The Surf Board as Memory Stick

Photo: Jamie Brisick

Former Surfing editor as well as pro surfer Jamie Brisick recalls his life in boards.

1. There was a time when skateboards were done of stretchable fiberglass as well as a ball orientation inside a wheels were not encased, though rather teeming as well as concerned to spill all over a garage. These were days of Evel Knievel, H.R. Pufnstuf, Speed Racer, as well as Farrah Fawcett.

I had yet to step foot upon a surfboard. But we did sequence a Morey Boogie from Surfing magazines Kanoa Surf mail sequence catalogue, along with a pair of powder blue Op connective tissue shorts. The early boogie play were really D.I.Y., a done block of froth as well as two skins that we glued upon yourself. The boogie kept my brothers as well as me calm for a couple years, until that fateful trip to Hawaii.

2. Waikiki Beach, summer of 77. Its a family vacation of The Brady Bunch sort. We stay during a Reef Towers, with white-water views of a really spot where Duke rode his legendary mile-long wave, where Rabbit as well as Kimo as well as Scooter Boy pushed bikini-clad haole girls from California into their initial waves, where Jack London would write beautifully about surfing as well as to illustrate kick off a movement.

I rent a banana yellow Morey Doyle from a vigourous beach boy with drink breath. At initial its similar to trying to drive a semi-trailer lorry by rush hour traffic. But once we get a cling to of it Im hooked. The vibrant greens as well as sadness of a reef, a swishing turquoise, a wash of mist sharpened off a rails, a sea breeze blowing at a back of my hair as well as creation me feel 10 feet tall

3. we paid for a glow orange 66 Wilken solid tail from my cousin for something similar to $60. It evoked Jimi Hendrix, Thai Stick, bell bottom Levis, porn star moustaches, Steve McQueen, Dogtown, as well! as Larr y Bertlemann.

It nearly cut my arm off: we pearl upon a late take off during Will Rogers State Beach in Santa Monica upon a waist-high summer day, a dangerously elastic Power Cord twangs a house at a back of during me. The hatchet-like Rainbow fin tears by my Sea Suit beaver tail, as well as puts a low indenture in my armpit. we ended up with thirty-odd stitches. My relatives were not stoked.

4. In 1980 a band of Hawaiians showed up during Third Point Malibu for a Sunkist Pro as well as proceeded to shift forever a approach my friends as well as we thought about waves. There was Buttons as well as Mark Liddell, both upon Local Motion singular fins, spinning 360s, whipping tight-arc cutbacks afterwards switching position upon a rebound.

There was Larry Bertlemann, a undoubted rock star. It was around this time that he would crop up in Surfer to one side a Rolls Royce, chauffer, as well as his trademark Coca-Cola swirled twin fin. The hum in a magazine was that he was earning $80,000 a year as a pro surfer, that was unheard of at a back of then.

There was a rest of a Town as well as Country team: Dane Kealoha, Vince Klyn, Louie Ferreira, Calvin Maeda, as well as a super-friendly Randall Kim, who would sell me his 59 twin fin (sprayed orange as well as grained mustard yellow as well as covered in CHP stickers) as well as turn my pen pal for several years.

5. we got second place in my initial contest, as well as subsequently got offering to float for McCoy surfboards. These were days of Cheyne Horan as well as Lazor Zap singular fins. Cheyne turn my hero. Soon after we got sponsored by Rip Curl as well as Gotcha, creation me a bone-fide Cheyne clone.

I read in a magazines that he had a strange superstition about brushing his teeth before his heats, to illustrate we brushed some-more in 1982 than we did in a 10 years prior. He wo! re a ber et; we wore a beret. He had a pink, black, as well as yellow blast sprayed upon his board; we did a same. By this time a thruster was changing a approach we surfed as well as thus

6. we got sponsored by Channel Islands, interjection directly to large wave-lover Willy Morris, who introduced me to Al Merrick; as well as indirectly to Tom Curren, who was light years forward of his fellow NSSA stalwarts.

I have lustful memories of examination him carve beatifically up as well as down, across, as well as in figure-eights during Santa Clara Rivermouth in Ventura. we feel absolved to have witnessed his off-stage, low-key sessions. He mostly surfed alone. He saw lines a rest of us couldnt, as well as listened an inner song a rest of us were tone-deaf to.

My 63 tri-plane hull with pink, yellow, turquoise, as well as lime thunderbolts would get me to my initial main eventuality in Japan, where we warranted $300, a initial prize income check we ever received.

7. we substituted play with a friend during an afternoon session during Third Point Malibu in 87, desired a Rusty squash-tail thruster under my feet, as well as to illustrate switched over to Rustys.

This was right around a time a sixteen-year-old Nicky Wood would rocket by a trials afterwards go upon to win a Rip Curl Bells Beach Pro, his initial pro event. When Cheyne Horan would shift his diet to macrobiotic vegetarian, take upon an intense yoga practice, transport by Apartheid-era South Africa with Free Mandela sprayed opposite his board, as well as float eighteen-foot Waimea Bay upon a 58.

When Ross Clarke-Jones would party all night, afterwards paddle out to twenty-foot Waimea Bay upon a borrowed 710 for a Billabong Pro as well as forever seal his destiny. When Rabbit had a habit of receiving a microphone during after-contest celebrations as well as singing.

Im thinki! ng of a sold Expression Session upon a windswept, foggy, rainy widen of Cornish coast, where Bugs sang Eddie Cochrans Somethin Else with Mick Jagger-like gusto as well as incited a potentially miserable afternoon into something electric.

8. we switched to Richos in something similar to 88. Richo was unique in that he was competing upon a pro tour, though additionally one of a worlds most appropriate shapers. He done play for Matt Archbold: low six-channel swallowtails that were super fast, though hated onshore, choppy surfaces. Along with removing good boards, we done a illusory crony who would deliver me to Black Rock, Headlands, Windang Island, Sandon Point, as well as an array of lesser-known South Coast reefbreaks that, in memory, play at a back of similar to a fantasy: ledging triple-ups over shoal embankment shelves with no one around though a sheep extending upon a headland.

9. In 1990 as well as 91 Maurice Cole did something remarkable: He done his 64 x 19 x 2 retreat vee thruster for during slightest twenty of a worlds most appropriate surfers. Didnt matter if we were a big, heavyset guy similar to Luke Egan or Tom Curren, it was regularly a same board. Somehow a bottom curve trumped volume. It was one of a greatest designs of a decade.

I confess to being a man of good self-delusion. More than once my self-image has been terribly out of synch with reality. we have imagined winning contests during large Sunset when there are during slightest 5 hundred guys who float Sunset far improved than me. we have thought a beautiful lady was introspective me with suggestive eyes when in fact she was looking during a guy at a back of me.

However, this Maurice Cole as well as me had a special bond. we couldnt tumble off a thing. For a initial time in my career we truly felt that we could win a championship event. we never did. But we remember a house as a kind stepladder, a aloft roost from that to perspective a world.

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