I’d actually been building a dream board in my head for months when I practically tripped over a battered eleven-foot balsa plank in an overgrown yard down at the Mission Beach Boardwalk. The balsa board didn’t quite measure up to my fantasy. It was water soaked, weeds were growing out of its cracks, and it had no glass. It was basically holding up the fence. Somebody needed to rescue it. I mean it was just rotting out in the sun. For some reason I had to have it, so I kept trying to think up ways to drag it off without getting caught. I finally got the nerve just to ask the old guy who always sat on the porch if I could have it. “If you can get it out of here, it’s yours,” he yelled back at me.

The original plan for my first surfboard was nine foot. So shaping the balsa beast was basically all about knowing when to stop. Whittling away for days, I worked from one mistake to the next until my nightmare ended up looking like something that wouldn’t float. It was a potato chip. When I finally got it down to a 7’11” thin slab of balsa I quit. I ruined every piece of clothing and pair of shoes I owned, made a mess of the garage, and everyone who witnessed the four-day shaping frenzy came out with a major case of fiberglass itch. The only thing that spread faster was the rumor that I was the surfboard guy who had an insight on construction and design.

On July 17, 2009, Mike met an old friend at a storage facility in Pacific Beach (PB). Paul Schaffer(sp), who Mike had known for years, became a wood shop teacher at the same middle school Mike attended as a boy. Turns out, Paul has had the "potato chip," the first board Mike shaped in 1959, in his garage for the last 50 years. Amazing!

(See photos below of the actual potato chip):