A Surfing Life Together with Rebecca and Charles Mencel

[00:01:31] Tyler: and welcome to the Swell Season Surf Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Brewer. We've got a very special episode for you today, and it's one you definitely don't want to miss. Back in February 27th, 2020. We had the legendary Professor Charles Xavier Mencel on the show, and it was one of our most popular episodes ever.

[00:01:59] Tyler: [00:02:00] Well, great news. The professor is back and this time he's joined by his wife, Rebecca. For those of you who may not know, Charles and Rebecca Menzel hail from Monmouth County, New Jersey. They're third generation Jersey Shore locals, deeply connected to both their community and the ocean. Together, They've built a grassroot surfboard brand that stands as one of the few truly core surf labels in the tri state area, dedicated to crafting boards for real surfers.

[00:02:31] Tyler: Charles boards have earned something of a cult following. If you know, you know. And if you don't know, well now you do know. I can personally attest that Menzel's boards are pure magic carpets. I've been fortunate enough to take a few out at the fish fries over the years and have fell in love with one or two, for sure.

[00:02:56] Tyler: But Charles builds These boards the only way he [00:03:00] knows how. The right way. He personally tests every design himself to ensure each board performs as intended. And if anyone doubts his surfing chops, consider this. Last winter, during a massive south swell with double overhead, some say triple overhead waves, and drainers, Charles caught what some have called one of the best waves ever ridden in New Jersey.

[00:03:27] Tyler: Maybe even the Northeast. And everyone loves a shaper who rips. And Charles definitely fits the bill. But Charles isn't just a shaper and a surfer. He's also a professor of English at the Brookdale Community College. Shaping young minds in the classroom. I have this lovely image of Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society.

[00:03:47] Tyler: Oh, Captain, My Captain. Almost. And then I think of the SNL skit with, uh, you know, where the heads get chopped off by the fans. But, man, like, this guy is [00:04:00] incredible. But on top of that, we are so lucky that we have Charles's wife and partner, Rebecca, joining us. Rebecca is a digital media strategist at Oatly, which, yes, the alternative milk powerhouse, which is delicious and nutritious.

[00:04:17] Tyler: Giving them a plug, not asking for any advertisement here, by the

[00:04:20] Rebecca: way. No, and sustainable. And

[00:04:21] Tyler: sustainable. And when she's not crushing it at work, she's raising five daughters alongside Charles. An impressive feat in itself. And as if that weren't enough, Charles and Rebecca recently opened Garden Glassing, a surfboard glassing house that's set to elevate the quality of glassing in the Northeast.

[00:04:42] Tyler: And honestly, I'm kind of exhausted just listing off all of these accolades.

[00:04:47] Rebecca: God, make it sound busy. With

[00:04:49] Tyler: that, Charles and Rebecca, welcome to

[00:04:50] Charles: the show. Thank you, thanks for having us. That was a hell of an intro, and I do want to Welcome, my wife, which is a rare thing to get at these [00:05:00] things. I'm usually shoving off saying I'll be back at 8 p.

[00:05:02] Charles: m. 9 p. m But we escaped the Jersey Shore and drove up.

[00:05:07] Rebecca: This is a treat. Thanks for having me.

[00:05:09] Charles: So this is great. Thanks

[00:05:10] Tyler: And I I love having couples on the show. Like I find it Really fun topic to engage with to actually so I'm always like very curious like how couples make it work You know with you know, so I had this idea for a book once Always always I was very curious or do a documentary about like couples and how they balance their passion And I'm always curious.

[00:05:34] Tyler: Like how do you do that? How do you manage like? the person you love and devoting energy to them, but then also having the passion that you love and devoting energy to that. And how do you balance those two? So I guess the big question there for you two is like, how do you guys balance like your passion for surfing and the ocean with Obviously, raising five kids as well, five daughters, [00:06:00] and then also finding time for each other and your other extracurricular activities like shaping surfboards, opening a glass house, or just working your daily jobs.

[00:06:10] Rebecca: There's

[00:06:10] Tyler: a lot. Reb, you want to go first? You want me to go? And one last thing, listeners. These two look fucking amazing. For all they do, they look fucking amazing. With no breakfast, they look Incredible. You're gassing us up. This is not true. They do all, you guys do all these things. You guys look

[00:06:28] Charles: great. So I'm impressed.

[00:06:30] Charles: Yup. There's no time to eat. I appreciate that. Um, I think. I think it's

[00:06:34] Rebecca: innate. Honestly. It is. It's innate. I think the question of like, how do you balance it all? How do you do it all? Is one like, At the base, at the core, it's just like, you make time where you find balance for the things that you love, right?

[00:06:48] Rebecca: And like, we both love the same things. We both love the ocean, we both love a big family, we both love, um Making time for each other. We both love each other. So I don't know. I feel [00:07:00] like it's just innate for the the way that you are

[00:07:03] Charles: Yeah, and it's the the founding thing. So if you fall in love at fashion week and your surfers And if your life isn't revolving all of a sudden around Fashion Week and it's surfing, there may be some dissonance there.

[00:07:20] Charles: But Rebecca and I fell in love at the ocean. We grew up lifeguarding together. We grew up surfing hurricanes together. You know, we grew up doing the thing that we are continuing to do. So we've been blessed and fortunate and probably we're smart enough to say like, Shoot, we're already doing this and we're enjoying it.

[00:07:40] Charles: We might as well keep doing it. Don't make it

[00:07:42] Rebecca: sound so transactional. It wasn't just like it's smart enough.

[00:07:48] Charles: It's just a natural extension. It was one thing in front of the other though, that it was like Like, it wasn't a lot, yeah, it wasn't a lot for her to realize, like, man, this guy's a, uh,

[00:07:56] Rebecca: A hunk at age 14.

[00:07:58] Rebecca: Let me just say. But,

[00:07:59] Charles: uh, [00:08:00] for him to be, like, a shaper that does this and that, it was all these, like, small little kind of moments, I think. And our kids just are a big part of that process in life, too. So that's what we do, is we're just at the beach at any minute we could get. It's warm at home right now.

[00:08:15] Charles: We, you know, we wish we were there at the beach, Tyler, and we love podcasts, but that's, you know, totally get it. We were driving up saying, Oh, it's kind of nice. I'd be nice at the beach today. Um, so yeah, I think it really, we got together because of surfing, because of the beach, because of the ocean. Um, and we've just stayed true to that.

[00:08:32] Charles: And that's like, that's all we do. We kind of live to surf you know,

[00:08:35] Tyler: yeah, yeah. Let's dive in. How did you two meet? Give me, give me the story. Give me the story. I'll give you my version and then he

[00:08:44] Rebecca: can give you your version. I want all

[00:08:45] Tyler: the schmaltz and all. All of it. Give me, give me, give me all the gooey stuff.

[00:08:49] Tyler: Are you going to be alright? I,

[00:08:50] Rebecca: I love love. So, I could talk about this for hours, but cut me off. We got,

[00:08:57] Tyler: we got time, so don't worry. I,

[00:08:58] Rebecca: um, I've had a [00:09:00] crush on him. I know this sounds really corny, but I've had a crush on him since I was 14.

[00:09:03] Tyler: No way.

[00:09:04] Rebecca: 14. Lifeguarding at the beach. He's five years older than I am.

[00:09:07] Rebecca: So like this is a tan blonde hunk that like rips And so I am just drooling Not thinking that he knows who I am at all ever right like he's the older guy that you're just he has a girl We knew each

[00:09:23] Charles: other. She's I didn't know

[00:09:25] Rebecca: you other than like and I would like

[00:09:28] Charles: Okay.

[00:09:29] Rebecca: I'd want to go

[00:09:31] Charles: lifeguard at the surfing beach specifically, but had no idea, just lived in

[00:09:36] Rebecca: separate worlds.

[00:09:37] Rebecca: I'm five years younger. So like just operating in different social circles and things like that, but I don't know. I asked to guard the surfing beach as much as I could because I knew on his lunch break he'd be surfing. So I'd have 30 minutes of uninterrupted, like.

[00:09:52] Tyler: Study his style.

[00:09:53] Rebecca: Just all of it. Yeah, everything.

[00:09:56] Rebecca: Study his abs. Study his hair. Study his eyes.

[00:09:59] Tyler: Study [00:10:00] his bottom. Yeah. Turn.

[00:10:02] Rebecca: Exactly. So, I don't know. I've had a crush on him forever and then fast forward. I think I graduated in 2009 and then that summer you came up to me on the lifeguard stand.

[00:10:14] Charles: No, I had I was in my garage, actually, doing, working on some boards.

[00:10:19] Charles: Yeah, but you

[00:10:19] Rebecca: came in your lifeguard outfit.

[00:10:21] Charles: I had, um, yeah, that was like my, my double time work, you know, was any minute I had, I would I'm going to be peeling away from the beach, go do some work at my shop or at my garage, basically. And I ran over there. I knew she was pinned at the lifeguard stand. So I, I had to Yeah, like on

[00:10:36] Rebecca: lunch break, one lifeguard goes on lunch and you're sitting solo.

[00:10:39] Rebecca: Yeah, yeah. So he came up when I was sitting solo and sat down. You're

[00:10:42] Charles: living in New York, I hear. What if I come up there and

[00:10:45] Rebecca: Take you out on a date. Like he asked me out on a proper date. So much so that I thought it was like a prank.

[00:10:50] Tyler: Yeah.

[00:10:50] Rebecca: And I was like, are you? He's like, now that he's like, now

[00:10:53] Tyler: that you're legal.

[00:10:54] Rebecca: Yeah.

[00:10:55] Charles: By the way. Yeah. And available. I did some work. Rebecca's a twin. So I [00:11:00] had to do a little bit of sleuthing that you break up with a guy. Yeah. She break up. They did. And it's still not nothing. So I was like, all right, I'm going for it. So I.

[00:11:07] Rebecca: So he came up. I was living on Roosevelt Island at the time, which is also kind of strange.

[00:11:11] Rebecca: But yeah,

[00:11:12] Charles: I took the train up. I love water, so that's why I wanted to live. It's so trippy there, too. Very trippy. That was nuts. The Roosevelt Island scene was insane, but I took the train up from the Jersey Shore all the way up, went to Bryant Park, got some drinks.

[00:11:25] Rebecca: Lots of drinks.

[00:11:26] Charles: Yeah, lots of drinks. So much so,

[00:11:28] Rebecca: we missed the train home.

[00:11:29] Rebecca: And then we

[00:11:29] Charles: missed the train home. Yes. Yep. And then, so then we had to Overnight in Bryant Park, which was awful.

[00:11:35] Rebecca: Yeah, like I wasn't taking him back to Roosevelt Island. Yeah, yeah. It was like 1 a. m. and the next train was at like 5 a. m.

[00:11:41] Charles: So you just hung out at Bryant Park? Bryant Park, but then they kicked us out of there.

[00:11:45] Charles: Because they, like, the security comes and kicks people out. So then we, we muscled out. Slept in a McDonald's. A McDonald's from like 3 a. m. to 5 a. m. Got to Penn Station like 5 for the 5. 30. Came home.

[00:11:58] Rebecca: Yeah, I remember sitting there and hitting a, um, [00:12:00] a glass beer bottle. that he just picked up and he sat it down next to me.

[00:12:04] Rebecca: And I was like, what? And it was just like, protect me. You know, he just checked all of the boxes. He was funny, he was handsome, he was protective. Resourceful. Resourceful. And then we, yeah, got on the train. Sorry to any beach patrons that day, but we got on the train at 5 a. m. and made it to our shift at 8 a.

[00:12:21] Rebecca: m. Wow,

[00:12:22] Charles: yeah. He

[00:12:22] Rebecca: dropped me off at my beach station, gave me a kiss on the cheek, and I was like, oh, this is it.

[00:12:27] Charles: And didn't look back since? No. It really wasn't. It was pretty steadfast from there on out. Head over

[00:12:32] Rebecca: heels.

[00:12:32] Tyler: Head over heels. Maybe still. I love that. I love that, um, Bryan Park is part of your story.

