me new whip! ok, here is the shake down : back in the spring of 2009 i was resolved to find a pig and keep one in my quiver as a permanent member. the deal is... back in '00 i moved to huntington beach, shortly there after my buddy "gave" me a pig. up until that moment ...the closest i had ever got to swine was not close enough. i mean i had a board that had many elements of a pig, but all of them worked against each other instead of in concert with each other. be that as it were , that board was my sole longboard. i purchased it in malibu back in '89. $60. a foam board that is heavier than any wood board of its size. wide point aft, narow nose, belly, and weight... the fin had been hacked down to a raked greenough template instead of a D fin... and the nose had some crazy flip to it... whaterver. it was a single fin, bought in '89 for $60. many a clean wave trimmed on that one. ... many o clean wave. i still have that board. a dust collector. speaking of dust collectors, i must speak on ye ole velzy jacobs . that board lead in a direct way to this board... but first ... lets get back to '00. my buddy "gave" me this pig. i was so stoked to have the board. no logo. soup can/ juice box rails. the type of board you look at and quickly judge as a "cork". yet, when you got on this board... it was magic. prior to moving to huntington i had been surfing up north. while surfing up there i had surfed with bigler a few times. we started seeing each other down in HB as well. he and i shared this magical fall morning together one september day back in '01. that board my buddy "gave" me was an extension of my mind. bigler came up to me on the beach and asked to check the board out. he thought hap might have shaped it. my ego was so pumped... i called my buddy and told him the history of the board. as i recall... albeit it was 12 years ago... he then asked for the board back. ... as i recall... i obliged his request...begrudgingly... a few years pass, i go to a board swap at the HB pier. my buddy tommy boy gives me the coin (knowing i will pay him back shortly) to buy this early yater pig. a great template. the type of shape you look at and think it will be EPIC. it was the biggest pile of shit i have ever surfed. i called it "the floating drifting sea cucumber". i sold it for 3 times what i paid my buddy back for... prior to filming INVASION! from planet C. it helped buy our van. ok, there it is... that is my experience with pig type boards prior to spring '09. back to the velzy. that board is a board of huge historical significance. i suppose if i were a board hoarder, or a museum, or a surfer looking for a particular feeling... i'd have held onto it. that board has a distinct ride. i was honored to ride it. i'm so grateful John sprinkled his magic dust on it. i am ultra pumped i was able to finagle the deal i just did. that board is now owned by a fantastic surfer that is going to surf that board more than i ever did... and he is a tremendous pig enthusiast. the best home imaginable for that board. i put that board up for sale , in hopes it would find a home that could give it more than i did. i could not have imagined it would find the home it did. a crazy situation this. that velzy jacobs provided me the opportunity to acquire this board. so.. this board huh? this board... mr 4126. 4126 was part of the trade/purchase for the velzy jacobs. 4126 is more significant to me than the velzy jacobs was. this bing was a board i knew a friend had. back in the spring of '09 i aggressively tried to buy this board off the gentleman i just traded it to for my Velzy Jacobs. back in '09 , when he refused to sell it to me, i wanted it so bad... it caused me to launch a blog and search the information super high way for all things pig. i was driven to find a proper pig. many a board surfed in this pursuit. many. and on the same wave. sliders point. such a nice wave. well after my buddy refused to sell me 4126 back in the spring of '09... i looked up matt calvani. at the time i was surfing cooperfish. gene had refused to shape me a pig. i had been begging him since '98. he was convinced that pigs were not good riding surfboards. hence my looking else where. soon after all this ... that changed. i was editing jazz at the time. matt dialed me in... the first blog post of surfapig was born. all on account of me trying and failing to buy this very surfboard. CRAZY. even more crazy is the fact that the board i had back in HB that bigler checked out might be coming back in my possesion here in the next week or so. that shit would be NUTZ.
A beautiful board! Tell me more...
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