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[tumak]

It was really cool to meet up with Rod at Picnic Tables at Patrick AFB on Saturday the 10th. It was somewhat miraculous, as I paddled right out to where he was, having no idea even what beach he was at! I just paddled out to one of my favorite spots and there he was. "Are you tumak?" he asked, after I took off on and rode a wave coming towards him. He was on his Ashton and I was on my new Neilson paipo fish, called "Namkhai." It's 4'10" and is very Lis fish-ish, sky blue with glassed-on keel fins.

During the first part of his stay, our coast was blessed with an awesome east swell. I had patients all day on Friday, which was without a doubt the peak of the swell. The morning I managed to catch up with Rod, it was still quite good, and I managed to get the fish into a tube I would definitely call Holy Grail. The little fish hung so high on the wall of that right barrel that it was crazy, and the speed was amazing. The view was right out of The Innermost Limits of Pure Fun, or Crystal Voyager.

That night we met up at Da Kine Diego's, where we had great Mexican vittles and listened to a band called New School Dropouts, who were really good. I think everybody had a really good time.

I'm glad we had a decent swell for at least part of Rod's visit.

Rod: It was great to share some good times! Enjoy Puerto Rico!

-tumak

[rodndtube]

Had a great visit to the Space Coast, meeting Tumak and his wife, and some other people I know from alt.surfing. We were blessed with two fine days of waves plus some good entertainment. My only regret is not having spent more time 'round the campfire with Tumak and Jane, a mutual acquaitance.

Didn't finish all my sightseeing due to a sudden decline in the health of one of our very close relatives, but there's always the future. I will be back somewhere along the line.

Tumak: I called Balsa Bills. He is upgrading the VHS video to DVD, adding newly found footage, soundtrack, etc., so doesn't expect the video out until late spring. I will have to be patient.
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rodNDtube
"Prone to ride"
I love my papa li`ili`i

[tumak]

Rod, I would've liked more "campfire" time, too. Ya see, I want to know what motivates paipo riders to break free of the norm and do what we do. I enjoyed hearing your story about the broken board at Gas Chambers that was made into a paipo and given to you, and how that started your paipo oddysey. But...what realizations did you have about paipo that brought you to the realization that paipo was the way? Was it about the attitudes of stand-up surfers?... about the special wave perspective of paipo riding?... etc. I imagine that it's a combination of things. But I like to hear peoples' accounts of frustrations and realizations that lead them down particular paths.

In my own case, as I mentioned to you, I wanted a paipo the first time I saw one in a magazine...probably around 1966. It was probably a Dextra or a Hansen. The thing is, though, that there was just so much glamour around "longboards", and then "shortboards," that that's just the direction I went, never getting my own paipo made until 2002! Jeez, that was a long wait! I wish I'd had one in '63; I wish I'd always had paipos around me!

I don't have disdain for other forms of waveriding...except contemporary shortboarding. Logging, to me, is timless cool. Retro boards, like Lis fish for example, I think are really cool, too. But riding paipo is just so wonderfully pure, and the perspective on a wave can't be beat as far as I'm concerned.

I also find the common surfers' psychology of considering paipo riding to be somehow non-existent to be fascinating. Why aren't more people doing it?

Perhaps it's really good that we paipo riders are so few.

[Nels]