RIP to an old friend

This morning saw the sad end of a board that has been with me since the beginning: my 8'10 Vernor broke in half this morning. At Linda Mar (of all places!). That board has been with me from the very beginning, it's always been a favorite, both sentimentally and because it's also simply a damn good board, that thing really flies. I remember when I first bought it from a guy over in Capitola. He didn't like it, as it's sort of a prototype board -- pretty much a shortboard disguised as a longboard. It's really thin, not very wide, swallow tail thruster, and has a decent amount of rocker. Definitely a performance longboard. I now know it was far from the ideal first board for beginner me, but I was none the wiser at the time and I made it work. I remember the first session on it out at Cowell's, catching waves and going straight to the beach, wobbling all around. I remember progressing on it from there, taking it out at new more challenging spots, I remember Joel riding it at 4 Mile and getting yelled at "go back to LA hasellhoff" by some loony on the rocks, I remember starting to dial it in, one magical session at LM a few years ago where I was really on fire for myself at the time, feeling invincible and making all kinds of late (again for me at the time) drops, really starting to feel that boards potential...and the many more sessions to follow, flying down the line on that thing. And I'll remember this morning's session as well, well overhead and as hollow as LM gets. I'd caught several really fun waves, was feeling pretty good. The demise came about as I had just taken probably the first wave of what turned out to be a huge set, I took off a little late and actually got a real big barrel, I didnt make it out and so was stuck right in the impact zone. Board was still OK at that point, I got back on and started scratching for the outside, only to be met by a real macker breaking top to bottom right in front of me. I paddled like hell thinking I could maybe get over it, but at the last second I knew I was too late. I remember thinking crap what do I do now, so I did what I should probably never do, ditched the board very last second and went underwater. Exactly what happened in the following several seconds I'll never know, but when I came back up for air, I was greeted by the sight of my trusty old friend, crumpled into two halves. I remember the feeling when I saw it, definite sadness. At this point the two halves were still being held together by fiberglass laminate, but many more waves were still to come as I got swept to shore, and along the way the two pieces came completely separated. I picked up the nose half where it had washed to shore a little south of us and placed the broken warrior to rest in the sand.

It's a pretty bad break, and the laminate got ripped off along the whole length of the board, so the nose (deck) is blank foam now...I don't know if it'll be repairable, or worth it, but I'll look into it. Maybe it will live to ride another day. Or maybe I'll salvage it and reshape the tail half into a little mini-board for my kids to rip on one day. But for now, I'll just mourn the loss for what it is: the likely end of my very first surfboard. You will be missed.