September 1997, there was a Hurricane off of Baja, Hurricane Linda, i believe. I chased its significant swell north out of San Diego county to a more favorable coastline to meet such a swell angle.
The paddle out was intense, duck diving lines and lines of whitewater, doing underwater cartwheels clamped to my 6ā8 hybrid shortboard, and just barely making it outside. My buddy was just 20 feet inside of me and the clean up set I just barely squeeked under, landed on his head.
The sets were nearly non stop, and the next time I saw him he was walking on the beach, beaten, and I was out there alone.
The swell was coming at a steep angle to the beach, and there was a super strong current pushing northward, and just to my South these beautiful left handers were peaking and peeling towards me for 200 meters, but then closing out, peeling too fast and folding over in Giant sections. Best waves I had even seen in Southern California, and I was the only one out.
I was pretty gassed from the paddle out, and was constantly paddling south to get to that peak. Triangulating my position with several landmarks on shore, I saw that when paddling at 80% of max power, I was just managing to stay put. At 90% of max paddling speed I was just barely able to make any southward progress.
I was in my mid 20ās, in very good paddling shape, and frothing to get one of those giant empty lefts rifling from that distant peak, and just dug deep and head down, just gave it a solid steady 95%, concentrating on an efficient paddling stroke.
I was wishing for a board which paddled a LOT faster, something longer, but not too long, something thicker, but something I could still Duck dive, meaning not too thick, and not too much rocker. (bottom curve)
I had tons of experience riding heavy 1960ās singlefin longboards in tiny, to fairly big gnarly conditions. While paddling, I was designing the perfect board in my mind for these conditions. Something which was not quite a longboard as I defined longboard, but something which was also not anything close to the high performance triple finned 9 foot long āshortboardsā where were the rage among the lesser skilled, and represented style of surfing I absolutely loathed, both then, and now.
I did not make it to the peak.
I got maybe half way there and I had to spin around and take one wave which just looked too good to let go.
I was getting a bit spooked out there alone with some large fish activity going on, and the swell was still on the rise and seemed to be pulsing.
I was late getting into it as my shoulders were rubbery with effort, but once on my feet it was on.
Accelerating off the bottom turn I rode high back up in the wave, and Aimed back down and just got this insane burst of speed and saw 100+ meters of lined up swell stretching out in front of me, feeling the bottom, getting steeper and was going to close out. I was not going to get a very long ride, but was on one of the biggest waves iād ever ridden in my life at that point.
I had three options, turn straight to the beach, try to stay on my feet as long as possible while the white water rode me down, kick out and possibly deal with bigger waves right behind it which would break on my head, or three, hammer down, get as much speed as possible and just pull into a giant cavern, and enjoy the view Only surfers get to see and experience firsthand.
A view that has altered most paths of those who experience it, forever after.
Hammer down, speed on, and my fins started humming because I was going so fast and they were poorly foiled. I still remember it vividly 27 years later. On my heelside rail, my backhand, Iād usually grab a rail to get smaller, tripod, and fit inside the tube, but this behemoth was a stand up barrel, and I knew it was going to close out with me inside, and that at some point I would have to dive forward and try and get away from my board.
The water was this light green color, and it was already afternoon, and the sun was lighting up the back of the wave and as the lip threw over my head. The interior was just this insanely beautiful aqueous sparkly cavern, both insanely peaceful, yet on the edge of violence.
I saw the exit of this cavern getting further and further away, but was still racing as if an exit were a remote possibility, but then just Stood tall to just enjoy this unique and highly coveted position, before the beating began.
The falling lip breaking in the trough, creates the ātube monsterā which works its way up the face of the breaking wave, and unseats the rail and fins and is seldom beaten.
As soon as I felt it begin to lift my outside rail, and with no hope of an exit, I jumped forward intending to continue my ride, bodysurfing, and continue the view for as long as possible and get as far away from my surfboard as possible too.
Usually the legrope leash limits just how far one can bodysurf in such a situation, but this time I was going so fast and I guess the tube monster prevented my board from digging in and providing resistance, so I was able to bodysurf far longer inside the tube than expected and continue that beautiful view from within.
Iād actually though my legrope broke for a moment, when I felt it start to stretch and stop me, and then I felt completely weightless as I got sucked up and over the falls, and the giant kaboom happened.
Violent underwater cartwheels, that one is powerless to stop or slow, so basically just protect oneās head and take your beatings. Fighting it just wastes oxygen.
I was underwater for quite a while, and was getting hungry for a breath when it let up and I figured out which way was up and started swimming for the surface.
I got a breathe or 2 before the next line of white water from the following wave rolled me over and kept me under for a while longer, and several more times, until I was able to reel in the board turn it right side up, aim towards shore and try and ride one line of white water to the sand on my belly.
