Surfing is one of the most difficult sports one will ever
attempt. You can be fit and coordinated
and excel in every other sport, and still never master the subtle timing
required to ride a wave well. And, anyone who’s ever tried it soon realizes that
switching stance on a surfboard is among the most difficult of all maneuvers.
Sixties-plus year old Dale Dobson switches so effortlessly that I have never
known if he was goofy foot (right foot forward) or regular foot (left foot
forward.) Dobson, who grew up in and around La Jolla apparently learned to
switch from legendary La Jollan and first king of the Pipeline, Butch Van
Artsdalen. Proving it a great rarity to master switching stance, I can only
think of one other surfer, Hawaiian born Jock Sutherland, who was ever as
proficient at that move as Butch and Dale.
I first became
aware of Dobson through surf magazines where he was regularly featured in
living color. But it wasn’t until the
mid 1970s, while surfing the La Jolla reefs that I started to understand what a
wave genius he really was. From Pacific Beach to Windansea and beyond, Dobson
dominated whatever break he happened to ride.
Unlike many
surf stars at the time, Dale had easily made the mid ’60s transition from
longboards to shortboards. Still, by the mid ‘80s it seemed that even his fame
had finally run its course. He was approaching his 40s by then and while still
brilliant in the water, the surf media was naturally focused on new blood. Then
something occurred that gave Dale and other stars of his era another shot at
stardom. Termed the Longboard Renaissance, ‘60s style longboards again roared
back into the lineup with Dobson as one of its leaders as he reached a second
peak, this time on nine-foot-plus boards that took him to the winner’s circle
in every surf contest he entered.
I can still
recall the day I paddled out to Cardiff and watched him do things I had never
seen on a nine-six. It was around that time, in the early ‘90s when I found myself
working as the announcer for many of the local surf contests while at the helm
of the longboard magazine, Longboarder. Because of my work and my love for
surfing I was regularly in the lineup with Dobson, to witness his mastery
firsthand. Few could touch him in those days and it would be a while until kids
like Kevin Connely and Joel Tudor would eventually catch and surpass him. By
then Dale Dobson had been hovering around the top of the surfing world for
nearly four decades.
It was
somewhere around the 1980s when collecting old longboards became popular and
restoration of them turned into a business. Requiring steady hands, great attention
to detail and a vast knowledge of the era and the materials needed, Dobson
showed himself the master of his craft as he patched, glossed and polished
these fine and long forgotten craft until they again looked showroom new.
A few years
ago somebody gave me an old and battered Dale Dobson Surfboard. It had some
unpatched dings and the fin was loose, and so it hung out in the rafters of my
garage collecting dust until I gave it to Dobson. A few months later Dale
appeared at my door to reveal the restored surfboard. It was beautiful. It soon
occurred to me that it took a great deal of work before that surfboard could once
again take its place at the head of most any lineup. Not many boards get that
chance. Neither do their riders.
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