Join episode S1E06 for everything from Dadeland to South Beach. Live from Division Wynwood where Santi sits down to talk about being a surf skate punk from Kendall, and getting beat up by grown men as a grom. Pop-in by special guest Ami James.
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[00:00:00] Chris: [00:00:01] Chris: Bradley Wells. Ah, Christian, we’re back. We’re back. Doing it again. Episode number six. Six. And we are a day early. Yes. It’s not Friday. Just in case you have to look at your calendar. In case [00:00:11] Brad: anyone was missing that. [00:00:14] Brad: It’s Thursday, February 13th. 14th. 16th. No. 15th. Yeah, it’s the 15th. [00:00:21] Chris: 15th. The day after Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving. [00:00:25] Brad: Oh man. Wow. You want me to just like, start this all over [00:00:28] Chris: again? No. This is so good. It’s all perfect. The day after Valentine’s Day. The day after [00:00:32] Brad: Valentine’s Day. Wow. So did you have a good turkey dinner last night? [00:00:35] Brad: I was [00:00:36] Chris: really hungry. [00:00:36] Brad: I think that’s where it’s coming from. [00:00:38] Chris: I’m really hungry. I’m like, mmm, turkey. [00:00:42] Brad: Who doesn’t want turkey and gravy all the time? Well, if you haven’t been watching this before, I’m Brad from Thank You Serving and this is Chris from Division Wynwood as well as First Surf Shop. That’s right. [00:00:52] Brad: And we are actually here at Division instead of at the First Shop like we’ve been doing the last five episodes. [00:00:59] Chris: That’s right. [00:01:00] And it’s a little different looking. I mean, Been here a couple times. Yeah, I like it. It’s a little bit more concrete. It’s a little bit more skate Uh, we got a little tattoo shop that’s attached to this as well as well as an event space Of which if I can put a little plug in here, i’ll plug it. [00:01:14] Chris: We are having a little event Tomorrow night where we’re having a discussion on [00:01:19] Brad: this is oh friday february Thank you, please. It’s gonna be the 16th [00:01:26] Chris: 16th february 16th Tomorrow friday that we are doing a little Seminar 101 on I’m a Rhyme Mood. Okay, that’s kind of backwards. It really just says Marijuana 101. [00:01:38] Chris: And we’re doing a little seminar tomorrow here at 7pm to talk about everything medicinal. Um, from your CBD oils, to your hand salves, to are you smoking the right kind of stuff. And really, just again, going away from the stereotype of your Spicoli. And kind of just teaching a little bit more of the medicinal values to a wonderful plant that they call [00:02:00] Very [00:02:01] Brad: cool. [00:02:01] Brad: So you guys are doing some programming here We’re trying [00:02:04] Chris: you know If you have ideas if you want to do stuff if you want to grab a group and talk about things Do you guys have space? We’ve got 3600 square feet. We’ve got plenty of space. How many that’s a lot of three That’s a lot of teeth. It’s a room for like what? [00:02:17] Chris: 40 people. Well, if you’ve ever been to first surf shop, we are about 1, 500 square feet. So we are double and a change past that. So we have skate surf shop part here. We’ve got the tattoo part that goes around the corner and then the event space in the back. Plus a whole courtyard. Courtyard is awesome. [00:02:33] Chris: Courtyard is cool that we can kind of do stuff. So we, that is our first little hosting event that we’re doing. And if, again, you got things that you want to talk about, things you want to do, Groups, you want to gather. We are here to gather. We’re here to help you. [00:02:48] Brad: Awesome. Good try. Right, well let’s talk about the surf that we’ve had. [00:02:52] Brad: And um, have we had, well, you know, we had a little [00:02:56] Chris: fun weekend. [00:02:57] Brad: Yeah, there was um, you know, [00:03:00] it’s this summertime, springtime pattern that we’re in. Is this early? Like, I mean, I feel like last week when we [00:03:05] Chris: kind of talked about it, we saw this coming up and we’re saying, Oh, look at this high pressure setting up. [00:03:09] Chris: Yep. And it did. [00:03:10] Brad: Okay. And then we’ve been getting kind of bursts of stronger wind, which have given us a little bit of wind swell, uh, from time to time at the right tides, pretty much like we talked about last week, only it happened over the weekend. Right. We had really nice weather. So good. I know. And everybody [00:03:27] Chris: was like out, and it was like just a cool beach day, and Figaro’s smiling, and it was like high fives, and it wasn’t that big, it was like thigh, maybe waist high, and not much more than that, but It broke [00:03:39] Brad: pretty much Saturday and Sunday. [00:03:41] Brad: Yup. A little leftover [00:03:43] Chris: Monday, I think, right? Yeah, yeah. [00:03:45] Brad: And the weather was super nice. Uh, yeah, that’s the other thing. So, uh, as we got further through the week, at the lower tides, there’s been just enough wind to make, like, a knee high wave. So if you want to get out, you can get out. [00:03:55] Chris: And I saw on your post this morning, that it was a little bit of a trace wall. [00:03:59] Brad: Ugh, [00:04:00] so this is I saw that [00:04:01] Chris: and I was like, what are we doing? What’s going on? [00:04:03] Brad: Yeah, so that’s I guess sort of indicative of the season that we’re kind of in or the transition that’s occurring usually coming into spring You see a little bit more east southeast winds, right, but there was a north swell sort of just like from this like Almost cold front that almost sort of passed us didn’t really get all the way down But it created I guess just enough north wind in our window to create a little swell and I swear like Mid morning, there were some sets coming in, even up, um, like, not at the best spots, like, maybe thigh high ground swell. [00:04:37] Brad: Wow. And I imagine at the better spots, maybe like, probably pushing waist or stomach high on peaks. So, kind of funny. It showed up out of nowhere. Um, if you walked outside this morning, you kind of felt like it was a little drier, a little cooler than we’ve had, right? And that, that same sort of system brought a little, little waving. [00:04:56] Brad: Wow. [00:04:57] Chris: Seems like weather was behind that, but I just say it’s the [00:05:00] Bermuda Triangle. No, that’s it. I mean, I don’t get it. [00:05:03] Brad: There is no buoy reading, um, that said that there was really any swell in our, in our window. There was. Not very much wind in our window to even push something into the buoys readings. Um, all in all, it’s just like, Did you get out [00:05:19] Chris: today? [00:05:20] Chris: I worked. Oh, you worked. That was wonderful. Yeah, I love my clients. Anybody get out there? I saw some people out. Ah, yeah. I mean, there was like one guy [00:05:29] Brad: out, uh, right when the swell started to pick up. And I was like, that is a very lucky individual. [00:05:34] Chris: Oh, lucky swells. Yeah, yeah. Lucky peeps. [00:05:37] Brad: Yeah. This is what it is when you are really dedicated to the game. [00:05:42] Brad: You can go out there even, uh, in South Beach and surf by yourself. And, I mean, you just got to be that dedicated. [00:05:50] Chris: Yeah, you know, there was somebody I knew that surfed a little bit more, the Surfside Harbor House area. Uh, Johnny, as some would know, they worked for Delta and he was a little fun shaper, but he was [00:06:00] one of those guys that lived across the street, uh, and was literally on it all the time. [00:06:04] Chris: And he would write it down on his calendar every single year, would kind of mark it down. It would almost be a great bellwether, where you’d call him up and you’d be like, so let me see some of the past of what was going on and kind of give you an idea. But the guy would literally serve 200 days out of the year. [00:06:19] Chris: And I was like, 200 days a year? Here. So it just goes to show that you, you know, , you really have to be on it all the time. Yeah. I live across the street from the beach, like I live [00:06:29] Brad: at the beach and I’m on it like as much as, [00:06:33] Chris: and this is before social media for him and any of that stuff. So he wasn’t even checking stuff. [00:06:36] Chris: He was just going outside and he was looking at [00:06:39] Brad: you live. When you live at the ocean and you see it, you’re just like, huh, a wave. Great. I’m gonna go surf that wave. And that’s pretty much as, as much as you need to do in terms of forecasting. [00:06:48] Chris: Well, you need to do that. And we’ve got a first surf shop right afterwards. [00:06:51] Chris: I’m just saying [00:06:51] Brad: that. Yeah. So, uh, [00:06:52] Chris: what else we got going on this week? [00:06:54] Santi: I mean, so, [00:06:55] Chris: well, I mean, coming on, sir, do we see anything coming up? I mean, more [00:07:00] of the same, really. You know, it’s kind of interesting that. I saw like the seven to 10 and there was nothing favorable on it. [00:07:07] Brad: Yeah. The whole seven to 10 day forecast is