This morning I woke up to an email from my Dad. He has been practicing typing and has been sending me emails every morning with just random things. It's really cool! Never thought I'd see the day that I'd get emails from my Dad...but I'm happy they are finally moving out of the stone age. Or at least trying to anyway!
A good amount of drinking was done last night...and I didn't get up and check email until about 11am. Not too late, but on vacation I was hoping not to sleep in so much. To hell with it though, I needed the rest so I got it. Today was going to be important, it was the day where I'd find out if my blue surfboard still existed or if it had been lost and traded somewhere in the past decade. I called my cousin Thad and asked him if he had heard anything about it, and he said he'd tracked it down to his Dad's basement in Chatham. I told him I'd be there to pick him up soon so we could head over and try to get it.
Thad lives at my Grandfather's house in Brewster, it's always cool to see that place again. I've expressed interest in buying it from my family when they sell it so that I can keep it in the family and not let it be lost into the grubby hands of some rich ass from Connecticut or something like that. We grew up in that house, it means a lot to us all. Anyway I picked up Thad from there and we drove down to Chatham where the board was supposedly being kept. Sure enough we found it in the basement with it's old board cover on and everything. Rats or something had eaten holes in the covering so it looked quite ratty, it was still hard to tell the overall condition of the board but things weren't looking all too good. It had been in storage for almost 15 years and who knew how many people had moved it or transported it without giving it the care it would need? I put it in the car, drove Thad home, and headed over to my Dad's for the unveiling.
When I arrived I brought it out into the yard and we pulled the board cover off. It was stunning...the board had no damage at all! It had been in it's cover and away from the sun all these years. The board looked exactly like it did when I left it all those years ago. A few dings here and there, but overall it lay in brilliant condition and just begging to be thrashed in some surf. This board was shaped by a well-known and world class board shaper named Michael Losorda. My Dad and him have been good friends since they were young and this particular board was shaped for my Dad in 1984. Underneath the glass along the stringer it reads, "Shaped for Darrell - Michael, 1984" It's 5'8”, three fins, swallow tailed, and big and wide. A little hard to describe it's greatness in words, here is the only picture I have right now:
The significance of this particular board, besides it being awesome and 25 years old, is that at the time when they made it, NOBODY had a board like this. It was a new shape that my Dad and Mike went through each step together talking about it's design and what it would do. Nowadays you can see boards like this all over the place, but this thing was a pioneer in it's day! To the world, this may just be another thruster...but to the guys who shaped it those fateful days back in 1984 this thing was a precious piece of history. The fact that 25 years later it reappeared in our possession with almost no damage whatsoever was like the stuff of dreams man! We hosed it down, cleaned off all the dust and grime that had accumulated over the years, and started getting ready to get it in the water.
My Dad really wanted to get in touch with Mike Losorda the shaper and show him the board. He knew after all these years he'd be really happy to see it so the first thing we did was to take a drive out to his house in South Orleans and see if he was around. He has a great house right on a lake that is waaaaay out in the woods. If you didn't know the way, you'd never find it. On a side note, apparently tradition says that if Mike ever made you a board, you had to paddle it around in his pond naked before you could take it home. I thought that was hilarious! Anyway, we arrived and he wasn't home but we were greeted by his wife Annie. (I think that was her name...) She was really nice and showed us around their newly remodeled house. Apparently we had just missed Mike, he had gone out surfing with a buddy down at Nauset Beach. We said thank you and headed out to see if we could find him.
A short drive later we were at Nauset Beach at a break called Poachett where we found them out surfing. The waves were not all that great, but who cares!? It was the first day since I arrived that it wasn't pouring rain, so we were going no matter what. We headed home to get suited up and get ready. I forgot my wet suit in California for some dumb reason so I had to rent one which kind of sucks...but it was worth it. The water is coooooooold! We were suiting up in the parking lot and out of nowhere, Mike and his friend drove up and saw us there. We showed him the board and man he was stoked! “Whoa man, it's almost like I knew what I was doin' back then!”. He offered to fix up the couple of dings on it and help me to pack it up for the trip to California which is great. He travels all over the world to surf and has packed up boards enough times to know exactly what we needed to do. He headed off and we headed out into the surf.
Surfing with my Dad is a lot of fun. He has decades of experience so he is the one I can always ask about stuff I'm either having trouble with or am just curious about. Often he has these great pearls of wisdom that I would never have even thought to ask about, but he'll mention some little thing and I'll improve a lot from it. Today wasn't the best day out there, I got a couple of small rides, but it was a lot of fun anyway. My Dad was trying to surf the shorty, while I was riding his 7'10”. He managed to get up on it a couple times and rip a bit, which was awesome! I've always ridden a long board so when I gave this super short board a try it was damn tough. On a long board you can stand up and then adjust your feet to where you want to be. On this board, you have to put your feet exactly where you want them the instant you stand up. I don't have really any experience doing that yet so I ate it hard a couple of times. Man....it is so much fun though. =) I'll be reporting in on my progress with this board in the coming weeks. We surfed for a couple of hours, headed back to the lot, dried off and packed up. When I checked my messages I had a call from Mike McNulty, my old roommate from out here in California. He was living in Brewster and wanted to hang. Called him, set up a plan, then my Dad and I drove over to Mike Losorda's house again to drop off the board.
At Mike's, we hung out awhile and talked, saw pictures of the remodeled house's construction, laughed, had fun, etc. He gave us a tour of his shaping and glassing rooms which was awesome. He had a lot of boards in the works so it was rad to see the various boards and blanks in their different stages of being built. Mike said he could have the board ready for us on Tuesday so we said thanks and headed out. He tossed me a bunch of stickers and a t-shirt as well...win!
After cleaning up and getting some dry clothes on I hopped in the Caddy and headed over to Mike McNulty's house for a few beers. Surprisingly two more guys from high school were there: Andy Grover and Caleb Portnoy. It was great to see them again and get caught up on various things. Andy was there with his girlfriend Mary who was very nice. He had been doing some work with Septic Design and apparently doing very well for himself, that was great to hear. Caleb lives in Taiwan as a teacher, and has been doing a lot of surfing over there. Shortly after, Dylan (who lives with Mike there) came home with Jill and we all started chatting about what we'd be doing that night.
A good friend of ours, Jesse Carnes, had gotten married today and we were hoping to see him somewhere before he left on his honeymoon to say congratulations. I called Genghis who was at the reception and he said it was okay for us to all stop by and say hi. Thirty minutes later we arrived and met Genghis and Paul Foley outside. When we went in, I saw Jesse right away and he looked so different! The guy use to have scraggly long hair and a sort of unkempt beard. Given, we were kids last we saw each other...but it was great to see him all cleaned up and looking great. Short hair, a clean cut beard, and all dressed in a tux. His wife Liz looked amazing in her dress. Jesse and I use to be in a band together in high-school, along with Lucas Ferrerria who was also there. We had a hell of a reunion, talked for as long as the other guests would allow (they all wanted to talk to him too), and exchanged numbers. One of the highlights of my trip right here, I was really proud to see my good friend taking such a great step forward in his life. My best wishes go out to him and his new wife Liz. I even got to talk to his mom Steph, and his sister Ally. It had been so long since I'd seen any of them. Today was such an absolutely awesome day.
Afterwards, some drinking happened at the Land Ho in Orleans where I ran into even more friends who I'd not seen in years. It was only halfway through my vacation and I already couldn't think of anyway this vacation could get any better. I wish Emily had been here to experience all of this with me. She is definitely coming next time!
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