SORRY TO THE GUY ON THE BLUE BOARD

11-14-07
By Corky Carroll

From time to time I have written about “surf rage.”  This is the surfing version of the more traditional “road rage.”  Surfing is such a fun and wonderful thing to do.  It would seem like all the time it would be total bliss.  I know it amazes people that don’t surf when they hear about all the fights and screaming sessions and localism that goes on in the water these days.   But it is a fact of life surfing in the twenty-first century.  Especially in places like Southern California, Hawaii and Australia where there are about a thousand times more surfers than there are enough waves for.   We all say that the vibe needs to be mellow and I think we all mean it too.  But then something happens and even the mellowest of the mellow get mad and act out.  

And this is what happened to me today.   I consider myself very calm and friendly in the surf.  I know that I can catch pretty much any wave I want, as long as I am not in a pack of the current professionals.  So I take my share and try to be courteous with everyone else.  Probably I am a tad more aggressive than the average surfer.  But after all these years doing it I feel that I have a fairly good handle on what is a fair amount of waves for me to take in a crowd.   I don’t get angry hardly at all.   Occasionally something happens that will push me to a bit of the surf rage though.  And today it did and then later I felt really bad about it.

It was a nice medium day at my favorite break and the crowd was not a factor.   There were plenty of waves for everybody.  And it was a beautiful day so all was good in the world.  As I was paddling out I saw a guy getting a great ride.  But all of a sudden some dude on a blue board started paddling as hard as he could to take off in front of the guy.  I called over to the blue board guy and told him to look behind him.   He ignored me and took off in front of the guy anyway.   In my head I sort of registered a “what a geek” footnote.   That was pretty rude.

I caught a few waves and was having a pretty nice time.   A couple of my close pals were out with me including Creighton “Bones” Bellman and Bruce “Crosstep Shuffle” Romano.  It was a good session on a beautiful day.   All was perfect really.

But then I caught an exceptionally good wave.  This baby was screaming down the line and perfect.  I was in the slot and going for it.  Right in the middle of the wave I saw the guy on the blue board start to paddle for it way in front of me.   He looked right at me and saw me coming so I thought for sure he would back off and not take it.   But he was not backing off.  I am not one of those dudes that starts yelling “hey hey hey.”  But I did give him a friendly “ahooo” to reinforce the fact that I was coming and in the pocket.   He just took one last look and me and took off.   I was going very fast and figured that when he hit the bottom of the wave I would go behind him and leave him in the dust.   What I didn’t expect though was that he fell off while trying to stand up and launched his board right at my face.   I came close enough to make my fillings vibrate and scared the daylights out of me.  His board did hit my board but I managed to stay on.  I did have to eat the whitewater though and get caught inside.   And it happened.  I lost my temper.

My longtime friends can tell you that when I was young I had a bad temper and that is what got me into trouble with people many times.  When I lose it I mouth off big time.   I don’t do that anymore.   But this guy had almost killed me and I was hot.  I waved him the one finer salute and told him in no uncertain terms that what he had just done was rude and that he did not deserve to be surfing there and suggested that he go in.  

He looked at me sort of sheepishly and said he was sorry and that he had not seen me coming.   This made me madder because I know he saw me coming.  I called him a liar and told him to get out of there.  I was really mad.

A few minutes later I saw the guy sitting on his board way out and away from all the waves.  I thought, “Gezze, did I just put this dude on detention or something?”  I guess that I did.   Then I started to think about the whole picture.  It was only a wave.  But he did almost take my head off.  But it is surfing and fun.  And this guy is probably a nice guy really.  Somebody’s dad and or husband.  A good friend of somebody’s.  He is another human being.  A fellow citizen of Earth.   He probably didn’t really know what he was doing.  

Then I felt really low.  I hate guys like me who get surf rage so bad they yell or fight.   So I went over to the guy and told him to come back and that I was sorry for screaming at him.   I could tell he was shook up.    What a jerk I was.  Right or wrong. 

So I wanted to publicly send out an apology to the dude on the blue board.   He will know who he is.   Sorry dude.  Next wave is yours.  

 

 

MORE ON KATIN SHOP

The Wave ~ 11-14-07
By Corky Carroll

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the beginnings of Kanvas by Katin Surfwear in Surfside and who the dude on their logo was.  In that column I had a total brain freeze and mentioned that the current owner’s name is George and he is the son of the lady who actually sewed up all the surf trunks.   I have no idea what I was thinking because I know well that his name is Glenn Hughes, not George.  And his mom is Sato, the lady who has made more surf trunks than any other human being on the planet.  She is getting ready to celebrate her 80th birthday.  I hope Glenn gives her the day off.   Anyway, sorry Glenn….  I knew you weren’t a George, I just had a senior moment.  Hey, the both begin with “G?” 

Soon after Walter and Nancy Katin began making the surf trunks they rented out the back corner of their building to a bearded dude name Larry Weise.  Larry looked amazingly like a big Crow (you know, the black bird that scarecrows are suppose to scare in farmyards).   And I imagine that probably for that very reason he was called the “Crow.” 
And that became the international headquarters for “Surfboards by the Crow.” 

When the Crow first opened his shop he was surfing over at “Water Tower” and so was I.   Water Tower was kinda the local surf spot, although I always though the waves were actually better in front of my house.  It was funny how different the sand bars could be from one end of that little beach to the other.   But Water Tower was the most surfed spot as people could park there and there was easy access.  On this day there was a nice little south swell running and there were some fair to good lefts coming up the beach.  I got a few good rides and the Crow saw me and I guess figured maybe I had some potential in helping him sell boards locally.  So he offered me a surfboard sponsorship.  The best I had got before that was free color from Ole, thanks to my pal Timmy Dorsey.  

So I was all happy about this and ordered a board with five stringers in it and eighteen different colors.  May as well go for the full boat I figured.  It took my board about three months to get finished.  It was a pretty looking thing.  Very heavy with all the wood in it, but very pretty nonetheless.  I was stoked to the max.   I used to go over to the shop to hang out after school but for some reason it was never open.   Cars were outside and I could hear voices inside, many times girls.  But nobody would ever answer the door when I banged on it.   Later on I found out that there were a couple of local sisters, the San Chez twins, who used to like to go hang out there in the afternoons too.  And, from what I have learned since, it seemed like the Crow and his pals felt it better to close the doors and not let in the local surf brat during these afternoon sessions with the San Chez sisters.  Humph!

Probably due to the fact that he was never open the Crow didn’t stay in business very long.   That was my first surf sponsorship though and something I have always looked back upon with a smile. 

Not long after that there were a couple other small surfboard companies that shared the Kanvas by Katin building.  Surfboards by Travis and also Austin-Beard Surfboards.  Travis Ashbrook became a sort of diversified kinda character and for a number of years operated a surfing resort near where I have my house in Mexico.  It was named Playa Kandajar.  There was not really surf right where he was and his place is not some cutesy hotel with a name like Tropic Seas or Palm Wonderland or something like that.  

I really have no idea what became of Austin-Beard.   But anyway, there is a little bit more surf history that goes along with the Kanvas by Katin legend and the shop.   I do love it that nowadays it is called the “Kanvas by Katin Superstore.”   And once again, sorry Glenn.   It’s the Huntington Beach curse of the Georges that got to me.