OK, as I said in my last entry, I had a bunch of surf firsts recently… so many in fact, that I needed two posts to cover them all. So after repairing my wetsuit (see last entry), I began preparations for the next day’s surf.

I planned to take out my new 9 Fish Fugu II for a spin. I had stuck with my 8ft. funboard for my surf lesson, but now I really wanted to see what a shorter, floatier epoxy fish would feel like. But first, I wanted to strip off all the cruddy old wax from its previous owner. Maybe it’s just a personal quirk of mine, but if my board’s gonna be covered in crusty, dirty wax, I want it to be MY crusty, dirty wax.

So on the to my next surfing first… cleaning off the wax from a board. Of course, having never done this before, I had no idea how to proceed. I read online that Sticky Bumps made a wax remover, but I didn’t have any on hand, and I really didn’t want to make another trip to the surf shop. I kept researching, and found a method that simply involved letting the boards lie in the sun for a few minutes (10 to be precise) then scraping off the wax with an old credit card. I put the Fish out side, set my oven timer for 10 minutes later, the took a cat nap on the sofa.

When the timer went off, I grabbed an old Comp USA card from my wallet (a useless card, seeing as the company went out of business) and started scraping… to my surprise and delight, the wax instantly lifted off the board. It was practically liquid! I was prepared for an all afternoon endeavor, but within ten minutes, the majority of the wax was gone! I spayed on a little “green” cleaner and wiped up the remaining residue, then hosed off the board to spray off any remaining cleaner or wax particles. Then, I wiped the board dry, brought it back in the house, and went about the rest of my day.

The next morning, I strapped the fugu to my car rack, and headed for the beach. Since this would be the first board I ever surfed after my 8 footer, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. But I figured, what the hell! It’s not like I was an expert on the other board, so how much worse could it be?

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I waxed it up with some eco-friendly Green Surf wax, strapped on my Wave Tribe leash, and hit the water. I was expecting a paddle battle to get out to the line up, since the board was a good foot and a half shorter than what I was used to. But the thick fish shape and the buoyant epoxy seemed to make up for the shorter length. I had a little bit of trouble finding trim, but once that was settled, the board paddled great… I made it out no problem, found my balance point, and sat proudly on my new shorter fish board!

I even caught a wave that first day! Of course, I fell off again after a few seconds, but that always happened on my other board as well. And the 6′4 Fugu is SO much easier to carry around, maneuver, and store. All in all, I am definitely glad I found this board on craig’s list. I’ve been out on it one more time since then, and it just feels more comfortable to me right now. I’ll keep the funboard for small days, or for friends who want to try it out, but I plan to focus on this board for a while now.

When I got home, I used the sun/credit card trick and cleaned off the old funboard, wiped it dry, and put it in my Wave Tribe board bag to store. Man, somehow the board looks even bigger when you see it wrapped in a giant blue padded bag!

So, to sum up, the remainder of my surfing firsts were:

1. First time cleaning wax off a board

2. First time surfing a new board period!

3. First time on an epoxy board.

All in all, I feel like I learned a lot this weekend. I still may not be a great surfer, but I feel like I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the goal is slightly closer, just coming in to sight. Did any readers out there have any interesting surf experiences recently? Any good first time stories? Please leave some comments and let me know! Stay stoked!