GROWING UP ORANGE COUNTY CONTINUTED
3-5-08
BY CORKY CARROLL

From time to time over the past year or so I have offered an assortment of adventures sent in to me by readers who have grown up here in our more beautiful and than beautiful Orange County. Today I present one sent in by a dude named Rick Pohle. I really liked this story as it more or less sums up the feeling of pure “stoke” that comes from being young and doing something that you love. Here is Rick’s story:

“I can't tell you how much I enjoy reading your articles in the Register. Your stories really conjure up some great memories for me. I was 11 when I first saw "The Endless Summer" and was so mesmerized by that movie that all I wanted to do from then on was learn to surf. My parents bought me my first board soon after that, an 8'10" longboard that weighed twice as much as I did. It took me and one of my buddies just to pick it up and carry it down to Doheny from my house in Dana Point. There we would paddle out at Boneyard and would be so stoked to actually catch the soup and ride it all the way in at low tide.

Before long my buddies and I realized that the best waves could be gotten at sunrise and we would wake up when it was still dark and hike our boards over the hill to catch the early morning glass. One morning as we reached the crest of the hill overlooking Doheny I couldn't believe my eyes. There was row after row of clean, perfectly shaped 4 footers lined up and all I could think was, "Oh my god, it's just like the photos in Surfer Magazine. The waves really can be just that way". I can still picture that view in my mind as if it were yesterday. After catching some of my first "good" waves that morning I realized that now, I too was really a "surfer".

I remember seeing you down there one time and you walked right past me and my buddies and I was just star struck. I think you actually looked at me and gave us a nod. Over the years I developed into a pretty fair surfer and because I had 4 older sisters knew of many of the guys you talk about in your column. I played Little League baseball in Dana Point and Miguel Munoz was on my team and remember Mickey coming to our games. We excitedly asked Miguel" YOUR DAD IS MICKEY MUNOZ!!!!? He basically said to us, "Yeah...so what"?

When there was nothing else to do we would make it a mission to go to Hobie’s Surf Shop on PCH. I think we would probably have sold our souls to have any pick of a new board there. We loved to check out the new technology (at the time anyway) in surf wax....not to mention all the hot surfer babes that would come in to buy new bathing suits. I was so jealous of one of my buddies when he got a new "Corky Caroll Spacestick" for Christmas. That was a couple years before I actually knew Hobie Jr. in Junior High School. I guess that's about the time when I realized that some of these famous surfer dudes actually had children my age.

Everytime I read one of your articles it brings back memories of those days and I can't help but think how blessed my life has been and what a great time it was to grow up here in those days. So I just wanted to let you know that.”
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I remember the first time I saw Mickey Munoz when he was the big surf star and I was the wide-eyed kid. I ran up to him and blurted out, “Hey Mickey, what have ya been doin’?”

He looked at me up and down and matter of factly said, “Drinkin’, smokin’, swearin’ and (something I can’t print here).” I was slack jawed in disbelief. That is when I know I wanted to be a surf star too. But now it’s been a long time since I have been anybody’s idol, believe me. I remember when my son Tanner was about seven years old and told all his pals that his dad was a big surfer dude. They didn’t care at all. But when they found out I was a fish on Sponge Bob they were all over at the house asking’ for autographs. Hey, ya take it where you can get it when you are my age.

NEW IDEAS FOR SURF BUMPED BODIES
The Wave 3-5-08
By Corky Carroll

I have huge surf bumps. Not just big….. HUGE. I always have had big ones ever since I was a little kid growing up surfing on the big longboards that we used to knee paddle. I had bumps on my knees the size of oranges and on the top of my feet the size of golf balls. I even had ones the size of marbles on each of my toes. You can see my surf bumps in many of the vintage surf films of the early 1960’s. I had the biggest ones. Don’t ask me why, I don’t know really. I did surf all the time and that had a lot to do with it I assume, but also my body just tends to grow things on it when It is not happy with the way it is being treated. I have had the “surfers ear” boney growths drilled out of my ears five times and have had the eye things removed a number of times too. So it’s just part of the deal that I have big surf bumps.

When the boards went short and we were not able to knee paddle anymore my surfbumps went away on my knees and feet and grew on my rib cages instead. They look really funny. People think that either I have female hormones and the things are breasts or that I have cancer and they are tumors. About seven years ago I had them removed but they grew back even bigger. Lipo was NOT the answer. So I gave up and just live with them. They don’t hurt or bother me other than my vanity because they look so funny.

A few years back a friend of mine named Dave Hilts came out with a rash guard with an inflatable bladder in it that really helped with padding the ribs and also the arch in your back. That made paddling easier and less work. They are called PaddleAirs. I have written about these a number of times here. Recently I found out that another pal of mine, Tony at Coral Reef Wetsuits, also makes something for that same problem. So I emailed him and asked him to describe it. Here is his reply:

“I’ve been making vest’s with a 3 mm or a 4 mm chest insert since the early 90’s for the guy’s that have rib problems or just uncomfortable when paddling, some guy’s only get to surf ounce and awhile and never build up their rib muscles, so every time they go it’s uncomfortable, so I started putting a 4mm chest insert that covers the chest cavity and solar plex area, they love it. My style vest has no valves to break and no seams to wear out, it’s bullet proof and it lasts for years. I still have my first test model and it looks brand new. Each one is customized for each individual chest cavity, since each person has a different body shape, we measure your rib width and height to determine if you need a 3 mm or 4 mm depending on how sensitive your ribs are, I have guy’s that buy 4 suits at a time and we put the inserts in their fullsuits, springsuits, longjohns, shortjohns and surf shirts. The only item it doesn’t work on is lycra as the stitching doesn’t hold well. Then we make a neoprene front and back and lycra sleeves, then add the insert, I’ve sold hundreds and hundreds of them, my customers love them, I’ll get an old customer call in with a weird voice like trembling asking do you still make the insert, after I tell them we do there voice goes back to normal, and a sound of relief comes over them, they explain that ounce you’ve had it you can never go back. So to sum it all up we can put the insert in almost any suit on the market today. It takes a lot of thought and effort into getting just the right size insert customized for each individual but the results are worth it.”

After I read this I am ready to order one myself and give it a try. With these big bumparoonies that I have on my chest, at least “C” cuppers, I can use any relief I can get believe me. It really bums out my dates when they find out my boobs are bigger than theirs. Doesn’t stoke me much either.