Back to business folks. Sorry I have been MIA for a few weeks, we hosted Thanksgiving, I went to Puerto Rico for a long weekend and now I have been down with a sickness that just wont stop… but no more excuses! As I promised, I have returned with the second chapter in the Chase Stevens story, our local board wrapper in the shipping department and board rider extraordinaire! Enjoy..
Quick recap:
surfer- Chase Stevens, 21 years old
height- 6’0″
weight- 147lbs
Here’s my top 4 boards I find myself riding the most in St. Augustine, Florida. (2 left!)
Autrey Surfboards longboard 9’4″ x 19″ x 23 1/4″ x 14″ x 3″
3 Fin: 9.5 Fiber Glass Fin Co. (1/2 of an inch from being slid all the way forward)
words from Chase: Oh the infamous ‘Mary Street Murder’. This is a legendary longboard that was hand crafted by the Autreys some years back for my father. He took it all the way up to Easterns one year and won an East Coast title on it! Classic! The board was then sold to my pop’s good buddy Christian M. who then religiously road it down at the Mary St. Beach Ramp for a a few years. Low and behold, Christian wanted to sell it for a new Autrey upgrade. Of course I had to bring it back into the family. She deserves to finish her years off with her true family. 2 paint jobs later…a good wet-sand … and I’m off covering it in black spray paint…. not the best idea living in Florida … but whatever, I was young, ha ha. Fast forward a couple years and the deck was then wet sanded (out of pure frustration from days of dealing with melted wax) to give it its final look that it has now. Oh yea, this board also surfs INSANE…..STILL….. I’m pretty sure there are a few mini buckles in the foam at this point. It has wild flex to it. This is my all-time favorite board to surf here in St. Augustine. It has way to much character. I’m guaranteed a great session even if it’s ankle high and I’m borderline dragging my fin as this board is magical.
Do Something Productive.
I get the whole “ride a pig style LOG, nose ride and nose ride only, super hip guy, most likely smokes cigs in the surf check/ parking lot” but that’s just a trendy fad. You don’t need 12 inch board shorts and a chop tail, pig nosed tank of a LB to nose ride or hang 10. You just need balance. Mad respect to the super log crew! You guys are awesome and all have unique approaches to wave riding. As for my self, the more ‘high-performance LB’ outline is a little easier for me to swallow coming from shortboards and fishes. I like to go fast and I like to lay hard on the tail and put all that foam up on its rail and I feel I can do that easily due to the way the tail pulls into that nice point. Another note I’d like to add is the way that the rails are subtly tapered down giving it a more knife like cut when putting the board on rail. The tail has a slight flip in the rocker which gives it it’s performance feel. The 9.5 fin helps a ton as well! Between Ken White, The Autrey family and Claude Codgen my dad and I have had some well crafted longboards make their way through our family surfboard collection. The ‘Mary St. Murder’ is most certainly one of them.
No one knows how to shape for the waves in Florida besides Florida shapers.. it’s as simple as that. Lucky for you, there are plenty of talented people who shape in Florida. Go get on a hand shaped HP style log or an all out tank with 4 inch rails, you won’t be sorry! Longboarding is traditional surfing. To be able to just stand still and balance with little effort of progressing forward on your part….to be able to move at the speed you can on a longboard over water in the open air…. it all is unlike any feeling. Skating comes close but it’s just not the same. Just as fun!…but not the same.”
WATCH THE MENACE IN ACTION HERE.
Speaking of skating…
John Fitzgerald 8.5 “Runaway” Deck by HOCKEY skateboards
Trucks bearings: Independent 159’s, Reds Bearings. “Ride The Best. F**k the Rest.”
I got nothing.
(Matt you better leave this in there! lol)
Surfing & skating go hand in hand. It’s a beautiful representation of ying and yang. I’d loose my mind if all I did was surf and hang at the beach. That’s just me. I have a thing for the sound of wheels rolling, tails tapping, and rails being ground just as much as I love hearing the sound of oceans waves or seagulls. Skateboarding is a great way to cross train for surfing (if you can manage to not injure yourself in the process… ), look at someone like Eric Geiselman, he is a prime example of the best of both worlds. I’ve tried a handful of skateboard brands and shapes over the years and I have to say so far, Jason Dill made John Fitzgerald the ‘cake winner’ for choosing the right concave and tail/ nose size for a great, all-around, basic pencil shaped deck..
I’m really amped up with the the nose size and it has some extra kick to it so it really gives you a solid area to catch with or to land on when locking into a trick. The deck concave is average as in not super flat and not too crazy. I was riding a 9.0 and 9.5 for a long time because I liked how fast I could get going with a board the had more weight to it. After awhile I got fed up with trying flip tricks and dealing with all the weight.. so I moved back down to a 8.5. it is probably all mental, but some tricks seem a lot easier now.
This is called natural talent.