pretty minimal. [00:07:11] Brad: Um, we are seeing, like we talked about before, it’s kind of like East, East Southeast sort of pattern, and it is creating a bit of trade swell up above the Bahama Bank. So if you were, say, like a satellite beach anywhere in the space coast this morning, beautiful waves, chest high, glassy, ground swell. And um, I just don’t see any of that [00:07:34] Chris: here. [00:07:34] Chris: I was talking to the Larson clan, which is an old, old school Miami family here, Uhhuh their, their daughters Zoe and, um, and Mia are killing it out there, but they’re going up tomorrow and they were saying that Fort Pierce are in that central Florida area. Should be pretty good. Yeah. Yeah. Glassy. [00:07:51] Brad: Yeah. Yeah. [00:07:51] Brad: So we’ve got, like I said, like this, uh, trade swells East, east, southeast, kind of right. Three to four, maybe, you [00:08:00] know, at nine, 10 seconds. And that’s, that’s great. That’s great size for Florida. And when you can get good wins with it, it’s definitely worth the trip. It’s just kind of hard to push yourself to go up there when you know, it’s a guarantee. [00:08:12] Brad: Like it’s still kind of like [00:08:13] Chris: a 50, 50, you go up there, good possibility of getting stunk or you’re getting waves. Unless, no, [00:08:17] Brad: you’re definitely going to get waves. It’s just a matter of, Whether you’re willing to go up for waist high waves as a lot of us are Yeah, I mean you got to kind of change your I try to work all the time. [00:08:29] Brad: I never go up We’ve gone up a couple times it’s gorgeous good Good that works. Yeah, so that’s it I mean we’re gonna have some waves locally You just kind of have to wait for the right tide and like the wind to push up just enough to make some waves And then up coast if you’re watching the winds every time there’s not wind Uh, there’s probably a little wave So, yeah. [00:08:50] Brad: Definitely rideable. Anything coming up this weekend [00:08:53] Chris: as far as happenings? I know last weekend, or was it this last weekend before it was a Surfrider event, and not much happened since last [00:09:00] weekend. Anything else coming up within the realms? I know that first we don’t have anything. Relatively soon, tomorrow, we have a little event with Division. [00:09:07] Chris: Uh, we’re at Division with Medical Marijuana. Thank you, Surfin [00:09:11] Brad: Uh, well, actually, the only thing I can think of is Jose’s wedding. [00:09:17] Chris: Jose! What’s up, Jose? Congratulations. I’m excited for you. You were about to do this live casting at your wedding, but Brad decided he wanted to do it today. I thought it’d be nicer. [00:09:31] Chris: Although, I haven’t met your wife yet, but when I do, I will tell her the story and be like, you’re lucky that I [00:09:36] Brad: didn’t do this on your wedding. It might have been a nice idea. I think it’d be funny. I mean, we still could reconsider and do it. I don’t think so. [00:09:44] Chris: Bonding coming after. [00:09:45] Brad: But, uh, that’s the only thing going on really. [00:09:47] Brad: Um, that’s my weekend plan is, uh, basically hang out at, uh, Jose’s wedding. Well, [00:09:54] Chris: it is boat show in town as well. So, there are activities going on. There is boat show. From Key Biscayne all [00:10:00] the way up to Mid Miami Beach up in Foyettes. So, there are activities going on. Um, there is first surf shop on the beach and we’re always having a good time. [00:10:07] Chris: So just swing by there that I just shamelessly plugged three times. Oh, so good. I mean, you [00:10:14] Brad: gotta do it. [00:10:14] Chris: Um, [00:10:18] Brad: what else? Oh, thank you. Surfing. We posted a local lens from Annie and to Roger and coffin to Roger and it is pretty awesome. Yeah, she shoots amazing stuff. And it’s, you know, someone, uh, walked by my desk when I was, uh, posting all this stuff on the blog, and it’s a guy that does branding, super smart guy, and and I was like, you know, these are just like, they’re somehow different, and like, he took like a halfway sideways glance and just said, Yeah, uh, those are moments in time. [00:10:52] Brad: Those aren’t, like, images that she went out and captured. I’m like, oh my god, you’re right! That’s exactly what it is! [00:11:00] And that’s, I guess, that’s the magic of it, you know? Like, Annie’s out there enough to know when it’s a magical moment, and she sits there and just goes, boop! And then, it just turns into that sort of, like, [00:11:12] Chris: Absolutely. [00:11:12] Chris: No, she has a good finger on that pulse. Yeah. [00:11:15] Brad: I mean the best days of the year. She’s pretty much behind the lens for a part of it. Which is crazy [00:11:21] Chris: because she kills it surfing. I know. Like longboard and shortboard. That’s got to be part of the tip. She used to be an amateur pro for those of you that know Annie and maybe not know a lot of her background. [00:11:31] Chris: I mean, she kind of killed it and was kind of on that forefront. I’m proud of her. You know, I almost wanted to see her be as good as she was younger, 10 years later, when there was a lot more attention to it. Right. Like it was like girls were like fighting boys to try to get some sort of attention. This was like, just as Roxy was starting to come around, just as Lisa Anderson was kind of having a little bit more of carrying that flag of like the first, like hardcore women. [00:11:56] Chris: I mean, there were so many great women surfers before that Frida Zamba and [00:12:00] everyone else. But, um, you know, Annie growing up at that point, um, Such amazing talent. It’s so hard, but you know, she’s one of these coast girls that we’re kind of doing stuff. Um, still kills it. I’m a longboat. Great Steelo. [00:12:15] Brad: Yeah. So, uh, we posted, normally we post, you know, about 10 pictures and she sent over like a whole barrage of stuff. [00:12:24] Brad: She probably has [00:12:25] Chris: thousands and so many that nobody’s seen. Yeah, as [00:12:28] Brad: a matter of [00:12:28] Chris: fact. She’s so critical on her own stuff that she’s probably like, that’s not worth it. That’s not worth it. What if any one of us would look at it and be like, I’ll take it. Yeah. [00:12:35] Brad: Like, can I frame that? Exactly. Actually, one of the images we posted, uh, was a flip and flip. [00:12:41] Brad: It was like, I had never seen that shot. I was like, that is a, and it’s a really, really good shot. I wonder how [00:12:48] Chris: many pictures are out there between Andy that we’re talking about, as well as all the other artists or like photographers that are gone on. Like imagine like so many good shots, like there’s so many of us that are just like, God, I never made a [00:13:00] great pic, the pic might be somewhere. [00:13:02] Brad: No, it’s definitely in someone’s hard drive sitting like, or a external hard drive, like rotting away in a closet somewhere. You really need to go [00:13:08] Chris: ahead and do one of those. Um, photo exposés that we had done before, once at the shop. Where we just have all the local photographers do it again. I mean, it’s a great time. [00:13:17] Chris: We hang out. We have some brews. We eat some amazing tacos. This guy kills a fucking taco game. He really do. Like, I mean, if you’re gonna have a taco stand, I would go. I mean, it’s great. And shredded beef and stuff like that is Another career option. I’m just saying we got a little space in the back 36. [00:13:35] Chris: Yeah, we do. I mean, can this be now our anchors? Oh, I don’t know. Maybe our anchors, but maybe we move it as far as doing our thank you. Surfing. [00:13:45] Brad: We can do it from everywhere. That’s the beauty of it. We are live and direct from where we’re sitting. Where we are. Where we’re sitting. [00:13:53] Chris: We are in Wynwood on 26th and 5th Ave. [00:13:57] Chris: Yeah. And we have fun back here. I mean, [00:14:00] it’s a little bit kind of off the beaten path, which is why we came out here. Like everybody is kind of moving in this direction off of 2nd Avenue in this way. And we said, hey, let’s have some fun. We got some empty streets. We’ll throw some little skate ramps out there. [00:14:12] Chris: It’s a big space, especially considering how much outdoor space But it’s so fun. I keep inviting people out here. I’m like, let’s go party. Like I’ve got so much room. Let’s do some poker matches. You’ll see I’m eyeballing you. And, uh, you know, so we’ll try to keep doing fun stuff. [00:14:26] Brad: I like being here. It’s a definitely a nice change. [00:14:30] Brad: If you check out the Instagram story I did before. Uh, you’ll see some of this stuff. I don’t know that I’ve got a YouTube background, I haven’t seen it. Yeah, [00:14:37] Chris: yeah, [00:14:37] Brad: yeah. Um, so we do have some other stuff to talk about this week. Um, the first thing, and I don’t know this about you, so I’m actually kind of interested to know. [00:14:49] Brad: How did you learn how to surf? That is it. You know, learning to surf in general. I want to know how you learned to surf and just your thoughts on