The Ghetto Board

by Dara
(Port Aransas, Tx)

The first meeting

I got this board when I was 14 years old. I had never owned a surfboard before that so I was totally stoked about getting it. My uncle surprised me with it. I was bummed out one day because I didn't have my own board to surf on. He remembered about this board that he had bought some twenty odd years ago and he had put it away in this stoarge room. I came back to our campsite and there it was leaning up against a post next to my camper. I instantly fell in love with it. Get this though, the board was over twenty years old, it was a 7 ft water logged hunk of foam covered in duct tape from nose to tail rail to rail (literally), old wave was melted across the deck an you could (and still can) see where someone had extended the nose of the board on the back. Even though the board was covered with all of these flaws i still loved it. That board was by my side for a years. I rode at least one hundred waves on that baby and i enjoyed every one. This past summer I made some new surf buddies and the majority of them started criticising my board (ha ha nothing new) but one of them (Gordon) said the first time he saw the board, "I like it..i like it alot. I has character." After that statement i fell in even more love with the board. Gordon then named it the Ghetto Board because of its character and funny shape. I hardly ride it anymore because I started getting into short boards, but i still love my Ghetto board and I will always.