Dane rides the Sperm Whale

Spotted: Dane Reynolds, riding (self-shaped) Sperm Whale in Ventura County, California, on September 29, 2011. Michael Kew shot some footage and cut it to American Prayer by The Doors (above), which is awesome. There’s also a recent clip of Dane riding the same board during a different session, over at his blog Marine Layer Productions, in case you’re interested by such things.

Here’s what Dane said about it back in July: “(sic) this board is ugly. first time ive seen hips at the halfway point. 1 – 1/2”  thick. probably. if you measured it. i shaped it. kind of embarrassing. thomas campbell was passing through town. wanted to take some pictures of me shaping a board. he coached me through it. then there was no foam left and hes telling me it needed more vee. “how many boards you shaped thomas?” “awe ,,, one,,, sorta…” the blind leading the blind. hows that for a cliche. first time i rode it was a mess. tense first date. social anxiety. i tried to ride it flat. skating around like a fish. it didnt like that. pretty much did what it wanted. put it away. shelf life.

“this (clip Dane’s referring to) is california in july. bored of two foot beachbreaks. inspired after seeing al knosts frantic dance in mexico. channelling davey miller. crank off the bottom. peg the lip. ranger style. due to the lack of symmetry it only turns off the toe side rail. a cutbacks a fight. but if you adapt and make it work, its fun as hell. and aint that what its about aneeeways?”