Hello everyone and welcome back true believers!
Today I am reviewing legendary cold water charger, Dave Polatty. Back in the day I would hear stories from Tory about Dave.. “style master and such a great surfer” was how he was described to me many times. I would speak to him on the phone and order him some boards from CI (mostly Black Beauties and step ups for the gnarly points and slabs up in Rhode Island) but I never got to surf with him. During our conversations he was the most humble and gracious person I had ever dealt with so I would always bend over backwards for him to get whatever he needed as fast as possible. While I only met Dave a few times in person, I am sure some of you know him very well so when we connected on social media lately I thought he would be a great candidate for a blog post! Enjoy..
surfer- Dave Polatty
height- 6’1″
weight- 180lbs
Board- Channel Islands Peregrine – 6’2″ x 19 1/2″ x 2 7/16″ (31.6L) with FCS CI AM2 fins shaped by Simon Kile
Words from Dave on his relationship with the Surf Station:
“Way back in 1998 the Surf Station advertised a team tryout as they were looking to expand. While I considered myself too old to “compete” for something like this, one of the young rippers I surfed with in Ponte Vedra (where I lived at the time) was excited to tryout so I drove him down to S.A. and he signed up for one of the heats. There was a super fun little waist to stomach high peak down the beach from the tryout site so rather than sit around for hours watching the groms tear it up, I went for a surf for part of the time. When I came back to the “contest” area Tory came up to me and asked me if I would be willing to join the team as an older guy (I was 28 at the time – haha) — I was honored to have such a legendary, well respected shop owner and amazing surfer ask me this so I accepted on the spot. It’s been a phenomenal relationship ever since and I feel incredibly lucky to haven been a part of such a special family of surfers all these years!”
Words from Dave on the featured board:
“I was visiting Santa Barbara back in the summer of 2017 and was very fortunate to get to stop by the Channel Islands factory for the third time ever and get to talk with a couple of the shapers. The crew was incredibly gracious with their time and showed me a bunch of different models they had on the racks as I was on the search for a new board. As quick background, I’ve been surfing for over 30 years and have nearly 20 different Merricks (which often causes board confusion…), but I was looking for something super unique to add to my quiver and specifically one that would be an awesome go-to board to pull out when the waves are firing.
I live in Rhode Island and surf a variety of different point and reef breaks up here in New England, so this beautiful roundtail Peregrine immediately caught my eye with its unique four channel design. As a young surfer in the 80’s, I had two different boards with channels, but looking back I think they were a bit gimmicky and didn’t really function with the rocker and bottom contours at the time.. This Peregrine looked like it would fly down the line at my favorite point breaks in particular, and the more we talked about how it was designed for max speed and surfing off the rail, the more I fell in love with it.
My first session ever on it was a perfect Point Judith hurricane swell – a solid 4-6′ south swell with a relatively long period – and it literally delivered from the very first ride. It is now the most trusted board for my usual spots when the waves get up in the chest high + range — and I love the combination of drive and hold through high speed carves. It should be no surprise, but the CI shapers definitely figured out how to blend the channels in with what I consider to be some pretty aggressive exit rocker, so it really releases when you step on the tail and whip it. Bottom line – it is best performance shortboard I have in my quiver and the first one I grab on solid swells.
An enormous and heartfelt thanks to the CI crew for always outfitting me with the best boards out there!!
