Red Faded Into Blue

I was always fascinated by what made surfboards work. By the time I was twenty years old, I thought I had a handle on how my boards should be shaped. I used to go up to Melbourne, to the M.T.B. factory, and get boards for the shop where I worked. One of the shapers, was Robert Strickland. I mentioned to him that my last board wasn't working. I began to dazzle him with hydrodynamic nomenclature, he held up his hand.

"D'chew check the surf?" He asked.

"Ya, it's chest high, kinda side shore." Says I.

"Let's Go." He said.

We paddled out at some crappy beach break. I was nervous. Robert watched me and he took very few waves. He told me to come back next week.

Most shaping rooms were a disaster, empty resin, paint, hardener cans, masking tape in bundled balls. The floors were ankle deep in foam dust. They all had random pictures of boards, surfers, nude women and waves, not Roberts. It looked more like a surgical room. He had a vacuum hose hooked to his planing tools, that removed all the dust. There wasn't a thing out of place. It was as though nothing had ever been shaped there.

"You sit there." He said in a quiet commanding way, pointing to a stool in the corner.

It usually took a good shaper a few days to shape a board. He used a template for the nose and tail. The rest of the measurements he made by hand, as he dragged a metal ruler down the length of the blank. He began to plane the foam in slow methodical movements so confident and deliberate, I knew I was in the presence of greatness. He would occasionally pause, hold the blank up by the nose with a finger, and look down it's length. An hour or so later, the board was completed.

The board was magic, it was airbrushed, red faded into blue. You never forget the great ones, even after you lose them.

I went back to Melbourne to look for him and get another one of his boards. I asked a shop guy where Robert was shaping and he told me he had died in a kayaking accident.

On January 18th, a company that makes eco friendly surfboard blanks, sponsored a shape off to honor Robert. The shapers had two hours to duplicate one of his boards. Greg Noll, a big wave surfing and shaping legend, was the emcee. The winning board was put in the Cocoa Beach Surfing Museum.

W.B.Z.N.

Is it me?

I have always tried to abide by the rules (most of the time). I yeild to horses, hikers and I have tried not to yell at people with dogs off leashes. All of this is part of my plan to leave a smaller jerk footprint.

I have worked on Cadillac re-routes twice in the last five years. I attended city council meetings for Tom Brown, and the first Fat of the Land meeting, (sorry I missed the last one, I have a note from a doctor). I am not the most active guy in the community, but I put in an effort.

I have been trying to drink the kool aid with everyone else, that Cadillac is better now. I do think that some of it is good. I was really hoping for more. There was talk of rocks being brought in, Whistler trail features, and I worried if I'd be able to ride some of the stuff.

Thursday, I saw a stroller on the trail. Friday it was a older woman on a cruiser (not that there is anything wrong with that). Saturday a family of six was standing in one of the fastest sections. I am not sure you would see that at Santos or Oak Mountain. People that go there know they are mountain bike trails and that some parts are tough to navigate.

I am thankful for our trails and the people doing all the hard work to keep them new, fresh and open to cyclists. I am also disappointed that the trail was "mainstreamed" for a wider group of people to use, when there is so much mulit use trail out there.

W.B.Z.N.