[00:12:39] Tyler: I do too. I love Bryan Park. That's where I met my wife as well. I

[00:12:43] Rebecca: love that. It's a

[00:12:44] Tyler: great place. It's a wonderful place. That's where I met her and we would go back.

[00:12:49] Rebecca: How did you meet her?

[00:12:50] Tyler: Well, I'm not supposed to talk about my life, but this

[00:12:54] Charles: is just my part, so we

[00:12:56] Tyler: were, I was, I was hanging out with an old high school [00:13:00] friend I hadn't seen and we were having drinks and then he's like, Hey, my, uh, my brother, he's, um, down at Bryant park and says there's a bachelorette party.

[00:13:10] Tyler: You want to go check it out? And I was like, yeah, I'm single cruise down. This is no bachelorette party. It's just his brother there at the bar talking to this extremely beautiful woman who looked very disinterested in him.

[00:13:24] Rebecca: Oh, yeah.

[00:13:24] Tyler: And so I just started Swooped in

[00:13:25] Rebecca: and saved her. I just,

[00:13:26] Tyler: yeah, I kind of swooped in, saved her, chatted her up, and then my friend left, and then his brother left, and then it was just her and I, and then I was like, let's go out.

[00:13:35] Tyler: And then she's like, I can't, I got another date. Uh, she had a date, like, her friend, it was a double date with a friend. So she had to go, and so I walked her to her car and held her hand, and then I gave her a very lackluster kiss, apparently.

[00:13:49] Rebecca: Oh, she remembers that?

[00:13:50] Tyler: Yeah, she says, she thinks it's because I had a heart on and I wasn't, like, pressing into her as much, you know?

[00:13:57] Tyler: Of course, that's what it was.

[00:13:58] Charles: Leaving room for the Holy [00:14:00] Spirit. Or room for a second kiss, you know, the follow up. This is, we should work on this. Well,

[00:14:05] Tyler: I didn't want to scare her with my massive, you know, Armadillo.

[00:14:12] Charles: More spinal tap. Uh, anyway, we had a great first date and we kind of knew it would be a good one, honestly, or I was hoping it would.

[00:14:19] Charles: I didn't know it

[00:14:20] Rebecca: was going to be a good one. I did, yeah.

[00:14:22] Charles: I knew it would. And then we proceeded to just have a great summer, like a really rock star type summer. Wow. And, uh, and it has not stopped, honestly. Yeah, it's just been a real Banger. Just full of life. That's amazing.

[00:14:37] Tyler: I love that. Very lucky.

[00:14:39] Rebecca: I feel like as our relationship continues to develop, we've realized how lucky we are.

[00:14:43] Rebecca: You know, like not many people get to say like, one, they're marrying someone that you grew up with. Yeah. Right. And like, I think that's also what makes it so easy to balance everything because at the core we kind of understand who each other is and like the environment we grew up in.

[00:14:57] Tyler: How do you then like, [00:15:00] How do you define yourself separate from the relationship and do your own thing then?

[00:15:07] Tyler: I imagine it's difficult in some ways. Like you both share all your passions almost, right? Mm-hmm . Mm-hmm . Like you both love surfing. You both love the ocean. I assume you probably enjoy the same music, like to a certain extent, maybe, you know? Yeah.

[00:15:22] Rebecca: We have enough differences too, man. I hate golf. He's loves golf.

[00:15:26] Rebecca: Yeah. And I

[00:15:26] Charles: hate running. And Rebecca's, Rebecca runs, runs, runs. She loves, loves.

[00:15:30] Rebecca: I'm a professor, I'm a career person, like an O. V., yeah. No, we're

[00:15:34] Charles: honestly oppositionally different in many ways, and when we used to compete with one another back in the day, I definitely was like, who is this chick, like, get out of my face, like, you are cute as hell, but I want to, like, stomp you right now.

[00:15:48] Charles: And I swear, and she knows that, and still, I'm just like, what? So yeah, I will not say that we are like, um, you know, Charbeca, this kind of like Gabby and [00:16:00] Laird kind of thing at all. And, like, My twin sister May wants Rebecca

[00:16:03] Tyler: just gave the most pained look on her face when

[00:16:06] Charles: he

[00:16:06] Tyler: said that. Yeah.

[00:16:07] Charles: Well, no, it is a painful concept, right?

[00:16:09] Charles: It's a very easy one to kind of put out. But there that is not us. I like Rick Charles instead. Oh, I like that way better. Rick. Charles. Charles. Wait, Rebecca,

[00:16:17] Rebecca: that was supposed to be like a, A con, like a, yeah, yeah. An

[00:16:19] Charles: amalgamation of both our names. That would infer like you go to the same guy, right? You're the same person.

[00:16:24] Charles: Right. , but we're really not. And um. short of like the surfing and like the exterior kind of fun stuff like, uh, and we do, we do love the mountains. We love the ski. It's a huge part of our life. Our family life, I should say, uh, we're pretty different records, much more conservative than most people probably know.

[00:16:41] Charles: I'm far more like loose and, and whatever. Um, and conversely in our, in our, in our ideals and, and a lot of the things that we actually like kind of prioritize, I think are also different and that's where we probably

[00:16:53] Rebecca: Yeah. I feel like the core values are the same, but like the tentacles are different, maybe.

[00:16:56] Charles: Much different.

[00:16:57] Tyler: Yeah. Well, how do you, how do you like, uh, how do you [00:17:00] manage like, um, like what do you do, what do you do to challenge each other then? What are certain things in your life that you, you're like, all right, we have to work on this together. We have to, you know, we're coming from a different perspective.

[00:17:12] Tyler: Yes. You want to start? I mean, I mean, I feel like it's

[00:17:17] Rebecca: like on a daily basis, like in micro moments throughout the day. Right. Or like there's. Maybe macro moments where it's like, hey, we really need to work on like Like, concentrating on X, Y, and Z, or like, hey, we really need to like, eat better, or hey, we need to like, prioritize working out again, because again, things get busy and hectic, or like, hey, we need to prioritize each other.

[00:17:38] Charles: Rebecca is a very, I'll illustrate, Rebecca is incredible at like, saying she's going to do something and following through. So like, from like, you know, our, our faith is a big part, we're Roman Catholic and like, it's Lent, right? Yeah. And I am like, Like, I grew up with Polish parents, we're very Catholic, but like, you know, there's bigger things in the world to worry about [00:18:00]than the Lenten promise, according to my parents, right?

[00:18:02] Charles: And so, it's fine, we'll have meat today, it's okay, but like, there ain't no meat going on my, on Fridays, or on Lent. And I

[00:18:09] Rebecca: will say Lent is like the only time I can like stick to giving up something. Yeah. Any other day of the year, I would not be able to do it. But she does.

[00:18:16] Charles: And that's just not that. It's, it's, if we say something we're going to do for the kids, we do it, you know?

[00:18:20] Charles: And so there's a lot of like the surfer in me who's like, absolutely, we're not going. We are, the waves are up. It's a beautiful day. We're going to Tyler's podcast today. It's 61 today. I know! There's no wave zone. And the wind isn't south yet. The waves suck. But I'm just illustrating, like, this is the pitch she gets, and constantly, we had a trip planned to Vermont next week, and I'm like, let's cancel this, sir, it's going to be cranking, and there's no need to do that, and we just may.

[00:18:45] Charles: But, um, I think there is that toggling of like, Charles, you need to come down, and Rebecca maybe needs to come up, and then sometimes I'm on the other end of like, we need to calm down. Yeah. Uh, and we're lucky that we have that kind of level, but there's times where we whiff, you know, we're [00:19:00] both up, or we're both Thinking this is the idea.

[00:19:03] Charles: This is the way to execute it. And we're totally wrong

[00:19:06] Rebecca: Yeah, but I think it's also just like a constant challenge. It is a constant challenging each other I mean,

[00:19:11] Charles: yes,

[00:19:11] Rebecca: like I took out the dishes you took out the dishes.

[00:19:14] Tyler: Yeah, I'm not

[00:19:15] Rebecca: the dishes

[00:19:17] Tyler: Sure. Well, I always find like I've been at least in my relationship.

[00:19:20] Tyler: I can't say about others but like when one partner starts to kind of I don't want to say slack, but they're just pulled in another direction for whatever reason the other picks it up, you know, and it kind of it's understood. It should balance out. It is

[00:19:35] Charles: understood. Yeah, I think like I shaped last night till 12.

[00:19:38] Charles: It's an easy one to say like, well, I'm exhausted. I'm going to sleep. But like, there's really not much of that in my house, you know, so it's we're up and we're moving and, you know, The honest answer to this is really that, like, I have, Rebecca has done and continues to do so much. I have too much of a respect for her to not kind of level up.

[00:19:58] Charles: And I think when I'm like [00:20:00] bleeding and dying for a surfboard or to make boards or to continue to make that Rebecca doesn't trivialize that or, or, Or, um, mince words with that, you know? So I think, whatever, we're pretty serious people. Whatever we do, we, we do. Like, I'm, I'm pretty terrible with cars. I don't pretend to be a car guy.

[00:20:17] Charles: I don't pretend to be like a cool wallet guy. I've got like a disgusting old wallet. Um, and

[00:20:22] Tyler: so whatever. I've got a great

[00:20:25] Charles: recommendation for you.

[00:20:26] Tyler: Our sponsor. Whatever.

[00:20:27] Charles: Or I'll just drop in all these ads here. Whatever we do, we're gonna do it. So I think we're, we're in it together in that way. And, um.

[00:20:35] Rebecca: Yeah, let me just reframe the dishes or the garbage can comment.

[00:20:38] Rebecca: It's not, it's never like a tit for no, it's never, it's just like this mutual understanding of like, we're, we're on the same team. Going for the dream

[00:20:46] Tyler: looks like you both want to clean the house. That doesn't smell, you know, it's hard

[00:20:52] Rebecca: Yeah,

[00:20:52] Charles: we know that's that's one. We probably got to work on more but um But we have a lot of great meaningful moments [00:21:00] with our kids and I think that's you know a big We also have a very like clear value system in our house, too I think and and that's kind of like I don't want to say itemized, but we do like

[00:21:10] Rebecca: importance.

[00:21:11] Rebecca: Yeah,

[00:21:12] Charles: we definitely, we weigh that often and we compare it and we contrast it and we analyze that. You know, tell

[00:21:18] Tyler: me about that. Like where, where, like, yeah, where did that, is that, that's from like your, your, your, your beliefs or is that something you grew up with or something you develop together?

[00:21:32] Rebecca: I think it's again like going back to like what you believe in and what your core ethos is, is like lived out through your actions and then you model those actions for your kids and so and then there's conversations that happened before, during and after whatever moments are happening so that it reinstills like the language that maybe they need, but also like the confidence in those value systems.

[00:21:54] Rebecca: So like, no, you can't have a phone until you're, it's like, 31. Like, no, you can't [00:22:00] do X, Y, and Z, and that's because we're doing This or like, yes, you have to go to church on Sunday or like, yes, we are going to spend all day nine to five at the beach and like, maybe we don't say that, but we do it constantly.

[00:22:11] Rebecca: So it's just reinforced on a daily basis.

[00:22:14] Charles: Yeah, and we're not on our phones in front of them all day, every day, screaming at them, saying this is for work. Uh, we're not, you know, poo pooing dinner, making fun of whatever we have a

[00:22:26] Rebecca: family dinner. It's connected time.

[00:22:29] Charles: Again, like Rebecca is very good at setting out to do something and doing it.

[00:22:34] Charles: And I think the values come in like stages of life, you know, at first it was like have as much fun as possible, sky's the limit, you know, I mean, in moderation, but no, no, but, but like, as like a 27 year old, right. And now I think as, as people entering middle age, it's about. You know, partly like what our lives were like, what our parents lives were like, and making sure that we're kind of toggling, you know, as best we can for, for [00:23:00] what we're trying to do.

[00:23:00] Charles: So, time with our children really matters. Meaningful moments with our kids matter. And, um, and that sometimes revolves in the, you know, the ocean and the outside, you know, the mountains.

[00:23:11] Tyler: The oceans and the outside, that's your love language. That's their love language, right? It definitely is. Yeah, it

[00:23:17] Charles: definitely

[00:23:17] Tyler: is.

