You may be asking yourself, “Self, why does ‘Mountain Whimsy – Musings from Montana’ have a section about surfboards?”  Good question.  And one I ask myself from time to time.  It my be a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde sort of thing.  An alter ego or bi-polar personality.  I live in the mountains and call them home.  I spend my free time indulging in my selfish pleasures of hiking, biking, climbing, skiing, fishing, and any other ‘ing that gets me out of the house and into the environment.  The variety of things to do close to home is sometimes overwhelming.  You can fish year-round, if you like standing in icey waters in January.  You can ski year-round, if you are willing to hike to that last stash of snow, high in the alpine.  Or you can follow the seasons and cycles, taking whatever comes available.

However, many of us in Montana do have limits.  For me, snow in May is just not right.  I’ve already hung up my skis for a month and am ready for some sun on something other than my face.  We take advantage of the odd warm day to get a ride in, go for a hike with shorts on, or simply eat burgers on the porch.  But sometimes even that is not enough and we have to experience the warmth for real.

The past few springs this has meant trips to Costa Rica, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.  Warm beaches, new scenery, great people and waves.  These trips have allowed me to reconnect with my love of the ocean.  More on that in another post.  Lately I have been a bit hooked on riding waves, something that is difficult to do in Montana.  My other obsession for the past number of years has been woodworking and boat building.  But boats take a long time to make and you can only have so many of them.  So instead of riding waves or building another boat, why not make wooden surfboards?  Boats and boards are both wooden, curvey, floaty things.  And you can knock out a board without taking on too big a task.

This latest board is my third.  A 6′ 4″ fish built with western red cedar and walnut accents (more photos and text here).  It’s small enough to hang on a wall if I never get it in the water, but hopefully that won’t be the case.  Once the water drops down on the Yellowstone, I hope to take it out on a couple of the standing river waves.  If nothing else, it will be good entertainment.  Stay tuned for a future post.