Holiday surf surprise

At the beginning of December, we spent a day and night in Santa Cruz. The surf was flat so we enjoyed a walk along West Cliff Dr., had lunch at Kelly’s Bakery, and stumbled into a new shop (well, new to me) in the Swift St. Courtyard called Sawyer Land & Sea Supply. As is always the case, I was immediately drawn to a small selection of surfboards on the shop’s back wall. The boards matched the understated, soulful and rustic aesthetic of the shop. They were tinted with earth-toned designs and handcrafted by board builders who take pride in their work. A few from familiar names like Ashley Lloyd and Travis Reynolds were on the wall. These weren’t machine-cut pop-outs made with epoxy resin and didn’t scream with any neon logos. The longboards were throwback single-fin designs.

My eye was drawn to one longboard in particular, an all-white 9’6″ “Grebe” model with three colored resin bands separating the nose from the rest of the deck. The board sported an unfamiliar Migration label and had a cedar stringer and redwood tail block. I looked at it, fondled it a bit, dreamed about buying it and talked to my wife about what made it so nice. She suggested half seriously that I get it. It’d be great to support an up-and-coming independent shaper, I thought. For the next two weeks I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It looked like it fit my surfing style and the thing just looked like fun.

In 1996 while still living in SLO, I bought the only brand-new board I’ve ever owned. I sold my lovely Epiphone guitar so I could afford a custom-made hybrid built by Cole Simler, so I could ride bigger waves on the central coast reefs that a traditional longboard couldn’t handle. Since then, I’ve been through a few longboards all purchased used through Craigslist and they’ve certainly served me well.

Sawyer was offering a slight discount on boards through the holidays and the price on the board, made of such quality, felt like a deal. Stacy Forrester, the shop’s owner, also said she could arrange for me to meet the shaper, Tim Folkert, if I was interested in buying it. I’ve never been too keen on just picking a board off the rack in a shop. If I was going to put real money down on a board, I always thought it’d be best to chat with and get fitted by the shaper. I really liked Tim’s work, so I considered contacting him directly to talk about getting something custom. But that board. It was calling me from Stacy’s shop.

A week later and after a surf session I decided to take another look. I dropped back into Sawyer, put a deposit down on the board, and set up a time to meet Tim. A few days later, I met him back in the shop and we discussed the his take on the board, our backgrounds, and surfing at length. He placed the fin for me (that’s him setting me up in the photo), gave me a T-shirt and a couple of stickers, and I nervously walked out with the board under my arm. It’s not lost on me how fortunate I am to be able to do this.

Tim seems like a great guy and I wish him all the success in the world as he gets his label off the ground in the competitive market of Santa Cruz. I’m happy to be riding one of his beautiful boards. Also, Stacy at Sawyer deserves a shout-out for opening and running such a great shop. It’s my kind of place, top-to-bottom.

With a couple hours of daylight left, I headed straight over to a familiar spot on the east side and anxiously waxed it up, afraid to even scratch it on her maiden voyage just down the steps to the beach. The surf looked small and the tide was dropping but it was breaking over my favorite section of reef. For a minute I thought about not going out, for fear I’d hurt my new board. Then I came to my senses: there’s surf, you’re here, you’ve got a new surfboard. GO.

The board paddled through the late-afternoon glass like a hot knife through butter and I immediately caught the best wave of that session, a belly-high right that held up over the inside section and 50 yards down the line. I kicked out and smiled. The board rode like a dream, and I was stoked.

On Dec. 30, my good friend came down for the day and the forecast looked great with amazing weather and a long-period NW swell in the water. We went straight down to Capitola and saw chest- to head-high + sets breaking right and left, rolling quite far out in front of the main jetty. Being a goofy-footer I’ve always loved the lefts there, and on this day they were breaking more powerful than normal. With the tide low, the sets were even a bit hollow off the peak which normally is mushy on smaller days.

We waited for a long set to wash through, then paddled straight out to the peak. I caught two of the best lefts I’ve surfed in years, slightly overhead and bowling off the drop. The drops were steep, bottom turns were fast, and the waves held shoulder-high down the line with enough punch to dig the tail and carve some big turns off the waves’ faces. The Grebe was absolutely performing.

On the second big left and after a late drop, I looked back over my left shoulder to see the lip throwing out over my hand. The board picked up speed, asking me to have my way with it. I dug my toes in, carved up the face, shifted my weight back and threw the nose around toward the beach to my right. I could feel the foam flex under my heels and the board screamed and snapped into another bottom/toe turn. A guy on a shortboard sat on the shoulder watching me carve the face down the line, and I kicked out with the biggest surf-induced grin I’ve had on my face in years. Heart pumping, I turned her back out to get another, and another…

New year, new board — it’s going to be a good one. Interested? Go see Tim and/or Stacy.

Side note: Now I’ve got a board for sale!