learning to surf because it’s not easy. [00:15:00] And, um, and [00:15:01] Chris: if you don’t have any sort of resources around you to tap into, I mean, well granted now there’s, you know, so much of the internet that you can kind of tap into. [00:15:08] Chris: You can see videos and you can do all that stuff, but. When we were growing up, there were no videos. I mean, the fact that you could even ask somebody was one of like this cool thing where you’re like, if you have to ask, you don’t know, or you shouldn’t be doing it. Okay. So that’s when you [00:15:20] Brad: felt like, yeah, and I’m, and [00:15:23] Chris: I’m totally like the not cool kid that like, I was just kind of blending in and just wanted to be a wallflower. [00:15:29] Chris: I didn’t want to like, stir the pot And I grew up on like your 71st Street, Normandy Isle area. So a lot of the areas I learned to surf were on 69th Street in Collins. Um, and back then [00:15:40] Brad: Miami Beach, [00:15:41] Chris: Florida, um, and back then there was a surf shop called Tradewinds that had just opened up on 69th with Sam and Jaime Brunstein. [00:15:48] Chris: And the only, and the other shops that were, were north of us were Isle Water Sports. And then as well as bird surf shop. And then to the south of us, Right. It was exile. And there was, it was sort of, I [00:16:00] mean, we’ve had a rich surf culture since the late thirties, you know, we’ve had so many shops that have come through there. [00:16:04] Chris: So for me growing up in that mid beach area, I was able to access Harbor house and haul over to the north and then kind of hang out at South beach. But in each place, [00:16:12] Brad: that was kind of like your range [00:16:14] Chris: but each place is, I made sure that I made So how did, I didn’t make any ripples. I mean, it’s like I, I just made sure, but before that, [00:16:20] Brad: before that, like, [00:16:21] Chris: oh, day one was, it was Woolworth. [00:16:23] Chris: There was a Woolworth on 73rd Street in Collins in Miami Beach, and they had the styrofoam boards. I’m sorry, that is not here whatsoever. But David, [00:16:33] Brad: you got out there, right. And then [00:16:35] Chris: what I would do is like at the low tide, I would run with the little, with the little waves and I would go and try to jump on. [00:16:40] Chris: I’d try to jump on ’em, and I split a couple and my mom was so mad. And it was one of those things because they broke so easy. They were not meant to [00:16:45] Brad: be [00:16:46] Chris: surfed [00:16:46] Brad: in. But [00:16:47] Chris: now that I think about it, they had all these rails underneath. There was no fins and stuff like that. And they might have been a little bit more advanced in their time. [00:16:53] Chris: Anyway, so past that So that was it. So you [00:16:56] Brad: But how did you even decide that you wanted to do this? My mom [00:16:59] Chris: got me into it. [00:17:00] My mom’s Peruvian and, you know, we have a lot of coastline. And we lived on the beach. And I guess at some point she was like, we’re always going to the beach because she loved the beach. [00:17:08] Chris: So at that point she was like, You know, here this is happening, other things have been, you lay on this and I’m like, lay on it, I don’t want to stand on it and I broke it and I was like, and then, you know, and then all of a sudden you have like little mooring boogie boards that you try to stand on and then the mooring boogie boards with like the little fins that clip that like came in and out, right? [00:17:27] Chris: Like, if you got that Moray boogie board, you were stoked, and yes, yes, we all started boogieing at some point. So, alright, that’s basically how I started. And then I got, like, a 50 used board, a Damien surfboard with a green fin that was, like, the longest thing that at low tide, if you kept on surfing, it would hit the sandbar, and it would, like, launch you forward. [00:17:46] Chris: Um, and I got that from my old, I mean from, uh, Tradewinds Surf Shop and then you kind of grew from [00:17:50] Brad: there. So who taught you, like, even how to stand on a board or anything? You just figured it out? But I mean, did you watch other people or? Right, I [00:17:59] Chris: mean, [00:18:00] at the local beach that I was at on 69th, 65th, it’s not like we had a lot of people. [00:18:04] Chris: Right. There was, I mean, there was like some local kids I went to school with that we kind of did that. And then you would go to the other beaches and you would, you know, Get on your board and you’d paddle because, oh, wait, no, back then Corky Carroll and these guys and everybody on the ASP had it for the contest. [00:18:18] Chris: Anytime the contest was on like channel 39 or something like that, the WB back in the day, and they would have surf contests there and you would kind of watch that. And of course, like when I was, you know, a kid, North Shore, the movie came out. So I think a lot of it was just watching and saying, okay, I see this is what it’s supposed to be like. [00:18:35] Chris: And I think as a kid, you learn so much more. You learn so much quicker. Really? Yeah, because like I think you under, like someone teaches you mechanics or you see the way it’s supposed to do and there’s no preconceived notions. There’s no, I can’t do that. You see it and you try to do it. And then you just do it, you know, and um as and i’ve noticed that in teaching people as well that kids pick it up a lot quicker. [00:18:56] Chris: And I think a lot of that is that production notion behind it, you know? [00:19:00] So, I mean, that was kind of how I started and kind of grew from there. But there was nobody to talk to. Very nice, my [00:19:08] Ami: friend. Very nice. I like this guy. Hey, everybody, how are you? How are you doing? Very nice, my friend here. Very good surf. [00:19:16] Ami: Yeah? Yeah? Good, good. What’s this? You’ve got [00:19:19] Chris: a thing [00:19:20] Ami: in [00:19:20] Chris: tooth. [00:19:21] Ami: I have something pretty nice, [00:19:22] Chris: huh? Santi, if you want to join us, little buddy. Yeah, come on in. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re bringing in Santi Sanz. Some heavy alternative. [00:19:35] Chris: And somebody we’d love to ask questions on. How do you get such perfect hair after taking your motorcycle helmet off? I don’t get it. I don’t get it. Welcome, Santi Sanz. Come on in, buddy. There you go. Cheers. Welcome. Thank you. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. Currently, Bradley is going to ask me about learning to surf and how I learned to surf and [00:20:00] how to have that process. [00:20:01] Chris: How old were you and how did you learn? [00:20:04] Santi: So, I remember I lived in Kendall. Initially, I moved to the States. I moved to the States. Um, lived in Club Atlantis until I was 26 in Collins, never thought about surfing, little kid. Um, moved out to Kendall, but So you lived [00:20:23] Chris: on the beach, you’re like, surfing, I don’t know, but when you went inland, you’re like, I kind of like the beach. [00:20:28] Chris: Yeah, [00:20:28] Santi: it’s like, ooh, I missed something, I don’t know what it is, I think it’s the beach. Um, ended up going, I think I was about 12 or 13, and I remember taking, I don’t know. The bus, this is when Don Carter’s was on. Don Carter’s! So 137th, I’d walk to Don Carter’s with some, actually the first board I had was probably like an SBU hand me down from probably like Dennis. [00:20:51] Santi: What’s [00:20:51] Chris: crazy, do you think you’d be able to make it on the Metrobus these days with a board anymore? Like I knew as a kid, because I’d take it from Normandy, and I’d be able to take the [00:21:00] surfboard, I don’t think they would do it anymore. Those things are so packed. [00:21:02] Santi: So I would actually, I remember on the White Pass. [00:21:06] Santi: The bus driver is mad at you because they have to sleep at night. [00:21:09] Chris: Where the bus drivers actually slept and did stuff at night. [00:21:11] Santi: But I was young enough where they wouldn’t give me shit. Like, uh, he’s a little kid, he’s here by himself. Wherever his parents are, don’t worry about him. It’s a different time. [00:21:18] Santi: Different time, you know? Before, like, abductions and all that, so. [00:21:22] Chris: Yeah, [00:21:22] Santi: yeah. Um, so I take the bus from Don Carter’s to the Metro. Metro to Government Center. Government Center. Take a bus. And I’d go with like two of my, two of my buddies surf for the rest of the whole day. And, uh, I bet you come back. Well, backtrack a couple of years back, I used to skimboard, believe it or not. [00:21:46] Santi: We all did. I shouldn’t have even said that. That’s okay. Whatever. I used to skimboard. I broke my foot. I broke my femur on fucking second. And uh, On second tree, I broke my femur. It put me out. Skin on a roller [00:21:57] Chris: blade. [00:22:00] For those of you that roller blade, I’m just kidding. That’s fine, that’s fine. [00:22:04] Santi: But yeah, that was basically, And I remember the first time. [00:22:07] Santi: