Here in Oceanside we definately feel the effects of the war mor than most areas. Case in point, a few years back I sold a board to a nice red faced guy , just off the turnip truck from Indiana,yup a marine.skip forward a couple of years and Andy had pretty much become a member of the family ,fast forwarding his surfing skills with many camping trips to churches and hanging with and becoming one of the boys.Before long Andy was was working in our shop on the weekends and learning how to laminate boards.
Then the reality of his job hit and he had to deploy to Iraq for the third time. This summer just was'nt the same without him around, funny but with our South gone (Andy South that is) there was also a lack of south swell activity around so cal this summer, and even when there was surf none of us really wanted to go to church without Andy, it just did'nt feel the same.
Turns out theres a happy ending to this story though, as Andy rolled into the shop yesteday, red faced and happy as ever, ready to go for a surf. heres a shot of Andy at work in the big sandbox and one back home going for his first surf in way too long
It felt good hearing some respectful friends in the water thanking him for his service,more people should take the time to thank our military,who make how we live our lives possible.
Hey maybe theres even some time for some late south's --but most of all -- welcome home bro!!
maybe my bike matches this one better?
