Time is a flat circle.
By Dan Dobbin.
My wife is a solidly “the universe sends you signs ” kinda gal. I’m a stoically “random shit just happens and sometimes things just intersect” kinda guy.
Every now and then however something happens that makes me think that I may be less right than I usually suppose.
Despite being a History teacher and of an age where the nostalgia demons should have stood a chance of sinking their talons in and steering me towards the vintage bodyboard movement, I’d always felt that when it came to old boards, the past was always best left in the past. I’m more interested in the future and the now.
Sure I’ve got a Morey Boogie 136 signed by Stewart, but outside of boards I never bothered to get rid of, I’ve had no real interest or inclination in partacking in the old board treasure hunt that seems to occupy the lives of many middle aged boog riders.
A few weeks ago however, a mate who is a prolific tip rat flowed me a second generation Mach 7-7 and a Mach 4 he’d rescued from a recycling centre, because, you know, I need more surf gear clogging up my garage.
I’ve been soaking in the post school surfs with the kids over the last few weeks, little east peaks and light south winds until dark, truely blissful.
On a lark I threw the 7-7 into the back of the car one arvo, expecting not much from it.
Well, the first wave was a revelation. The extra thickness, the flexy squirt of the worn in original dow core. It just felt right.
Not right in as in ” this old thing supersedes the last 35 odd years of board development” but right as in ” This fits perfectly with the waves I’m riding right now”.
Truth be told it has come along at an inconvenient time. I’d just drop coin on a custom 44 inch board (review inbound) in the hope of milking more fun out of bog standard days like these. Now the $400 vessel is being pushed aside for a $10 tip ripper.
So like any addict, the cogs start spinning. How can I replicate this in a modern day board? I know the purists say the the PE is different now than the old Dow packaging off cuts the boards were made from, but maybe a really thick stringerless PE blank would do the job?
Turns out I can rest easy and let someone else do all the work. It seems that none other than el’ goat Mr Stewart is already hard at work on the issue.
Under a recent share of old footage on the ‘gram, the following quip and reply between former child protege’, now massive human Mitch Hall and Lord Stewart didn’t go unobserved.
So it seems that in accordance with my wife’s ” The universe speakths’ doctrine, at the exact time I’ve stumbled upon the desire for some old foam feels, it may soon be commercial available.
Spooky, non’ ?
