Al Merrick's disease.

WARNING: Al Merrick's disease is spreading fast. The Surgeon General has

determined it is hazardous to the indigenous board making and surfing populations

I was out surfing my local North Orange County break where I surfed for about the

last 35 years. It was going off, due to freaky combination of things, I will not

disclose here.

                   Photo by C2C, representative of No. O.C.



I had a severe allergic reaction and started gagging from all the out of town

guys I've never seen before, jockeying and paddling around me on their Al Merrick

surfboards. I was like, "can you move away from me. And stop paddling around me

on that Al Merrick, I'm having a toxic reaction." I felt like I barely made it

back to the beach.

The disease has already spread to our area, these guys had full-blown Al

Merrick's, and were infecting our lineup. Maybe they think they can disrespect

longtime locals because they paid way too much for their surfboards. But our

local breaks are not included in the price of your Al Merrick. Be careful you do

not catch Al Merrick's, because the costs are astronomical, both in dollars and

respect from your fellow local surfers, and board producers. Furthermore, support

your local shaper, Glasser and base material producers, not some freaking

Corporation.

I was severely disappointed to see a couple locals that had been infected and

come down with full-blown Al Merrick's. I guess they were riding the semi-bro

model, because they were not broing out local board producers.

I walked down the beach when it got a little high tide -funky, and the waves were

going off down there too. It was mostly local guys riding local boards. Since

there was nobody riding boards that are mass produced in China by slave labor, I

was able to recover from my allergic reaction to Al Merrick's, and get a few

waves.

I would like to thank Chiron Stewart at Digital Surf Designs (DSD), MAC glassing,

and Ty at Marko Foam, for the personal touch in making my killer new board. I

promise to continue to heckle on your, and all the other local board producers

behalves.