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SanO.NolenElam.com San O' = San Onofre State Beach, California . I last updated this page Tuesday, 5 January 2010. Nolen Elam ... that's my name! Thanks for visiting my San O' page! How's it goin'? Named for my dad, I'm also known as "Ned," a childhood nickname still used by family and friends. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a 50-year-old "commitment-free divorcee" living in Costa Mesa, California. Surfing is one of my great passions and "The Point" at San Onofre State Beach is my favorite place to surf locally. This page is just a place for me to share my love for San Onofre, the ocean, and surfing with whoever might be interested. I last updated this page Tuesday, 5 January 2010.
This first photo I'm sharing below was taken back in May 2003; I'm luggin' my custom 10'6" Mike Minchinton out for a surf at The Point at San O' (click image to view full-size) ...
Here's a shot of me (age 43) ridin' a typical wave at The Point on my 10'6"; this photo was taken the same day as the image above (click image to view full-size) ...
Here I am crankin' a big bottom turn ...
And here I am at the end of the day (same day as previous two pics ... click image to view full-size) ...
My favorite surfboard for the past 12+ years has been my 10'6", 24" wide, 35 pound, custom-shaped round-tail by Mike Minchinton. (Mike also shapes Robert August Surfboards.) This board is huge! Big as it is, it's a blast to ride! The board was custom-shaped for "Captain Casual," a man unknown to me, but who reputedly weighed in at over 300 pounds! Being 6'1", 200 pounds myself, I wanted a board that would make me feel small -- like a little kid -- something I could easily knee-paddle and walk around on. I found my dream board while describing it to a friend I met at Surfer's Chapel in Huntington Beach: Bill Staggs. (Last time I saw Bill he was still running his surfboard repair/restoration business out of his shop on Beach Boulevard in Midway City, California.) I had dropped off my modern 9'2" tri-fin whipper-snapper at Bill's for the second time (another busted rail fin), when I began tellin' him about my dream board. Apparently the board I had just described was The Minchinton -- and Bill had it sitting right there in his shop! The board has a beautiful nose block and tail block with multiple wooden and glued stringers; it even has the extra-heavy Volan fiberglass I wanted to help protect it from all my abusive surfing habits, like ridin' waves all the way up onto the beach at San O'! What an awesome board! Here are a few shots of me surfing The Point at San O' back in July 2001. Click on any of the following thumbnails to browse through the images in a new window ... |
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Click here ... or ... Click here That's all for now! See y'in the white water! |
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