The first, like, actual wave I actually rode the line, I was right, I was, like I said, it was like an SBE, it was probably like a, like a 6’5 I was maybe like, I don’t know, 5’0 At the time, it was like 5’0 I remember, and it was right off the jetty. With the old, uh, the old, uh, yeah, the old pier. And I remember riding the wave and realizing like, I’m not riding, we like white water, you know, like it’s the wave. [00:22:33] Santi: It’s not white walking wave. Like they, it’s like a face, like I’m doing it and then it’s like, and then I just hit a rock saw and then I swear, like since that day I was like, alright, I’m doing this for the [00:22:46] Brad: rest [00:22:46] Santi: of my life. Wow. [00:22:48] Brad: That’s pretty. How did you even get the, uh. Motivation to leave Kendall, because it’s not, there’s really like three, you don’t really need a lot of, [00:22:55] Santi: you don’t really need a lot of motivation to leave Kendall, especially, I [00:23:00] think Kendall [00:23:00] Chris: was like maybe the western edge of Miami back then, it was the [00:23:03] Santi: wild west, there was really nothing there, you’d probably still be able to see Gators walking the streets, right, right, no, it was just, I remember it was Don Carter’s and a Publix, and a lot of fields, right, and maybe like one or two, let me just, yeah, there was nothing, [00:23:19] Chris: But it seems like there was a lot of skaters that came out of, like, that Kendall South Miami area. [00:23:23] Chris: Yeah, yeah. Because, in a sense, there was nothing else to do, and there was plenty of area to kind of do that. Skate. Skate is cool. Skate is still What was that thing? [00:23:31] Santi: Yeah, it was, uh, some bank. It was a, yeah, it was Never mind, but yeah, Kendall. Skateboarding. That was the only thing we had to do until we went [00:23:40] Chris: Bradley. [00:23:41] Chris: Where did you, uh, I mean, I’m guessing originally from New York that Yeah. Learning to surf was in New York. How old were you? How old were you when you started, started, uh, surfing when you first kind of figured it out or [00:23:51] Santi: like real Well, when I finally like got like a wave. I was probably 13. Yeah. [00:23:57] Chris: I mean, I agree. [00:23:58] Chris: I like, I learned when I [00:24:00] was like 10 or 11, but I don’t think I like knew how to surf until I was 14 from just like not being, you know, inconsistencies, you know, mom, I’m still learning. I’m still learning how to surf. I know that cut back is so loony. Yeah. [00:24:14] Brad: I was, uh, I was really young when I wanted to do it. [00:24:19] Brad: I knew from like the time I was, Like five or six and I had older brothers and like they used to bring magazines home. And I’d be like, I want to do that. Like that. So your [00:24:28] Chris: older brothers were surfing ahead of you or? [00:24:30] Brad: They a little bit. They skated, they used a boogie board. It was some sort of board riding component. [00:24:36] Brad: Exactly. And, um, yeah. So I started skating when I was like five and then, um, snowboarding came in and I started snowboarding a lot. And so surfing was like the next thing for me. And For sure. And I was already in the ocean boogie boarding and stuff a lot and my mom was like, no, the sharks will get you. [00:24:55] Brad: Yeah. And how was that wetsuit [00:24:57] Chris: life growing up? [00:25:00] Was wetsuit just part of your life? Yeah. Because growing up down here, like we wore wetsuits. Maybe if you could afford one once a year. [00:25:08] Brad: Um, [00:25:08] Chris: but I, but like, I wonder what that was like growing up. I bought, [00:25:11] Brad: I bought a wetsuit. I have a picture of me in a wetsuit that I bought, but I gave my parents to buy me at Costco or like whatever Sam’s club or something like that. [00:25:22] Brad: When I was probably like nine years old or something. When you go on [00:25:25] Chris: a limb and say it was probably too big on you? [00:25:27] Brad: Yeah. Oh yeah, you’d get like a little heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stitching was weird. The whole structure of it was bad. But I looked awesome. Yes. I was like ready to go. [00:25:36] Chris: You were like, let me get some Zinca up in there. [00:25:38] Chris: Oh, I had some [00:25:38] Brad: Zinca. The whole body. Yeah, man, it was like the late 80s, early 90s. I was ready for it and so, um, yeah, so I was like really like about it and, um, my folks, my brothers, no one I knew was. Like, nobody wanted to go surfing and so I just like kept it as something that I always wanted to do. Did you live [00:25:58] Chris: close to the beach? [00:25:59] Chris: I lived [00:26:00] like [00:26:01] Brad: 10 miles from the beach. How did you [00:26:03] Chris: get down there? [00:26:04] Brad: Uh, my folks would take me, we’d go to the beach a lot. You know, like, all summer long we’d go to the beach. And, um, eventually [00:26:11] Chris: How about community like? What, did you Was there, was there When I was, like Because I felt like growing up here, it wasn’t as if there was like a huge surf community. [00:26:18] Chris: It was, I, I almost compare it to what, like, to like Venice back in the, like, the 70s. There were so many, like, [00:26:24] Santi: things keeping you from it. Like, like, the old locals, they would just shit on you. Shit on you. You like grown ass men that kick your ass. You didn’t know how to turn aboard, so you kind of like run into ’em or you drop in and you didn’t know how to like, you know, you know, kick out of the league. [00:26:38] Santi: Yeah. Because like you said, no one’s from there [00:26:40] Brad: and you do anything. So you’re like, wait, that’s not allowed. I wasn’t supposed to do what I just did. I didn’t even know that was a thing. Ah, and back then, [00:26:47] Santi: before there were lawyers. It’s a great feeling when you’re about to get your ass kicked by a grown man. [00:26:51] Santi: Grown ass man, probably 10 or 11 years old, which is. That’s surfing, [00:26:57] Chris: and that’s how people learn how to surf. And it’s funny because there’s [00:27:00] this, you know, conversation that we constantly have back and forth with people, and you’re just like, you know, some people miss that localism, where they’re just like, it’s necessary to have somebody that barks in the water. [00:27:09] Chris: That kind of like regulates the situation. I mean, that’s to be better. And then there’s like the, uh, You know, the free form where you’re just like, Oh, we should be educating people more, which we should. That’s absolutely. No, you learn, [00:27:20] Santi: you learn by trial and error. Lumps and bruises. [00:27:24] Chris: I mean, but yeah, listen, for my side and what I do out of the surf shop is I try to like, Educate to the level of, hey, you go out somewhere and you’re new, you’ll look, well, I’m just, you know, I’m just trying to spread the aloha, but you know, at the end of the day, you’re just saying, look, common sense. [00:27:43] Chris: You go out somewhere, you see a bunch of people, chances are the surf’s pretty decent there. There’s plenty of wave breaking everywhere. Find yourself in another area. When you feel like you get to that point, then you graduated and said, you know what? I’m going to go ahead and test myself over there. But surfing is so much like chess. [00:27:57] Chris: You know, aside the waves, I mean, for us, we have to constantly, like, size [00:28:00] the waves up. But at the same time, who can surf well? Who doesn’t surf well? Some surfers look like they want to catch more laps than they do rights. Some people are better on their back side than on their front side. And so, but like, if you’re able to go out there, size people up while you’re there, I mean, it kind of adds to the game, I mean, for what we lack on surfing, we gotta pick it up in mental [00:28:18] Santi: games. [00:28:18] Santi: Not necessarily size people up, but I mean, They give people shit if they get in their way, or if you get in their way, you know, it’s just a common courtesy like, hey, my bad. Well, there’s rules. Right. There’s rules to the lineup, and we all know those rules. But did you know those rules when you Hell no. [00:28:32] Santi: Right. Exactly. You use that in my trial and error. It’s like, oh shit, I shouldn’t have And then when [00:28:35] Chris: a situation happens, are you the type of person that is going to Help educate the moment or you know, I’m educating [00:28:43] Santi: people. I mean if it’s a young kid, I’d be like, come here. Yeah, exactly. But if it’s like somebody my age, I mean, there’s that defensive. [00:28:49] Chris: But at the same time, you gotta realize, maybe they don’t even [00:28:51] Santi: know either. I’m, you’re my age. You should fucking know this. But maybe they don’t. Yeah. Because there’s tons of, I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna go buy him a beer over it. You know, like, hey, let’s go have a fucking talk. Let’s [00:29:00] go to [00:29:00] Brad: Tides [00:29:00] Santi: and fuck it. [00:29:03] Brad: With the little kids though, I mean, for sure. And yeah, no kids for sure. And sometimes, like, you know, like, if you would I was like This Like It’s a grown man. Yeah, this is a grown ass man. Like, he could definitely be sent off to war. I know he drove here, you know? And he just has no idea what he’s doing. [00:29:24] Brad: But as in all Because [00:29:25] Chris: people are learning late as well. Yeah. I mean, there’s plenty of people like You can’t fault him. My business partner, Mark Amos, didn’t learn to surf really until he was like 16. 