Surfboard Envy

I've got it bad. Maybe that's yet another reason why I've been through so many boards in the relatively short time that I've been surfing. Today, one of the women in our crew showed up with her new board—a 9'6" pintail Con. As soon as she started pulling it out of the bag, I was chomping at the bit. It was truly a thing to behold. I already have a board on order. Why am I now longing for yet another board? It happens every time I see a board I like. It might help to know that I absolutely will not ride a board without some color in it. Thus, the more color a board has, the more interest I'll have in it. (The board I have coming will be yellow. It will be one of the loudest sticks in the water. Thankfully, it's only 7'. I don't know if I would have gotten yellow had it been a longboard. That might have been too much color for me.) My longboard doesn't even have as much color as I would have liked. I had some fabric I wanted on it, but Tyler couldn't make it work. The dye kept running. When he called to give me that news and asked what I wanted done instead, I told him to do whatever he wanted. "I trust your judgment." The board I got back from him is truly gorgeous (both in its looks and its ride). Still, when I see other boards with color, I start thinking about building a quiver of colorful boards. Whatever happened to the stereotype of women liking to shop for shoes, clothes, and handbags? I can't think of any of my female surfing buddies who fit that stereotype. I do, however, like to shop for boards. Thankfully, I don't usually see anything that appeals to me. Or if it does, it's too long or too heavy or too damn expensive. The thing about longboards, for me at least, is that they're works of art. You can see the detail that's gone into the shaping of the thing. And once you throw some color on there, you've really gotten my attention. I just sold a 9' performance longboard. Now all I have is a big-ass single fin and the other single fin that's coming. I'm wondering if I should go ahead and get another performance longboard that's a little longer than what I had. You'd think I had money to burn, wouldn't you? I can't even pay my bills. But if I die tomorrow, I'll die knowing I've had a hell of a good time while I was here.