First paddle out.

[video=youtube;bg_sXg0IjcI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg_sXg0IjcI[/video]

 

Wow!! Wilma rips!!!

 

I don't call him BC for nothin!

 

Surfmat - circa 1976
Bodyboarding (morey redline 187) - circa 1981
Surfing - circa 1984

All at 115th street OCMD!

 

First attempt July 1981 in Ocean City, NJ. My parents let me rent a board on my birthday. The following summer I bought my first board and never looked back.

 

this thread is great

 

I was probably 15 in highschool when I was at my buddy quentins house and for some odd reason he had 2 7'0 guns under a canoe.i remember seeing it like wow that's so cool lol and hes like u want to go surf I'm like hells yea.

first off this is literally my first time at the beach since I was probably 4-5yrs old and I was terrified of the ocean.and back then I knew absolutely squat about surfing,didnt even have a leashe,and we used candles to wax the boarde.

so had my brother who had a pickup truck drop us off at the beach in sea bright,i don't remember what time of year it was but it wasn't cold and there was nobody on the beach.we were there all day and my buddy ended up going to sleep on the beach so I was all by myself lol,and probably attempted to surf for 6 hours or so and not once ever stood up on a wave.i got pushed in plenty of times and it was a nice rush it was like getting laid for the first time and I didn't even successfully ride a wave that day.i know I was on the wrong equipment now but just being out there was beyond awesome.been hooked ever since

 

My first time trying to stand and ride a wave was probably 1969-1970 in Cape May NJ. But that was on one of those awesome surf mat rentals. Remember the blue ones with yellow rubber ends and the rope going around? On a real surfboard it was propably 1975-76 at Sandyhook NJ. My buddies dad had picked up a mini longboard, would be called a fun shape today. We all sat around in waist deep water taking turns on knee high chop, it was fun.

 

Yea... Steger's... right on Ocean Drive (now Beach Ave). My sister dated the son, Steve. Those mats were my first experience in the surf. I still remember the smell of the rubber, and the sting it left on my bare skin.

I got my first boardshorts from that dude. Birdwell Beach Britches... with the football style lace-up waist. Big barrel of Zoggs wax right by the door. That shop is long gone, but the break was pretty good... We called it Steger's, but it was Decatur or Jackson or Perry Street, really. Whatever that jetty is...

 

In summer of1959 my older brothers took me to the beach (va beach)with them for the first time and let me try to ride their board,they had built a tom blake style kook board a big heavy thing all painted white with a tinee keel .what a monster what a great time we used to have with it.back then anyone having a real surfboard was something special ,we being poor would have homebuilts and over the years they got better but nothing ever compared to that first day on the water with my brothers.

 

Steve totally rips shortboards and is a very nice guy. I surfed with him a few times because we both go to the jetties without the crowd, so it's just me and him taking turns.

 

When I was about 14 I traded my sims hosoi skateboard for a 5'6 doug haut surfboard. I lived about 5 miles from the beach so I would read the weather report in the paper to try and figure out when there would be waves. I got my ass kicked for about a year, it seemed like everytime I would go to surf it was like a north easter, but I would paddle out anyway.
I decided to surf all year, I read somewhere that the waves were better in the winter...more ass kicking I had a spring suit and wore a beavertail wetsuit jacket over it when it got colder. My next move was to a dive shop bought some crappy 7mill wetsuits for 10 bucks, added a zipper. glued some sneaker treads to the dive boots and wore a diving hood. and with a few rolls of duct tape somehow made it through the winter.

I laugh everytime I put on today's suits

 

...on Styrofoam convenience store "surfboards" and canvas surf mats in the mid-late 1960s. Lots of chest burns and sand in the trunks.

Love the innovation!

For us when we went skin diving as kids in the early 70s, it was old, second-hand beaver tail wetsuit tops (always too large) and assorted booties and gloves from the mix-match bin at a Redondo Beach dive store.
Made our own Hawaiian slings.