My Hand Made Board

So here's the deal... More details in my experience of making and riding your own surfboard.

On my way home from work yesterday, not making master pieces in the studio but power washing a patio in preparation for painting I saw some energy in the ocean. At Whole Foods I saw my Homey Kevin W(dub) and he confirmed, there was fun to be had tomorrow morning. I knew then that it was time to put the final coat of glass on my board.

I went home, played Hot Wheels with my son with the loopty loop and mega jump, went for a bike ride with the wife and kid, came home, ate dinner, then finally found a moment to roller on one final coat. A little insecure about if my single fin was straight I continued on saying "f$#% it. It's gonna work. It's gonna work". I had to persevere and keep on believing.
I laid the final coat on thin, cleaned up, had a nice chat with the wife, then went to bed at midnight setting my alarm for 5am wake-up for dawn patrol.
In the middle of the night my boy yelled for some company so I woke up in his bed to my wife Marisa at 5am saying. Do you need to be up? Because your alarm is going off.
I was like, woah where am I? Oh yeah, today's the big day... Surf my new board!!! (which if I didn't mention already, was cut out of a broken longboard I found in the garbage at my favorite country break and a single fin cut out of scrap plywood).

So I throw on a pot for boiling water for coffee, stretched while waiting. Then cut and butter some bagels to be ready for toasting when the wife and kid wake. (need all the browny points when I leave the house to have a blast)
Also prepped the coffee maker and wrote a sweet love letter to the fam then BAM! Out the door with my new board stoked and careful not to bang it up on the way out.
Poured my coffee, pulled out the driveway and turned up the tunes. My board was having fun already and it didn't even get wet yet. I quickly learned that my board liked music. Especially being sung to. The radio played "Lean on me" by UB40. And I sung to my baby at the top of my lungs giving her a little wink every now and then. My baby was happy.i get to my home break, aka favorite wave, waxerup and run down to the beach trying to control the smile on my face.

The whole time building my board, I was also a little weary if I left enough foam to float me. I tried to shave off all of what I didn't need and believe that I wouldn't ever try to do myself wrong. Sure enough when I put the board in the water and jumped on... It FLOATED ME!

So far so good.

I paddled out and found my friend Sydney. I was stoked to have someone out there to share my ocean emotions. She said that board looks fun and was stoked for me when she heard that I made it and was yet to catch my first wave on it. She would be the first to witness the results.

So here comes my first wave. I paddle and boom I'm up and riding. "Woah Baby! Woah!" I say to her and I bail off and the board escapes me. I didn't glass in the leash tab yet.

I catch up to my board and Sydney asks me how it was. And I tell her it was like riding a wild horse. I need to
tame and get to know her.
She laughed and said "Awesome!"

The great thing is that I knew the board worked.

Three waves later I learned that it worked super good floating perfectly and making sections and...F$#%ing YEAH!!! Riding so RAD!

On one wave I lost her to the wave and started swimming in only to see her pop up and go six feet into the sky And it came right back to me. That never happened to me before. Usually the board goes pretty far in. Some magic was going on.

I paddle back out and to my right is a double rainbow and straight out is a cloud in the shape of my board and another cloud below it in the shape of a hand in Shaka position. I caught a few more waves until the double rainbow disappeared then I knew it was time to paddle in. I did after all have a job interview in a half hour, as well as a patio that needed to be painted pronto to pay the bills.

So there's my story friends. I hope you found some amusement in it. Maybe it shed a little light on how in love you can be with an inanimate object, and your family too of course.

Enough said.
This break time Is over. Time to clean up the job site and pick up my kid from school then go to the BMX Track, tail gate picnic dinner, then maybe do it all over again... But maybe next time I'll be going to a new solar job... Hmmm, the paths we take.
Til next time.
Manny Aloha signing off.