It's a new year
and Pacific Beach Surf Club has a newly elected executive board. We
come from all age groups, professions and styles of surfing. This board
is a good mix of core surf club members and some new faces and talent.
My sincere thanks to these generous volunteers. I appreciate the confidence
you place in me as your president.
The message this month is get involved. Club meetings are the first Thursday
of each month at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Hall at 853 Turquoise Street at
7:00 pm. Come to the meeting and bring your family and friends. Get involved
in the production of the Summer Classic Surf Contest scheduled for this June
third at Tourmaline Surfing Park from dawn to dusk. You will meet most of the
club and surf team members and have a great surf day at the beach. We need people
and ideas. We need your contacts and skills.
You are reading our first eNewsletter, CURRENTS. Please let us know if you want
it e-mailed or posted to you. The next Coalition Surf Contest is at Santa Cruz
on
Memorial
Day Weekend, May 27 & 28. Our surf team finished third over all among the
sixteen clubs in the
Our esteemed new leaders pose before a group surf session.
PBSC: Who are your biggest influences as far as classic-style longboarding
is concerned?
Josh: Wow,
tough one. I've always sort of held 3 people up for style and influence
in
my mind. Dewey Weber (deceased) because he used to rip just the
biggest turns of the era on those heavy boards. If he surfed today's
progressive
longboards, he'd be busting 360's all over the place. Next would
be Joel Tudor. One of my favorite maneuvers is noseriding and I don't
think there is any one as qualified a noserider than Joel. It's
nice
that we are both goofy so growing up watching
him surf influenced my foot work and noseriding. The most influential
to me and dear friend is Skip Frye. I was so, so fortunate to
be able to grow up in his backyard, to be able to surf with him all
the time,
watching him trim and glide on the big boards was such a valuable
lesson. You know, and not many people do, but Skip is the heaviest
hot dogger around! Most people think that he just rides those
tankers and cruises, but I've surfed with him and he pulls it out and
just
blows doors down on everybody. I wish we could see it more. My dream
would have him at a Malibu contest, he'd beat everybody young and old!
PBSC: What boards
do you carry in your quiver these days?
Josh: Smallest
to tallest. 6'9 Big Frye fish; usually I keep this one for more broken
up hollow beach days because it's tough to catch waves when longboarders
are out. 7'7 Fyre Fish Simmons; my favorite board right now. I
ride
this one in all kinds of conditions big or small. It benefits from
really clean lined up waves that are down the line sort of waves
like Cliffs, and I can paddle in to waves like a longboard. 9'6 Hall
Personal;
I shaped this for my Dad to get him back in the water. It's one
of the best noseriding boards I've ever made. Clean under head high
surf.
Last but not least, 10'2 Frye Eagle. This
board is for when Skip and I get together at Cliffs and
do all the reefs. Fun in small clean surf to bigger stuff.
PBSC: Any interesting
or crazy surf trips you want to tell us about?
Josh: Yeah,
my trip to Sumatra in 2001. Basically, just a heavy situation. Having
gone from longboarding small surf at the pier all summer to surfing
the
biggest waves of my life on smaller than normal boards made for
a pretty heavy time, all the time. So after
having to walk out to the top of the reef, wading through
a heavy current that wants to pull you off the reef and right in
to the impact zone and dodging big, black sea urchins, you had to time
the set and then sprint for your life for about 30 yards. Well
needless to say, I was sent back over the falls cart wheeling with
my board
in
my hands a couple of times. So, I'm pissed and freaked out once
I get out there. Took a little while to calm down and then start to
catch
some waves. Now it was easy double overhead plus, headland reef
lefts. Not so bad, right? Well, combine two different swell directions
and
you have a wave larger then what you just rode coming
right at you and then end of your ride makes for a fun paddles back
out. Scene
set. So my roommate Pete Cuffaro and I were sitting where we considered
way out the back and off the point, (pre-calming phase).
All of a sudden we go over a wave and look and here comes this clean
up wave, way bigger then anything that came through that morning.
It stretched out into the bay like 150 yards past us, all the water
started
pulling
off the reef and we just went for it, paddling like
mad right at this thing. It was going to go top to bottom probably
right
in front
of us. It was at the point, do you bail or try the
duck dive? We duck dove. This thing bobbed us around like corks under
the water for what
seemed like forever. It ripped both my reef socks off
and damn near pulled my shorts off. We popped up and thank god there
wasn't
two waves,
we definitely wouldn't have made it under the second
one. So we look back just freaking out to see the whole rest of the
crews'
boards tomb-stoning.
Yeah, definitely not a fun session.
Have you
fell prey to Surfer’s Ear yet? If not, studies show those
with extended exposure to cold air and cold water may develop
what is called “Exostosis”. This is a reaction
of the bone that lines the inner part of your ear canal caused
in response
to cold. It occurs in six out of every 1000 patients seen
by an ENT doctor. You probably won’t even know it unless
the doc sees it. Once it gets narrow enough, you may get wax
and
dead
cells caught behind the block and become more prone to outer
ear infections. Severe narrowing may cause hearing loss.
So what do you do? Wear
ear plugs.
A study was
done in England to look at people 10 years after
having the corrective surgery done to
evaluate the success of the surgery. 42.6% had minimal
re-narrowing (<30% narrowing), 31% had moderate re-narrowing
(30-60% narrowing), and 25% had severe re-narrowing. Use of
ear plugs
post surgery
while exposed to water was significant in reducing the
rate of recurrence. Five of the 31 patients studied in this
group developed
significant narrowing (>50%) even with cessation of
all water sports following surgery.
Canalplasty
is the surgery done to correct this. Two methods are now available.
One cuts the back
of the ear, folds it forward and drills the bone out (ouch!).
The other goes in through the outside canal. Both have
minimal recovery time and are relatively safe. Don’t
go stickin’ Q
tips in your ears to try and avoid the wax. The Q Tip should
only be used for cleaning the outside of the ear.
If you stick a Q Tip in your ear, you can make it worse by
jamming wax deeper
into the canal.
Well, as this is
the first issue of CURRENTS, we don't actually have any letters
to publish this time.
However, if you've got something on your mind you'd like to say in
future issues, here's the place to do it. Just send it in an email
to the editor, Richard
Steadham. Try to keep rants to a minimum please. Be sure to include
your first and last name, and the city where you live, or your letter
cannot be published. Note that all letters will be subject to editing
for length and clarity.
Mar 2: PB Surf Club meeting, 7 pm, VFW Hall,853 Turquoise
Street, Pacific Beach. The new PB Surf Club hats will be available for
purchase at this meeting for $18 each. Don't miss out!