[00:23:17] Tyler: What do you guys do, though, for Like acts of kindness to show you care to each other. What are like some of those ways? I'm curious

[00:23:25] Rebecca: That's a great question. It

[00:23:26] Tyler: is it's our

[00:23:28] Rebecca: that gifts are not our love language. Definitely not so like doing things together

[00:23:32] Charles: Like

[00:23:33] Rebecca: this, I guess in itself. It's definitely one

[00:23:35] Charles: a Good sandwich for Rebecca makes me a good

[00:23:41] Rebecca: sandwich

[00:23:42] Charles: I will say yeah Yeah, no, I, I think it's, there is like acts of like the, you don't have to ask me to do that.

[00:23:50] Charles: You know, and that's, I don't think really. Often, we're never begging, can you do this? It's like, I'm really No,

[00:23:56] Rebecca: I in your DNA. It is. Are you guys,

[00:23:57] Tyler: uh, affectionate? Yes. Like, physically [00:24:00] affectionate with each other? Lots of cuddle time? We have five children. Yeah.

[00:24:02] Rebecca: We never know. Some people are You're right, you're right.

[00:24:04] Rebecca: Some people are not comfortable with that, you know? I would say in the beginning of our relationship, I was not affectionate at all. Interesting. I was like, again, I come from a big Irish Catholic family where it's like Yeah.

[00:24:13] Tyler: How many, how many kids

[00:24:15] Rebecca: were I'm

[00:24:16] Tyler: one of eight. Okay. Alright.

[00:24:17] Rebecca: Yeah. Three sets of twins.

[00:24:20] Rebecca: Which is wild. Yes. So like I feel like I have to put that into perspective, because having five kids doesn't feel so crazy.

[00:24:27] Tyler: Yeah.

[00:24:28] Rebecca: If anything, it's like, I'm underperforming. No, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not saying it like that, but I just think that, uh, like I grew up in that kind of chaos and like a beautiful chaos, right?

[00:24:39] Rebecca: So that that's where I feel comfortable. So like having five kids doesn't feel like a big deal to me and all of our friends around us have three, four or five kids. So again, it doesn't feel so strange. But, um, I forget what the question was.

[00:24:53] Charles: But yeah, she gets uncomfortable when I like hug and mutilate her and hold her too much.

[00:24:57] Charles: Especially in front of her family, she gets a little squirmy, but [00:25:00] now I love it and it's one of my favorite moves. I'll lift her up, you know, it's like she'll like squirm. I know. And

[00:25:07] Tyler: I said no. Yeah, exactly. Literally. And

[00:25:09] Charles: I used to do that even in New York here, I'd like embarrass her and lift her up in like a lobby.

[00:25:14] Charles: Yeah. And she'll scream. Maybe I'd say, like, wow, you're so heavy or something like that, and then she'd go even crazier. But yes, yeah, and I'm like, Polish European family, too much kissing, too much crying, too much emotion, apologizing for it, you know. I knew there was a reason you and I,

[00:25:32] Tyler: like, you know. Why, is that your background, too?

[00:25:35] Tyler: Oh, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, you know, my mom's Jewish, very affectionate. Very affectionate, and my dad's German, which is funny, like full proper German, but he's also very affectionate. And so we grew up with that type of thing, and my wife, like you, grew up with a huge family. She's one of 13. Not to out kiss you there, but you know, right?

[00:25:57] Tyler: That's nice, yeah. You know, but [00:26:00] she, the affection was, was new for her and then like, and then not big guy like us, you know, you and I, like we come along and you just can't deny the cuddles. You cannot deny the cuddles. Just unhingle them. Yeah.

[00:26:11] Charles: But my kids, I think have kind of reaped both of those and like, they have great grandparents on either side.

[00:26:17] Charles: And I think both those, our parents have a huge impact on our kids, you know, and they're, we're really lucky to have everybody close. Rebecca grew up, uh. Four blocks from where I did, our parents all lived in those houses up until maybe a couple of years ago after like the kind of COVID boom, but we're all still really close.

[00:26:35] Charles: We live within, you know, a handful of miles of each other. So our holidays have been really close. We've been really fortunate. Honestly, we're, we're very lucky. Um, but a lot of that sets up the tone and tenor of like how a family is going to go. And we're pretty deliberate too. We're not like, um. That also helps

[00:26:51] Rebecca: with the balance, being able to reach out to

[00:26:54] Charles: family members.

[00:26:55] Charles: Yeah, we're professionals and we'll say like, hey, no, this is, this is how our family's going to go. And, and, [00:27:00] um, it's hard. It's not easy. You have to be amendable, but you do have to be deliberate. You can't just be like, I think we'll have kids. I think this should work out. I think this should, you know, like we might, I don't know.

[00:27:10] Charles: A lot of people

[00:27:11] Rebecca: sadly do that. I dreamed of having five kids since I was like eight years old, so.

[00:27:14] Tyler: It sounds like you guys, you do things with intention. Like, it's not half assed. Like, nothing you do seems half assed at all. And, with the, with five daughters, you kind of have to commit to whatever you're doing, I imagine.

[00:27:29] Tyler: Yes. Yeah.

[00:27:30] Rebecca: No matter, like, daughters, sons, like, if you're having five kids, you better be Fucking intentional. Yeah,

[00:27:35] Tyler: exactly. We'll see. We'll, we'll, we'll, maybe four or five. I don't know. We'll do something with them. If you're having one kid, you better be intentional. Tyler, you'd be surprised. Yeah. You know,

[00:27:43] Charles: you'd be surprised.

[00:27:43] Charles: I have friends that have squeezed out a handful of kids and they're like, I can't believe we, what, is this really how it is? I'm like, yeah. And there ain't no putting them back in either. So like, giddy up, get ready, you know, it's like, we call them hostages, some of these kids, you [00:28:00] know? It's like, fuck, we've locked in now 20 years, let's go, you know?

[00:28:04] Tyler: Let me, I want to ask, like, Rebecca, like So, you grew up surfing as well. You were always, always about surfing too. How did you get introduced to surfing and, and like the ocean culture other than just living around there?

[00:28:17] Rebecca: Yeah. So I think living next to the beach is like a huge blessing and I would just go there every day, right?

[00:28:25] Rebecca: So I grew up in the water on the swim team, in junior lifeguards, lifeguarding, boogie boarding, skim boarding, all, anything that you could do in and around the beach, I was doing. My grandmother bought me my first surfboard, which is like a WRV. I don't even know what year it was from Brave New World. My eighth grade graduation present.

[00:28:46] Rebecca: And I took it out and got addicted like everyone else does. It was just the next evolution of riding waves that I was kind of already doing. But it was really intimidating back then. Like I, I don't want to sound like an old lady, but [00:29:00] there weren't girls out in the lineup. Like, there was maybe one or two people that I knew of that also surfed that were girls, but it was really intimidating.

[00:29:09] Rebecca: But if you knew Charles was out there, I'd be paddling out immediately off to the side just to like sit and watch and just like pretend. I thought

[00:29:17] Tyler: you'd be like,

[00:29:18] Rebecca: Hey Charles! Oh no no no no. How's it going? No. I don't think you guys realize, he was a cool guy back then. The heavy local. I

[00:29:24] Charles: still am. Uh, Rebecca then was the girl asking and pacing rabidly amongst, yes, amongst the lifeguard crew, Can we go out now?

[00:29:33] Charles: Are we gonna go out now? When are you guys going out? Are you guys going out? And like, flippers were on, you know, like you guys gonna go out, we're gonna go bodysurf? And so, yeah, she was frothing, and still does, like, the other day when we had this bombing swell, she rolls up on Pat and I, she's like, what do you think, should I go out in the afternoon?

[00:29:48] Charles: I'm like Like, people are dying out here today and Rebecca will, and I, I mean, I'm kidding and I'm laughing, but Rebecca was really gung ho in terms of being in it. And it [00:30:00] was not necessarily like to thrash and rip. It was more about like seeing it and being a part of it, whether it was a kayak or a body surfing, uh, vehicle, like, you know, it was.

[00:30:11] Charles: Rebecca was just down for it. Um, and that was really cool. And as like a guy that would surf, I'm like, who is this cute girl? That's so exciting.

[00:30:18] Tyler: I was going to ask, when did she like peak, like get your attention? It was

[00:30:23] Charles: probably like after I could, the late like college years when we would start competing together, we would do this, um, paddle pickup event where I would have to paddle out on a paddleboard, scoop up a partner on the front of the board.

[00:30:34] Charles: And all of a sudden I have a really great. view, um, and also like position here with this delicious blonde and I think I even like bit her ass once during it and she went nuts but couldn't do anything because she's more obsessed with winning than anything so we were howling laughing while doing it. We won, of course, and we ran it up the beach.

[00:30:56] Charles: And after that, I was like, man, this girl is so cool and so fun. And, [00:31:00] but we're both dating people. And that was the first like roadblock I remember. And then it was, I think maybe the next summer where I found out we both had been serendipitously like split apart, kind of slightly heartbroken. And we found each other, you know, and that was it.

[00:31:13] Tyler: Male surfers listening. Don't grab it. Don't bite a girl's ass. Don't grab that. But you know, I would say I've known, I had known Rebecca

[00:31:21] Charles: for so long prior to that. We had a really great, like friendly, um, rapport. Oh man. And then some, um, and really then the competitive side of lifeguarding was a big part of kind of our identities.

[00:31:33] Charles: We, um, went to lifeguard nationals. Rebecca's like, I think one of like the At one point, like the top two most points placeholder for Monmouth County lifeguarding and Monmouth County lifeguarding, we are like neck and neck with L. A. every year. In fact, we like to oscillate between wins, so Craig Hummer was the famous L.

[00:31:51] Charles: A. County guy. And those guys get to be all year round too, by the way. And we're the only seasonal cohort that has that kind of carte blanche. And I remember Rebecca showed up just as like [00:32:00] a joke, kind of, like, I might as well, it's fun, right? It's a great party. And like, we just like raged and partied, and Rebecca, like, I think, first placed in, like, 10th place.

[00:32:07] Charles: 10 events or something crazy like that. Like it was like, I

[00:32:10] Rebecca: don't like to lose.

[00:32:11] Charles: No. And to her, it was like no big deal. But to a lot of us, it was like, man, that was like really serious. Um, so yeah, she's not to be trifled with. And it's, it's a big part of our lives is to like, do you guys still compete with each other?

[00:32:24] Charles: No, I am like not a competitive person as much as everybody wants to hope to say that I am. Yes,

[00:32:30] Rebecca: you are. He's like a secretly competitive person. Like, internally. Let me just illustrate one thing, and then we'll move on. Humble brag. No, no, no. He's not a humble brag. No, no, no.

[00:32:36] Charles: It's not. Our early

[00:32:37] Rebecca: years of dating My family has a massive Thanksgiving soccer game every year on the holidays, and it's like 50 verse 50.

[00:32:44] Rebecca: Like, no rules. It's just a massive family soccer game. So Hugh's Bradley

[00:32:47] Charles: Cooper from like, from Wedding Crashers? Yeah, it's exactly that. It's exactly that. Like, Nana's there. It's awful. It's awful. And it's so bad.

[00:32:55] Rebecca: Intense. Like, people have ripped muscles and hurt and like,

[00:32:58] Charles: Lost marriages, the whole thing. [00:33:00] No.

[00:33:00] Charles: Yeah, it's awful. But it's a big deal

[00:33:01] Rebecca: to bring a significant other to that game. Charles scored three goals in his first game to help win and like, win that game. So, I don't know, he's a very competitive person. I am

[00:33:10] Charles: fine losing, and I honestly find a lot of humor in loss, and I'm very comfortable in it, because probably the first half of my life was a bunch of like, Nah, I'm sorry, no, I'm sorry, and uh, Rebecca's family has a very hard time in that process, so I like always giggle because nobody will ever take a draw at the event at the soccer game.

