New BBR Mag coming out soon. http://www.bbrmag.com/

Toobs article coming soon! Mike Brum, Buzz, Pat gives you a look into their world in Morrow Bay California.

Jimmy Linvil is a soul surfer who just so happens to run his company the way every bodyboard company should, with heart, soul, and a positive motive. He is what you think a bodyboard shaper should be. His knowledge both in the water and in the shaping room is priceless. The sport is lucky to have him, and I was lucky enough to spend some time with him to allow him to speak his mind. The future of bodyboarding seems a bit brighter with guys like him involved. Jimmy makes dreams realities.

Josh: I really like this space. I feel like this is how a shapers space should be.


Jimmy: Yeah it’s kind of a man cave or a bodyboard shack. It’s not like a factory where there are people who don’t belong on the floor. I’ve always worked in settings, like Custom X or BZ, where there were blue collared workers who worked on the boards; your reps, office people, and I hated that. That’s how it probably is at Hurly and all those corporate companies but not at board shapers shops. Board shaping factories, are more like subcontracted work, it’s labor for money people don’t realize that.
A lot of people try to form their brands and they don’t realize that there is something to say that … well, none of the board companies are owned by anyone who rides. How many of the companies owners don’t shape the boards? How many of them are buying their boards from China? It’s crazy, there are people who use to dream about shaping boards, nowadays people dream about having a company and not even knowing how to shape the boards.

JS: There is something to be said about a good tool, and learning how to use that tool. Once you learn that tool everything just locks in. You just know how it works and what you can do with it. So tell me a little about tools for making bodyboards.


JL: The thing about bodyboarding is that everything is homemade. Tools don’t exist. It’s like this machine (pointing to his Laminator) all they had to go off was the rolling pin. Everybody has used it, and when I got it I thought it was funky, but I kept using it and using it and I figured it out. This guy is old school.

JS: Tell me about when you got started, your past experiences shaping, how you formed JL Bodyboards.


JL: I got a job at BZ, and worked there for about a year. That was when Mike Flemming had quit BZ. The word was out that Custom X was hiring guys with experience. I thought, well I have been doing it for a couple of months so I guess I qualify, so I got a job. Right after BZ they started letting me make my buddies boards. After that I got my boards wired. Then I started realizing I could make boards better because I rode them, and then they started to like a lot of my designs.
It’s like with Custom X, I always kind of had my own thing on the side. After a while I thought, I’m just going to do my own thing. I payed my rent off my boards, not off their paycheck, so after years and years of doing that, I thought, I should just start my own company. Then I started JL and Debbie said, “I’ll help you out.” The way it happened was she saw my name on a computer, and she knew she needed my help to make the boards.
That’s why they don’t like riders working in the factory. That’s a NO-NO. They know too much about the sport, they know too much about the boards. Well, in order to recommend a good board you have to be able to surf really good too. Its like I said, “I want to work here.” It was cool for a while. They let us do whatever we wanted. They knew if they rushed us then the board would be fucked up, because they knew that it was like, “Fuck, I trained those guys for a year or years.” They knew that if they hired someone else than the boards would be fucked up for a year or two.
BZ was crazy though. They ran the crew like they were soldiers. Buzzer to start work. Fucking buzzer for break time. The bathrooms were like school stalls, or public restroom stalls. It was a weird setting, especially for me as a bodyboarder to get a job there. It was trippy. A lot of the guys like Xman and those guys, who tried to leave and start their own companies failed because they tried to run their companies the same way; a bunch of guys working, doing production every single day, stacking up all these boards, etc. Then they realized, what are we going to do with all these boards? Mike Flemming and his guys for example, they were building shit and building shit. Because you can make the boards fast your labor is cheap but if your not selling anything? Then after a while they just went overseas. Then they realized they could make a bunch of money on the cheap boards.
The best thing I can say is that I kept my focus on bodyboarding when I started making bodyboards. It’s really easy to get caught up in work no matter where you work. At one time I worked with a lot of guys who were bodyboarders and they were pretty good, and we all use to bodyboard together. Now I think I am the only one left, not just making them but surfing.
There is this guy, Dave Newman, who said it was crazy. He said, he went to China and they set him up. They picked him up in a car, flags flying, and took him to the hotel where these guys had hookers and massages. These guys treat it like it’s high-class lifestyle shit. They got so much fucking money. It’s such a communist type deal that we don’t realize that when we get off the plane it’s a different world. It’s all about money over there. For us it’s about the boards. It’s about quality. There, it’s a different level, its all about the $$$. They want to play this game monster style in a sense, its gangster.

JS: So how did you get into doing custom shapes for riders?


JL: When I first started making bodyboards we did it on our own and we did it all together. I had a click of friends that we all had jobs working in the bodyboarding factories. So when we weren’t working we were still bodyboarding. We were talking about our riding, our shapes, and how we could make it better. We would talk about what worked and what didn’t work. Why people believed in this and why people believed in that. To us it was a joke. We were there making the boards and surfing everyday for hours and traveling.


JS: That’s R&D right there.


