Always Make Time to Surf

Cory Whitlock and the Shop

Cory getting ready to test a new Kevlar board

Cory Whitlock was one busy man when we invaded his shop. Cory is the king of mutli-tasking, running all the facets of RW Surf Shop. He was in the middle of a huge tee shirt print order, giving surf lessons 10 and 12 people at a time, designing and shaping boards, creating custom boards for surfers who walked into the shop and running a crew of 7 people to accomplish all these tasks. In the middle of it all, Cory was working on moving the whole shop from Carlsbad to Oceanside. He never actually sat still; he was always working on something. Even so, his Aloha spirit was always there, barking orders, laughing and smiling, putting up with our film crew all over the place.  He is an amazing man to watch.

Still Time to Surf

Rusty, Skylar and Cory in the Shaping Bay

Being the subject of our second day of interviews, I became an annoying shadow. Well, at least I felt like an annoying shadow. Cory never seemed to mind. He took time to explain the business. He took time to show us the new Kevlar boards he was working on. He is experimenting with the positioning of the Kevlar, trying to get the shape just right for optimum spring and flex. He described it as “getting enough movement in the board without getting the spring of a diving board”. There are others experimenting with the material, but, as it’s always been with RW Surf, they are on the cutting edge once again.   

While looking at artwork on the boards, Jeff Meyer came in to paint the Hawaiian Islands on a SUP board. Jeff has been painting boards for as long as Rusty has been shaping them. He is a true artisan and paints some amazing boards.

 

The end of a long day in the Shaping Bay

With all this work going on, Cory still made time to surf. The waves were good in the afternoon so Cory, along with documentary Director, Cory Patterson and a few of the shop guys, they were off. I remember thinking how amazing it would be to have a job that would let me work on the beach, hit the waves then come back to work without doing anything but rinsing the salt and sand off.