THE DARKER SIDE OF SURFING ~ 12-5-07
By Corky Carroll

Last night I was sitting on my deck with my pals Blue Dog Metcalf and the “Iguana."  It was a typical night of watching the planets and telling tales and laughing so much that my stomach hurt.  Somehow we got onto the subject of some of the lesser attractive aspects of being a surfer.   I don’t want to detract from the beauty and excitement of the sport for any of you, but some of this stuff is hard-core fact and might be of interest to you newbie’s just getting into it.   It's the "learn from our mistakes" kinda stuff. 
 
Here are a few things you might want to think about and avoid if you can,

1. Do not ever leave your wet wetsuit in the car for any period of time other than driving home from where ever it is you have surfed that day.   Even if you only stop for lunch, and especially if it is a hot day, take the thing out and give it some air.   One of the worst smells you will ever smell is wet wetsuit left in the car overnight smell.  Ya uuuuuuuuck!!!  Nasty.   It has a life all of it’s own.   (Think about your 14 year old brother's sweat socks. Think about a piece of roadkill that's been laying there for two weeks. Think about your own armpits after playing four hours of non-stop tennis in a wool sweater on a 100 degree day.)    And then you have to put the thing back on and the smell follows you everywhere.  Five showers later you might start to get rid of it, but if that doesn't do the trick the only answer is to just light yourself on fire and burn yourself to the ground.  It’s horrible.  And you can never get it out of your car.   Every time it gets warm in there it sort of comes back to haunt you.  Trust me, avoid this at all costs. 

2. On the same sort of subject is wet rash guard smell.  This is a more mildew kind of odor.  If you don’t wash them every now and then this creeps in.  Hang em up to dry, don’t throw them on the ground or over a chair.  It’s so not cool to paddle up to some hot babe in the water, thinkin’ you are gonna be so all cool and wonderful, and have her go, “Blaaaaah, what is that rancid stench?”   Your chances go way down way fast….hahahahaha.  

3. One of the ones that always gets me is the classic “looking at the waves and not where you are walking” hazards.   If you are on a beach that might have rocks or driftwood or stickers this can really bite you.  I have done it so many times.  You are checking out a great set of incoming waves and in a hurry to get out there. All of a sudden you kick a rock.  First the pain is intense and you think that you just broke your toe.  And you might have for that matter.  But usually it is a bad stub.  And it starts bleeding.  But you go out anyway because the surf is good and later it starts getting all red and swollen.  Then the infection sets in like a Malibu crowd on a summer Sunday.  Pretty soon you can’t put your shoe on anymore and you have to see a doctor.  And he says he has to lance it… drain out the pussy infection.. and re-break it because you really did break it and it is healing wrong.  Not good, friends, not good at all.  Watch where you are going.  Especially if somebody has been cleaning the beach with a rake and forgot to take the rake ...  Oooo-whee.
 
4. One of my least favorite of surf related irritations is the dreaded “nipple rash.”  This sounds funny but is truly NOT.  They make rash guards for this very reason.  When you surf bare chested (this would be mostly for the guy surfers; too bad, huh?) the wax on your board will rub your nipples totally raw.  And you don’t know it until it’s too late.   It is soooo irritating.  Later when you put a shirt on it kills you because it rubs them.  You have to put Band-Aids on them to be able to wear anything over them, and even then it hurts.   Plus it's not a turn-on for a chick when she runs her hands over your chest and finds bandaids on your nipples. It sort of kills the moment, you know?  Always makes me ponder the age old question, “Why do men have nipples?”  I can’t figure that one out.

This discussion will continue.  Send me you own lists of surf related problems, ok?   We can use this as a warning system to others.   

 

 

LOCAL VIBES ~ The Wave ~ 12-5-07
By Corky Carroll

As it is December and cold and the winter swells have started increasing, I was sitting here thinking about spots that I like to surf at this time of year other than the Huntington Beach pier.  I like Huntington better in the summer really.  There are some areas in San Diego that get good and also Palos Verdes and Newport Beach.  But in reality probably the best place on the west coast is Rincon, near Santa Barbara.  I wrote about it a few weeks ago.   Just as I began visualizing Rincon, like a message from my psyche the radio started bleating out a Beach Boys tune, "Surfing Safari." As I listened to the beat and the lyrics and the vibe of that song, my mind went back to my first surf trip ever to Rincon. The memory is as much about the vibe in the water as well as the surf and the adventure.
 
"Let's go surfin now
Everybody's learning how
Come on a safari with me

Early in the morning well be startin out
Some honeys will be coming along
Were loading up our Woody
With our boards inside
And headin out singing our song"

Just like the song says, I went up there on a surf camping trip with Steve and Ron Rowe who were my neighbors in Surfside.  We were actually going to Malibu, but seeing as how it was winter and Malibu is a summer spot it was flat.   We surfed early in the morning at a spot called “County Line.”  It is called that because, yes you got it, it is at the L.A. county line.  That day it was small and really not very good.  Some guys there said it might be better farther north, like at Rincon.   So we jumped back into Ron’s 1947 Ford Woody and headed north.  We had no idea how far it was or where exactly it was.  We just figured we would find it.   These were the kind of surf safaris very common in those days.  Oh yeah, this was in maybe 1960.  You would just take off in search of waves blindly and optimistically.  Very optimistically for that matter, hahahahahaha.  It was like no matter how bad the surf was where you were at, there was always that blind faith that it would be better up or down the coast.   Most of the time it was just as bad.  But then sometimes you would hit it.  Like on this day.

We got up there around noon and it was really looking good.  There were a lot of guys out too, more than I had ever seen in the water at one time.   But it looked perfect and we were totally stoked.   And we wasted no time in paddling out into the lineup.

At first I was sort of intimidated by the crowd.  There were some great surfers out there including Mike Doyle, Rennie Yater and Bob Cooper.   I figured that those dudes knew the right place to sit and line up so I kind of hung out next to them.  They were talking and laughing and somewhere along the line I sort of jumped into the conversation.  They were very cool and within no time I felt like I knew them. But they were catching waves and I was sitting there watching them.
 
After a little while Rennie Yater asked me why I wasn’t taking off.  I told him I had never surfed there before and didn’t really know which waves to take.  He was very cool and actually lined me up for a wave and told me to go.  It was a perfect wave, too.  What a great spot.  After that Bob Cooper aimed me at another one and before long I was a part of the session.  Doyle even dropped in on me a few times.  What a great day.

Thinking back on that it was really amazing that the top locals, surf stars of that time for sure, were so cool to some loudmouthed little punk from who knew where.  You don’t find that much anymore.  Especially here in super over-crowded Orange County.  It is mostly dog eat dog eat cat eat mice and eat each other’s heads off all the time.   Nobody is nice to anybody it seems.  Even best friends get out into the line up and punch each other out just to get tuned up for the days session.  Like, “Hey Mike, smack me in the mouth so I can get into the mood, ok?  I’ll knock ya on your butt and then we are good to go.”   It’s like the surf session warm up for any average day at many spots around here.   Why can’t we all just get along?  Ahhhhhh here come the billy clubs…… ouch…ouuuu…gag…bam..  ahhhh.  

Anyway, it’s nice to have those memories of kinder times and mellower people.  I think I am gonna paddle out right now and give a wave to the first kid I see.  Hahahahaha.  No I’m not.
 
"Let's go surfing now. Everybody's learning how. Come on a safari with me ..."