[00:33:29] Charles: It's like there can't be a draw over. Um, yeah, and it's always like half the cohorts really upset and then everyone half is elated. So whenever there is a draw, it's like this, like sad kind of somber vibe. Um, but yeah, I don't know. There you go. Oh my gosh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But again, Polish immigrant parents are like, it's fine, you did your best, you're so good, you're alive.

[00:33:51] Charles: What's wrong? You should have no worries. Look how handsome you are. Look how handsome. Yeah. Everyone loves my Charles. You're fine. Everyone loves my

[00:33:59] Tyler: Charlie. [00:34:00] Yeah, you're articulate and you're handsome.

[00:34:02] Charles: You have nothing. These people

[00:34:03] Tyler: are, you know. All right. All right. I want to hear your family's description of you surfing now.

[00:34:08] Tyler: Yeah, that's. That my

[00:34:10] Charles: sister and I find these meme pages of these immigrant parents that scream at their kids, you know? And, uh, there's this one guy who does an awesome one about, like, your mental. Like, what do you mean your mental? Fuck your mental health! You know? And, uh, not that my father would have said that, but it would have been like If I detailed any part of surfing, my father just be like, what, what, like, what do you, what did you do?

[00:34:34] Charles: That's it. Wow. All right. Oh, that's great. He'd come home and see the boards all over the driveway and they're all repairs. You know, it was just like a kid collecting boards to repair and give back for pennies probably. And he would say famously every time without question, you go. How many of these boards did you make?

[00:34:51] Charles: You know, in like a deep Polish accent, I'm like, none of them. He just like rolled his eyes and went, pfff. And just like walked away, you know. They're repairs! You know, like I'm yelling at his back. He's [00:35:00] like, ehhh. I'll be in bed, you know. Anyway.

[00:35:04] Tyler: What do your family think of like this, this surfy life you guys have built?

[00:35:08] Tyler: Um, you know, are there other siblings that kind of have a similar lifestyle? Or is you guys kind of unique in your family?

[00:35:16] Rebecca: No, I feel like, I mean, yeah, they all kind of live locally around the beach, in and out. My younger sister, Amy, is a National Lifeguard competitor, three time rowing champion. So I feel like that has trickled down a bit.

[00:35:30] Rebecca: And then, yeah, I think they just, everyone has just a really deep connection to the beach and the ocean.

[00:35:37] Tyler: This, I wanted to jump onto this topic of like, community, and I feel like everyone fucking loves you guys.

[00:35:48] Rebecca: I

[00:35:48] Tyler: don't know, that's true. And I don't think I've ever heard, I personally have never heard anyone say anything remotely close to negative when it comes to both of you.

[00:35:56] Tyler: And I was curious, like, what you think that might, you [00:36:00] attribute that to. I think

[00:36:02] Rebecca: maybe they're scared.

[00:36:03] Charles: Nope. I think when you're When you're in and around the ocean a lot, and you do it for long enough, you either outlast the people that would talk shit about you or say something negative and therefore aren't around in 5, years, or you're looking around, you're like, I can't believe we're all still here, kind of thing, and so I would assume that like part of it, and Rebecca and I were kind of just daydreaming the other day about, we were prepping for the interview and saying, you know, like, oh, we're trying to, You know, get Tyler some Furbidge about us and what we're doing that's a bit more modern and updated and so much about of so much about our story is really just about like these friendships the People that we've made boards for that have turned into family friends that have turned into family in many ways And that used to be like in our hometown, which we knew everybody know everybody, but now it's like

[00:36:54] Tyler: yeah I

[00:36:55] Charles: got really good friends in Rockaway.

[00:36:56] Charles: I got really good friends in Montauk I got really good friends in Manhattan in [00:37:00] Williamsburg and Bushwick and And around the world, even in some weird ways, um, and I think it's just connecting with those groups and like, you know, we don't pander to everybody, you know, we know that there's a bunch of different board building options out there in the world.

[00:37:16] Charles: We're not trying to be a soft top manufacturer. We're not trying to recreate the Hypto Crypto. We're not trying to also, like, you You know, out aesthetic every somebody, you know, we're, we kind of know our lane and that I think has brought in this like endemic great, it's the only word is like course or fan.

[00:37:36] Charles: And I think that's what you hang out with to Tyler, whether you want to believe it or not. I hang out with a variety of yes, yes, yes, no, but it's like, I think that like the birds of a feather thing, and we've just been really lucky and grateful to attract that. And we've also like. Willingly worked on like, not repelling those other people, but to like work with those people less.

[00:37:57] Charles: Yeah. And I feel like that has not put us in this [00:38:00] bullseye of like, they fucked up the color on this board or like he didn't tell us the right lead time and I didn't couldn't expect for six months instead of four months. And so I think we've learned to protect ourselves a bit while also working with people that are just like.

[00:38:16] Charles: With us for us, you know,

[00:38:18] Tyler: yeah, how do you how do you how do you foster those relationships then like you get someone who shaped you shape a board for like Pat, right? Patchman is, you know, arguably one of the best surfers come out of New Jersey and agree with you and also one of the nicest people but I would.

[00:38:37] Tyler: I would have to say like a, a little portion that I can't help but think comes from your influence, Charles. Um, and I'm curious like how you fostered that relationship and, and how you use that maybe in other relationships as well.

[00:38:51] Charles: I've, his relationship and mine is like, um, it takes a lot to not get choked up about it because we had a great weekend [00:39:00] and an insane year just in general.

[00:39:02] Charles: But, um. For a lot of reasons, you know, we've been through a ton together, too And I think that bonds you but I've known him since he was probably three years old, you know, and I've known his family my whole life and It's like a perfect illustration of when you Do something blindly for the right reason over and over and over and over and over and that's what Pat did That's what I did.

[00:39:28] Charles: You know, I serviced him as much as hard and as, as, as committed as I ever could have, you know, we made some awesome moments. You know, we made some incredible boards. He surfed some incredible waves. I feel that he made his mark on New York and Long Island surfing.

[00:39:45] Tyler: Yeah.

[00:39:45] Charles: And I know he'd be shrinking hearing this, but he's the last guy to promote himself.

[00:39:51] Charles: Um, we were blessed with incredible weather for those years, like the biggest, yeah. scariest, most demanding waves you could ever surf in a [00:40:00] five mil, uh, and he kids still doing it, um,

[00:40:03] Rebecca: on

[00:40:05] Charles: anything, you know, that's the truth. You know, he surfs great on longboard, even though he hates the longboard or doesn't know how to, he's never been trained to, you know, he's just as a phenomenal surfer, but he's just an even better person.

[00:40:17] Charles: And so the way I've fostered that is just by being his friend. And, yeah. I mean, man, if, if you knew the things that came between us, you know, the amount of people that wanted them and how they wanted them and channel islands would make these incredible like grand requests. And I, I have to give him such public and serious credit and he knows all this, but he was just as loyal to me and then some, and he could have gone so many different routes and never did.

[00:40:47] Charles: Um, you know, for better, for worse, whatever that is, it's like a marriage, you know, um, we really like, we're able to do something and we were able to do something that was like unique and I thought like real [00:41:00] and lasting. And I don't think we'd ever look back at like the boards or the, the waves or like the edits or whatever the hell you want to kind of commodify it as and be like, Oh God, that was like our skinny gene era.

[00:41:11] Charles: Like we didn't have any of that, like not, not a bit of it. And so that's like such like a, Oh my God, look, look what, you know, look what we've done, you know, we, you know, and we, we really do. And we acknowledge that like we were in the van on Thursday afternoon after this last big swell, we served for probably eight straight hours together, absolutely crippled.

[00:41:31] Charles: And we just sat and just talked, you know, just talk for two hours in a van, you know, coming in and out of kind of mild consciousness, you know, but like a great. Full afternoon, then he came back, you know, and then we parted ways and we came back together at the end of the night again, you know, um, and then he had to drive back to Montauk that night, you know, and it's, it's the same thing on my end.

[00:41:54] Charles: It's like, I'll be up there. I'll see you. You know, I see him in three and a half hours. We do our day. We have our thing. [00:42:00] And then that's it. And I'm driving home and I'll call him on the ride home. But yeah, I just, you know, it's hard to not gush on him. I don't get as much opportunity to really talk and brag about him because he's so demure and so like, Whatever.

[00:42:11] Charles: Don't, don't even worry about it. Um, but he sometimes will, you know, and I have to kind of advocate for him, you know, so that's it. I think it's just a real, real meaningful friendships and the same exists for who, who the hell ever else, you know, whether it's hammer or Weimer or some of these people that I've, you know, I just, I love to service.

[00:42:32] Charles: I love getting them the right board for the right wave and that right moment. And then just, it just unfolding and it's just incredible. Get me off the clump. I got the tissues here for you, but they might be for me. Yeah, well, it's been a hell of a year, you know, I swear. And it's funny, like, I did the Davis podcast, and I got to talk about some of that.

[00:42:50] Charles: But it's honestly, it's, the waves are what create all of those experiences. And if without the waves, you don't, none of it, you don't feel any of it, you know. And then once it [00:43:00] starts, once that starts to happen again, it's like, oh my gosh, this is it, you know.

[00:43:04] Tyler: Well, it's like Having those kind of swell events, I would say, are like, it's almost like going, I hate to use this comparison because it's definitely obviously not the same, but in some ways that, like going into battle or something, you're having this incredibly unique shared experience with some other people who, some people you may barely even know, but you will have this thing and you'll always have that between you.

[00:43:32] Tyler: And like, to this day, I'll see someone from like, 30 years ago, I had a, you know, Hurricane Bob in 9543, you know, whatever, you know, like, and being like, Oh, I saw you there that day. And you always have that to kind of fall back on. And then if you build a history of that, it's like,

[00:43:51] Rebecca: Unbreakable. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:43:53] Charles: No, it is.

[00:43:53] Charles: And it's, I think the way that you process that, how you, how you prepare for it. The prep on those days, I don't think [00:44:00] people really understand like how much goes into it and like break it down, break it down. What goes into it? Yeah. Yeah. It's like days. And it's not even days,

[00:44:10] Rebecca: even weeks. Yeah. It is. No, it's weeks.

[00:44:12] Rebecca: So it's like,

[00:44:14] Charles: you have to live this life that allows you the opportunity to at whatever time to do that. Yeah. So that's stressful and it's time consuming and it's financially draining most likely and it's full of compromise and and it can get ugly for certain people. I've been blessed with careers that have allowed me to do that.

[00:44:30] Charles: And it's probably why I've chosen those because may not be rich, but I'm not. My heart and my like blood pressure isn't just ruined all the time and my family life isn't ruined by it But anyway, you have to prepare for that and then you have to obviously keep that all together if you have a wife and family like pat and I both do you have to have them abreast on that and the expectations have to be set and not like If you're really going to do it, which some of us really do do, which is like, you wake up at dawn and then you don't come home till dark.

[00:44:59] Charles: And if it's, that's [00:45:00] a day and a half before and a day after you're gone for three, four days, perhaps that has to be clear. That's like, I'm not going to be here for this, this, this, and that. And it's like.

[00:45:09] Rebecca: Yeah, but you and Pat both have wives, right? No, no, it was. So what I'm saying

[00:45:12] Charles: is, is for others

[00:45:13] Rebecca: that might not lifetime

[00:45:15] Charles: of putting that into, I guess, play and work is also its own kind of set of skills and challenges.

[00:45:20] Charles: And it's not easy. You have to really like process that and deal with that. And you have to swallow the reality of what that may mean, which is there's sometimes a ton of shame that comes with that tremendous amount of ego and, and, and, and ego kind of checking and, and, but also that's what then Creates these opportunities and so you really have to, I hate that word toggle, but you do have to constantly navigate.

[00:45:46] Charles: Like, am I, am I out of my mind that I'm driving into the state of emergency situation where everyone else is going the other way and I'm willingly, knowingly putting myself in a position to, you know, potentially get hurt, potentially [00:46:00] ruin my livelihood, you know, and all these other things. Uh, the equipment, whole nother thing.

[00:46:05] Charles: The equipment needs to shift like drastically so if it's like a state of emergency type swell it's The board's completely different, the wax then has to most likely be like, either changed or re figured out on four or five different boards, all the different thins, all the different like, new ideas you have, which for me is like a whole nother thing.

