where/when was your introduction to mother ocean

Can't remember... Born and raised in Cape May, and my mom says I was swimming before I could walk. Not sure I believe her, really. But my earliest memories of riding waves are on a canvas "raft." If you know what I'm talking about, your chest and stomach will sting with the memories of being rashed so bad you were one big scab two days later. I started borrowing boards from local kids hanging out on the beach shortly after that... back then it was common that if you weren't using your board you let somebody borrow it for a few waves. Surfing culture has changed a lot since then...

Got my first board... a used 7'0 Challenger Eastern single fin... in 1974 or '75. One of Tinker's shapes, if the name means anything to you. Good Lord, boards sucked back then. Rode that for years, and when my parents realized surfing was for real for me, they let gave me a new board for Christmas... an original MR twin fin.

 

Can't remember... Born and raised in Cape May, and my mom says I was swimming before I could walk. Not sure I believe her, really. But my earliest memories of riding waves are on a canvas "raft." If you know what I'm talking about, your chest and stomach will sting with the memories of being rashed so bad you were one big scab two days later. I started borrowing boards from local kids hanging out on the beach shortly after that... back then it was common that if you weren't using your board you let somebody borrow it for a few waves. Surfing culture has changed a lot since then...

Got my first board... a used 7'0 Challenger Eastern single fin... in 1974 or '75. One of Tinker's shapes, if the name means anything to you. Good Lord, boards sucked back then. Rode that for years, and when my parents realized surfing was for real for me, they let gave me a new board for Christmas... an original MR twin fin.

 

Boy, just looking at that track gets me all revved up.

 

My parents honeymooned in Buxton, NC in 1957 and we vacationed there almost every summer. My first time in the ocean was there a few years later at aboot one year of age. First time riding a wave was on those inflatable canvas rafts. My siblings and I would shred those things for days on end. I still have scars from the belly rash and sunburned back. We eventually taught each other to bodysurf. In my early teens my brother got a surfboard from Fox when it was just a small shaper shack that reeked of fiberglass resin (still love that smell). I tried it a few times then but just didn't get into it.

Almost forty years later I got back on a surfboard and can't get enough. Sure wish I hadn't wasted all those years in between. Learned the ways of mother ocean at arguably the best location for waves on the EC and now I do most of my surfing at the sh!ttiest one. Sunilarity.

 

Grew up a block from a creek that lead to the harbour. Can't remember not being in the water swimming, fishing crabbing...Didn't really get into surfing until I was about 14. The addiction was immiediate and all consuming. Parents thought surfing was for derelicts. I told them not all surfers were as slack as me.

 

Getting pushed into shore break on a body board an body surfing with my grandfather in LBI. The guy is 90 and still body surfs, lives in Morehead NC now. He was a navy frogman or seal before the seals existed. Glad I grew up with him or life for me might be very different now....

 

well, I guess this counts for something, my mother told me I love the water because I was conceived in the house at the beach

 

I didn't start surfing til I was 15,16yrs old.and I wouldn't quite call it surfing,more of kooking,since me and my buddy only had 1 board between the 2 of us,it was his,we didn't have a leash,we waxed it with candles.we didn't have a shyt clue on wtf we are supposed to do out there,but it was fun and dats all that matters.

first time to the beach I was probably 4 or 5,was living with my long lost pops in south Hampton ny,I remember the shoreline was rocky,the waves looked like they were 20 ft,but were probably 4 ft,an I got pulled out and thought I was a goner lol.

after that I didn't go to the beach for like 10yrs,i was scared shytless of the ocean.fast forward 10yrs,highschool skater buddy had a surfboard,it was an 8'0 gun meant for Hawaii lol,and he talked me into trying it out.i paddled out and didn't know what to do,there were no lifeguards or people around,im floating away and my boy was sleeping on the beach.didnt take it serious for another 4 years til I moved to the shore.2008 I was on unemployment for 2 years and I was at the beach damn near everyday,literally,it was great.i was going out with a rich girl so money wasn't an issue,she bought me most of the boards I still have to this day.she was an excellent swimmer,she would go for a quick dip in the winter time,i remember one day it was like 6 ft and perfect and she jumped right in,im thinking this bytch is dead lol.some people go in to their waist and run out,she would dive head first and swim 30 yards out before coming back in.those were happier times in my life,now everything sucks lol

 

for the record I never successfully caught a wave on that 8'0.none of us did lol.I eventually traded it in for a 6'2 I still have today.quentin never got his board back,sorry q

 

Conover Stanley pavilion. 17 years ago.
I was on a 7'2 WRV Fun Shape & fu ck in hated it! Didnt get back in the ocean for another 5 years

 

+1 for the canvas raft rash LBC and Valhalla.

Can't remember how old I was, been in the ocean for as long as I can remember.

First time I felt the power of a big wave...my Dad and the rest of the Dads came in from fishing (well lit up I'm sure). We'd been on the beach all day with the Moms. The Dads came over the dunes like a bunch of pirates. Dad scooped me up, took me out to the big break. The waves looked like mountains. He just said "grab my neck and hold on tight". I grabbed hold, he took off and body surfed the biggest wave I'd ever seen. I remember to this day being on his back, holding on for dear life, and feeling that power as the wave roared us in. Been hooked ever since.

RIP Dad, can never thank you enough for that.

 

Bummer! Wales is epic. I took a trip to Swansea in the early 1990s and scored really fun waves on the Gower Peninsula at Worm's Head, and some of those other little coves around Langland Bay. This was on the biggest day of trip from up on the cliff. If you look close you can see there are two guys scratching for the shoulder on the wave that is breaking...DOH size in June! The rocks on the inside were sketchy and I was having no part of this spot.

 

My first trip to Hammonasset Beach with the family when I was 5. 1961, I think. We lived in Meriden, CT then. Loved it ever since.

 

Good stuff man, that's a memory worth remembering

 

^^nice pic.

Seems those two surfers shouldn't be caught that far inside on a day like that, at a spot like that...

 

I lived across the street from war child, aka luttman pittman, growing up. After I saw him and a few other guys get into a big fight with some Kook at the beach.... Ahh you know the rest...