2011 starts at Topanga

Just got back from Pennsylvania and was dying to surf. A cold storm just passed through L.A. so dawn patrolling this morning was pretty tough. I had to run the car and blast the heater for a while because there was ice on my windshield.

Although it was high tide, the winds were blowing offshore. People were coming and going, but at the most there were 6 others in the water and the vibe was really cool. One group offered doughnuts they had in their car. Some older guys standing on their SUP's were telling me when they could see larger swells building.

The most rewarding part was at the end. To find out that the lifeguard brought out a hose and connected it to a hot water faucet. On a cold morning, surfing for over 2 hours, nothing beats a hot water rinse.

Surf report today was 2-3ft.

GOpro FOR IT!

Just got the GoPro Surf Hero camera a few days ago. It's not the HD, but for $120 it's a great buy. With a fish-eye lens, it's a fun little camera to play around with. It's built for outdoor shots. Indoor shots look poor and very grainy.

It comes with 2 types of mounts for your surfboard. An FCS mount (if you want to add an FCS plug on top of your board) or a sticky mount which I am using.

I decided to put the camera mount on my 6'2" Walden CD. It's a hybrid where the nose is like a longboard and the tail is more like a shorboard. The CD holds on flatter sections but can still turn decently.

Because you're thinking both as a cameraman and a surfer, it takes a little getting use to. But it's a lot of fun and you can get some interesting shots and video footage.

Along with shooting video and pictures, the GoPro also has a 2 second picture setting where it takes a picture every 2 seconds. That can be a fun setting to play around with.

The video footage isn't very exciting when the camera is facing forward. Next time I'll have to do a hard cut-back and surf/shoot on a punchier day when it's hollow.

For just $120 you can do a lot and it makes surfing that much more fun. For the pictures I adjusted the levels and curves to make the colors stand out more.

Hello Kboard...Goodbye Kboard

For quite some time, I wanted to try Al Merrick's Kboard. I picked up this 6'3" Tuflite Kboard for $250. Rode it a few times, but still liked my other boards more. So I sold it for $280.

The KSMALL project

With some birthday money, I picked up a used 6' Al Merrick tuflite Ksmall.

I bargained the sale down from $225 (without fins) to $180 including fins (Future Fins Vector VFJC1) because the kid had a crappy spray paint job done, and it looked like it had a cheap nose job. The overall condition of the board was good, and I could tell that the original paint job underneath was not harmed. I would have paid more for the board, but I do like to bargain.

With roughly $30 in supplies (lacquer thinner, rags, paint, sandpaper, clear coat, and polish) and a lot of elbow grease, I was able to fix up the board pretty close to how it's suppose to look in its original condition.

Before

The top part of the nose was painted black,

and the bottom had this weird painted design.

From far away it's not the worst looking thing,

but up close it's pretty F'n ugly.

Middle point

Got the paint off with lacquer thinner and fixed the nose

with some epoxy resin, some sanding, and some primer.

The nose

Now

Tried to find the closest Krylon color to match the board.

Gave the nose area 2 coats plus 2 coats of clear coat.

Sanded with 1500 grit wet sand paper (using soapy water)

and finished with polish.

Surfing the fish on April 13th at Oceanpark.

Sharon Yamamoto snapped this shot. Thanks Sharon.

Fresh catch of the year!

I've been looking at surfboards for more than 9 months on Craigslist and this is only the second time I've seen a Merrick classic fish available. Fortunately this was the right size for me and for a great price. Rob Machado Fish 5'10 x 21 x 2 7/16".

The unexpected ding. Is it better to find out before or after surfing?

A few months ago, I was getting ready to surf. My wetsuit was on, pulled out my board, when lo and behold, there was a ding. Fortunately my buddy had Solarez, so we were able to do a quick and temporary repair. 

After that, I make it a habit to always inspect my board after I go surfing. With that and keeping the boards in padded board bags, the surprise dings shouldn't appear before I hit the waves (fingers crossed).

County Line was the location for today and it did not disappoint. Especially when you're getting chest to head high waves.