At age 14, I was out of the water for nearly six months because of a broken L5 vertebrate. I guess jumping off the neighbor’s roof into their shallow pool wasn’t such a great idea after all.
Toward the end of my recovery, I went up to San Onofre with neighborhood pal Josh Tudor and his family. I sat in one of those old, uncomfortable ’70s beach chairs for hours watching Josh’s younger brother Joel rip apart glassy, waist-to-chest high peelers at a part of the break people now call Four Door.
What really captured my gaze wasn’t that Joel was ripping (he always did), it was because of what he was ripping on. His colorful 9’0” Takayama longboard was effortlessly sliding across sections I would never have been able to make on my little board. Like every other mid-’80s SoCal gremmie in those days, I rode a clear tri-fin shorty, so even if I was healthy at the time I probably wouldn’t have surfed those waves on my normal board.
All that stylish walking back and forth and speedy trim lines used to connect sections on the small surf looked so damn fun I decided I had to get out of my brace and into the water. I was going to surf that day, regardless of the doctor’s orders. And it was going to be on that big board of Joel’s.
My mind was absolutely blown trying a longboard for the first time, but the real takeaway for me was knowing immediately that session was going to alter the course of my life. Until that moment I had worshipped Tom Curren (still do), and was all about trying to surf like him and my other ASP tour heroes, but for the remainder of my teens I dedicated every surf to learning how to longboard.
It wasn’t easy, though. I got off to kind of a rough start. Despite thinking it was a straight-up punk rock move to be on such unpopular equipment, no one was impressed. Older surfers reminded me constantly of just how abhorred my board was—especially Windansea locals who countless times called me a “kook,” and even harsher expletives that questioned my sexuality.
Being a stubborn, tenacious type kid, I felt compelled to keep at it into my 20s. Now now at age 41, I look back and thank fate for that experience at San O’ over 25 years ago. That day put into motion a wonderful life full of incredible experiences that included meeting rad people from that community and traveling across the globe countless times to ride world class waves that I probably would have never looked at twice with a contemporary shortboard under my arm.
Last week I received a DVD in the mail with a session from a recent trip to Australia that best sums up how much fun a clean small day on a longboard can be. Local surfer Paul O’Donnell captured some waves on his camcorder and put this edit together. While the quality is a bit grainy (Sorry, I’m no techie—I burned it and made a Vimeo link), I hope you still enjoy it and maybe even get inspired to try a longboard for the first time some day. You never know what might happen after you do.
Devon Howard longboarding – NSW, Australia from Devon Howard on Vimeo.