JL: Yeah we were the R&D. There was a time when we didn’t care about surfing, we just wanted to improve our surfing. So whatever we learned we would share amongst each other. Then everybody wanted us to make their boards, just so they could ride it.
You know, I have made some of my best friends by just making them boards fifteen years ago. I would go to Custom X and would say to them ‘Hey can I buy some material so I can make my friends a board. I would cut it out and chime it and then I would see that the laminator was going and would take thirty seconds and put it through. Then I could make a board really fast and get my buddies boards through. One day they got really pissed at me because one of my order forms got stuck in the machine. They said, “Oh what is this?” and I said, ‘Oh sorry this is my deal, I got to make some money because you don’t pay me that much.’ Then they said, “Okay, well as long as you let us know.” It’s like I don’t want to quit, you don’t want me to quit, and I’m never going to be out of bodyboarding because bodyboarding is the reason I do all of this. Now that I know how to make them it’s done for me, I’m set. Even if I have to work in a factory, I’m still going to have a set up in my garage. I’m 6’4, I can’t find a board, I got to make my own.
There is nothing I love more than making a board for a guy knowing a swell is coming, and I know he is going to get some good waves. There’ve been times when guys have called me the night before a swell and I have said well come over right now. I’ll make your board right now! I surf, I know that feeling. I also like making a board for a guy when I know he is going on a trip.

JS: Is there anything that you feel is important that most people should know.


JL: The most important thing for a rider is to start to develop a quiver for there riding styles because there is so many different riding styles, and so many different kinds of waves. So you need something different for all these different kinds of waves. The thing about it is you have to be willing to experiment and travel and try new things.
I get some guys who come in here and it’s all about the way that guy surfs. I myself am still learning which variations in shapes will get them into the right positions. There is also something to be said about the way a board paddles. If you are at really big Puerto Escondido and have a little bit of time to get out but your board doesn’t allow you to, then it’s kind of shitty. So what comes first? The way it rides, or if it’s just a little thicker and gives a little bit more buoyancy. The difference is not a lot because you can adapt. Then maybe just a little thicker is better. Its like in surfing, those big wave guns are thicker. When barrels come into play and you have a china made board and it’s big, then well…
It’s like in the 80’s everything was the same and everything would last forever. Now you have to look twice because the quality of a board is inside: they crease, they don’t last as long in real hard conditions. I never used to hear of a guy hitting an air on a six-foot wave and snapping the board, and then wanting their money back.
Nowadays there are a bunch of guys who don’t know enough about it. Because back in day it was just Mach 7 and everyone rode it. It was just packing foam until Tom Morey saw that he could make boogie boards. Back then Morey didn’t know, now look at it, I have a job. He knew he had made something really fun but I don’t think he expected that he changed people’s lives.
It’s a chain now. Primarily, it changed wave riding. When Morey Boogie used to have events, there was no membership fee, they would just blow up an area, and everyone would have there own click and would just show up. People don’t know but that’s where it started. Manny Vargas, Paul Roach and all of us got to know each other from that circuit. No one really talks about it but that’s the roots of California bodyboarding. That’s it because everyone was just surfing their local spot and no one knew what anyone was doing.

JS: So could you tell me about the evolution of core from then to now?


JL: Well the Dow Company made the Dow core. Over time, just like the surf industry, they stopped making foam for us, so we had to find different foam. Then other manufacturers started making other foam. So the quality of the boards with cheaper foam in comparison to twenty years ago was different. Now we have stringers to compensate for that. That’s why they can make a lot of cheap boards now.
You can take all these materials and stiffen them up with a stringer but it isn’t going to last you very long, or ride that good, turn good, or respond, and it wont recoil off the lip. It’s these factories that have taken the high performance out of bodyboarding. Everyone knows, a surlyn bottom is great, and if you use anything else besides that you are hindering your surfing.
The things we have learned have come from riding. I don’t think progression is in new material, its in improving the material that we have been using, manufacturing, and making shapes with. You have to find what works for you. You can’t make one type of board and make everyone like it. No way. Everyone weighs different, everyone is a different height, and lot of companies will down scale a board according to an average rider not on specifics like weight.
If a guy comes to me and says I want a 41-inch but he weighs 190. Well, he is not going to ride the same board as someone who weighs 140. There is a better board for him. If I match the board to his height/weight I can give him the same shape as the other guy but it might look a bit different. If he likes a smaller board, but they don’t have any boards as wide/thick as a 43-inch board in a 41, and if I make him that board than that guy will probably rip. Then he would be surfing a lot more and if he surfs a lot more, then he is going to buy another board down the line, and that helps me. I think about those things all the time.
I ride a Dow board; I have always ridden a Dow core, because all the old Mach 7’s were Dow core. I have always been stuck on that. I like the flex, I like surfing really good waves. So usually, the core your riding should match the waves that you are surfing. A lot of guys who are riding now like Polypro, but guys who surfed fifteen twenty years ago like Dow core. Then guys started using Arcel boards, and now that’s really hard to get. There are a lot of people who are convinced that is it. It has a really good spring in it. The thing about it is you really have to have an open mind about what kind of waves you are riding. I have four to five different kinds of boards depending on what I am going to ride. I think the best riding comes from guys who use shapers. I feel bad because a lot of pros ride boards off the shelf. Then they are like I destroyed this board in one session. Well yeah, those things are for kids, they’re not adult boards. I’m a grown man who knows how to surf, I can destroy a shelf board in one good session going drop knee.
There use to be an old ad in the bodyboard mags that talked about flex and how to use that flex. You don’t see a lot of that anymore. You have to be able to flex your board because if you are going too fast and you see a spot you want to be, you have to be able to slow down a little bit and be able to flex up. But that’s a quality of surfing too, its just knowing how to surf.

