http://www.mctavish.com.au/blog/post/shonan-log

(not my story - I'm reposting - the signature is at the end! - But I have pestered Bob about shaping a old Duke, and a lost story (or thought) is born!)

Back in 2002 my wife Lynn and I did a great trip to Japan with our then agent, the inimitable Mark Baumann. Mark was an airline cabin crew guy, and flew that route almost weekly. He had a terrific grasp of the Japanese language, and even taught English there for a while. His girlfriend was also Japanese, so he really knew the joint.

One night Mark put us up in the most wonderful Onsen in Shonan? so old skool! Over 200 years old, we slept on tatami on the woven floor. Lovely.

Next morning Lynn and I went for a stroll around the garden, and sat on a bench overlooking the ocean about half a mile away. The little hotel once had the foreshore and uninterrupted ocean view, but over the centuries the low lands had been filled in with houses. The ocean was littered with fishing boats, so common in that country.

Then I noticed the bench we sat on had a point at one end. I jumped up and took a real look at it. It was a surfboard! An ancient redwood like the Duke might have ridden!

I begged Mark to ask the old lady who owned the hotel. she came out of the kitchen and said it was given to her grandfather by an American sailor on a Navy ship about 1911. Wow! The oldest board in Japan?? Probably. So rare! These boards are real treasures, and here's this one slowly rotting in an unknown corner of Japan. Modern surfers wouldn't stay in such a secret spot so nobody has identified it, I thought.

I quickly asked if she would sell it. There was thoughtful meditation for thirty seconds? maybe she will sell it!!

Then the reply?."But what will we sit on????.!!!!!!

No sale.

Bob

Great story

Gotta love those Japanese onsen's. There's an awesome one down on the bottom of the Izu Peninular at Shimoda (Yamatokan) looking over a nice beachie with mountains up behind...We're headed down to Shikoku in 8 weeks, hoping to get a typhoon passing Kaifu river