Three-time international surf champ Corky Carroll answers your questions each week on the Beach Blog. To hit him up, e-mail him at corkysurf@aol.com.  Here’s what he wrote about this week:

Q.  I have been reading up on the history of surfing and came across a guy known as BK.  Who is this?

A.  That would be Barry Kanaiaupuni.  Barry was an amazing surfer during the 1960’s and 70’s.  He had a bottom turn that was second to none and was most noted for surfing radically in big surf at Sunset Beach on Oahu’s North Shore. He still shapes surfboards and owns a couple of surf shops in Hawaii.  Great guy too.

Q.  I have heard about this great surf spot called “Rincon” near Santa Barbara, here in Southern California.  In an attempt to surprise my surfing son, who at 13 is fully addicted to the sport, I piled he and two of his buddies in the family van the other day and drove them up there.  I didn’t tell them where we were going.  To my dismay it was flat as a table top.  This surprised me as there were plenty of waves here in Orange County.  What happened?

A.  Rincon works on west and north swells only.  In the summer months we get primarily south swells here in So Cal.  The south swell is blocked by the Channel Islands and does not get into Rincon.  Next time you wanna surprise the surfboys with a cool day trip contact me first, corkysurf@aol.com, and I will clue ya in on where to go.  

Q.  I have been a life long skier who has never surfed.  But I was at the beach the other day and saw a young man putting wax on the top of his surfboard.  Wouldn’t that make it very slippery to stand on?

A.  I love this question because I get it more often that people would imagine.  The answer is no.  Surfboard wax, unlike wax for snow skis, works to make the deck of the board less slippery.  It is sticky.  Without wax it would be very difficult to stand on a surfboard as you would slip all over the place.  There are wax substitutes such as textured deck patches.  But these are very hard on the skin so as of this day there is really nothing better to use than good old surf wax.

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