16, which is a little bit later in the sense of whatever. But then I It’s morning news. Yeah. No, but he’s been such a great skater as a kid and just had such great natural talent that he picked it up at 16 and when he was like that he was able to just like kill it. [00:29:45] Chris: And there’s people that pick it up late that just never get it. [00:29:47] Santi: Yeah, but I hate that saying, it’s like, oh, you skateboard, then you can definitely surf. No [00:29:52] Chris: way! Well, listen, it’s the same thing, they tell me I was snowboarding, and I’ve never really snowboarded. I tried it once on ice, and everyone’s just like, oh, [00:30:00] you surf? [00:30:00] Chris: You’ll be fine. [00:30:00] Santi: I remember they tell me, oh, you’ll pick up, you skate and surf? Yo, you’ll pick up Hard? No, dude. No? So you’re fucking tumbling down the fucking Foot wheels? Yeah, I mean, it’s like, so you realize, Okay, this is nothing like I’ve ever fucking done before. Like, it’s just try and error. [00:30:18] Chris: Yeah. [00:30:18] Brad: Alright, let’s switch topics here. Alright. Can you bring up something interesting? Uh, so this is the next thing that I was looking to talk about. Snowboarding’s on in the Olympics now. Surfing is coming up for the Olympics, and what do you guys think about the Olympics taking stuff like snowboarding and surfing and putting it into that, like, global [00:30:40] Santi: level? [00:30:40] Santi: Personally, I hate it. Really? The reason why I started skateboarding, surfing It’s because it was just something that none of the fucking jocks did, you know? It was like my own little, yeah, counterculture shit. Like, it was my, my own little, yeah. [00:30:55] Brad: Did you do it to be, like, rebellious? [00:30:57] Santi: 100 fucking percent. [00:30:58] Brad: Really? [00:30:59] Santi: Yeah, of course. It [00:31:00] was just something that it was like, I mean, I mean, back in, you know, the late 80s, early 90s, it’s like, it was, I didn’t, you know, I didn’t play football with fucking Johnny and fucking Tony. You know what I mean? Like I skateboarded because I didn’t, I wanted to do something different. [00:31:14] Santi: And I listened to punk rock because it was different. It was, you know, testing the establishment. So once it becomes popularized and gets. Kind of in the norm, it fucking sucks. It’s like, you take away that like, At least it takes away my nostalgia. Right, well [00:31:30] Chris: it takes away that little special place that you felt like huge. [00:31:32] Santi: Right, it was mine, now it’s everybody’s. [00:31:34] Santi: God, that sucks. I mean, that’s my own personal opinion. [00:31:37] Brad: No, no, absolutely. It’s a very valid and a very, uh, widely held opinion. And for good reason. I mean, uh, from a serving standpoint, waves are definitely here a very scarce resource. There’s only so many waves coming in in a year, and if you’re there, you’re there. [00:31:52] Brad: You’re not not there. Not in the future, I mean, it’s well right [00:31:55] Santi: now [00:31:55] Brad: with wave [00:31:56] Santi: pools, [00:31:56] Chris: right? And that’s where that kind of segways into and stuff. But, you know, to go [00:32:00] back on your point about snowboarding and stuff like that, um, you know, watching Chloe Kim when you’re going, watching Sean White, [00:32:06] Santi: Nester talking shit. [00:32:07] Santi: All right. Santi talks a lot of [00:32:09] Chris: shit. I’m talking a lot of shit. Santi, where’s Rico’s underwear? Keep talking. [00:32:14] Santi: So we’re getting some, we’re getting some comments here. Thank you. We’re getting some [00:32:17] Brad: comments here [00:32:18] Santi: from [00:32:18] Brad: the internet [00:32:19] Chris: gallery. [00:32:20] Santi: But going [00:32:23] Chris: back on that, you have these snowboarders that are just so good in general. [00:32:27] Chris: And like, when you like Sean White’s first run was pretty epic and you thought, fuck, this guy’s 31. Not that that’s old, but like that turns it is. And it was like, Laying it down and then the Japanese guy comes and one ups him and you’re just like, how does he beat that? And then his second run was half the score what he had before and you’re like, hey He’s got one more run one more run to make this happen to beat the guy You’re this is the top of the game and stuff like that. [00:32:55] Chris: So like As it is, these guys are pushing at such a [00:33:00] high level, and then on top of that, they’re getting amped at what they’re seeing in front of them, and it’s enough to push them to the next level and still deliver under such hard pressures and win to that point, and at that point, for me, that’s exciting, like, I see little things like That’s how you become [00:33:15] Brad: a fan. [00:33:16] Chris: Right. I see little things like the way that he would tweak his neck and really Pull his neck up to the turns that he was doing and the way that he would drastically pull that neck Was how much spin he was going to get and the way that he delivered and stuff like that It was just impressive to watch. [00:33:30] Brad: It’s just cool I think run to run to be able to kind of compare apples to apples, right? You can’t do that in surfing, right? No, but from a competitive standpoint, that’s funny. Like [00:33:39] Santi: you hear the tricks on like You hear sean white talk about his run and it’s like corkscrew 540 it’s like I can’t even fucking put that shit like I can’t even like that like I can’t even imagine and he like he does it right and I don’t know. [00:33:55] Santi: I just think like snowboarding. I mean, it’s cool But it looks easy. [00:34:00] No, it’s just it’s just it’s so fucking it’s so mind boggling like it’s like it’s like a 720 Snowboard is like, it’s normal. It’s thing. That’s what people do. It’s like, it’s like they’ve raised the bar. [00:34:13] Chris: They’ve [00:34:13] Santi: raised this. That’s what’s cool [00:34:15] Chris: about it. [00:34:15] Chris: Well, I mean, because at the end of the day, the normal isn’t normal anymore. Like I probably don’t have a lot of time going straight. [00:34:21] Santi: Too many degrees. [00:34:22] Chris: Okay, well, then how does this work into like now the surfers off because snowboarding has been around for a little while for a couple Olympics now. Yeah, surfing is now jumping into the realm of the Olympic sports. [00:34:34] Chris: Um, and I mean, I, I think, have they mentioned what I know WSL is involved a little bit. So are they, are we going to wave pool, but are we going off the Kelly wave pool or I mean, cause there’s a couple other wave pools that are coming online or they’re getting their own. Yeah. Or are they going, I mean It’s gonna be the Kelly Wade pool. [00:34:52] Brad: I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be the Kelly Wade pool. Kelly’s got [00:34:55] Chris: pool? Kelly’s [00:34:57] Brad: got pool? Kelly, Kelly [00:34:59] Chris: Sater’s [00:35:00] pool? Nah, [00:35:01] Brad: no way. [00:35:04] Chris: I don’t know what everyone sold at First Surf Shop to try this one by. That was like my 6 [00:35:09] Santi: bucks. Oh no, no. Sorry, 30 without the bro discount. [00:35:16] Brad: Can I get a discount bro? It’s going to be very interesting to see how surfing transitions into it. [00:35:22] Brad: Because snowboarding was already like apples to apples. So it was kind of easy. This is like a major leap in competitive surfing because it’s going to be in a pool. And [00:35:32] Chris: style plays into this as well. Because how do you rate surfing? style or do they take that away because obviously the judging criteria has got to be different. [00:35:41] Santi: Think about it. 30 years ago, they didn’t even let snowboarders get on the lifts to go on the top of the mountain. And now all of a sudden, yeah, uh, Steve Cavallaro put a post on Instagram with like some like I started snowboarding. I’m saying they wouldn’t let, they wouldn’t. And now it’s part of the Olympics. [00:35:59] Santi: Where [00:36:00] they wouldn’t even let the people practice in school. Where surfing has been practiced for so many fucking years and is more acceptable. Yet, snowboarding is part of the Olympics and surfing isn’t. [00:36:13] Chris: Well, I think there was a controlled environment obviously. Surfing, some of the beauty of it is the unruly. [00:36:19] Chris: On the fact that it’s just a completely different, yeah. And I think that’s that forever love affair that we have with you. [00:36:24] Santi: How many days have you, like, it’s like, oh, we’re gonna have to postpone this con, contest because the slot just hasn’t