Wednesday, December 08, 2004
Flying Surfboards
I haven't been surfing in about 8 months. I work about a half mile up from the beach in Encinitas and everyone here has been bugging me about going surfing with them, so I finally strapped the board to the racks on the shell of my truck and headed up to work.
About 3 miles before my exit, I feel what seems like a gust of wind hitting my truck, and I hear a scrape from the roof. I look in the rearview mirror and see my board go up and over the car behind me and someone else swerve.
I had used bungie cords. Never a recommended way to strap a board down, but hey I'd never had any problems with them before...but it only takes once.
I pulled off the freeway to try and circle back and recover the board, see if anyone got in an accident, etc. The 5 south was clogged up with morning traffic so I took the coast route instead. Get down next to the beach and it's MOCKING me! Perfect waves peeling by and I'm trying to recover my lost child.
Get back on the freeway, head over to the fast lane and slow down to about 50 so when the board comes up I'll be ready...of course there's this old lady in a beemer all pissed off...until I put my LEFT blinker on...
Found the board on the median in almost one piece. Looked like it had landed on its fins, which were just...gone...the glass around the fin box is thrashed, there's numerous random dings all over the place and what looks like it might be a tire tread mark on the rail. I'll send it to the lab for analysis.
I love that board. Had it shaped about...oh...3 years ago. 9' 3-stringer by Tony Staples. Took the template specs from an old Robert August board and had him add rocker and concaves. Not the best paddling board in the world but could turn on a dime...also handled steeeeeeeep takeoffs really well. Ask Jon about the day at north bird, he'll tell you. I'll pass it off to Roper sometime next month when I have the money to get it repaired. For now it'll be sitting in my office, gently weeping.
Jonathan was good enough to lend me one of his boards for a while. Many thanks Mr. Dale.
I got real tie-down straps.
All donations to the "Don't tie your board down with bungies" fund can be directed to rjones (at) planned (dot) org.
-z
About 3 miles before my exit, I feel what seems like a gust of wind hitting my truck, and I hear a scrape from the roof. I look in the rearview mirror and see my board go up and over the car behind me and someone else swerve.
I had used bungie cords. Never a recommended way to strap a board down, but hey I'd never had any problems with them before...but it only takes once.
I pulled off the freeway to try and circle back and recover the board, see if anyone got in an accident, etc. The 5 south was clogged up with morning traffic so I took the coast route instead. Get down next to the beach and it's MOCKING me! Perfect waves peeling by and I'm trying to recover my lost child.
Get back on the freeway, head over to the fast lane and slow down to about 50 so when the board comes up I'll be ready...of course there's this old lady in a beemer all pissed off...until I put my LEFT blinker on...
Found the board on the median in almost one piece. Looked like it had landed on its fins, which were just...gone...the glass around the fin box is thrashed, there's numerous random dings all over the place and what looks like it might be a tire tread mark on the rail. I'll send it to the lab for analysis.
I love that board. Had it shaped about...oh...3 years ago. 9' 3-stringer by Tony Staples. Took the template specs from an old Robert August board and had him add rocker and concaves. Not the best paddling board in the world but could turn on a dime...also handled steeeeeeeep takeoffs really well. Ask Jon about the day at north bird, he'll tell you. I'll pass it off to Roper sometime next month when I have the money to get it repaired. For now it'll be sitting in my office, gently weeping.
Jonathan was good enough to lend me one of his boards for a while. Many thanks Mr. Dale.
I got real tie-down straps.
All donations to the "Don't tie your board down with bungies" fund can be directed to rjones (at) planned (dot) org.
-z
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