Friday, April 16, 2010

His Name Was Reno...


...and he sat upon the sand.
I walked up to him and asked
about the board in his hand...

But actually, I didn't know it was Reno when I approached this skinny leather-skinned man sitting on the beach alone at Trestles, frantically rubbing sand all over the bottom of a single fin Pavel. The board looked pretty mean, so I crouched down and asked about it:

Me: That's an amazing board you have there!

(Long pause, looking up at me...)

Dude: How do you know?

(His front teeth were missing...)

Me: Because it's a Pavel. And it looks like it would work great here.

(Long pause. Hard stare.)

Dude: How do you know about Pavel?

Me: I've read about him a lot.

Dude: You read about him? Well, at least you read.

Me: And I ride a Mandala, which was shaped by a guy who learned from Pavel. It has a similar template I think.

Dude: Never heard of it. Toby's a friend of mine. You got a single fin?

Me: No. It's a quad.

(Longer, harder stare at me.)

Dude: Quad, huh? Where are you from, anyway?

Me: Portland.

Dude: Portland, huh? Ever heard of Gerry Lopez?

Me: Yeah. Of course. I've seen him out surfing in Pacific City.

Dude: Ever heard of Reno Abellira?

Me: Yeah. He's a legend.

Dude: (something inaudible)

Me: Sorry?

Dude: I said—YOU'RE TALKING TO HIM, dude.

Me: Really? That's cool! Sorry, I didn't recognize you.

(Long pause. Hard stare. Sizing me up.)

Reno: Anyway. I'm pretty excited to check out this fin. I designed it and now I finally am getting a chance to give it a try. It's my fin and the guys at the company finally gave me one.

I looked down at the fin. It was a 6-inch True Ames fin. It said "BONZER" on it.

Me: That's cool. It's a Bonzer, huh?

(Long, incredulous stare.)

Me: ...The fin, not the board...

Reno: Dude. I SAID this is my fin.

Me: That's cool.

Reno: Dude. If you say "that's cool" one more time...

Me: Okay. Well. I better get going.

Reno: What's your name?

Me: Rick Albano.

Reno: Italian, huh? Is that why you're wearing Persols?

Me: Um ... I guess?

Reno: If you give me your glasses I'll forgive you.

Me: Uh. That's cool... I mean, that's pretty funny. I'm going to take off. Have a great session.

Reno: Alright.

We shook hands and he walked off toward a right that had been peeling at Middles as we'd been talking. It was really weird. He had be grilling me, that's obvious, but in a strangely friendly way. I wish I could have stayed around to watch him surf, but I had to go to work. More on that later...

For a great recent Reno intervista, check out the Hydrodynamica Blog... (Thanks, Kirk.)

Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Hard Body Blues




Fish by Mabile
Wetsuit by Axxe
Log by Junod
Shorts by Birdwell
Body by Bowflex®

Wow. The New York Times seems to be in love with surfing lately. This story just takes things a bit too close to the Meat Packing District.