News Flash!

Thanks to ABC for the only video footage of me surfing. The only problem? "The surf was an early attraction for those trying to ride the big waves..." Trying? Wow. That hurts, ABC, that hurts. At 1:35:


The height of this swell may be unrideable (not to mention inaccessible), but we got a good 7 hours of surf today in some really, really fun chest to head high surf. It was the first good swell I have surfed my newly-repaired new fish, and so far it lives up to all my expectations. Can't wait for more.

Be safe this weekend.


One of my consistently favorite Dylan songs, off of his perfect album Blood on the Tracks. 

School of Vintage, or, Buy Old Things

     Jeannine and Erin have started a blog for their Etsy site, on which they sell vintage clothes and housewares and whatever else they want to sell. You can check out the blog HERE, and if you ask me I'll tell you the items I have on consignment there, so you can buy them and make me a rich man.
     Old things are better, and that broad-sweeping generalization is not just a nostalgia or a vain reminiscence of bygone times, but a fact, for the most part. Take a Pyrex bowl, for instance:

     I use this bowl, not this exact bowl, but a bowl just like it for oatmeal every day. The pattern and colors are really interesting(look for the Spring Blossom Green series Strange Flora Surfboards, coming soon), but really simple all at the same time. No superfluous details or extravagant hyperbole, just a plain bowl with a simple floral design. But these old bowls feel good to hold, and as far as the bigger mixing bowls and all that, they just work better. Mix something, a cookie batter or anything, in a plastic bowl, or even a metal bowl, and then mix something in an older, heavier Pyrex bowl. Feel the difference.
    Also, show this to your grandparents, or even parents, and chances are they will recall this or a similar set with fondness. When we are older, will we remember that plastic bowl from Target or that metal bowl from Walmart? I can tell you we won't. It'll just be another thing we had that was cheap and got dirty and old and broke and we bought a new, shinier, plastickier(sic) one. That's one of the things I like a lot about old things:  they represent a time when industry attained, for a brief, magic instant, the ability to create things of quality and substance that would be not only remembered, but used to the highest degree of their intended function, for decades and decades. The same could be said for old surfboards, glassed heavy and made to last. This is before everything became disposable.

    So, I'm done with that, now go to their Etsy site and buy things. If I ever sell my Skil 100, it'll be on there, but I never will, so just buy something else instead.


Sometimes, this is one of my favorite Bob Dylan songs. Joan Baez tries to ruin this version, but it's still alright. The album version, on The Times They Are A-Changin', is much better. Seek it out.

Who laughs this way? Ho Ho Ho!

       Well, Christmas is almost here, and we've had some fun waves the past couple of days, with a good next few days to look forward to. Surfed WJ and Sunken Rocks for two hours today, and got lucky enough to have it all to myself while six longboarders crowded around Beach One. I had a chance to get reacquainted with an old friend: SF 003, the hull I made. These waves proved to be perfect for getting used to the board again: not too big, but lined up nice and with some speed to them. I had a blast. On one of my best rides, as I coasted over the disappearing shoulder, I looked and saw the last blip of the sun before it set for the day.

    Sunset sessions on smallish south end surf in the wintertime are always very peaceful. I wish the moon would've risen earlier, I probably would have kept right on surfing into the night.

Bruce on Bob