JS: When you work with riders on custom shapes, what are you thinking about?


JL: The most important thing for some shapers is to be able to visualize that person on that particular wave because you want that board to be able to get into tight spots and out of tight spots. It has to work right then. Not just catching the wave, not just turning but right then. Everyone always wants to talk about airs but when you’re in the really tight spot because the waves are unpredictable. That’s why guys who have there own shape are stoked!
I have been riding the same shape for fifteen years, and I’ll probably have it for another fifteen years. There are some guys that I have shaped for when they were sixteen years old and they are thirty now and it’s the same board. Same template, same guy, fifteen years later. Ha-ha unless they get out of shape and then they get a three-inch thick board. As, long as they are still surfing, you know?
Its like the guys that get old and out of shape I just tell them I will make you a board that works, YOU WILL NOT STRUGGLE. You will be part of the line up again. You will be hitting the same sections you were twenty years ago. This board is going to change your life. You are going to feel like all those guys out there.
You know when I shape board its like this, you are riding a bicycle with no handle bars, you need to have something that helps with maneuverability, speed and control. If you have no control in critical situations you are bummed. You only get one chance. It’s that one chance that can make your whole session.
You know I fish a lot. You are always looking for that one good catch. It’s the same thing, all you want is that one good wave. Then when everything comes together and you’re freaking out, you’re on it, and you don’t want to ever miss it. But, how many times have you kicked yourself in the butt telling yourself ‘man I blew it, I missed it.’


JS: Someone once told me it’s not the ones that you make, it’s the ones that you blow that you remember. That’s what drives my shape.


JL: Yep. Sometimes I will have guys who I think they should be riding something else and I will say what did you think of that last board Yes or No? Then we can go through different things and sometimes it just comes down to materials. Or I’ll let them try one of my boards, and say here ride my board.
One guy came back to me and said, “Throw that board in the trash and make me one just like yours.” I said to him, ‘well you’re riding a polypro board with a double stringer. That thing rocket ships down into the flats and all you can do is do a big bottom turn.’ At that point you missed the best part of the wave. A good responding board can turn almost immediately and can hit the lip within five feet. A Dow board with a little bit of flex will allow you to turn sooner than a polypro board.
The only thing about Dow is that it might buckle, but today we have all these new reinforcements like stringers. If you set them in correctly. Some company’s stringers will rattle around. There are a lot of things left out when they making a production board, because it is part of this mass market. I can make them all custom. Every single board, every size, however you want it. The thing about it is everyone who makes a bodyboard it comes out looking like a bodyboard in the end. So you can get fooled on what is a good bodyboard.
I think a lot of it has to do with availability. You just can’t go anywhere and get a good bodyboard anymore, especially in the right size. When I grew up riding, there was just one size of board, Mach 7, and everyone rode on this bigger board. There are so many varieties. Maybe the groms need to be riding a bigger board so they can get around a little more. I think it always depends on where you are riding and with who. I think California has a lot of little pockets of good riders. I make a lot of custom boards for those kinds of guys.
Sometimes I will look on line and get bummed because I see a guy who is frustrated with his board and then I see it’s from 2010. It’s like fuck man, I feel sorry for those guys because I know what they need. It’s because they bought the name on the bottom of the board. I know I can get them on a board that can make their surfing improve and have a lot better days. You know you can’t replace the feeling of that killer session.
Not everyone is like you. Not everyone is 5’7 and 140 pounds for the rest of their life. I think the industry has gone a little bit in the wrong direction, in that they are gearing all the boards for one style of riding. Even the best riders out there are not riding what you think they are riding. They are riding what suits them at that time. If they can innovate it they are going to erase it and start all over if they have to. They can, a lot of riders don’t have that option to get custom boards at their disposal.

JS: So What do you think of the industry now?


JL: I’ve been in this industry so long and I have helped so many companies out. I regret what I did but I learned a lot from it. What I now know, I have accumulated over my entire life being a bodyboarder, and I should really keep a lot of things to myself and use it to my own advantage. I helped a lot of companies out, they abused it, and I have seen things escalated through out the entire industry because of things that I have done. They might not have even known where they’ve gotten the ideas from, because everyone sees something and goes and repeats it. Maybe there is not that many people experimenting on how it really works. You got to put time into something if you say it works, and that just takes time. If you want to put it out there, it’s got to be worth it, and its not going to come over night.
You can’t just be like I made this last year when you have never rode the thing. You only rode it one crappy day and you said it worked. Most people are too scared, or lazy to go experiment.
There is a difference between business and surfing. Obviously surfing is generating the business, so you have to focus on the surfing. Who would have thought stand-up paddle boarding would have taken off like that? Why? -Because it’s easy. It’s like bodyboarding, it’s so easy for everyone to ride and that’s why every garage in America has a bodyboard in it. You can’t deny it you are always going to have bodyboarding around.