[00:46:23] Charles: It's not like I'm some guy that's grabbing my hyptocrypto or my, sorry, Pyzel Ghost would be the new illustration. I'm now grabbing my Pizel XL 6. 0 Ghost and Wait, wait, wait, wait. You forgot. serving like John John. At, uh, 35 liters, please. No, it's 35. 6. I'm on the bigger end of things now. And so, that's not going down.

[00:46:46] Charles: And so, it's like, alright, I gotta get those boards ready. I have to get them glassed in time, prepped. Um, and then there's the coordinating. And the coordinating, like, this swell was so wild. Because I was in this naive kind of haze of like, there's no waves. It's [00:47:00] been empty. No one's going to be here. I'm going to have this place to myself.

[00:47:03] Charles: I just get to test out all these new boards I've made. I'm so psyched. And I called Pat and Pat's like, well, like all of New York's coming, all of Pennsylvania's coming. So are you ready? And I'm like, what, who, why? He's like, dude, are you stupid? Like this has been forecasted for weeks. Like everyone's coming, you know, like, and I'm, I'm trying to like smoke screen everything and everyone, I don't want to give Pat's moves away, but we really do.

[00:47:27] Charles: It's a fine line between being polite and kind and generous and also preserving yourself and your sanity of like, you can't be on your phone all the time and you can't be obsessing on where to not to be or where to be. And uh, I've, we've been really lucky with how our nucleus of people are able to just say like, Hey, we're going to just surf here and like whatever that is, that is, you know, and if, if we're not where all the photographers are, that's okay.

[00:47:54] Charles: And ironically enough, it's almost like we've. Kind of become that kind of like flame [00:48:00] almost in some ways what to what they had once was, you know It's like everyone's got to be here And I think that'll still change and adapt but right now I don't know We've just been lucky and we've been in these great positions with the right swell the right angle and all that stuff.

[00:48:14] Charles: So

[00:48:15] Tyler: Man, I want to be in your chat group just to observe. No, there are no chat

[00:48:18] Charles: groups. No? No, there are no chat groups. Yeah, I'm on like maybe like one annoying one on like a photographer's group and that I have left and then everything else is just individual. It's interesting. Man to man. There's no chat groups.

[00:48:29] Charles: And the thing is you can tell where there are chat groups because it's like these six kids show up and they're all of this like kind of. persuasion of like, you were here, you know, that we're here, like, yeah, man, we fucking know you're here. Wait, wait, sorry.

[00:48:46] Tyler: Hey,

[00:48:46] Charles: we're here. They run down together. It's the one thing that go together, but then it's like, we go one at a time, you know, but it's just, that's all off the, it's all done.

[00:48:55] Charles: You know, it's all, it's all like, we just, we have to be here. There's like a [00:49:00] compulsivity, I think for certain people, I think certain media groups are doing it. It's just like a big thing now, you know,

[00:49:08] Tyler: how do you feel about that like the New Jersey surf scene is Kind of blown up over the last 20 15 years probably always have been tired We've always had ways always have but like I feel like the last 15 years It's been under more scrutiny where yeah, you have people from Hawaii flying out.

[00:49:27] Tyler: Yes swells. Yeah, you

[00:49:29] Charles: know, you know I'll give you a quick history lesson though, because like that's like the new line is like You know, what the hell, what's going on? It's like, this has been going on in, in New Jersey and Long Island for a very long time prior to social media. And back in the day it was like the locals page, you know, right.

[00:49:45] Charles: And the locals page on Surfline was huge. And that was like where you went to see the edits, you know, you go to see the new fricking edit from Rockaway, from Belmar, from Manasquan, from trying to think of like, you know, OBX always had a great one. And then you'd have like T [00:50:00] street and steamer lane. And we were in that Pantheon.

[00:50:02] Charles: And I remember hearing. A fact from, I forget, it may have been Donald Crestillo, who was a very known photographer from Monmouth County, um, always like a front center lensman for like Surfline or the go tos. You know, when I did Shaper's Alley, he was the guy that would come and take the photos. And he said that the metric was that Surfline would always say that.

[00:50:22] Charles: New Jersey had the top amount of submissions of, um, of, of everything. We had the most amount of edits. We had the most amount of like head, headshot submissions, whatever, you know, like, um, than any other group. And I think it even like doubled the second place group. It was like a ridiculous amount of content was being submitted.

[00:50:40] Charles: And I don't know why it is. It's either that we're so aspirational because we don't have it so that we want it so bad or it's just, there's a lot of people packed in here. But, um, I don't really like, it's, this is nothing new, you know, this is always, Jersey's always been thirsty. Uh, New York, I think, has always been as well.

[00:50:58] Charles: I think it's just that we have [00:51:00] such great waves. People didn't

[00:51:01] Rebecca: know it before.

[00:51:02] Charles: And, yeah, and I think our storytelling was always so limited. Yeah. Um, and now it's been so democratized. Anyone can be a storyteller. Anyone can. And the

[00:51:11] Rebecca: access to it all. Yeah, the

[00:51:12] Charles: access is there. So, yeah, I don't know. I, like, I made kind of a point recently and, You know, a couple of people were saying like, well, you know, it's like, you know, you've had a ton of success out of it yourself.

[00:51:24] Charles: And it's like, well, there's no doubt, but like I'm paddling out before any photographer showing up in those situations with those people were out there. The photographers come and I think it's

[00:51:34] Rebecca: surfing because the cameras are there.

[00:51:36] Charles: Exactly. And I think it's like Lido, like a great day at one of those types of waves.

[00:51:39] Charles: Like there's going to be photographers if the waves are good and it's just how it is. It's like if. The photographers are the star or the, the, the waves are the stars and the photographers are there now, and, uh. That's it. You know, it's. Yeah. And you get like a wave of the winter captured like you did last year.

[00:51:55] Charles: Yeah. I mean, there's no doubt like that. We've absolutely changed a lot. Can we relive

[00:51:59] Tyler: [00:52:00] that for a moment? Sure. I'd love to. Yeah.

[00:52:01] Charles: I'll go quick. But it was a same day as the last one. It was a very easterly south swell, which is very rare. And that creates this kind of like mayhem look to it where like usually our shores and even Long Island.

[00:52:16] Charles: They're known for like these like tapered, beautiful bands of swell, not necessarily these like really frightening kind of peaks. And it's not even like a peak. It's like a, it was described to me as a kid is a bell shaped bowl. If you can picture like a bell kind of lifting and then curling over. So you have like, yeah, it's a peak.

[00:52:33] Charles: Yeah, it's kind of an A frame, but there's like a tail on it. And so if you're astute enough and you have the You're sitting as deep as humanly possible on the right side of the bell, and you're just backdooring that whole entire thing, hoping there's another bell down the line. And sometimes they just keep crescendoing and you're getting one after another.

[00:52:51] Charles: And so that day, uh, Pat was first out, I think, at like 10 AM. Grant Monahan, Charlie didn't come [00:53:00] down that swell, but a handful of us kind of local guys, we all paddled out. Um, Tosh flew in, a bunch of those guys flew in. So they showed up a little bit later. Justin Quintal was out in that first group that paddled out early.

[00:53:11] Charles: And that was a super session, you know, like solid eight foot, you'd call it. And it peaked pretty serious midday high tide, which is the exact same scenario we just had on Thursday. And, uh, then in the afternoon, the tide went out, but the swell remained. And so that's pretty scary, is that when you're getting a swell that's still on the, on the nose, it's still really strong, but you have this draining tide.

[00:53:35] Charles: It creates just like a really. Tight serious action, and I am not I do not think that's the best wave I've ever gotten honestly I feel like I've definitely written better bigger waves It was just that there were so many people with cameras pointed at the beach that day Surrounded by really good surfers so to get blown out of a barrel toward like Pat And then it's then like I'm paddling back up and Justin's like, that was the sickest thing I ever saw, bro.

[00:53:59] Charles: You know, the Southern [00:54:00] accent. I'm like, who's this guy? And then Tosh is like, Oh yeah, you know, little Mickey Mouse. Um, it was just pretty funny, you know? And so, and then all my buddies were there and it was just like. I knew full well, you know, I was like, Oh, I'm standing straight up in this fucking thing.

[00:54:14] Charles: I'm, you know, can I lift this hand straight up? And it was a great moment. You know, I had a lot going on in life too. We had just found out we're going to have our fifth child. Um, middle age isn't easy. It's not fun. It's hard, you know? So I was kind of approaching a lot of. The 41, yeah, 41 blues, where's the business gonna go, what's it gonna do, where's it gonna go, you know, and, um, all it takes is one wave, and that wave really kind of just, we had had a couple swells up until that point, and there was a lot of like meat left on the bone, you know, like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh, yeah, and I had gotten a great wave the day, the swell prior, honestly, that Monday, I almost rode the crazy, Wipe out Wednesday, wipe out Monday when all those people had those crazy jumps and all that like we were [00:55:00] surfing perfect waves Up the coast, you know, and it was bigger I'd even argue maybe not even as tall but just as big and just as scary and nobody out no cameras and I wrangled and Huge wave and I finished and I wrote it straight and I was done.

[00:55:14] Charles: So I already had kind of like some wind under my, my, my wings, but not enough like confidence to really get a sick one. And that wave had come in and it just kind of presented itself. I had to go, I had like three guys on the shoulder, like begging to go, you know, so I was like, oh, fuck that, I'm gonna go.

[00:55:29] Charles: But that was it. You know, that was it. I got out. It was awesome. Did you get out

[00:55:34] Tyler: going after that, or did you sleep?

[00:55:36] Charles: No, no, I did like a, uh, I did like a Shane Did a victory lap? I did a Shane Boyle lap, yeah. That's like the, uh, I need to get some water, you know? And I need to talk to everybody about it. Did you get that?

[00:55:45] Charles: Did you get So I did like the I think I walked it up on the, on the jet, on the boardwalk, which is even more pathetic. Uh, and then everyone was like, you gotta go back out. Deservedly so. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, when you know you get it, you get, you gotta get it, you know. When you know you got it, you gotta go get it.

[00:55:59] Charles: [00:56:00] So, I, I did that. We laughed a lot. And then a couple other people got some really good waves. Like, Grant got that really great one. And, um. Pat

[00:56:07] Tyler: got that.

[00:56:08] Charles: Pat got the first one. That was the first wave of the, that was the first wave of the session. He rolled into it. And, um. Got spit out. He's 6'4 I'd call him like 6'6 honestly.

[00:56:17] Charles: He's so tall. Like, he makes me d I have to reach up to him, kind of. Uh, to grab him. He's like Eli Manning, I say always. He's like a skinny big guy, you know? Uh, but still could break your neck if he hit you. And, uh, so many people got great waves. Like, I honestly, like, Tosh got some great ones. Tosh said he got probably thumped that morning harder than he'd ever been.

[00:56:38] Charles: Um, and you know, this is a good line too, I had lunch with, uh, Ryan Birch that summer and, uh, Chris Gentile had a couple of us over and Ryan was doing his residency and it was really nice to just have some minutes with him and he was really just saying his, uh, nephew, Kobe Hughes, who's just such a doll, that kid, he's, he did a really cool, uh, Jackson Brown [00:57:00] edit to that swell run, so it's well worth checking out.

[00:57:03] Charles: And. Ryan was like, man, it's just so, we were like, someone was like saying like, it's not like Blacks though, you know, like trying to like pander, like the Jersey thing, you know, and he was like, no, Blacks is like kind of soft. He's like, what you guys have is so different. And he's like, I've been, I've done the Outer Banks.

[00:57:21] Charles: He's got a great edit from the Outer Banks, Ryan. And it's beautiful. Like the way, the way he serves you, that's how you could do it, you know, and he, um, like in terms of how fast he's going and all that. And so he goes, no, there's, it's beautiful. There's no way faking it here. You got to go through it to go get it and that was like really nice It's like you're fucking right Because there's no like let's go around the harbor, you know, it's like no.

