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The 2005 Edition of The Bill Andrews Electronic Fish Wrapper Is Still Going!

26 May 2005 -

One of the true surfing legends died today - it's too bad more of the young guys [under 50 yrs old??] did not have the opportunity to meet Dale Velzy!

I met Dale in 1958 or so, when my dad drove me to the Velzy-Jacobs Shop in San Clemente.

Pat Manley and Howard Scott had gone up there a couple of week before I did -

They both returned to The Shores with brand new, finished surfboards -

When my dad and I got up there, all of the finished surfboards were gone

- BUT -

Dale disappeared into the "Back Room" -

[It seemed that EVERY surfshop had one of those mystical, err, mythical Back Rooms]

- and just happened to find that he had one, and only one, shaped blank for sale.

Dale asked me where I was from, and I said "La Jolla Shores."

Dale stepped back a couple of feet from me, as if I were a very important 14 year old gremmie.

"Wow" - he sez, "La Jolla, home of Simmons, WindanSea, Diff, Ekstrom, Nelson, The Patterson's!"

"You just gotta be a great surfer, and you must certainly know how to glass the blank, hot coat the blank, sand the blank, add the fin, sand the blank some more, and, naturally, finish the board with a couple of gloss coats per side, and then rub-out the board!"

"After all, this is a very special shaped blank, I made it for Phil Edwards - you mustta heard of him - he's the best surfer in the world, but I didn't finish it in time for Phil's trip to Hawaii, anyway, his loss is your gain!"

Dale had me so convinced that my non-existent surfing skills were world class, and that my glassing, sanding, and glossing skills simply had to be nurtured, that I just HAD to have that blank, after all, a finished board was about $90, and the for Phil Edwards blank, Shaped by The Hawk, was about $25, I think.

Years later, Dale and I became pretty good friends, and he said that he had sold MANY for Phil Edwards blanks to erstwhile gremmies - and "by the way," he asked "how did my board turn out?"

Great guy - he's one of the few that I'll miss!

BA

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