JS: Thanks buddy.


JL: Thanks for hanging out.

PMA.

Don’t call him a shaper—call him a craftsman. Pete doesn’t like the term shaper, that term is for surfers. He makes bodyboards and done so for over twenty years. He has seen many changes in both the sport and in the way people ride. One thing has stayed constant, when he gets foam in his hands he is in the place he is suppose to be. When people first meet him they may think he is standoffish, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth. He loves collaborating with riders, finding out what is working for them and what isn’t. Outside the factory Pete is a family man and a bodyboarder himself. He lives the life he loves and loves the life he lives.

Josh: So how did you get started shaping?

Pete: Tell my story huh? … Actually right across the street, (Pete points to the other side of highway 76) right there. Right next door to the airport in those two buildings was BZ. There, they had a manufacturing warehouse, and the other warehouse just to the west was where I got started with BZ.

J: When did you start working for them?

P: Well, I’ve been plugging away since 91’

J: Earlier we were talking about some of the changes that have happened, could you tell a little bit more about that? You know like board design and that sort of thing.

P: Well, from the beginning, when I started it was polyethylene (PE), formed dow and dow core, but BZ had all the special materials, and everybody else was trying to get that same thing. Then they got the 3/16 and the eight-pound. I remember when they did the speed stripe going through. They would screen it. Then there was Arcel, and Ben was working there and he would come in and do designs, but Arcel was the shit. So that was really all we really had and also Wave Rebel and all that. At that point I was still working electrical, and even when I was working there, Buzz would come in and he was just starting out back then too, would drive down and get his materials and go. BZ was the shit at that time, and was the core brand. You had Wave Rebel, but Wave Rebel’s manufacturing was just so crazy. 

P: So I plugged away with BZ for a while. But (How I got started into bodyboarding was) there were these guys who were all in the music scene and we would all hang out in high school that were into bands and stuff. Then for a while I was actually a supervisor for a medical supply company making good money building stretchers and stuff. Then they put me back in this R&D room and I put a lot of seals to together and inject stuff and made cold packs and all kinds of shit like that. While I was a supervising in the back is when I met John Castro. He was working with me and him and his friend Yamo went to school together. Yamo was in charge at BZ, he told me, “Hey there hiring for second shift”. So John went and quit on me. Then he said, “Dude you should go over and just check it out, it’s a cool job”. But it was half the pay I was making, but it was so different and I could go get boards and ride and surf. So I was like, oh what the hell. So the rest is history.

J: So tell me about your family.

P: I was with my wife then. We were together then, she got pregnant, then we got married afterwards, and this was all in 91.

J: So she was always cool with bodyboarding and the whole thing?

P: I put in a lot of long hours and I think that’s why I shinned and accelerated. When I get into something I really get into something. I’ve spent the last couple of years just taking care of my family. My job was just kind of priority and it kind of switched after a while. I realized, I spent however many years I have been at this and I haven’t really gained anything out of it you know?

J: It seems like your family is really supportive of you because I remember your daughters would come to events and stuff and they were always pretty down.

P: Shit man, Shelby would probably out shape some of these guys. She graduates this year. If I had my own shop it would be a family thing. My wife would run the office and bring the kids in and have them do the grunt work. I would love for that to happen. I would come in and hang out and work and stuff.

 J: That’s really cool. So we were talking earlier about how you have acclimated so well to different companies and styles and stuff, and you were saying that is your key to success.

P: I don’t know man if you would call it success.  I’m the most know underground person or whatever you want to call it (laughs). I’m well known, but what in the hell does that guy do, I mean what-does-that-guy-do?

J: Well that’s the nature of the sport right?

P: Look at how long I’ve been at this. Well, I’m going to stick to my dream. Sometimes, I doubt my self, but I just keep plugging away at this. What have I gained here? It’s like this, you get to a certain age and you want to provide a little bit more for your family. But it will happen, it just the time and place. I just preach patience, patience, and patience. It’s all just a matter of patience.  I’m a man of patience. With a house full of females, you got to have a lot of patience.

J: (Laughing) Yep. I grew up with all women too.

P: Nowadays kids with their boogies. They expect them yesterday. Its like patience you know. It takes forever, sometimes when its busy it can take up to two months to get a board.

J: Because of the economy you guys are not stock pilling the boards like you use to, now you are making them to order, right? So they just have to wait for it.

P: I’m sure I’m losing some sales because I’m not turning them around, but I have to rush around a lot during production. I try to keep my passion going by working on the customs. I only have so much time during the day. If I get an hour window in a day, that’s when I’ll work on different projects and for different companies. Over seeing full production at Custom X, I got to keep everything separate. The only time I get to find the true me is when I can actually sit and do a custom, but its not always that case. Like Nelz and Ross, they’re going on a trip in two weeks, and I’m slammed with a stack of twenty customs. Then I got another kid who is like, “I’m taking this unexpected trip, could you hook me up with a board?” Then I have certain times where times where some kids get bumped and some kids gets moved forward. It just is what it is, and money talks too. Unfortunately, nowadays money talks. Nowadays I got to play it smarter with the financial part of it. But I was never originally into it for the money or the capital gain. As you can see, I got a $1.29 burrito, you know? (Laughs) Yeah all you boys and girls I’m living large. (Laughs) There are some people who think that you are SO rich.