[00:57:46] Charles: No. No, you just go right up the middle boy No, and yeah, I love that and I think that's yeah, that's like the big separator, you know It's like anyone can play like they they want it, but they may not so that those days there was just like the [00:58:00] people that were willing to go through it were there and I was lucky that day, you know.

[00:58:05] Charles: Listeners, mind you,

[00:58:06] Tyler: they're also wearing full 5 mil gear, boots, gloves, everything. So you're carrying an extra 20, 30 pounds on top of that. So

[00:58:16] Charles: Yep. 30 pounds, I'd say.

[00:58:18] Tyler: Those guys at Blacks, pshh, please. No, I mean, that's like, you know, there's

[00:58:22] Charles: nothing scarier than a canyon set at Blacks. True. But, um It's not easy doing what we do, and I think in general that's kind of the thesis for New York and New Jersey is that it really is hard.

[00:58:34] Charles: And, um, that's what I think draws so many people in, but also I think can frustrate a lot of people too. And, uh, yeah. Rebecca,

[00:58:42] Tyler: what about you then? Like, what goes on, what's going on with you when he's got these swell events coming up? And, and then also, what was your reaction when you saw that wave?

[00:58:54] Rebecca: Honestly, like I feel like I am trying to scheme ways to be at the beach and be in [00:59:00] the action and like watch the waves and watch the surfing love and watch him surf. So like, oh my God, these big swell event days and the preparation, I think hun, like 90% of it is in his head on his phone with the people he's talking to.

[00:59:14] Rebecca: We're still doing our day in and day out, but then like, when it happens, it's like, can I take the girls out of school? Can I skip that meeting? Can I move that dentist appointment? Can I just to be there? And honestly, that wave of the winter last year, luckily I did skip a meeting. I was down at the beach and just kind of like, watch, I just love the energy of it all.

[00:59:32] Rebecca: I love watching surfing. I love, like, I fell in love with him because he is a surfer, so. What I'm doing, I'm trying to be down there. And I'm trying to surf it, but clearly it's way too big and I can't. So, I'm, uh, I'm just cheering on the sidelines, I guess. You can see

[00:59:47] Charles: where some of my anxiety comes from.

[00:59:48] Charles: You know, my state of emergency. My wife's bringing my, like, four young, small children down. There's, like, sets sweeping up the beach. And my little two year olds rolling around in, like, foam. In, like, the foam. [01:00:00] And my buddies are like, Hey, is that Rebecca on the beach? I'm like, No!

[01:00:08] Rebecca: Hi!

[01:00:09] Tyler: Yes.

[01:00:10] Rebecca: Are you calling him in? I'm like, No, no, no. I just wanted to say hi.

[01:00:13] Tyler: Stage fright?

[01:00:14] Charles: Do you get stage fright then, Charles? No, no, I'm, it's honestly, it's so endearing and there's so many days where I'm like, I wish they came down and then all of a sudden I see them swarming the beach like, there they are.

[01:00:25] Charles: So it's great. And like, yeah, when I was a kid, I swear and let this be any young listeners, you know, when I was a kid, it was always like, uh, dude, I could never have a wife that serves that would really impede on my time. And that is so important to me and what I value. And I'm like, it just seemed wrong, you know, in my head.

[01:00:43] Charles: I'm like. I don't know about that one. Like, it doesn't seem like that could play out good later. And I love those guys are great people, but most of those wives have a very hard time hearing that. Like, Hey, it's really important for my mental health to go surfing. Like, I give a fuck about your mental health, you know, like cute immigrant [01:01:00] parents, you know?

[01:01:01] Charles: And so all of a sudden, like I sleep pretty well at night. Like I definitely battle my own issues, but like I'm, my mental health is pretty all right. It's pretty in check and it's. Partly because my wife has realized like, hey, this guy isn't a fantasy football guy. He's not a a boozer. He's not a Gambler, he's not this he's just has this marriage.

[01:01:20] Charles: Yeah, but but he does have a surf obsession and

[01:01:24] Rebecca: It's just who you are. Yeah, who you are,

[01:01:26] Charles: right? And so what I'm saying is that like By choosing that and by us kind of like acknowledging that, I think it's really led to like a really nice life and we're still doing it.

[01:01:36] Tyler: I feel like you should be quoting Anayla from North Shore right now.

[01:01:40] Tyler: Chandler's good. Chandler goes out. He surfs. He's full of life. Other men, they just They just drink and gamble. They're not fun. It's true. I think I'm a pretty lucky girl. Well, don't

[01:01:50] Rebecca: be surprised who you marry. Like, that's like saying you marry a soccer player and then be like, Oh my God, he's got soccer games?

[01:01:55] Rebecca: What? Yeah. British Premier League?

[01:01:57] Charles: What is this? Yeah.

[01:01:58] Rebecca: I know. I marry a cook and he's got [01:02:00] to be in the restaurant industry?

[01:02:02] Tyler: Well, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's interesting. Like, I love seeing, uh, like a surfing family. My wife doesn't surf. I've tried, you know, it's just like, that's just not her. That's not who she is.

[01:02:14] Tyler: And that's not who I married. And I'm totally cool with it. But she's also understood, like, surfing is, surfing is my mistress. And like, it is my thing that keeps me me, you know, and so she she recognized that and moved us to Rockaway, you know, it was like, yeah, that was the best thing ever. Because now I can go for quick surfs instead of All day surfs either, which I think, I think that helps a lot, like living close proximity to the ocean is really helpful for that type of lifestyle, which I, yeah,

[01:02:47] Rebecca: Charles is like, let's just move to a farm and we can like have horses and I'm like, if you can't run to the beach, I'm not moving.

[01:02:53] Tyler: Well, if there's a mountain nearby. Oh,

[01:02:54] Rebecca: true. All right.

[01:02:55] Tyler: There's a mountain nearby. I

[01:02:56] Rebecca: don't know. I'd still argue.

[01:02:58] Tyler: Wave pool too.

[01:02:59] Rebecca: [01:03:00] Okay. Let's

[01:03:00] Tyler: let's throw in, let's say it's somewhere in Germany near the wave pool, but also you got mountains you're in between. Ready. Oh, I'm going. All right. I'm good with just a mountain, Tyler.

[01:03:12] Tyler: Let me ask then like Rebecca, how, how has it been like with, with, with Charles, like growing his surfboard business and seeing it start to blossom and like, One, I'm curious, like, how involved you are with the business, and two, what's it been like watching this kind of grow?

[01:03:32] Rebecca: Um, it has been, again, I don't want to sound too corny here, but like, it has just been a beautiful Evolution.

[01:03:39] Rebecca: And I'll start to cry because watching, like, one of our first dates after that date in Bryant Park was hanging out in his parents garage and he, like, was shaping a surfboard and he had a glass of Pinot Noir on the board and it was a, uh, Clark foam and it was just mesmerizing and, like, so charming. And so to see it grow, I've just, [01:04:00] I think I've done nothing.

[01:04:01] Rebecca: He doubts himself so much and I think the role that I sort of maybe play is just, uh, the hype girl for him because I Love seeing all of the things that he manifests and dreams of and like wants. Come to life. And it's all him. He's doing it. I'm, yeah, sending emails in the front office, if you will, and he's the back office making the boards.

[01:04:22] Rebecca: But he's created these deep, meaningful connections with people. And he's surfed all the surfs and all the swells and all of the things. And, like, he's just, he's everything. And so, like, I I'm not riding his coattails, but like, I'm definitely, um, helping see his dream through, or our dream through rather, because now he's created a legacy for our daughters.

[01:04:44] Rebecca: And like, I think that's one thing I'm super proud of, is watching the different phases of Mencel surfboards and Charles Mencel himself evolve. And like, There have been so many times where it is so hard, and it's [01:05:00] so incredibly difficult to see him, like, go through these patches of self doubt, or mistakes, or fuck ups, or, I don't know, anything, but, like, he is committed, and he just, like, lives out This mantra that I continue to say is like, you can do hard things.

[01:05:17] Rebecca: It's like a Just Sims from Peloton kind of line, and it's just stuck with me. It has. I love that. You can do hard things. And like, he is a living mantra of doing hard things, not talking about it, but just doing it. And like, that's the biggest example for our daughters. And so again, like, seeing this vision through is, it's a lifestyle.

[01:05:36] Rebecca: It's like, well, we just are going to do forever.

[01:05:39] Tyler: What's the vision now then? Now. So. Yeah. I'm curious, like, so you guys are opening up Garden Glassing, and I'm curious, like, how much, how much discussion between you two was there in, in starting this? Was this something that Charles came back to you and was like, we're starting a glassing house?[01:06:00]

[01:06:00] Tyler: Or was it more of like both of you kind of collaboratively talking about it and kind of discussing why? And that's the other thing. Why do we, why do we need a, a garden glassing house as well?

[01:06:12] Rebecca: I don't know if you've ever been to his previous shop. Have you been there? I have not

[01:06:15] Tyler: yet.

[01:06:16] Rebecca: Oh my God, we should take you there.

[01:06:17] Rebecca: Wait, not my invite. Yeah, come on

[01:06:20] Tyler: down. He's invited me. You gotta leave the bubble. You gotta come south. I gotta come south. Yeah. I just. Goofyfoot. I'm Goofyfoot. I'm so lazy on my back end.

[01:06:28] Rebecca: Yeah, but the space that he was at before is this like, incredibly charming Quonset hut. And it's like, we leased it from this incredible family in Manesquo on the Librises.

[01:06:39] Rebecca: And it is exactly, it was exactly what we needed for the business at that time. But I will also say, like, there's no running water. They had to pee in. You had to go turn on the heat and then leave for 30 minutes and wait for it to heat up. There was no heat. There's squirrels, you know, like coming out of there.

[01:06:57] Rebecca: So it was, again, perfect for the [01:07:00] chunk of time where we were. But there came a point where it's like, if this is really going to be something, we need to find a new space. And so again, it was just the evolution of the space that then opened up Garden Glassing and what it is now. And so, yeah, um, James, who does all the sanding and glassing, we sort of talked with him about it and talked to Charles about it and what would you say, like six, seven months of like looking at spaces?

[01:07:24] Charles: Honestly, I think James and I were looking at each other with like, maybe the last year, two years saying like, this is gonna hit. An end point here and it's either we just stop attracting business. We stopped attracting people because that's like you're creating basically like a band for all intents and purposes.

[01:07:42] Charles: Like a factory factory is like, you gotta have this employee, this kind of this kind of player, this kind of player, this kind of mindset, this kind of manager, this kind of agent. Uh, you have to have so many people and parts and vibes and it has to work. And that place was not we were. we would [01:08:00] get like great groups like quartets and triceps and like and duets like James and I were a great duet but we couldn't get like a real band and um we partnered up with James you know James is our laminator he's our master laminator he's you know really he does under fins which he does a beautiful job making fins out of the garden now and so the the three of us really kind of put our heads together we're like we got to find a space so Rebecca was cold calling doing the whole thing and it was just a It was like a nightmare trying to find spots.

[01:08:29] Charles: It was just hyper competitive and just weird.

[01:08:31] Tyler: And trying to explain what you want to do to landlords.

[01:08:36] Charles: The worst. You want a what? They want, yeah, they want. Is it

[01:08:39] Rebecca: going to smell? Yeah.

[01:08:40] Charles: They want coffee, yoga, real estate. That's like the trice. That's like the, the, the trinity of like, like Shoretown development wants is that's it.

[01:08:52] Charles: They want coffee, yoga and real estate. Okay. So. Couldn't find it. And all of a sudden, like a buddy texted me like a [01:09:00] video, like, Hey, this could be a great spot for you. And I was like, Oh man. Yeah. And then James went and saw it. James was like, I think this is it. And we like looked at it once and said, yep.

[01:09:12] Charles: And we signed the lease like the next week. And so we had a lot of like preliminary, like, this is what we need to have. This place hit all of those parts. Finance was scary as always. The partnership agreements are always scary and, and angst driven. It's something very new for us. We were such like controllers, you know, like we had like a really, you know, I built a, a, a lighten up glassing was like my homage to like, don't take yourself so seriously.

