Today, my Mark Richards, 6’1”, red and orange with the skull-stenciled fins was snapped at Ocean Beach, here in San Francisco. Photo: markrichardssurfboards.com
Can one get too attached to a specific surfboard? Today, my Mark Richards, 6’1”, red and orange with the skull-stenciled fins was snapped at Ocean Beach, here in San Francisco. This is a board that I have had for the last 5 years, traveled with me to 3 continents, handled in solid overhead surf, like today and in mushy weak wind-swell. It was love at first wave, which never happens, and had personality to spare. It allowed me to ease into many a foreign lineup. Surfers, of a certain age, always liked to come talk to me when they saw it and share a little of their own history with Mark Richards boards. I always enjoyed the camaraderie and hearing their stories.
I loved this board so much I would let it rest and take out other boards, a day here, a week there, but I’d always think, this is nice and all but not like the MR. I kept up on maintenance, repaired various dings, changed the wax. I soon started to feel like it was part talisman and perhaps a big part of what made me surf well.
Surfing at home in Northern California, where for the most part, when you look out at a break it’s a sea of similar black suited surfers with white short boards, I could be picked out. Friends told me, I thought that was you when I saw the board. The orange and red paint job worked as a beacon.
How did it snap? It doesn’t matter and I was actually having such a good session that I skedaddled in clutching the half that was still attached to my leg rope. I gave a big THANK YOU to the little girl who had, oh so bravely, trotted into the white water to scoop up my other half. Her father gave a hearty chuckle, “Looks rough out there,” when I came to claim it. I ran back to my house deflecting a lot of comments thrown my way, as a broken board on the beach is a badge, isn’t it? I grabbed another board and finished my session. It wasn’t until later, when I checked out exactly how bad the damage was that the emotion started to well up inside me. It was bad, probably unrecoverable considering the amount of dings already inflicted on it.
Will I ever have another board that I connected with so well, been so dependable and such an ambassador? Regardless, it is important to pay homage to some boards, because they are game changers.