J: That’s like what Eddie said, “Everybody thinks I’m killing it but really…”

P: In a way he was doing good. No matter what anybody says I respect the guy for his hustle. He was just hustling and just doing it a different way from how everyone else was doing it. He did his way. You got to give him mad respect for that.

J: I really connected with what you said when you get in the zone and how when you are working on a custom and people think you are rude, but really your not, you are just locked in to what you are doing. Do you think you could talk a little bit more about that?

P: It’s just focus. It’s kind of like a freight train it’s just weird. I just roll, but when I shut down, I shut down. I think people view me as intimidating sometimes. Or it’s like, ‘What’s up with that guy, or damn he has a huge ego,’ but its just when I work I’m focused. Catch me at the right time and its like this guy is kind of cool, but I’m not a social person. I’m a loner; I’m a one-on-one kind of guy. On the other hand, I tend to do random weird shit. That’s just me. People try and analyze me and do this thing and it just builds up this wall, but ya I’m a fucking weirdo.

J: Ha-ha, we all are. So where do you see the future in shaping going and what do you want to see more of in shapes? 

P: I just want to see things get more back to the basics. You are still going to have these tech guys looking for expensive boards and don’t get me wrong I love making those because it’s a challenge, but we need to get back to the basics. People need to start having fun and enjoying stuff and to get out there and challenge themselves and just bring everything back to the states. You know it’s been a decade and you know things can turn around and get everything coming back here to the states. Instead of innovation and all of that, we need to just weed out some of these brands that just have the coolest logo and packaging. Presentation in a surf shop is everything right now. If you don’t got that a kids going to ride that other thing.

   Australia is shining, and Australia is at their peak and they do well for the sport and they deserve it, and they have earned it. When we were making all the money, Australia just kept doing their thing and plugging away at it and … (Puts hands up)

   Well, lets talk about Toobs; they set the standard, quality, craftsmanship. You get what you get, and you know they are going to stick to their niche and that’s where they shine.              

   Then there is Todd and Jared and those guys from Oz. Well what can you say about those guys, wow. All I have to do is just look at their board and I just drool. Its like damn, make me a board, but I’m sure when I was with Elemenopee everyone was watching me. Everybody learns from everybody. Me, I’m just going to make whatever you want.

Even though they don’t say you know they look at the boards.

 J: So how has innovation evolved?

P: Back to innovation, it was Arcel, and then from Arcel to Electra with like real stiff bottoms and colors. Buzz, is a guy that was looking beyond stuff, he was the first to bring in hollow stringers and stuff, and we were all the hype with all the best shapers. Then Custom X with the surlyn. Then with Elemenopee when I was doing all the bulbs, thumb grips, and my hip channels. You know you see it and it’s a cycle.

   Nowadays for me its whatever, but for a good stretch of ten years I like to think I was a trendsetter. I would design something, just a few boards and a few models. Then the next year the competor was doing the same.

J: It’s kind of like a silent collaboration in a way.

P: It’s only just taking bits and pieces of stuff and making it happen.

J: Do you ever get pumped when you see somebody get a shot in the mag and get excited?

P: To be honest, it’s cool to see that stuff, it makes me feel stoked. I use to want to be out there. I wanted to be number one and have everybody riding my board. I found I was to busy paying attention to all that shit and not enough time paying attention to my family. It’s fine line. So I just get out there and plug away now, try to stay happy and take care of my family. Really, my family is my priority

J: That’s awesome. That how it should be.

P: Actually, It’s really cool now the kids will see something and look and say, “ Did you see that? You got a shot on a website, somebody said something,” and now its cool to see them and they are like, “Damn Dad check it out.” They get all pumped up. It’s kind of funny.

J: (Laughing) Thanks a lot Pete.

P: Alright.

Most bodyboarders go years without ever getting a chance to see where their boards come from. Here are just a few from a day at SFP. Where boards such as Cartel, Madrid, and Custom X are made. More to come soon in the coming weeks. Interviews with owners, workers, and the great PMA.

ALEX GERO- A Deeper Vision.

I have known Alex and his brother for a long time now. Alex is a genuinly good, confident, kind-hearted person. I love his company and the guy fucking shreds prone and on the knee. He is one of those guys at Wedge that you can’t help but to watch. Alex rips both in and out of the water.

Alex: Wow… the difference from yesterday and today

Josh: Just even the difference from this morning ‘til now.

A: A big time difference. That was the most swimming I have done in years. I’m glad we’ve having this swell. I don’t think we’ve really had anything like this for the last couple of months. I’m so glad I made it out. I know I can handle it but it’s the swimming, like onthat freak set, that you can only handle so much of.

J: Yeah, exactly. That’s my whole deal, I know that my body can only handle so much.

A: I don’t drink. I don’t smoke. But still man your swimming, your diving deep and your trying to hold your breath for that long. It takes so much out of you. There is so much white wash, you’re trying to get down so quickly and you don’t want to take a breath too early. You’re just sitting, watching the white wash come closer and thinking do I go now? And then at that point you’re too excited to take a deep breath and you’re like… (Alex lets out a deep breath, then laughs).