[01:09:41] Charles: Like kind of hipster dumb glassing just got so wrought and so ridiculous and so corny. And my logo was like all these like. This iconography of like just chill out. It was like Einstein with his tongue out. That was my logo for a while Then it was like the cosmic Charlie with like the the ice cream cone on the [01:10:00] forehead Then I think I did like a go fuck yourself glassing logo for a while with like the smiley face.

[01:10:05] Charles: So like We were just doing it as like honestly got punk rock kind of thing of like, you know Like it's just surfboards, you know, if I could have done it, it's just surfboards glassing. I would have done that Yeah, and so James was like, listen, this is cute and fun, but it's not really real. Like, it's not really like us.

[01:10:21] Charles: And so the garden were big. MSG fans. I love New York. Uh, so that, like, coining of the garden was huge. Uh, the concept of it being connected to, like, Garden State is cute, but that's honestly tangential. We were just like, whatever. You're growing something, too. And we're growing and we're cultivating and, like, our tagline is that we're down to earth.

[01:10:40] Charles: And you know, I

[01:10:41] Rebecca: As opposed to.

[01:10:43] Tyler: I love it. Yeah, we'll be here all week. And

[01:10:44] Charles: so what we really are trying to say and part of why we wanted to come on today was to really, like, offer our tri state area. Like a real authentic independent voice within surfboard manufacturing and there are [01:11:00] so many players and parties in this space now Yeah, which it's baffling that it's gotten this big and you know, I'm in full support of those groups.

[01:11:09] Charles: I think that's fine I just don't I think when we were young and green We were the kind of community that will just take anything because we're grateful for it. Yeah But I think we've come a long way since 2019, people, we've come a long way since 2015, where some of these cohorts would come in and say that they put their stake in the ground and like, man, like, I've been surfing Rockaway and Long Island my whole life since I was like, old enough to drive if not before then I was being carted up here and was like, where am I?

[01:11:41] Charles: And so, I think we've gotten to a point now as a consumer group, which is sad, that's what I'm kind of saying we are, but we kind of are, we are, that we have like the option to make a choice. Now we're no longer stuck with just like soft top hyptocrypto and like this one label that you need to buy from California or wherever.

[01:11:58] Charles: But like, you've got a lot [01:12:00] of choices. You have now the power of purchase in terms of enabling certain groups, like maybe Rebecca and I to continue to do what we do. Yeah. To maybe support groups that are actual surfers that are like in the surf world. All of us are artisans We're all we all have different jobs that all revolve back into surfing where the arts in many ways Some of us are musicians some of us my one Sanders pastor.

[01:12:25] Charles: These are people that You know, really do work outside of the surf space, but that still communicates what they are. They're not like the word when I was a kid was like a taker, you know, someone who just kind of takes grabs and then runs and is like, Hey, you know, fuck it. It's just, it's just funding my, my, my trips every year, whatever, which is fine.

[01:12:44] Charles: Like I have no problem with that, but like, dude, I'm too busy to go on trips, you know, and I'm too obsessed of missing as well here to go on a trip right now. Uh, I'll go, I'll go on trips in the summer. You know, I leave here in the summer.

[01:12:56] Tyler: Well, I think.

[01:12:57] Charles: To

[01:12:57] Tyler: me, it's nice, like, seeing [01:13:00] someone so rooted in their community as well, and in our community as a whole, who's been here for so long, this staking a ground for this.

[01:13:10] Tyler: Yeah. Because I've seen, and this is again, not a slight to these people, but I've seen so many people come through New York particularly. Yes, sir. And, Branded to brand themselves and use New York as part of their branding and then they take off the moment like they get big enough even like they take off they go to California where they can go back and surf good waves again and they've Use New York to springboard them.

[01:13:35] Tyler: Yeah to that next phase which again smart

[01:13:37] Rebecca: savvy smart

[01:13:38] Tyler: savvy. It's fine Yeah, but it's not long

[01:13:41] Charles: lasting and no, I mean listen, it's it's probably good enough. You know, it's it's probably fine for them I just don't know if I would sleep well at night like that and that's I guess what I keep coming back to is my My I'm smiling my mental health in that like I wouldn't be able to do this if I didn't do it this way and I [01:14:00] think I've had like a tremendous amount of opportunity to like Quit and be like, fuck that.

[01:14:04] Charles: Like I could make more money if I didn't do this. , like straight up . And so, um, I just see like a great way to do it. And I think I've learned enough with my friends and the people I work with that like, we're finally getting somewhere in terms of like a space and like a process that's gonna allow us to make these boards the right way.

[01:14:23] Charles: And we've been doing a great job for a long time. I'm like, I keep going back, like it's really hard and we can do hard things , but um. It really has gotten to a point now where like there are a lot of different players and I think people now need to make more informed choices in what they're supporting and what they're doing and it's no more like You can't just say like, well, shit, I use Amazon because they're just shiny, nice things.

[01:14:46] Charles: It's like, well, you'd sound like an asshole if you said that, you know? And I think in some ways it's with surfboards too. It's like, well, who's making that board? And why did they make that board? And like, why did you get charged that much or that little? Um, and what is really the intention behind that?

[01:14:59] Charles: [01:15:00] And for us, I'll tell you, the intention for us is to make something that's lasting and that's real to us. Not to copy, not to play. You know, pantomime, which I absolutely have like an opportunity to do and some people would even say that I do, but overall I'm making something that's unique to us and is tailor made for us.

[01:15:21] Charles: So like it may look like a X, Y, or Z, but I'm telling you right now, the undercarriage, the rails, the whole profiling of it, it's all for our waves and our unique needs. I need to go fast on a small day. I refuse to just say. Oh, at least if I look cool, it'll be good enough. You know, I have to fly. And if I'm not doing that, I'm beat.

[01:15:42] Charles: If I'm making a barrel board, that thing better make the drop, pull in, go slow in the barrel. Let me come out with my hand up in the air. I don't want to be running the section out and, you know, tell everyone, well, it's a five fin Bonser tube shooter with triple pin lines, whatever, you know, it's irrelevant, but you're [01:16:00] still on the shoulder.

[01:16:00] Charles: To

[01:16:00] Rebecca: give some credit to people that do order the boards too. And I think everyone is. It's super critical and educated and informed, but what I've noticed in the ordering process is that people are ordering like full quivers now. So instead of going for that one board that's going to work in Rincon, three to four offshore winds kind of day, I'm now getting a board designed for each kind of various condition.

[01:16:24] Rebecca: And so that I have a stack of three to four to pull from whenever I need it.

[01:16:27] Tyler: Well, it's the golf club. You know, method, you know, you got to look at, you got to look at your, you need a quiver for the variety of boards and waves that we have here. Like it goes from one foot slop to 10 to 15 foot and it could be slope here.

[01:16:44] Tyler: It could be barreling it depending on where you are. Yeah.

[01:16:47] Charles: But you know, that's, uh, Rebecca, she makes that, that's a great point. And so I think what I have always been insecure about as a board builder.

[01:16:55] Charles: Oh my gosh am I making too many models I have too many options Um, and I [01:17:00] remember when I first started to really like get into the Instagram surf build surfboard building thing, the big thing, and these were like MBAs that were talking about this, but they were like, no, you want to have three, four models and you want them to be really explicit and you, and basically you want to set yourself up for production, you want to set yourself up to take that file, put it on a machine, and then you can print like a hundred of them And like, I saw that and I got that and I made like cute names for my models and all that, but I just kept shaping like everything else that I kept surfing.

[01:17:32] Charles: And so now it's funny, some of those models have become kind of passé or kind of pathetic, you know, like almost like parodies of themselves. And I keep seeing people buying these stratas of boards from us that are like, I need the big wave gun, I need the small wave fish, I need the big small wave glider.

[01:17:47] Charles: And that's like. 50 weight, 50 more sessions a year right there with those three words, you know, and it's better mental health, less calories and all that good stuff.

[01:17:56] Tyler: But also as

[01:17:57] Rebecca: a business I'm worried about your mental health.

[01:17:59] Tyler: Yeah, no, you [01:18:00] keep, you keep mentioning it. Are you okay? Do you want to lay down?

[01:18:04] Tyler: I laid down in the car before this. That's probably why. Yeah, I laid down in the car. So tell me about your childhood, Charles. Yeah. Fuck you, mental health people. Anyway. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault.

[01:18:20] Charles: But yeah, I, I think that the surfboard and like the process of the building has dictated like.

[01:18:27] Charles: What is behind the board itself, you know, and I think that's like, we're no longer sleepy customers in these, you know, short hamlets that are like, Oh, yeah, that's great. Thank you so much. I'm just lucky to have this. It's like, no, man, like, that's unacceptable. And I really challenge people, you know, moving forward, like, really think like, It is, is the deal really everything to you, right?

[01:18:49] Charles: Is, is, is it really important that the guy at the surf shops giving you the deal or is it more important for you to have the board that really serves you and your needs, you know? Um,

[01:18:59] Rebecca: or just having the [01:19:00] conversation with the shaper that's making your board or the handmade element. That's the beauty of handmade, right?

[01:19:05] Charles: But not everybody wants that process. That's I guess what I'm offering out is like, there's people that like, just. Fiend for a 600 clear sand finish channel islands from their local dealer because they've chiseled that person to death. And those are the people that I'm paddling past every session looking at and saying, are you cold?

[01:19:22] Charles: And I'm freezing. I'm like, have you caught a wave? I haven't caught a wave. You know, are you overweight and tired? Yes. I'm like, well, you're not catching waves. You're not paddling. You're not staying warm.

[01:19:30] Rebecca: Pharmaceutical commercial. Was it

[01:19:31] Charles: worth, was it worth the 600? And I'm going to say

[01:19:34] Tyler: it's not worth it.

[01:19:35] Tyler: You know, Rebecca. Is that an ad we should be making now? A digital ad for him? No, are you fat and tired? Do you need

[01:19:41] Rebecca: a new wetsuit?

[01:19:42] Tyler: Are you fat and tired? Do you need a new wetsuit? We've got a new surfboard from Menzel. Might, might, uh, give feelings of, uh, lightness and air. Change your mental health. It'll

[01:19:53] Rebecca: change your mental health.

[01:19:53] Rebecca: You might not

[01:19:54] Tyler: do airs as much, but your carves will be looking beautiful. Yeah, you got it. I'm

[01:19:59] Rebecca: hiring [01:20:00] you.

[01:20:00] Tyler: I'll do the voiceover. Um, I think that opens up though, like you talking about like people are buying Quivers, like it opens up a new business model too. And I'm curious, like, do you discuss that? Do you guys ever discuss, like, different ways to do the board business?

[01:20:18] Rebecca: We probably should talk about it more.

[01:20:19] Charles: Yeah, probably not now, but we probably should. But I just want to go back to, I don't think it's as deliberate in those people's minds of like, I need the men's health equipment. No. It's that it's like, they had the pollers taken care of, of like, hey, I got the barrel board.

[01:20:33] Charles: I got that small micro day board. Yeah. I found this fish in the middle and then they're like, Hey, there's this all of a sudden this day that I'm not getting. And it's this rib cage high day on my backhand. I'm stuck in Rockaway and I need to make more sections. And it's like, Oh, well maybe it's like a seven foot version of that.

[01:20:49] Charles: Right. And so I think I've Rebecca and I both have gotten good at like, at least forecasting, like, Oh man, like, um, This is probably the piece that you are missing. Right. [01:21:00]Yeah. And like. That is just the strength, I think, of our, like, communication, our relationships, like, Ariel Angstrom, like, rides my boards, and Ariel is, like, such a great surfer, but, like, it's hard to, like, judge, like, gauge people with where they're at and what they need, and the Angstroms are top of that list of, like, That's it.

[01:21:19] Charles: Like I trust them and implicitly like whatever you guys think I'll do and she was like, I think this is really what I need. What do you think? I'm like, absolutely. So she's getting a long board, which I don't think she's had in a long time. So, um, yeah, those are the things that really, I think like kind of check and balance that ordering process of like communicate.

[01:21:36] Charles: But Rebecca's there obviously to answer questions too.

[01:21:39] Tyler: How much do you think, how important is it that you can articulate being an English professor, being able to communicate like in a very clear way? Like I think, no offense, but there are a lot of shapers out there that just don't know how to communicate.

