Endless Session, Day 264: Out of the Dust
Out of the dust, something beautiful emerges. Photo by Brendan Simmons
On day 264 of an attempted year straight of riding waves, surfing was difficult. More difficult than the biggest and gnarliest of El Nino days. In a more than uncomfortable situation but cloaked under the hood of many other red, blue, white, and silver longboards, I managed to paddle out with my magic board, which I hadn’t ridden in over a week. It felt good to be dancing with big blue again, even if my sweet session with friends and the ocean was broken into different shards of smiles, contention, laughter, and dismay.
Getting through the morning, I raced to the shaping shop on Cypress, where my mind had been living all week. I’m not religious, but the holiness of the board room and time I get to spend in the ocean is church for me, and walking through the foam shavings — pants and shoes covered in white dust seconds after you enter — you feel like you’re floating on a cloud (that smells a bit like resin). Walking in with a 6 pack of Best Damn Root Beers and Stellas in hand, I watched Jose Barahona, my best friend and the most hard working shaper in the South Bay, pull down my respective block of foam from the rack lined with orders.
And so we got to work.
Taking shallow practice slices, so as to not completely screw everything up. Photo by Brendan Simmons
Jose just needed a few minutes of conversation about what I wanted; we went straight into sips, between sanding and slices. He let me use his famous planar to play around and make a few cuts, and let me do my favorite part of shaving down the stringer, making an almost 9 foot 4 thin wooden curlie cue. Brendan Simmons and I, covered in foam, stood in awe as out of the dust sprays and tattered blank emerged such a beautiful creature. After a few hours, the master made the last touch ups, the nearly-gone bottles clinked one last time, and a new big blue was awaiting a colorful makeover.