filled in. It’s so frustrating. Right, well that’s why we never have contests. [00:36:34] Santi: It’s frustrating, right? Exactly. [00:36:37] Chris: Well, I mean, so it comes up on the next Olympics, and I guess there’s gonna be different judging criteria. What that wave pool’s gonna look like, we don’t really know. I mean, but it isn’t. Even playing field, right? I mean, in a sense, it’s an even playing field, right? Because honestly, they’re going to have rights and then they’re lefts and then whether they’re goofy or regular, you’re going to have to hit it. [00:36:57] Chris: And are you going to, what do they [00:37:00] judge? What do they judge? Because obviously if a wave like Kelly’s has barrel section, Has some launchpad sections. Has like, rail rail sections. That whole like, [00:37:07] Santi: priority thing is gonna go out of, it’s gonna go out. Right, right. How many runs? You have three runs. [00:37:14] Chris: Three runs to kind of kill it. [00:37:15] Chris: So it’s like, you have, [00:37:17] Santi: these are your fucking five waves. [00:37:20] Chris: Well, but I mean listen, Top two waves. The whole [00:37:23] Santi: competitive aspect of it sucks. Which, the wave Surfing itself should never be Wave selection ends. [00:37:31] Santi: It’s always the same way, but this is the Olympics, [00:37:34] Chris: but this is the Olympics, right? You’re supposed to be at the creme of the creme. So they’re giving you three shots. It’s three shots. You’re getting three shots to make it happen, right? Snowboarding. He has three opportunities to be able to get the best score. [00:37:46] Chris: And at that point, it says, this is where nerves, this is where skill, and this is where ability kind of comes in. What is the average [00:37:52] Santi: in the, like, Winter Olympics they have, like Like the cross country, so there’s still like natural aspects where it’s like now they said that they had [00:38:00] to postpone the whole like cross country thing because of the winds and what not. [00:38:03] Santi: Snowboarding is the half pipe, the half pipe is basically your lifestyle, I mean yeah there is some wind effect to it. There is, I mean those guys [00:38:14] Chris: had some wind that they had to kind of deal with, maybe that changes, maybe that changes your routine. I think they’re the [00:38:20] Brad: same. Right. Right. Water, water’s never gonna ever react the same way every single time. [00:38:25] Brad: It’s, it’s more humid, is it? Right. But it’s just the ability to go like apples to apples in competitive serving is, is closer. So where does that, where does that spill [00:38:37] Chris: over into every day life. When, oh, it’ll just come into it. Is this gonna highlight it? And then all of a sudden their municipalities across the country, across the world, oh, you know what actually that are gonna be like, Hey, [00:38:47] Brad: skating’s gonna probably a pretty good. [00:38:50] Santi: I hope [00:38:51] Brad: not. Yeah, so, like, think about skating. I hope skating, like, [00:38:52] Santi: skating’s a stain. [00:38:54] Brad: Well, skating, like, once the first skate park was built, when someone, or even, like, the first kid was, like, [00:39:00] I want to build a kicker and a rail on my driveway. They were like, that’s a skate park. And, like, all of a sudden, there was consistency, as opposed to, like, all of this curve. [00:39:09] Brad: Right, but now there’s [00:39:10] Chris: skateparks. Maybe, aside the skateparks that are a little more public, like, maybe Division creates a little skate area around the blocks here in Wynwood, and then all of a sudden that creates your own outdoor skatepark. That it’s like, not necessarily enclosed with an offense. Is that happened? [00:39:23] Santi: When is that gonna happen? [00:39:23] Chris: Oh, I don’t [00:39:24] Brad: know. There’s a, there’s a lot of promises that I think that gets, like, shouted out through these windows. Listen, here’s a little subtleness, [00:39:32] Chris: you [00:39:32] Brad: know? Is that a breadcrumb that I need [00:39:33] Chris: to follow? I don’t know. I don’t know. So far, I think the things that I’m [00:39:36] Brad: picking up are, like, There’s some sort of shaping that may be going down. [00:39:40] Brad: There’s some sort of skateport that may be going down. I don’t [00:39:43] Chris: know what you’re talking about. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not stirring any pot at all. No, you never do. [00:39:48] Brad: We have a lot of other stuff to talk about. We do. What else we got? We got, we’re on 40 [00:39:54] Chris: minutes in. Are we going to go for an hour? [00:39:55] Chris: I don’t know. I think we may have, I don’t know. We’ve got some topics. I’m going to go get some more. Oh, [00:40:00] okay. We’ll keep this down for you. All right. You talk. Thank you. All right. Thank you. This guy is great. You got to bite him more often. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Listen, Joey Blasco’s got that plenty on lock for you. [00:40:10] Brad: I wanted to go back to learning to surf because this is a kind of a strange one for me. I kind of, I talked about how, uh, I wanted to, I was involved in other board sports, how, uh, it was kind of going to happen at some point. Right. And when I finally started, did I started going actually surfing, got a board, I’d have my folks take me out to the beach to go surfing. [00:40:32] Brad: And having the exact same time that like internet happened. And so I used to like midnight early or late nineties, like mid to like 95, 96, 95, 96, 97, 98. Like when you’re getting the CDs of AOL, like that’s your house. That was when I was learning how to surf. And I would, I put those things in. And then the first thing I’d go do, I was like, [00:41:00] there’s gotta be something to do with surfing in here somewhere. [00:41:02] Brad: And, lo and behold, I would find things about surfing in these, in these like, Oh, you were way more [00:41:08] Chris: inquisitive on surfing than I was back then. That’s awesome. [00:41:11] Brad: And, uh, about 99, I found a website. I’m still looking at magazines. Called, Dade, no it was called, well it was Dadeco Surf, what is now Dadeco Surf. [00:41:21] Brad: Yes, [00:41:21] Chris: Dadeco Surf. And that’s kind of where I knew more about you because you had just moved down here and everybody was following DavecoSurf because that was kind of our like little surf blog area where everyone would talk story and kind of just talk about surf and blah, blah, blah. And I mean, I don’t think we had a, we had a cam. [00:41:37] Chris: Right. Because there was also surfmiami. [00:41:42] Brad: com. So the DavecoSurf started at the University of Miami. By a researcher named Tom Cook. Tom Cook. And it used to be at, I remember the URL, it used to be at storm. rasmus. edu slash tilde [00:42:00] cook slash surf. Can’t use that URL anymore. No. But you could dial up davecosurf. [00:42:05] Brad: com which is where that site moved to after Tom, uh, moved to, uh, Right, because I remember there was a certain [00:42:12] Chris: point in which, um, The guys over there handed you the reins. Well, that was ten years. That was like ten years. [00:42:20] Brad: That was [00:42:21] Chris: because I remember you would chime in on certain blogs and then everybody would hail you as like the man in surf blog, in surf forecasting. [00:42:29] Chris: I was like, it’s Brad Wells. This guy knows what’s up. [00:42:32] Brad: That was a, and I expected it to be like, it was really older guy. It was a decade after I found that website, I was 10 years in, I found that site when I first came to school at university of Miami and studied meteorology, that was like my Bible. And Tom and I shared notes. [00:42:47] Brad: I followed the blog like that. He wrote all the time. And then, um, I left the, they kept going. It kind of had momentum of its own. And then when I came back, um, their forecaster had moved [00:43:00] to, uh, Greg moved to Costa Rica, right. And, uh, yeah, what’s up, Greg, uh, cr surf. com. Check that out. Great website. Um, yeah, I kind of felt it was like my responsibility. [00:43:13] Brad: It was like, uh, a website that let me go surfing in Florida when I moved here in 2000 and I was like, well, I kind of owe a debt of gratitude to the whole surf community here [00:43:24] Chris: and the community here. I think owes you a debt of gratitude because you, I mean, you’ve honestly, We have done a lot in the sense of being a little bit more accurate because our, our surf reports are pretty squirrely or our surf charts and how we do things and surf in general is really squirrely. [00:43:36] Chris: It’s hard. And it’s so hard and you know, like you go off of blogs and stuff and I’d always said like from the old timers to now, it’s like you could have been surfing South Beach your whole life and still not figure it out. Would you say it’s one of the most hardest and intriguing, um, areas to kind of forecast? [00:43:53] Chris: Yeah, [00:43:54] Brad: I mean without question. Our swell window is super narrow, the storms that pass through it [00:44:00] move