Welcome back to the show. Really, it's been an odd year, kind of a somber, sobering year for surfing,

for board building specifically. A lot of losses this year. And I suppose that can be kind of expected.

The board building industry is, I guess, about 60 years old. So a lot of the

kind of initial icons are turning 80, 90 years old. And we're actually just a week since hearing

about Rich Harbors passing when news hit of yet another local legend. Huntington Beach's Rocking Fig just passed away this past weekend.

And I can't really remember another year where there's been so many iconic personalities that have passed away.

And again, most of them kind of board builders.

So today we'll be focusing on and actually hearing from Rich Harbor.

But the week before Harbor's passing, it was Greg Null, of course Scott Anderson, the week prior to that,

less than a month prior to that was Joe Quigg at the age of 96.

And so the thing about these, these are founding fathers of board building that were still making boards up until very recently.

And some of their peers, by the way, and cohorts are still making boards.

And I certainly don't believe that you should ever buy a surfboard for its potential resale value.

But the idea that you can own and ride a piece of functional art from any of

these early pioneers of board building, or that you can still have one shaped today by Yader,

Brewer, McTavish. It's an idea that is worth dwelling on, and I really feel like that'll be kind of unfathomable in the next 20 and 30 years that we had this opportunity.

More than just kind of record podcasts with these guys, it makes me want to get surfboards shaped from them and ride them.

And while I have, of course, tremendous fondness and reverence for guys like Joe Quig and Greg

Knoll, Rich Harbor and Rocking Fig are actually inextricable from my formative surf years. Each was

synonymous with a specific beach within driving distance from me. They're about nine miles apart.

Rocking Fig was Huntington Beach, and he perfectly

exemplified the culture. He was rocking, brash, broed out. He delivered the surf report on

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