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.)