 J: And that’s another thing too, a couple of times I felt like I got too deep, like I’m down too long. Then I come up and I’m in a bad spot and then… BOOM a mountain of water coming at me.

A: The end is near.

J: Right? Helicopters are flying.

(meanwhile, a man walking a boxer passes by)

A: Is that a puppy?

Dog Owner: Yeah, like six months.

A: Oh you’re a cutie. What’s her name?

DO: Olive

A: Olive? Are you going to neuter her?

DO: Yeah it’s my sisters dog.

A: My grandpa had a dog just like this. He loved that dog. They are great dogs.

J: (Dog starts sniffing me) Oh, she smells the other boxers. My buddy has boxers… haha she is freaking out.

DO: So, is it called bodyboarding? Or is it called boogie boarding now? Or is it not an official …

A: Na, bodyboarding is fine.

DO: Bodyboarding is fine, it’s more professional.

A: It’s more professional. haha

DO: All right see you guys.

J&A: Later.

Alex his Dad, and myself at Alex’s dad’s apartment.

Dad: So were you at the Wedge?

A: I got a big set and…

D: Crashed and burned?

A: I took a big wave and there wasn’t really anything to hit so I pulled out and started paddling back to the jetty. I figured I could catch a little cross wave and go in. As soon as I got over there I saw two guys, fifteen yards ahead of me on the jetty, waving me on. I was like, OH FUCK! I didn’t even paddle. No thanks. I’ll just sit right here and maybe I’ll get pushed to shore. I was only fifteen feet offshore. I was right there but it was still high tide so I couldn’t stand. I figured I’ll just take my chances right here. It broke about ten feet in front of me. I dove down, got my board ripped out, did three cartwheels, came up and there was an even bigger one. It was probably fifteen to eighteen foot CRAP! I started swimming, dove down, grabbed the sand and it went over me. I came up and there was another one, even bigger. I did the same thing: swam to it, dove down even deeper, grabbed the sand but couldn’t grab it quick enough. I got taken backwards and there were four more coming, all of them even bigger. It was the freakiest set ever out of nowhere. The white wash must have been ten feet easily. I’m looking up at it and thinking, how am I supposed to get under that? And I’m only ten feet from the Jetty. It’s right there and I’m worried about …

D: Getting pushed into the jetty.  

A: Yeah. So I swim deeper and deeper looking for the sand, but there is no sand. I’m thinking I better not go any deeper…

D: Because you might not get back up.

A: Then I open my eyes and its just dark, like chocolate brown, and I’m thinking, oh crap. I felt myself going back so I wanted to wait because I didn’t want to come up and have the white wash take me in. I’m waiting and waiting. Where is the white? Where is the white? Where is the white? Then there were maybe six more waves after that.

J: Yeah, it was a big set.

A: That’s when they put the blackball flag up. I was literally about to get out and then… yeah. So I got one good one and got annihilated by twelve or thirteen waves easy. It was like six waves that were fifteen to eighteen feet, right?

J: Yep.

A: Just one after another. It was the most swimming I’ve done in five years. Then I had to wait for it to calm down to make my way in, because by that time I had swam half the length of the jetty and then had to swim back in. 

  I got up on shore and Ron Zabel is sitting in his chair taking photos. I started talking to him just to catch my breath and next thing I know, channel seven news sticks the camera in front of me and hands me the microphone. I’m like ok, whatever.
D: I was going to go down there but there was so much traffic. Screw that.

A: Look at my dad’s lunch. A chocolate croissant and a cocktail.

J: (laughing) That’s awesome. 

A: That’s the lunch of champions right there. That’s what makes your golf game.

 D: You didn’t go all dramatic on the comments did you?

 A: Well I don’t know.

 D: Good God. Why didn’t you just tell him I’ve been coming down here for fifteen years?

 A: Well I did, that’s how it started. He asked, “So why are you here?” I said well, I’ve been bodyboarding and riding this place since I was nine and it’s just kind of a part of me. The people who surf here, we have our own little niche, and we live for this. We don’t get it every day like the rest of the world, like you would in Hawaii. Then he started asking weird questions and I was like, I don’t even know what to say to you right now. I’m just going to make random shit up.

 D: You made random shit up?

 A: Yeah.

 D: Oh, this ought to be good.

 D: (looking at me) You know I’ve been watching these guys fifteen, sixteen years. I think I spent a whole amount in that time judging and helping the events I’ve probably only been in the water like 20 minutes.

 J: Doing it just for them, right?

 D: No, it wasn’t that. I just enjoyed watching them. And if anyone asked me what I thought about bodyboarding, I’d say it was the best babysitter I ever found, and I mean that sincerely.

 J: Yeah?

 D: When these guys (Alex and little brother Nick) were growing up I would take them down there early in the morning at 7am or 8am. I would give them five dollars apiece. They knew to find me in the alley at 3pm. They would go eat, go back to the water, come back up around 3pm or 3:30pm and then I would take them home. They would take their shower or take a nap, get up, eat and then go back to bed. It was the best babysitter I could have found … five bucks a day!

 A: Yep!

 D: And that’s a true story. It’s absolutely true.

