If you’ve read some of my other blog posts, you know that I am a kooky bodyboarder, part of an often-times ridiculed subset of the “real” surfing experience.

I was 14 when my brother gave me a surfboard for Christmas. But it wasn’t just any surfboard. He lived next door to Dane Kealoha that summer in San Clemente and the board he brought out that Christmas morning was one of Dane’s old single fins—you know, one of the classic orange ones with the two sweeping color lines (Like here on this old Surfer cover.) It was almost new, ding free and beautiful, but I have to admit that I wasn’t entirely happy.

You see at the time I was about as serious as I could be about bodyboarding—and belonged to a tightly knit group of spongers down at T-street in San Clemente. We thought we were on to something good—something big—and a few of the guys had their own pro model boards and even paychecks to prove it.

So Dane’s board languished in my garage, pretty much unused. Oh, I took it out to Cotton’s and caught a few, but after you’ve pushed over the ledge at the Wedge or launched off the end section at 10th Street, it seemed pretty tame. Plus, I felt like I was starting from scratch (because I was) and I was impatient back then.

So I stuck with bodyboarding, became the associate editor of BodyBoarding Magazine (remember that?) back in the late 1980s when I was in college and never looked back.

I don’t remember what happened to Dane’s board exactly, but I think it involved a late night high school party down on the beach, a lot of beer, a hammer, a bonfire, and some gasoline—but I’m no longer certain.

I cringe when I think of what I (perhaps) did to that now-historic board and what it might have been worth today.

Anyway, back then my ignorance was nearly complete. When I was at BBing magazine I remember one of our largest advertisers was Sims Snowboards, and oh how we made fun of them. “Snowboarding: what a sport for kooks,” we thought.

But then the bodyboarding market cratered, I left to edit Outdoor Retailer Magazine, got married, grew up (sorta), and eventually ended up editing SNOWboarding Business magazine (ah, life’s ironies).

At that point, the slow hard truth made itself clear. The fact was, a lot of people thought bodyboarding was the worst sport ever—a total kook fest. But by then, I didn’t really care much what people thought. In fact, I wore my sport’s perceived shame as a badge of honor. It was fun. I was still okay at it. And I had been at it since I was six. Why stop?

I remember one of TransWorld’s old chiefs sitting me down in his office and being genuinely concerned that I was taking my sponge to SIMA Surf Summit 5. “Can’t you just take a surfboard?” he asked. That one stung like hell, but I was proud when I laughed in his face and told him there was no f-ing way I’d ever do that.

So, my point (finally) is that this experience has shaped how I view other sports as well. In fact, it’s been with genuine pleasure that I’ve watched the longboard skateboarding market grow and flourish. Here was another sport that some of the cognoscenti ridiculed, especially the endemic skate media. But it grew and grew and grew despite that, which never fails to make me smile.

Some of the stigma has faded a bit with longboarding’s popularity (and, quite frankly, because of the wonderful job Sector 9 has done marketing their brand), but browse the message boards on silverfishlongboarding.com and you’ll see the perceived stigma they still confront. But you know what? It’s a hell of a tightly knit community because of it.

So let’s hear it for the fringe, the niche. Here’s to the people who do a sport not because it’s trendy, but because it’s fun, provides a thrill, or gives them a new perspective on the rest of their life. And bravo when that fringe becomes successful and helps grow a specialty store’s business along the way. We here at Surf Expo take pride in exposing our buyers to the full length, width, and depth of the beach culture lifestyle. That’s why I’m particularly excited about the slalom, downhill, and longboarding demo happening during the September show. Check it out and remember to keep your eyes and mind open for the next big thing when you’re cruising the aisles of Surf Expo.

Slalom and Freestyle Demo
Surf Expo, in association with Concrete Wave Magazine, presents a demonstration of slalom and freestyle skateboarding.
Location: 100S
Friday, September 12
Demo Times: 10:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m., 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 13
Demo Times: 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 14
Demo Times: 10:30 a.m., 2:00 p.m.