Skim Boards in Laguna Beach, Calif.
Being the son of a surgeon, Tex Haines felt pressure to enter the medical field. But while earning a bachelor's degree in biology from Stanford, he found himself designing skim boards in his shag-carpeted dorm room to appease his first passion. That passion traces back to 1961 when he started skimming at Victoria Beach, a cove in Laguna, acquiring an obsession for an ultra-underground pastime initially spawned by local lifeguards. In 1976, Mr. Haines sidestepped med school and opened Victoria Skimboards on Laguna Canyon Road, which snakes between golden bluffs overlooking Laguna's coastline. Thirty years later, at 53, Mr. Haines still skims regularly and remains "chief board tester."
Skim boarding is akin to skateboarding on water, involving the three fundamentals of running, dropping and jumping on a kind of finless minisurfboard. Laguna Beach is considered the skimming capital, especially for wave skimming -- the art of running at a shore break as if your hair is on fire, jumping on the board and carving up the wave face, ripping skate-style maneuvers like a shove-it grab, a floater or a 360.
In 1980, Mr. Haines helped revolutionize skim boarding, turning it into a highly athletic sport by introducing foam-based boards (they were originally made of varnished plywood). He also founded one of the first skim teams and the Victoria Pro-Am World Championships. His Polyvac board ($321 to $447), using a strong, lightweight aerospace polyvinyl foam core for maximum water flight, is designed for advanced riders.
Victoria's 2,400-square-foot space includes a retail nook that pays homage to the origins of the sport with a wall shrine of vintage boards, including a cross-planked "hydroplane" design by Evinrude, circa 1929; and a board that Mr. Haines says "represents the LSD era in Laguna Beach," psychedelically painted by Nebula Quasar, a flower child who lived down the road in Timothy Leary's house. In Mr. Haines's back office there's an escape door that opens to a nine-hole disc golf course (a field with targets nailed to trees) that he uses to offset desk work. Deep in an adjoining L-shaped chamber, Cesar Baza has been repairing and restoring skim boards (and surfboards and kayaks and other fiberglass vessels) with shamanic calm for 11 years.
Though he is a foam pioneer, Mr. Haines still manufactures wood boards like the polyurethane-coated Speeder (from $49) and the mahogany Woody (from $58.25). He recommends wood boards to beginners because they have "momentum, stability and soul."
Victoria Skimboards, 2955 Laguna Canyon Road, No.1, Laguna Beach, Calif; 949-494-0059; www.victoriaskimboards.com. Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. C. J. BAHNSEN
Client
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Date
26 March 2006