Since I started surfing a couple years ago, I've been intrigued by Geoff McCoy's "Nugget" shaped board, a design that's intended to be the most user friendly of all non-longboards.
No doubt, this is a neo-retro shape; one originally developed in Australia in the 1970s (with his "Lazor Zaps" for Cheyene Horan) and perfected over the last 30 years. But unlike the fish, which has received tons of attention lately as a great alternative to "glass slipper" or potato chip shortboards in subpar surf conditions, the Nugget is considered to be a more versitile shape that can do well in larger, steeper waves.
Geoff McCoy is an eccentric dude, which I also found appealing, sort of a mad scientist Down Under, creating these unconventional waveriding vehicles and supporting them with hippy slogans like "Designs to free your mind."
There aren't that many Nuggets in the USA. When I did a search on Google a few years ago, only a few pictures showed up. One of them was a red/blue one that was mentioned on Surfer magazine's message boards. A few others were Aussie imports in yellow. You can buy Nuggets in America through a website called solosurfer.com, but the sticker price is fairly astronomical: like $800. You can also pick up a Surftech Nugget a little easier, but that will still cost around $700.
So I did what I always do when obsessing over a rare item online: I added it to my "favorite searches" on eBay. Every time a Nugget would be put up for sale on eBay, I would get an email. As a testiment to the user satisfaction of these boards, I hardly ever got messages telling me one was available secondhand in some remote part of the world.
But then, in November, I got an automated email saying that there was a McCoy board available in Southern California for $350 bucks... if I wanted to "Buy it now." The board looked familiar: It was the same red and blue one I had seen online a year before. I took that as a sign.
This was the catch though--it was shaped by Greg Pautch, a SoCal shaper who is the only licensed shaper of McCoy boards in the USA. Having done my homework, reading nothing but positive reviews of Pautch's work, I immediately made the seller an offer and he took it. I picked up the board around Thanksgiving.
The board is 6'2" tall and around 2.75" thick. The tail is round and wide and the girth of the board is pretty consistent from top to bottom. It looks like a stubby red-white-and-blue cigar.
My first session was in Venice a few days before Thanksgiving. The waves were small but fast--mostly closing out. I had a blast, despite the conditions. One thing I noticed was that I couldn't duckdive it very deep. No problem. Until my second session, that is, back in Oregon.
The waves at Shorty's were pretty big when I took the Nugget out the second time. Again, I couldn't sink the corky stick very deep, causing me to get worked over a few times on the paddle out, but I was still looking forward to testing this board out in some powerful conditions. After all, McCoy's website stated: "When it gets hollow, you'll be laughing."
I caught one wave, midsize, probably around 5 feet, but it died quickly. One thing I noticed was that I was having a really hard time paddling into the waves. I would scratch as hard as possible, but wouldn't have enough speed to start planing before takeoff. As soon as I'd grab my rails to pop up, I'd feel the wave jack up and I'd almost lose all momentum on the lip. Looking down a vertical face, I knew I wouldn't make the drop, and I'd have to pull back or get pitched.
And the waves were getting bigger. Another guy in the lineup on a Channel Islands yelled to his buddy (there were only 5 of us) that he was undergunned. I tried to go right on an eight-foot face, but didn't get in fast enough and went over the falls. Underwater, I felt my leg kick something sharp. I thought it may have been my fin, but didn't have much time to contemplate things because when I emerged, I saw some menacing swells bearing down on me. I paddled hard and made it outside.
Again and again I would try to paddle into big waves, only to get sprayed in the face before attempting to drop.
The day ended when a crusty old dude pointed to the outside and said, "Better start paddling." The biggest wave I've ever had the misfortune of meeting was jacking up and there was no way we'd make it over the back. We both bailed at the same time as a thick, 14-foot curtain fell right on our heads.
I'll never forget the slam, tumble, spin, rinse, repeat of that hold down. I was more than 200 yards away from the shore, but I hit the sandy bottom and dragged along, pinwheeling and ragdolling. My leash coiled around my legs like a kitestring on a spindle, hogtying me. I didn't panic. I was spooked, but it wasn't my worst punishment of the day. But considering how far the turbulance pushed me in, I decided to end it there. I walked up the beach with my tail between my legs.
The old guy who got caught inside with me came up the beach a few minutes later. "Dude, I hit the bottom!" he said. I told him that I did too. He went on to tell my friends and me that in 20 years of surfing big waves in the Northwest, he's never been rocked that hard. The guy, we'll call him Jonas, is a Seaside Point regular. He said that the near two-wave hold down he experienced was worse than anything he been put through before. At least I knew that I could handle a big hit.
When I got back to my house and was showing my friends my new board after dinner, I noticed something on the rail behind the fins. A big ding gouging all the way into the foam. I reached down to my shin and felt a jawbreaker-sized lump. I guess I didn't hit the fin after all!
Sun Kil Moon - "Gray Ice Water"
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