Story of a Surfboard: SF Green Ten-Footer

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Story of a Surfboard: SF Green Ten-Footer


Like all my boards, this 
one came to me via Craigslist. Unlike the rest, this green 10-footer is a magic 
board. The 'magic board' is a special match-up between the traits of a surfboard and 
the 
style/strength of its surfer. Swaylocks is loaded with posts about magic 
boards. 

I found the ad on CL while I was travelling. A quick email and call to a friend 
arranged a pickup. J & J completed the 
transaction for me. They met the seller at his house in SF who told them that he 
had used the board for tandem surfing. He was leaving SF and didn't want to bring 
the board along. J & J squeezed it into their hatchback (somehow) and brought it 
over when I got back to town. 

The brand is SF, a small board-making operation and surfshop in San Francisco. It's a 
sweet-looking board: Nice green tint, 10' x 23" x3.5", triple-stringer, big fin in the 
finbox. Big, round rails and lots of volume. Kinda heavy though: lots of glass. When 
it gets into a wave, it really screams down the line. I've taken it to Linda Mar on 
small days, Ocean Beach on big days: the board works amazingly well in all conditions. 
Magic. 

A few years back, I experienced a mishap. I paddled out at Linda Mar for a rare 
midweek after-work session. The waves had some energy and the paddle out took 
timing and paddle-energy. One incoming wave brought a surprising payload toward 
me: some hairy dude mis-timed his duck dive and ended up catching the 
wave backwards. The dude's fin jammed into and cut through the nose of 
my board. Sure, better the board than my shoulder or neck -- still I had a hole 
about 'that big' in my heart. Would this kill the magic?

I took the board up to the SF surf shop for 
repairs. Let John Schultze the board's maker fix it and it'll be good as new. 
John did a great job with it. When I picked up the board, he remembered making 
it. We talked about it a bit: 


John: "Have you tried it in Bolinas? I made it for that wave."

Me: "Why yes, I have. In fact this board seems to really sing on the waves at 
Bolinas. It's a perfect match."

Me: "Can you make me an EXACT replica? 3-stringers, single-fin, resin tint? that 
and the magic. Don't leave out the magic. Oh yeah -- and a tail-block."

John: "Nope. Can't work with giant blanks like that anymore."

Me: gasp! "Then I better take care of this thing."


Today, the board is mostly watertight. Lots of little dings and spider-cracks put 
this thing at risk for getting waterlogged and eventually destroying it (not to 
mention hairy dudes who can't duckdive). Each year around my birthday I wax this 
thing up and drag it up to Bolinas for some magic. 














I meant to post a rocker-shot too, I'll do this later. 

The deck has the dimensions and says 'For Scott at Ocean Beach'. Who is Scott? 
Why did he sell the board? What's he surfing now?


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