It sucks if you destroy your board. It sucks if you destroy a friend’s board. But it sucks even more if your friend destroys your board while you are on holidays.
My lovely friend Jitske (our most recent Gidget by the way) was in Sydney for a few days and she did not bring her board so I left her my mal Bruce to get a bit of a surf in in Bondi like in good old times.
A few days into my holiday, I checked my email and could not believe what I read…Bruce got severely injured and it was going to be hard (and expensive) to revive him. My friend was devastated. So was I but she did the right thing and gave me a few options a) get it fixed b) trade it in c) leave some money so I can make my own call when I get back.
Option c it was and when I got back, I was still kind of hoping that Bruce’s injuries were not that bad after all. Well, they kind of were. There were two pretty big creases along the bottom. Not quite snapped but probably one more ride and it would have gone straight through. And it was in a shit position too. If it was closer to the nose it would have been alright but in the middle … not so great.
I brought him to the board hospital aka surf shop. They only confirmed that Bruce had his best years behind him and it’s probably better to just get a new Bruce.
2 hours later I’ve finally decided on a new Bruce. At first, the choice was between a similar size like old Bruce cheapie but brand new board or a 9.2 ft MacTavish shaped for one of the local pro surfer girls – used but looked like new and it was just beautiful. Unfortunately, a bit pricey too. Much more than I was planning on spending. I could not really decide. Torn between those two. Do I want the ‘Ferrari’ of longboards or the cheapie. Realistically, I don’t need the ‘Ferrari’ as I’m not really a longboarder and only need it to bash it around in 1 – 2 foot grovel in summer. Not to mention it would mean eating baked beans for the next month. It was such a great deal though and when do you get a close to new MacTavish tailored to a girl for such a great price? Tough, tough or do I go for the cheapie, blank, same size as Bruce , he will do the job, but but but no personality…
And then John from Dripping Wet – who knows his boards and his customers – probably sensed that I was just not 100% convinced by either otherwise I would have made my choice under 2 hours. He pulled out another board. There he was … BRUCE 2. Gorgeous, new, blue with red fast stripes. John gave me an awesome deal and with the contribution of my friend’s money for Bruce’ hospital bill, I’ve got a brand spanking new longboard dirt cheap. Whoop whoop. Early bday present for myself.
New Bruce is a bit bigger than old Bruce. Actually in fact, he’s a real long board at 9.1 foot. And just beautiful. So beautiful, I have not dared to take him out yet though because Bondi was soooo busy lately and I don’t want to ding him straight away and it was not really small enough to just take the long board. Oh well, so for a change I’m waiting for a small and not so busy day so I can take new Bruce for a test ride.
I’m sure he’ll be awesome. As much as it sucked to lose old Bruce – as he was the best board to introduce me to the world of hang-tens (well more like to the world of shuffle-to-the-nose-until-u-nosedive), things happen for a reason and maybe it was just time for a new Bruce.
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