A WEEKLY SPECIAL REPORT
Special
to the Times -MARK GOGGANS
Juan Rodriguez of Sarasota's One World Surfboards walks the nose after a storm
in Venice Inlet. "You have to be pretty driven to surf on this coast,"
he said.
TERRY TOMAl
OUTDOORS EDITOR
SARASOTA -The weather stunk. The wind had been blowing nonstop for three days straight And to make matters worse, Juan Rodriguez felt one of those nasty summer colds coming on. "I figured that if I was going to feel bad at work, I might as well feel bad surfing," said Rodriguez who shapes One World custom surfboards. "Water has a way of clearing your head." So Rodriguez grabbed his board, tossed it in the back of his EI Camino and headed to the Venice Pier, where he was "stoked" at what he found. 'There w,ere these beautiful waves and nobody out," Rodriguez said. "They weren't big, but they were close to perfect. And people say you can't surf on the west coast of Florida. All you need is the right equipment." Big boards for little waves. 'That is what it is all about," said Rodriguez, who has shaped thousands of surfboards the past 30 years. "You take a classic '60s outline, add some new technol-ogy and you have a perfect board for gulf coast surfing." When a weather system such as Tropi-cal Storm Barry rolls through, local surf shops can't keep enough longboards in stock. It is the ideal tool for those knee- to waist-high summer swells. And among big board enthusiasts, One World is the stick of choice.
Times photo -JENNIFER DAVIS
Rodriguez holds a 9-foot, 6-inch surfboar the Bigger boards are better for the smaller waves of Florida's gulf coast.
In the old days, all boards were big. Turn-of-the-century models were made from solid redwood planks measuring 14-18 feet and weighing 150 pounds. Legendary waterman Tom Blake in- vented the "hollow" board in the 1920s, cutting the, weight nearly in half. Blake also introduced the fin, or skeg, which made it easier to turn the lumbering craft. Lightweight balsa boards took the sport to a new level in the '40s, while polyurethane made it available to the masses in the 1950s. Rodriguez started riding waves locally in surfing's golden age -the 1960s. But like many surfers who suffer through the gulfs seemingly endless flat spells, Rodri guez hit the road in search of waves. 'That is when I saw that it doesn't matter where you go, California or Flori-da's east coast, the waves are usually small and not that good," he said. "If you want to surf, you need the right equipment." The modem longboard, the staple of the '60s, measures from 81h-10 feet in length and weighs about 13 pounds. They paddle easier than shortboards. They are faster, so it is easier to catch a wave. 'That is the key," Rodriguez said. "You need to get on a plane quickly." They are more stable, another plus when you are just starting out. And they perform better in small surf, like the mush we often see here on the gulf coast.
Rodriguez has shipped boards all around the world, and counts celebrity surfers,
including Hulk Hogan, among his customers. He has a waiting list for his custom
boards, and a large part of his business in recent years has been devoted to
classic wooden shapes. "You have to be pretty driven to surf on this
coast," he said. "But if you can excel here in these less-than-favorable
condi- tions, you will do well wherever you go." Rodriguez points to Shea
and Cory Lopez of Indian Rocks Beach, brothers ranked in the top 44 of the Association
of Surfing Professionals World Tour. "But you have to be dedicated,"
he said. "You can't just sit around and say maybe 111 go surfing tomorrow." When
the wind starts blowing, Rodri- guez said, you have drop what you are
doing. "There is no rolling the
dice," he said."You gotta go." ,