I was a good half mile north of where the car was parked and on my walk back several witnesses of my ride, seemed as frothed out at my ride as I was.
I was pretty gassed. I wanted more but if anything the swell was even bigger and more ornery than when I first paddled out, So I called it a session.
At that time I had access a complete surfboard factory, and I had a 10ā8" foam blank, intended to be shaped into an old school 10ā6 noserider, but that night I drew out a super narrow pintail, 9ā3" singlefin with a longboardish nose. I had only shaped 3 surfboards at that point, but stayed in the empty factory all night by myself, refining the outline rocker and rails, just zenning out on the process.
The guy who was teaching me to shape , who was not a longboard rider or shaper, came into the shaping room in the morning and remained quiet as he ran his eyes along the rails, Checked out the rocker, the foil, and walked out without a word.
I kept going, and later on that morning one of the factory groupies, came in had a look and said, that thing looks like a guppy, like a baby longboard.
The name stuck.
It was also my first lamination job, and because the board was shaped from a much bigger blank, Iād shaped away the harder foam, and the board was soft, and the glass job, my first or maybee second lamination without assistance, was far from good.
But the board rode really well, and even in small conditions it was not designed for.
It was smooth and predictable, and when it got big, it did what I designed it for. I could be duck dive it, it paddled fast, allowing early entry into big waves, small waves, any wave, and it could handle the power and speed of a big wave.
I had other longboards I preferred in small gutless conditions but as an all arounder The Guppy was really a good board.
It was a loaner, ridden hard, put away wet, not fixed as promptly when the rails would get dinged.
Sometime around 2014, I was resigned to letting it break in half. It had big stress cracks on the bottom, huge deep footwells, that were delaminating, was starting to get yellowed. Obvious repairs everywhere.
My regular longboard was in drydock, and it once again The Guppy became my daily driver, and I got to the breach, and realized forgot my standard 9.5 inch deep fin, but I had an 8" deep fin with me, and I wanted to surf, so I threw it in the fin box, and on the first wave I was blown away at how well it rode.
Looser, faster, and no signs whatsoever of being underfinned, and I had an incredible session on it, then another, then it got big, and I absolutely dominated the lineup with it. Nobody else was even in a position to catch the outside monster sets I was waiting for, and every time I caught a monster set way outside, everybody was hooting.
It was like I had a wave magnet in my pocket and could do no wrong.
I got to the beach and was like, this freaking thing is magic with this fin, I cannot let it break in half.
I wound up spending a huge amount of effort inlaying in some Cedar on top and below the stringer for the I beam effect, and then pulling carbon Fiber strips tightly rail to rail, to keep the two halves together, and glassed over it.
I wound up making a new 8" deep fin for it. It had gained a good 3 Lbs of weight, and I knew the loss of flex and added weight could potentially ruin the way the board rode.
My first wave on it I knew that I did not, that I could push it even harder off the bottom and through turns, and the extra weight just added to its flow.
Big or small waves, the board felt amazing, like an extension of my Mind, and when it got big, I could sit farther outside, and wait longer for the biggest ones, and have them all to myself.
Today I was working on My Esk8 deck.
It too is old. I made it in 2003, from some 13 layer Baltic birch plywood which came in 5x5 foot long sheets and was advertised a Finnish baltic birch, not Russian.
Iād added three mahogany Stringers to the middle, and used biscuts and some water based wood glue I got talked into using against my better instincts to join it together. After riding it for a bit the glue lines started to fail along the mahogany, and I made another deck from the baltic birch without stringers, and this deck sat unused for many years.
When i broke that deck, I busted out the triple stringer deck, and decided to add some White oak butterflies across the top to hold it together. That worked well, and the board got ridden hard and started getting more and more flexible. So I added the cross hatching roving strips top and bottom to stiffen it up a bit.
When I got into Esk8 in October '23, I was like, hey, I can strap that junk 7s enclosure to it with the 80mm Jking hub motors, and my first ride on it I was like I am never riding a short kicktail again, why did I not do this sooner?
I had an extra Mountainboard TKP truck left over from my kayak cart build, and 200x50 pneumatics I threw on the front, just so see, and I was like, I never want to ride urethane on this boardās front truck again, and have not.
This deck has at least 3k miles on it since I electrifyied it, and always flexy, has gotten more so.
I never knew what to call it. and was just calling it my long cruiser.
but today looking at it on the workbench, I was struck how much it looks like a fish.
A small Fish.
A guppy.
So from here, it shall be called the Rolling Guppy.
It will be continue to rebuilt and reinforced and prevented from breaking, and providing me with untold amounts of Joy, just like its foam fiberglass and Cedar big brother, patiently hanging on the garage wall, waiting for the next time I get to surf again.
Here is the original Guppy:
9ā3:x 22" wide, 3 inches thick
).
