Surfings Origins - Juan Rodriguez
One World Surfboards
I want to thank all of you for reading and responding to Wood Water Soul and Addicted To Joy. Should you want to help support this project, you could buy a coffee cup or a T-shirt. This week’s gift from Mother Ocean is the most delicate abalone shell I’ve ever seen, the ocean and the world are truly places of wonder and awe.
Let me introduce you to Juan Rodriguez. Juan did some of the glassing for the boards in ATJ. I got to know him over several interviews and some pretty fun hangs.
Juan is a Master with over 50 years of experience. He lives in Sarasota, Florida, where he owns One World Surfboards. While Florida might seem like the wrong coast, he understands the tribal aspects of surfing. Two surfers from other sides of the world can come together over one thing: surfing. On the day this photo was taken, Juan was glassing the board in front of him. To understand glassing a surfboard is like finishing a fine piece of Stickley furniture; it’s an art. The material is toxic in a liquid form and must be mixed with a hardener in exact proportions, and it hardens quickly.
The first time I saw it I felt like I was watching an Old World artist working on a masterpiece. When the boards are given a final buff, they are stunning. I watched as he prepared a board during one of our interviews and while he was just talking.
I knew that I liked him as soon as the words at 30 seconds, in the above video, came out of his mouth.
Besides being a Master finisher, Juan is a designer and builder working out of One World; he strives daily to create the perfect board for the perfect wave. He understands his home beach and what it takes to get a thrilling and satisfying ride. In board design, the boards can be customized for specific waves and breaks, such as Pipeline or Malibu. As designs have matured since Tom Blake and the 1920’s, the ability to craft a board for a particular spot is ongoing; in other words, one board will not give you a great ride on every wave in the world. In surfing, it’s called having a quiver of boards for different waves and conditions Pictured below is a fraction of a professional surfer’s quiver.
Jack Kerouac wrote “On the Road” on a scroll; the act took him three weeks to do. When I was editing Addicted to Joy, I called Juan and asked him if he would share some of his fin designs. He sent me early Dale Velzey and Hobie (who Juan built fins for) tracings on a scroll. I couldn’t figure out how to use it in the film. A scroll, by nature, is long and not very wide, and would just never translate to the screen. I laughed and stored it in my office. In a recent cleaning, I found it again. The tube has been lying on my desk for three weeks while I looked at it and tried to figure out how to share it. I hope I give you a good visual on how important these early fin designs were, and you can see them evolve in front of you. What we see below are the outlines of fins Juan built for these famous West Coast surfboard builders, and a critical point in modern surfing. Remember it’s a scroll.
I haven’t seen Juan since January 2019. It was wonderful to reconnect with one of the true originators of modern surfing. See you on a wave somewhere sir!
My new interview with Wayne Lynch is coming along nicely, which I hope to have done in a couple of weeks. I’m also working on a Gerry Lopez interview as well. I have incredible respect for these men; I’m sure you’ll enjoy them too.
Please share this if you are so inclined, Aloha.
I want to thank you all for reading Wood Water Soul. I want to announce we have Addicted to Joy and all the interviews are free. Again if you need a new T-shirt or you broke your favorite coffee mug, look no further. (check out the shirts, coffee cups, tote bags and water bottles ). Please share this Blog with a fellow surfer, or with a friend that needs some Joy in their lives. I invite you to watch, Aloha.