boarderboy Posted April 17, 2009 Report Share Posted April 17, 2009 (continuation from the "Rad-Air 192 For Sale" thread.) Yes, the infamous Tarheel humidity can wreak havoc with one's gray matter. And the longer you're here, the greater the damage. Unfortunately, we are approaching that very "season of unpleasantness" when all I'd like to do is find come dank, cool hole under a rock and veg out 'til late September. When lower forms of animal life do that, it's called estivation. If I did it, my wife would call it shirking, or something worse... So your challenge to sample SoCal's groomers on a longboard of your choosing is actually very attractive. Unfortunately, it's probably a bit late to accept the dare this season. But there's always next year ... Now, before we finalize this bet, I should warn you that I know a bit about San Diego. I was a "guest of the Government" at NTC, Point Loma, for many months in '67/68. Kept a Hansen 50/50 stored at Ocean Beach and had a ball surfing the place on weekends. (Joyce Hoffman, women's world champ at the time (?), nearly speared me as I paddled out one day.) Saw Dewey Weber, David Nuuhiwa, and Mike Tabelling surf it out in a contest there, too. I thought the place was bloody paradise. And then they shipped me out to a wood-hulled, round-bottomed minesweeper. The USS Pivot was holed up for months of outfitting in a San Pedro boatyard. The local air was sulfurous. The earth was subsiding. (They were pumping out so much "black gold," you see.) And the less said about Long Beach harbor the better. But I survived that place and others lots worse as we rode that 170 foot tub to CamhRanh Bay, the Mekong Delta, and Do Phu Quoc. Phu Quoc was a right big island. At the time, Cambodia claimed half of it, VietNam claimed half of it, and the Vietcong controlled lots of it. But there was a substantial, "secure" enclave at the island's southern tip, and it was there that the USS Pivot, MSO 463, put in for occasional engine repairs. Most of the "repairs" took place in the enlisted men's club. Which was also the Officer's Club. Which was just a few feet away from a razor wire enclosure that housed the only Vietcong I saw during my entire tour, as far as I know. I tell you this because, in all fairness, before we "shake" on this here bet, I want you to know that this Old Fart has endured and triumphed in some of the world's great hellholes. I survived formaldehyde-laced Falstaff on that fetid island. I survived 40 foot seas on that wallowing mine sweep. I survived the loss of 20+ pounds to weeks of seasickness. I survived Hong Kong and Kowloon and the Rooftops and the New Territories. I survived Subic Bay and Kaohsiung and Tijuana's lesser watering holes. I dodged more mule poop as a teenaged tobacco primer than I dare to remember. Now, those, sir, are some formidable DirtBag credentials!! And I might just win our proposed bet. Finally, lest I forget, Theo, I survived three weeks in Vladivostok, Primorsky Krae, (Siberia) when its best streets were pocked with crevasses, black, late-model SUV's bore its real bosses along the sidewalks, and you didn't dare flick these guys the "New Jersey salute." At that time, also, Vlad City was ranked the world's most polluted urban environment. And there, too, my son was completing his first year of life in a hopelessly-overstretched babies' hospital. (He's a strong-willed survivor, too, you see.) Which brings me full circle to the point that I can explain why your "dare" to set me up on your local slope with a "real board", i.e. the longest snowboard you can find, is so tempting. Eugeny, now David, is an occasional, though very enthusiastic, snowboarder. So is his Dad. And though the old man long ago chose the lofty path of hardbooting, the son persists in riding softies and (gasp) rides 'em "Duck,". aaaargh! Based on BOL posts of recent months, I believe you and some like-minded cohorts constitute a sort of unofficial SoCal "carve posse". And it strikes me that, were my 13-year-old to "hang" with a few, slightly older, "real hardbooters" for a bit, he might finally see the error of his softbooting ways and choose the path of True Enlightenment. (You must understand that, according to our own "Rippin with Rednecks," MelloYello, there may be four or five alpine riders in the entire territory of Possum's Pouch.) And David would rather ride with a pack of lemurs than listen to "Dad" extol the joys of true freecarving. And so, KC, if in the coming season, I were able to finagle a trip back to Paradise, and if my son were to accompany me, and if you and "the gang" were to patiently introduce young David to the noble art of alpine for an hour or three, (and that's only if you survive next fall's football season,) maybe we we got ourselves a "bet" here. That's a lot of if's there... I'm sure you can come up with some attractive "stakes" for this wager. And might I suggest that if I successfully negotiate a "reasonable" Blue with the board of your choosing ((I understand there are 220 cm Kesslers out there ... ??), we might have a tie-breaking surf-off at Doheny, or if that's too far, at a "reasonable" (that word again..) small-wave break that's mutually acceptable. I reserve the right to "sponge it" on my Wave Skater 44, a latter-day BoogieBoard offshoot that Tom Morey co-designed. So think about it, young man. But I warn you, I got plus-12 size feet, good boots to support em, and the skills to use 'em both. They're predicting a rare spring frost tonight in the Carolina piedmont ... peace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingCrimson Posted April 17, 2009 Report Share Posted April 17, 2009 Funny, I caught this right after you posted it. Who said I made a bet?! :lol: I can't surf to save my life, so I'll have to pass on the water! 220 Kessler down here is news to me, but you can bash around my 183 Coiler PR Metal all you want. Watch the SoCal forums like a hawk. We have a carve session called the "Jim Pryor Memorial Carving Session," unsurprisingly held in honor of a SoCal hardboot-hero who passed away before I had the opportunity to meet him. Held the first one this January, we'll likely do em every year until we have way too many names preceeding the "Memorial Carving Session," in which case I guess we will just call it "Carving!" You can meet up with most of us hooligans in January! It would be cool to have some out-of-state blood around. I can already tell it's gonna be some fun lift rides. In regards to David- he'll fit right in with me and Julian (arclite on these forums) Theo Crowley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boarderboy Posted April 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 17, 2009 if the airlines stay honest, and the stars align, and David can play "hookie," and if and if and if.. Will keep my eyes on the ride board. Too long since I've been in the glorious, (broke), Golden State. Have done Tahoe twice, but never Mammoth. Know it's a long drive from your "hills", but that would be one heck of a surfari for young David and me... Stay safe! Stay sane! And fair winds with following seas to you and your carve Brethren. from Possum's Pouch, Dosvidanya (sp?) Les (Thornbury) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingCrimson Posted April 17, 2009 Report Share Posted April 17, 2009 Mammoth is a big push for us, we reserve it for post-season carving. 2.5 hours to the local hills from Sandy Eggo. You guys could come this June, 8-13 foot base currently :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boarderboy Posted April 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2009 Come June, even the 'possums get antsy round here... BB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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