very, very, very quickly. Thank you. [00:44:05] Brad: So it’s, yeah, it’s really hard. Um, but like I was saying, like, I learned to surf through websites. NewYorkSurf. com was a forum that I used to, um, be on. Like, uh, all through the late 90s through, um, 2006. But like, do you remember, do you [00:44:23] Chris: remember the blog that was GateCoSurf? People kind of talk about surfing, whatnot, this, whatever. [00:44:28] Chris: And I remember when they handed the, when the guys were forecasting, you know, that was so good. And the rain [00:44:33] Santi: is only like 15 years ago. They handed, they handed the reins over to [00:44:37] Chris: him to forecast stuff. And I remember when Brad came on, Brad Wells, I really kind of expect him to be like this older dude, right? [00:44:44] Chris: Cause it’s like, you think meteorology, you think people have been studying it their whole lives. And you’re like, Oh, he’s got probably like really weird eyebrows. I do! This is, this is what I did. This is getting a little, [00:44:52] Brad: a little [00:44:53] Chris: bushy. And, and, and he was much older. And you’re not. And that’s kind of cool. [00:44:57] Chris: And he’s kind of just like, doing stuff. And I was saying [00:45:00] like, you know, our little local surf community owes him a little debt of gratitude as well as anybody that’s coming for him. [00:45:05] Brad: I came here in 2000. I went to school from 2000 2004. And you had four year old. Well, yeah, it wasn’t [00:45:10] Santi: you. Actually, I came back in 2000. [00:45:12] Santi: I came from California in 2000. And then I came back in 2000. So you’ve been here longer. Five. Yeah. So you’ve been here for a minute. Yeah, longer than seven. So in the same apartment we, [00:45:22] Brad: like, Yeah. Seventeen years. No, no, no, no. I moved back to New York. Oh, okay. Twelve years? Um, but yeah, I learned to surf like through the internet and like the newyorksurf. [00:45:34] Brad: com forum. There’s other guys that forecast for that region and like I compare notes. We do a lot of forecasting. My brother was a photographer. Um, he says like developed film in the, uh, their darkroom. Um, still in high school. And so like, My little brother would develop the film, take the photos, we started shaping boards, we started doing all this stuff up there like as the [00:46:00] internet was happening at the same time. [00:46:01] Brad: And so my brother had like the banner for New York Surf was his photo. Wow. We’d trade notes about shaping boards. That’s killer. And where we were going. And that’s how I learned all this stuff. And it was like from, like you said, basically like a bunch of old guys that were like, had an outlet to spout this stuff all of a sudden. [00:46:17] Brad: And I just like, you know, I’d take out every book at the public library about surfing. Stuff like that. [00:46:24] Chris: So as a kid you obviously have the internal endless energy to want to learn and stuff. So where does someone go with that now? That might be a little bit older looking to maybe surf. That loves the culture. [00:46:39] Chris: Loves it, they see it. [00:46:41] Brad: ThankyouSurfing. com. That is the place. If you want to go surfing, come here, like, we will get you sorted out. What does [00:46:48] Chris: someone that is older, right? Obviously, because we all have our things where I’m too old. I can’t learn to surf. I’m in my 30s. I’m in my 40s. 50s. Whatever. I can’t surf anymore.[00:47:00] [00:47:01] Chris: It’s like [00:47:02] Santi: looking at my phone, I’m so rude, sorry. Uh, [00:47:05] Chris: but like, [00:47:06] Brad: where do you go? Where do you go? [00:47:08] Chris: Local surf [00:47:09] Brad: shop. For sure. First stop, go into the local surf shop, say, I want to surf. And go into the local surf shop and be like, [00:47:16] Santi: hey I’m a kook, I want to learn how to surf. Seriously, look, everybody’s a kook at one point or another. [00:47:21] Chris: I still am. That’s how you lob that one for whoever wants to take it. Lob it like that. Still a kook. [00:47:28] Brad: That’s how you got to do it. Hashtag still a kook. And the faster you admit that, the faster you’d be admitted into the tribe of surfers. Right. It’s like, I’m a kook. Like, yeah, me too. Right. I’m working on this. [00:47:39] Brad: You’re working on that. Or you have the other person that’s like, I’m a kook. He’s like, well, beat [00:47:42] Chris: it. You’re like, go down that way. But at least, you know, you get something, but you’re right. Maybe. I think there are more, I think nowadays from surf shops and stuff like that, there are more people that are willing. [00:47:52] Chris: To go ahead and help you. If you’re honest about things, like if you sit in the water and you’re looking all awkward and stuff, you’re like, and if you, and I’ve had people come to [00:48:00] me, like, I don’t want to get in your way. Just tell me where you want me. You’re like, Oh, you’re cool. Yeah. Right. Because at the end of the day, you’re like, cool. [00:48:06] Chris: I’m glad you’re at least aware enough to say, I’m not that great. I, am I in your fucking way? And then you just say, Hey, move down this way or move down that way. The currents are moving in a certain direction. It’s going to pull you to I [00:48:19] Santi: mean, how many times, I mean, not necessarily Miami, but how many times have you had to like jump off your board and have to like save somebody before you’re gone? [00:48:26] Santi: Right. So [00:48:26] Brad: this [00:48:27] Santi: is a whole [00:48:27] Brad: other topic. Right. Like, who’s got another hour? Surfers. I see. Maybe we should save that for another day. Right. Because that is a really good topic. Because it’s true. I’ve had to do [00:48:36] Santi: that in Nicaragua. I’ve had to do it in Costa Rica. And it’s like, I don’t know. I’m from Miami. Right, yeah. [00:48:44] Santi: Believe it or not, Miami is probably the most dangerous place to learn how to surf with the, with the rips. Sure. And. [00:48:51] Chris: Well [00:48:51] Santi: it’s like a [00:48:51] Chris: river mouth. It’s like you’re trying, you’re figuring out like [00:48:54] Santi: tides, wind. But it’s like that victory at sea northeast chop. I mean that’s some dangerous shit. I mean you get, you [00:49:00] get held down. [00:49:00] Santi: You get held down for, for a couple minutes. I mean that’s fucking. Right. Well, I mean, [00:49:06] Chris: well, we have a jetty that sits the south of us at the south end of the beach and with the northeast wind that’s coming against that, everything kind of gets piled in there. [00:49:13] Santi: Yeah. It’s just [00:49:16] Chris: like a cesspool. [00:49:17] Santi: It’s just like a washing machine of shit. [00:49:20] Chris: But those peaks are flat. It’s fucking pretty exhilarating and it’s one of those things where you’re just like the crap it is like full kamikaze like victory at sea right yeah some people like it [00:49:31] Brad: just [00:49:31] Brad: go out there every every 20th wave is makeable [00:49:38] Chris: Oh my god, I got a great drop! Right, and that’s after like, super fitness of like, for 20 minutes you’re paddling north, constantly, just to be able to like, not lose as much ground. [00:49:48] Chris: You’re losing ground, but not lose as much, so that at least when that set comes through, hopefully you’re like, in position, on that part of the sandbar. That could take that wave, as it comes across that rip, that’s coming across the face, [00:50:00] just before you get to Everything has to be perfect. Right! I mean, stars have to align! [00:50:04] Chris: Abacus! You know, but this is us. This is what we [00:50:09] Santi: do. Seriously, to continue to be a surfer, at least in Miami, in South Florida, you know, once you get past Bahama Islands, that you actually get to Palm Beach and North, Palm Beach and North, [00:50:23] Chris: to continue to [00:50:24] Santi: surf in Broward, Broward, Dade County, you know, Like, you gotta really be a fucking masochist. [00:50:35] Santi: 17 street people in Fort Lauderdale. That’s who we’re [00:50:37] Chris: talking about. Although I know about your little secret spot just south of there. [00:50:43] Brad: Alright, well there’s uh, we talked about learning how to surf. We talked about surfing and snowboarding in the Olympics. We have not talked about having a quiver of boards. [00:50:56] Brad: And one of the things that, uh, we try to do at Thank You Surfing is try to [00:51:00] make surfing slightly more welcoming and approachable to people. People may not realize what a quiver is or why you would even have more than one surfboard. Where do you think they got The term quiver. Ah. We should [00:51:13] Santi: read some of these comments. [00:51:14] Santi: Like, you guys are going to be, like, in [00:51:15] Chris: quite a know. But we were, we were hoping that we’d have a third person and she would be a lot better looking than you. And, uh, I’m not, no offense, but you do have gray hair, by the way. And we thought that with that third person, we’d be able to read some of these. [00:51:26] Chris: Yeah, what