 A: For like six …

 D: Maybe five years …

 A: At least. Since I was ten, he would leave to go play golf in the morning. We would get dropped off at 6am and wouldn’t see him ‘til 3pm. If the surf wasn’t good, we’d surf till 8am, go get breakfast, and then go to Surf and Sport when it was down on the peninsula, before it moved up here. Before it had the second story on it, we’d go sit up there in the upper part, when it was bodyboard only, and we would sit there for the rest of the day. We would tell them, hey put this video on, put this video on, put this video on. After about a year finally they would have lunch for us. When they would go get lunch they would get lunch for us. Then we would just go in and put in our own videos. It was funny.

 J: That’s awesome and so cool.

 A: All right dad, we’re going to head back down to the beach.

 D: What time you coming back up?

 A: I don’t know it just depends on the waves. It depends on if I drowned or not.

 D: Don’t say that. Well you are not going to wedge until when? Until high tide?

 A: High tide is right now, but the flag doesn’t go down until five. So you can’t ride until five, but I think we are going to check fourty-ith then, I don’t know cruise around. …

I’m going to be a sleepy head tonight. I haven’t swam that much in … By the second wave, I was thinking please just let it stop (laughing). I had to really dig down and find breath.

 D: Well it’s coming in fast. So just be careful. If they are lining up that quick and you got nowhere to go but the beach and you are getting sucked back under …Oh you’ll be fine. Oh if you’re back on TV say something intelligent this time.

 A: Ok dad love yeah see you later.

D: Ok I’ll see you later on.

  The following conversation with Eddie took place on May 7^th 2011 at the BIA’s Salt Creek contest. I was working for the Orange County Register that day doing a profile on the contest. When I asked Eddie if he would be willing to do an interview he initially wasn’t into it. I told him that my style of interview is loose and more like a conversation and that he could say whatever he wanted to. He gave me only two requests, no photos and no questions about … So what happened next was amazing, and inspiring. I think what Eddie reveals in this interview is his tenacious love and commitment to the sport that we love so much. I think his words should inspire us all to do more, because he did.  I just wanted send my deepest regards to the Solomon family and his friends. To Eddie, thanks for showing me what it means to truly be a bodyboarder for life.

j: How do you feel about the salt creek contest, and how do you feel about the scene now?

E: I think Salt Creek and T-street are the perfect example of how bodyboarding needs to be everywhere in California. I think its that big, its at least 50% bodyboarders at these beaches, at the minimum, maybe even more. So, its just a more easier sport for kids to get into. It’s more of a lower cost product. You can buy all your set up gear for 300, where as a surfboard that will break in the first session for 700, and it’s a cool great sport. Good Times Lol.

j: Lol, Ya for sure.   As far as the magazine and all that stuff, its going real well for you and stuff, and you have the shop now, and you are really putting a lot into the sport and so how are you …

E: Ya its hard! Its defiantly difficult! Because its like, I’m by myself, there is no investor, no banker. I just started with six thousand dollars, like five years ago or something like that. But ya I just re-invested every single dime I make, I re-invest. It’s not like I’m living with a thick back account. Lolol

j: Ya, Lol

It goes right to the bottom. It’s just like for all my friends, or its like for all these kids. Lol, seriously I’m not, .. the bank account its not .. its Lolol. Some people probably think that I’m rolling hard, but I sacrifice everything that I make to grow my business and the sport as much as possible. I spend a lot of money on marketing.

j: Ya, I know, I have kind of been out of it a while and I have noticed (E: Ya, cool guy, thank you.) how much you have put back into it, it makes me so happy to see someone doing that and I know that a lot of the other kids around here that are so amped on 662 and stuff like that and …

E: Ya it would be great. Because if bodyboarding was like it is in south Orange County everywhere in the nation, (j: ya totally) then at every beach bodyboarding would be killing it. Its just hard because I think its the waves maybe. This wave (Salt Creek) is pretty consistent so its always getting barrels. A fair amount compared to mushy waves like Huntington or something. Maybe that’s why, I was just here, I was living here, and I was able to get more kids into it. I opened the store. That’s why I opened the store to get kids into its, the amount of kids bodyboarding has way more that quadrupled maybe a 1,000%. Lol It’s a huge difference. I cant be everywhere, so you know. But maybe like Falcon bodyboard shop or something, maybe he’s getting youth into it, I’m not sure. I have never been down there, but it’s all about the youth. Its all about getting kids started in like Junior high, start bodyboarding, keep them in. Try keeping them in and wanting them to keep doing it until they are older until they are my age, that would be amazing. But I think the best kids in California are from here. Sebastian, Perez that kid right here, Even Deverian, I think they are probably the two best youths from California. They are like 21 and under; I think they are like 18.

j: Every time I come down here I see them killing it.

E: Ya I was amazed. I was actually amazed, because I was gone for like a year or something that’s when I was still traveling, I came back and I saw Cbass on a wave and couldn’t believe that a kid from California was riding that good. Some of the lines he was drawing, It was like a barrel, but his lines are amazing and he did like a cutty in the barrel, came out and did like a full perfect style reverse air, I was really impressed. I couldn’t believe it. He was riding fast. He wasn’t riding slow and like gimping it. Lol It was good. That means that if he could do it anyone can do it. Those guys..

j: So what do you think it will take to be legitimate, because I know that your taking care of your kids (Riders) and stuff like that, how do you think we can get more kids out there?

