so .. for my slide article i tried to interview RA (robert august) about pig boards. it was a classic scene. my second time meeting Robert. i attempted this interview at Sacred Craft 2009 Del Mar. Perfect. prior to this meeting...the first time i met Robert, he was hitting on my (at the time) Huntington Beach Vietnamese girlfriend while we were in Tamarindo one year. I convinced her to ask him to sign " hang 11, Robert August". too easy. i thanked him for it later that night, and he seemed surprised. karma. so, at sacred craft i see he has a booth. in my mind... the optimal D fin surfing session that has ever been recorded is the cape st. francis south africa surf session in the endless summer. hence, i keep checking in at Robert's booth. i don't want to seem like a needy "fan"...yet I have some specific questions only he can answer. some mother fucking dick face is occupying a fuck ton of Robert's time. this jerk dick is interviewing Robert for at least an hour and a half. GREAT! I am sure robert is going to want to talk to me. They had a replica of Robert's endless summer board there at the booth. I asked Sam (robert's son) how they were convinced that the board was accurate to the specs of the board in the movie and he said it was shaped "as best as could be recalled". ..... Finally the fuck face interviewing robert split. Thus giving me the opportunity to be the "fuck face". I take it. All I wanted to do was tell robert that he should have quit surfing after that session. i wanted to express to him that no one will ever be able to surf a wave more perfectly than he surfed that wave. it was some cosmic battle between the chaos of the wave and the order of his board that he alone won. he wasn't hearing it. I finally had to drop the nuclear bomb style words on him he earned:
Editors note: I ask Robert August about his board in the Endless Summer. When I look at that board it sure seems to have a lot of the defining elements of a Pig shape. Robert insist that board had its wide point in the center. I try to discuss with Robert the perfect match of a surfboard designed like his and the shape of Cape St. Francis's wave. He dismisses that saying any board would work well in that perfect of a wave. I don't disagree , yet I continue to try to illustrate the perfect trim and speed his board had that day. The exchange is below:
Mike Black
...when I am looking at that footage from Cape St. Francis , the action of your board on such a perfect wave..for me it seemed like the board fit that wave so perfectly for a clean beautiful feeling of surfing. Not aggravated surfing.
RA
that wave was pretty nice. I think you can have anything on it and have it go nice.
MB
but look at the space of it ... where it fits in the curl and what is happening.
RA
i didn't do anything. I just stood there.
MB
yea, but that is doing everything. to not do anything and to have it fit so perfectly is everything. I am thinking its because of the design elements of this board.