about an eye for a [00:51:27] Santi: second, period, paddle out. Yeah. [00:51:29] Chris: Alright, so we are getting some comments here. Rudy, you know I invited you. Ah, Joey’s back in. Joey Blaska is a flamer. You know, see? I saw the sun, so you’re like, oh. Hey, [00:51:39] Santi: look, hey, look, Nestor. I still love you. Happy Valentine’s. [00:51:47] Brad: So, uh, you were talking about how South Beach can be very tricky to surf because it can be pretty much flat or it can be giant overhead chop. [00:51:55] Brad: Or you get Nestor screaming at you. Or there can be someone yelling at you about [00:52:00] dropping in or coming too close or whatever. And so you need to have a whole quiver of boards. Right. And a quiver is just a selection for people that are uninitiated that um Well, [00:52:13] Chris: I find that [00:52:14] Brad: I [00:52:14] Santi: paid you for that. I paid you for that ding, asshole. [00:52:17] Santi: I’m sorry, I’m just reading the comments. I paid you for that. Yeah. I paid you for that thing. . [00:52:22] Chris: Well, I find it interesting that a quiver is also what the um, uh, Archer. Arch Archers. Is that what they’re called? Archer Arch. Arch Archer. Arch Archad. It’s weird. Those certain words that just, you can’t even say archist are, you have a quiver of errors. [00:52:39] Chris: Yes. Right. Many different errors. And I wonder of different things. Right. So I wonder and if, or that is where it came from. It’s gotta come [00:52:46] Brad: from that. [00:52:47] Chris: Right. But, I find that you can probably nail your quiver on three boards. [00:52:53] Brad: Okay, so you’re talking about the three board quiver? Five seven, five eight, and five nine. [00:52:58] Brad: Fucking hipsters, really, [00:53:00] honestly. I mean, uh, to surf at South Beach, and if you want to do the 200 day thing, like, uh, we were talking about earlier, you’re going to have to have a long board. [00:53:11] Chris: Guaranteed. You’ll never get rid of your longboard. Why is it so hard to find a used longboard out there? Because nobody lets go of it. [00:53:17] Santi: Let me tell you that I have a bad hip. And because of it Listen, I’m old. I wish [00:53:24] Chris: we could do stuff that was [00:53:24] Santi: like, Hashtag, Old Man [00:53:26] Chris: Problems. [00:53:26] Santi: Yeah, Old Man Problems. So, yeah, I have a fun board. I have a 7 0. And that thing is the funnest fucking thing ever. I, I enjoy the shit out of it. And I would never have, like, even fathomed that I’m, I’m pushing up to the fucking floor and it’s like, I wanna keep surfing, so, yeah. [00:53:43] Santi: When do you ride it? When it’s good, or when it’s not? No, definitely not when it’s good, it’s when it’s shit. But, but I can see myself at least learning how to like maneuver the board, like, you know, stepping back, stepping on the tail, you know, getting up to a nose to get into, you know, like a short [00:54:00] pound or whatever. [00:54:01] Santi: So if I want to keep, I mean, look, we’re all going to get old. You’re all doing it. So you want to keep surfing, you’re going to have to get to that point. Yeah. And that’s another [00:54:13] Brad: reason to have a quiver. Like equipment is a lot in just every sport. Am I wearing a wetsuit? Am I not wearing a wetsuit? Do the waves have a lot of push or the waves kind of backing off and mushy? [00:54:24] Chris: Which, as a Florida surfer, was something new for me when I first went west coast to go surf over there. Was, you thought you would use your same board and it would kind of work out well, but all of a sudden, the constriction of the wetsuit, the little bit extra weight that pulled on, all of a sudden held me back a little bit. [00:54:38] Chris: In the west [00:54:38] Santi: coast you can get away with just having like [00:54:42] Chris: We’re right because the waves are good nonetheless, but let’s go back to the longboard. I mean, I feel like down here, because you don’t find longboards for sale used all that often. It’s because everybody holds on to it. So I tell people, I’m like, they’re like, Oh, longboard. [00:54:56] Chris: I’d love to be able to have something that I don’t have to go ahead and adjust to. I’m like, [00:55:00] trust me, you’re always going to need a longboard. [00:55:02] Santi: Yeah. I mean, look, I wouldn’t say longboard. I mean, anything like. seven to eight foot, right? Yeah. I call those longboard is like nine foot and up, right? Eight [00:55:14] Chris: foot and up. [00:55:14] Chris: Hypothetically, eight [00:55:16] Brad: and a half. I go nine and up for a longboard. Yeah. That’s what I mean. If you really want to have a [00:55:19] Chris: longboard. But yeah, I can be for the shorter people either. I like to take the same sort of [00:55:23] Brad: outline of longboard and squish it down into the seven to eight foot range. I didn’t say it either. [00:55:29] Brad: But how many boards would you say, You know something that fits in your elevator in your building, which is Inside of a car with the seat down or something. Yeah, at least something [00:55:39] Santi: you can actually get the hatchback But I feel like [00:55:42] Chris: most cars if you’re able to go from the trunk all the way straight through you can get a nine over there Yeah, you still can’t close the trunk. [00:55:47] Chris: Yeah, you can i’ve seen [00:55:48] Brad: i’ve seen it. It’s [00:55:49] Chris: crazy Elevators, they’re roughly nine foot and change from corner to corner. So in most elevators You’re able to kind of get the nine footer at least in there But what how many boards would you [00:56:00] say? You You would, how many boards would you have as your equipment? [00:56:03] Chris: How many, like, I mean, that you would want? Okay, let’s, let’s go, let’s go that bare minimum. Bare minimum, gotta have at least three. Bare minimum? Right, so I’m just saying, if you were just to go minimum because you’re on a budget, right? So I personally, let me go ahead and throw mine out there. I wouldn’t have a long board. [00:56:20] Santi: I’m going to have First search up [00:56:24] Brad: sell to. Are you serious? So I, I would do, [00:56:27] Chris: I would do a lawn board. I would do a fat little full volume board from nose to tail rail to rail. Something that’s kind of quirky for like your thigh to chest, thigh, hip board, I guess whatever like your, something that would be comparable to a retro fish, [00:56:41] Brad: a longboard retro fish. [00:56:42] Chris: And then, uh, like, uh, you know, you’re kind of like your thumbtail, for me, cause I’m a big boy, uh, you know, fuller, you know, fuller board, that’s your, like, you’re anywhere between 6’0 top 6’3 and I’m 5’11 so like, I feel like nowadays, you’re getting your standard shortboard for a real wave, at your height, to, uh, [00:57:00] no more than 3 inches above you. [00:57:01] Chris: In Florida? Uh, I think in general, like, if you’re surfing in most places, and that’s just me. I mean, [00:57:05] Santi: it depends on, like, I mean, if you’re, if you’re [00:57:08] Chris: Even if it’s a shortboard that’s going to be your regular shortboard, how tall are you? That’s what I’m saying, it depends on What would your real shortboard be? [00:57:15] Brad: My real shortboard 5’11 Like your shortboard, what would you My last shortboard and only shortboard I’ve bought in 20 years? is, uh, 5’8 Short board. That’s short. Yeah. How many liters? How many liters and how wide? 31 liters. [00:57:38] Santi: Okay. And 19. [00:57:42] Brad: What board [00:57:42] Santi: is it? Uh, Hypto Crypto. [00:57:44] Chris: Ah, the Quiver Killer. Well, that’s why they call it the Quiver Killer! [00:57:48] Chris: It like gives you one board for everything! You can ride that thing as a short board as well as No, you can’t. You really can’t. [00:57:54] Brad: Really? No. I’ve, I’ve definitely Try it on a smaller surf? Yes, I’ve written it in smaller stuff, I’ve [00:58:00] written it in bigger stuff, I’ve, I mean it has, Do you [00:58:03] Chris: like it [00:58:03] Brad: on [00:58:04] Chris: the smaller or the bigger? [00:58:05] Santi: But the thing is, but, but, but that, that Hypto, that 5. 8 as a, as a shortboard really translates into like, uh, your 5. 11 would translate into a 6. 0. What’s going on guys? This is Anthony Wise. If you were calling for an interview, could you hit those more of a hybrid [00:58:24] Chris: version of your shortboard? Is that shortboard? [00:58:29] Chris: How many liters is that? 32? What do you weigh? 170 pounds. 170 pounds, 32 liters. 195 to 2 bills, I’m at 33 to 37 liters. I’m going 33. I’m going, I’m [00:58:42] Santi: going [00:58:42] Chris: into 33 liters. [00:58:45] Brad: Oh, we got to get, we got to end because, uh, we’re, we’re going to get cut off on Instagram. 32 seconds. We only get maybe an hour. Yeah. So thank you guys for joining us. [00:58:54] Brad: Uh, this is Talk Story episode [00:58:56] Chris: number six. I’m Chris from Division [00:59:00] and First Surf Shop. This is Santi Signs and he’s got some of the best hair you’ll ever find. Mark Amos. for [00:59:05] Brad: serving. We’ll catch you guys next time.