E: It depends on who is making the most money. Who’s making money, and who is behind whatever company is making money. Like right now Bodyglove is making money, they are worthless. They are the richest company in the sport by far. Profiting millions, in the millions, and they probably put back less than 10,000 a year. So if that were me making millions of profits I would be putting in a few hundred thousand a year at the minimum, and the stuff you could do with that is amazing, the marketing you could do with that is amazing. Like you could buy TV commercials nation wide through all the local cable companies, and do whatever you want, and you could put TV commercials on Fuel TV without them pushing. It’s going to be amazing. I’ll do that one-day when I get there. I can’t wait to do that, because they hate bodyboarders, but I’m going to put bodyboarding in everyone’s face. That’s one of my goals, to have commercials on Fuel TV ha-ha. Because they would never accept it direct, you got to go around them, through like Cox cable you know. So that’s one of my goals, I can’t wait to do that. (j: lol ya totally) lol ya, I shouldn’t tell people that but no else is going to do it anyways, no one is going to spend the money to do that so I’m not worried about. I have to, have to, because no one will ever commit to spending the money. So I’m not to worried about it if someone comes up on my ideas. No one is committed, they won’t take action.

j: Do you see any other companies that have the potential, that could do it right now, that are like into it like that, and could push it?

E: No, all the companies aren’t making money, not the companies that people think that I compete with like Custom X and stuff. I respect Custom X a lot but they are not trying because they don’t have enough money to do it, to do what needs to be done. Neither does Toobs or any of these other core companies. There is probably like ten generic companies that make millions of the sport. There is Wham-0 that makes millions off the sport, they probably put back the most, just with Jeff’s contract, but besides that its nothing and that’s even questionable with Jeffery. Then there is Bodyglove and then there is gay shit like Maui and Sons and there is a whole bunch of generic stuff out there, super generic stuff. Ya they’re just taxing, because it’s become like a commodity type product unfortunately. The price is so low that there isn’t bad margins, you can’t make enough money in the high end to support riders properly because boards in America are so cheap compared to everywhere else and everyone just like these generic companies undercut so hard. So you are buying boards for like eight dollars, or to buy boards from China its like twelve dollars for the cheap ones and like selling them for like 15 to Wal-Mart. So I mean there is no money, there is no room to make money really. If you want to make the sport good you got to put more money in it.

j: So you think that like all these kids love it so much that you know, like …

E: A few of them are getting started; I think things are kinda changing. I don’t know, I was able to pay for guys to got to Hawaii and stuff this season like Cbass and stuff. I try to support the kids that I think are going to kill it, and have the potential in the long term, but it all depends on what I can pull off in the future to give them a real contract, real money. It all depends on what kind of sales I can get, and its not going to happen on high end alone. Because even though I sell direct high end my costs are outrageous in retail, rent, and like on PCH in like a prime area and in Hawaii it’s outrageous, right? Plus we are open twelve hours a day, and employs, and the housing. Its hectic, lol, so people might think I’m killing it like extra but its just um  … I don’t know how you can survive out here without selling drugs.

j: Ya and you just love it so much you are just putting it back into it, and that’s what more people need to be doing.

Ya if there is no passion I could easily be one of these generic companies and making pretty much putting more money in my pocket. I could be not stressing each month. I know what’s possible because I know what they are doing and I could make it look better, but its just cause I love the sport. I grew up with it. I could easily be making the same amount right now. Its pretty funny lol. I could actually do that, it’s a fact because I see all these generic companies doing it, or like Bodyglove doing it, or wham-o pretty much doing it, and who else is doing it? Um, I don’t know they are the main ones. Maui and Sons, now that’s a great one they make more money, way more than me.

j: And you don’t ever hear about them either.

No, but ya, I compete with them. It’s actually the same people as Bodyglove that is Maui and Sons. And even Bodyglove, they are so generic, terrible.

j: What do think about the contest scene, I know we have the IBA …

I think the contest scene is pretty bad at the moment in America. They just need to focus on the youth, big time. I don’t care about the pros at all because they are not buying bodyboards. It’s the customers that help the companies to put money back into the sport. I mean, and these pros aren’t like real pros that are not  able to travel and stuff. You know what I mean. Maybe a couple of them. To build pros, you got to have kids buying boards. You got have kids getting excited about the sport. It needs to be like hundreds of armatures, and keep the pros and just have the elite ones come in once in a while in the beginning until you get enough to make the proper tour. But I support, I’m just trying to get youth in anywhere possible. That’s why this contest has more youth than the average contest, I think. There is quit a fair amount of youth at this contest, but that’s just because of the region. The kids, I’m not sure if they know about all the BIA’s and stuff that are far away. Where there is … I don’t know. They got to get more into it. There needs too more. Something, it’s all about getting the youth. I can care less about the older guys as far as being able to grow the sport. It’s all about 14 to like.., or even 7^th grade through like high school. Those are the people, the youth are who we want to get into the sport, and try and keep them in until they are older, to not quit or start or start surfing.

j: Well Eddie thank you so much man.

Cool. Cool.  

Sometimes life has a way of getting in the way but some how the beach always seems to make you forget what came before and what will come after.