Getting a new surfboard is one of life’s great pleasures. Whether you buy said board yourself, or you win it, or it’s a gift or from a sponsor (you lucky so-and-so) or you found the board in the leaking dumpster by your nearest Spar, getting a new stick rocks. Don’t even try to deny it. In fact, getting a new stick must rank right up there with getting a new car, winning the lotto and finally reaching that annoying itch on your back. Whether it’s a spanking new custom board ordered a few weeks ago, a pristine EPS foam purchased from the racks at a premium price, a reasonably priced second hander from marketplace or your first beat-up old banger with brown foam, cobwebbed from years lying in the dust of your uncle’s garage – holding that new board in your arms is like cuddling a new puppy or kitten. Or your first born child, whom you believed is destined to take no fewer than 3 Surfing World Titles one day.
It all begins with a new stick.
And of course, if you indeed have a child destined to be a world champ; their journey begins with their first surfboard. Now, Trident will not be hammering on about a young grom’s formative surfing starting with their first kak foam board, made from dreadfully harmful petrochemicals. (Ed’s note: Well, like all surfboards really.) No, instead we intend to focus on the sheer joy of coming into ownership of your own new surfboard. Or surfboards plural, you enviably flush bastard.
If you’ve read this far, once again Trident must assume you are a surfer in the first place, or at least have some very clear ties to surfing – so you can always put yourself into the shoes of your stoked grom, your stoked partner or your stoked friends. Maybe you’re reading this article from your prison library’s PC from the list of sanctioned websites, dreaming of your freedom and regretting the day you headbutted that uppity pro in the mouth for dropping in on you.
In surfing terms, the thrill of a new surfboard must compare to the thrill of landing your first air, or being spat out a meaty barrel. Or the thrill of one of those perfect 4 – 6 foot surf sessions, where everything is just going your way; you’re ripping and always in place for the sets and/or the bombs. Maybe you are new to the surfing game, and the joy of finally owning your own surfboard (a second hand pro model that you sweet talked the sales assistant into discounting for you, as well as adding two blocks of wax for free you cheap hustler) compares to the joy you felt when standing up on your first wave and not going arse over tits into the sand bank.
The thrill of a new stick wears out quickly…
And herein lies an interesting point. Comparing getting a new board to aspects of the ecstasy of surfing itself is quite apt; as all of those thrills are so fleeting.
It’s like buying a new car. The moment you drive it off the car dealership’s parking lot, it loses 50% of its value.
The moment you stick on a new grip, and wax your board up it invariably has lost some value, even if you have yet to surf it. Talk about taking off some of the shine you felt when holding the once pristine virgin surfboard in your wax-callused hands. Indeed, even with a second hand board a similar effect applies; it’s now officially and irrevocably second hand. Said surfboard must be surfed until it either dissolves or snaps. Although, to be fair, a board’s third hand existence will probably still give massive stoke to its next owner.
A surfboard is just a tool. As you may be.
Indeed, as beautiful as a new board is, whether custom, brand-new, second hand or more ancient than Keith Richards; a surfboard is merely a tool. Surfing is where the joy resides, not in having a surfboard that still looks brand new after two years. Ding it. Get some pressure dings on the deck. Crack that lower deck from duck diving heavy waves. It’ll still surf just as well as Day One, until, well – it doesn’t surf as well anymore. Then repeat the process of getting a new board.
They say a poor craftsman blames their tools. Well, in surfing it can apply for sure. So enjoy the thrill of a new board while you can, but accept it is a mere tool for surfing, a catalyst of the stoke. Until you get your next new surfboard that is.
