Second Generation

Jack Colby is an eight year old surfer from Seal Beach. He is also the son of Rob Colby whom I've had the pleasure of building boards for off and on since the Eighties. Rob was a Quick rider in his teens and is now one of THE GUYS running the Billion dollar Surf Industry Icon. Rob is also probably the most brilliant human I've ever known, but this blog is about Jack not Rob.

Jack was at my Surf Camp all summer long, in fact Jack only missed a hand full of days the whole season. Jack initially had some issues reading the line up and experienced the wrath of the San Gabrial River mouth as only an eight year old can. Jack, however, persevered and figured stuff out. After a couple weeks Jack was catching 80 waves a day.

Jack started the Summer riding his first custom board, a Chas, a 5-8 x 20 x 2.6 PT83 to be exact. This worked out great because it was floaty, stable and kept that wave count in the eighty range daily. The mother of all sand bars formed this year and lured a lot of the PIT CREW and their 4-7s to the river on a daily basis. Jack wanted the taste of  the PIT Crew promised land, but Rob and I resisted and let development run its coarse. Jack worked his butt off and by the end of Summer had tried and mastered Sam's(my son) entire quiver. Jack ordered his second custom board, a 4-8 stub.

After some peer pressure from some local dads, Rob entered Jack in his first real contest, the September WSA at SanO trails. Jack quickly discovered that the Pacific can dish out a lot more power than on offer at the beloved River. Jack took his beatings, shed some tears then collected himself and prepared for the next events. The next couple events went a little better for Jack, but he was still a spot or two away from advancing to the next round. Next up was Oceanside.

Oceanside was solid head high plus peaks, as good as you could ever want for a contest at O'side. Jack paddled out looking strong and very comfortable. Rob coached him into his first wave, a right he bobbed and weaved his Stub across the entire contest area. Jack again paddled strongly and confidently back to the line up.This time Rob helped Jack connect with an even larger left in which Jack arched and widgeted all the way to the beach. Jack backed this up with a couple additional solid waves and clearly dominated to get his first career heat win.

What an amazing progression in six short months. Congrats to Jack for making his first career final. I know it's good to be Jack and to have Jack it must be good to be Rob. I'm feeling blessed that I've been able to be a part of it, both parts.