[01:21:57] Tyler: And there are a lot of surfers that don't know how to [01:22:00] communicate what they need either. And I feel like. You've, one, probably read enough bad papers that you can pull insight from things that are rather difficult to read. And I imagine that has some sort of training to

[01:22:14] Charles: it. It does and doesn't. You know, sometimes it gets me in trouble.

[01:22:17] Charles: So sometimes I'll over, like, explain, mansplain some stuff, and I'll get in trouble. From whichever party and it's not obvious, but I see the shutdown or I see like the, like, this is too much for me. So what I've gotten good at, and I don't think you need to be an English professor to do this. I don't. And I do have

[01:22:34] Rebecca: to communicate clearly.

[01:22:35] Rebecca: You

[01:22:35] Charles: do that. You do. And I, and I'm no fool. Like I have to be self aware. I have that. I think that's part of it. And you also need to kind of like know your audience and be able to take a little bit of risk in like assessing them. quickly. And if you get it, you save hours, years, boards. And I've, I pride myself on being able to kind of cut to the first board quickly with someone and get it as quick to magic [01:23:00] as possible.

[01:23:00] Charles: Right? Is that like, yeah. And so I have a bit of a system of kind of like assessing Who these people are, what their real wants and needs are, and then like offering out scenarios, which help not boards or dimensions, but scenarios that like express like, Oh yeah, I'm not doing that or like, Oh, that's what I want.

[01:23:19] Charles: What was that one? Nick, they go, what was that one that you were saying before, you know, and then like model name and then it's a clue website and then we're good. So I, I fight back saying like, just because you can like, like, you know, like. Masturbate basically like all these different ideas and design philosophies and lengths and digits and dims.

[01:23:40] Charles: I don't think that that necessarily translates to sales. I think it does come down to like a real relationship and rapport with somebody, right? So you're listening to them. If the person's like a beginner, if the person is an average kind of intermediate type, if the person is an expert, there's different ways that you meet those people.

[01:23:58] Charles: And I think the question [01:24:00] process is everything. And so like asking them to see like where, where you're really at. Okay. That wins, um, but the hyper articulate stuff can be kind of scary sometimes, you know?

[01:24:09] Tyler: Hmm. Now, my question is, let's say, a guy like myself might be looking for a boy. How would you, uh, assess me here?

[01:24:19] Tyler: Let's do a, let's do a live demo here of an assessment. I would grab the mic, and I would say,

[01:24:26] Charles: What the fuck is wrong with you? Why haven't you gotten a board for me yet? I know, right? Unbelievable. That's because

[01:24:31] Rebecca: he hasn't been invited down to the shop. No, no, no, no,

[01:24:34] Charles: no. Um, I think it comes down to this. It's like, Tyler, what boards are you riding right now?

[01:24:39] Charles: What do you got? Well, I have my Quiver. What's in there? Tell me what you will not get rid of. That's my next question.

[01:24:46] Tyler: I will not get rid of, I have a 6'8 quad fin long fish, but I've been riding with two S wing fins. Sweet. That, uh, is a It's, uh, I shaped it. I shaped it with Jimmy O'Brien. Partially. [01:25:00] I love Jimmy.

[01:25:00] Tyler: He had me do, he did one half and I did the other. Oh, that's great. So one half is really good and one half is a little bumpy. Okay. That's awesome. It was great. Yeah. And, uh, it's based off of a Josh Hall longfish, which is based off of a skip fry longfish. Yep, I know those. We softened the rails a little bit.

[01:25:18] Tyler: Cool. We made it really nice and now. It's a little lighter than what I had, um, and I made it, the other one was a keel, so we made this a quad, but now, but I've been riding those S wings as a twin instead, and I've been loving that in anywhere from like knee high on up, you know, works great, uh, so I ride that board, I won't get rid of it.

[01:25:42] Tyler: I have a Paul Colbert, we did a board together, uh, it is based off of a Steve Liz template on the first half. And then it's a, uh, it's a, uh, what is it, uh, Andrini template midway. And then a skip fry [01:26:00] on the tail. So it's a Lizdrini fry, we call it. That's

[01:26:02] Charles: awesome. Is that a tri

[01:26:03] Tyler: fin? It's a quad. Quad. 7'2 I'm a big fan of quads.

[01:26:09] Tyler: And twins. Frontside and rockaway. It makes sense. Yeah, and I'm also, I'm a very front footed surfer, I think. So. So. So. I think those work well for me. I don't use my, my back foot as stomping as much. Yeah. Um, so that's a 7'2 It's kind of like a gunnier, bigger guy. That's the yellow one? Yeah.

[01:26:27] Charles: I know that one.

[01:26:27] Charles: Yep.

[01:26:28] Tyler: And then I, I've got a, uh, GSI pop out, um, the hermit crab, uh, it's like a mid length 7'6 Okay. I love it. I ride it as a twin. It's really nice. It's a great everyday for a big guy, like, when it's weak and small, like, ride that. Those are like my three, and I have a log, of course. What's a log? It's, it's a, it's a, what is it, uh, it's one of those It's an epoxy, um, what's the name?

[01:26:58] Tyler: Fuck, I'm forgetting the name. What's a [01:27:00] square, a square tail? Round pin? Square. Yep. 9 6. Um, you know, 2 plus 1 setup. It's, it's a, you know, um, one of those epoxy pop outs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But whatever. It does the trick. It, you know, I'm carrying it up and down the narrow stairway. I didn't want to get a good longboard and fuck it up.

[01:27:19] Tyler: Yeah, totally. Totally. And then, and then I got one other is a Chris Birch 6'6 kind of fat boy shortboard quad.

[01:27:26] Charles: That sounds good too. Um, I'm going to say that you've got a couple options. I think you definitely need a thruster in there somewhere. Yeah. So I've been doing like the Kind of versions of like the Stoker V kind of square tails.

[01:27:37] Charles: I mean, um, Steve Rodriguez, one of those guys, he came to me with an old Stoker and then we adapted it for a beach break. The Stokers are nice, but they have that really low bottom rail, slightly more bladed than we would need. Whereas we would need more of like a ping pong kind of type rail. So something a little bit more like.

[01:27:56] Charles: Not full, but more positive if that makes sense. I like, I

[01:27:59] Tyler: don't [01:28:00] mind a softer

[01:28:00] Charles: rail. I don't either, especially if like, it's just in like that midsection of the nose and tail obviously are, are shedding water. It's all good. So that would be like a 6'10 7'0 but it sounds like you got a million of those. So I'm gonna propel the idea of like a 9, 9'2 9'4 9'6 kind of like long parallel mega fish as a tri.

[01:28:22] Charles: And then I love writing. Chris's one that appears. Chris's is good, but it's a twin. Glassed on twin. They're great for the shock and awe and aesthetic of it. But I think the tri removable is like the way. It's all I'm doing now. It's all I'm recommending. Or a quad, but I've been doing glass on tris.

[01:28:40] Charles: Phenomenal. And then I've been doing removables. James is making a lot of those fins for us. So I would say that. And I think once you can get it

[01:28:48] Tyler: in the bisect,

[01:28:49] Charles: yeah. Well, that means that I could fit it in my storage unit. Yeah. Where's the storage unit on the bottom there? What's that? Where's the storage unit?

[01:28:56] Charles: It's in the bottom of my house.

[01:28:57] Tyler: Like, uh, we were in a, like a [01:29:00] condo building and we have a storage unit in the basement. And so taking the nine six out is like, you go through these corners. And it's like Awful. Yeah. Bing bing bong. Yeah. You're always Stressed. Yeah. So I'm always like, I want a glider, but I'm like, I

[01:29:15] Charles: have

[01:29:16] Tyler: no place to put it.

[01:29:16] Tyler: It's a glider. It's a glider. It's

[01:29:17] Charles: too much, but I'm telling you, you could shrink it to like 8'6 and do like a stepped rail and then it's like thicker in the chest and then you have the beveled kind of down rail thing. So you could pack in a lot more foam in a shorter package of it. But like, 8'6 would be nice actually.

[01:29:33] Charles: But like that's 4 inches dude, just go 9'0. And then once you go 9'0 then I can say it's just 2 inches. And it's,

[01:29:38] Tyler: then you're there! And then I gotcha! Charles, I want an 8'12. That's what

[01:29:44] Charles: we used to say, we do, uh, or we just do the full inches, whatever the hell that would be like 180 inches, 170 inches.

[01:29:50] Charles: Wilbur

[01:29:50] Tyler: Kukmeyer was my favorite, right? He would just be

[01:29:53] Charles: like, 5'12 5'12 please. Um, yeah, anyway, I, I think that Megafish [01:30:00] Tri is like the piece that I think so many people are missing and a longboard. for us is like totally paradox. It's like, there's no such thing really, unless you're thunderstruck with like a perfect day, but even then no one's really skilled enough to be like logging in quotes.

[01:30:16] Charles: Um, so like you really, you're just surfing from the back. You might as well just get the longest thing you can. I just want to go fast. Yeah. I just want to go fast and do a big turns. Exactly. You know, same.

[01:30:26] Tyler: One of the best feelings I think I ever had was on a Paul Colbert's a glider at the fish fry a couple of years ago.

[01:30:34] Tyler: Nice. Caught a chest high set and I was going so fast on that thing. And there were so many people on the inside. So many, I'm sure. And there was this beautiful end section, and I was like, Do I hit it and I'm not wearing a leash? Like, and risk taking out all these people? Or do I pull out? Oh, you got to. I pulled out.

[01:30:54] Tyler: Oh. I'm the pull out king, you know? I am not. [01:31:00]

[01:31:00] Charles: But Clearly, you're not. No, I've definitely hit people at that fish fry before. And I've almost like enjoyed the process of like whipping my nose, like over their head, you know, cut back, they're like sitting there and it's like, you like skim their hairline. And I remember a guy was like, that was very dangerous.

[01:31:16] Charles: Do you know that? And he's like an insurance appraisal guy, you know, or something, some type of. Career, I have no idea exists. I'm like, what? Yeah, sounds good. That was very close, you know. Yeah, literally, like, you could have maimed me. You know, you used the word maim. You're probably right. Can I sell you some life insurance?

[01:31:33] Charles: You're probably

[01:31:33] Tyler: right. You can sue my LLC, it's got no

[01:31:36] Charles: money in it.

[01:31:37] Tyler: Anyway. So, what's, and finally, like, what's the vision for the Glass House Mintel boards? Like, what are you Let's say 10 years from now, what would, what would be a dream scenario for both of you? Reb, you want it?

[01:31:56] Rebecca: Well, I think the dream is to continue doing this and leave a [01:32:00] legacy for our daughters, I think, first and foremost.

[01:32:02] Rebecca: And I think that's, without question, going to happen. But, I can't help but also dream, like, All of these surf brands around us are sort of like folding, liquidating, falling apart. And it's like, this is sort of a runway for Men's Health Surfboards. They're like the, one of the very few core surf brands in our area, in the tri state area.

[01:32:21] Rebecca: And like, I would love to see that sort of sustain and continue to be like a brand, a household name.

[01:32:29] Tyler: I would love that too.

[01:32:30] Rebecca: But. Charles is like, I'll just stay in shape and I don't care.

[01:32:34] Charles: No, you know, I have a total like, uh, post communist Russian view on it. It's like, just so long as the lights keep going and the wheels keep turning.

[01:32:43] Charles: I'm very, I know my wife's shaking her head saying, you simpleton. But, um, I am, I am a classic, like, I wake up most mornings, I wake up every morning very content and very chipper and happy and I'm like, my wife sometimes hates it because I'm just like, look what we get to do. [01:33:00] Isn't this insane? Kind of like, can you fucking believe they haven't kicked us out yet?

[01:33:03] Charles: Can you believe these animals haven't kicked, like they haven't figured us out. So I will literally multiple times in a day when I'm at the factory with James or Kyle, you're like, isn't this just like insane? We get to do this. Yeah, I mean it is. Um, and it is like I have to go and leave last night and shape two boards and you know, I was like, I can't believe I get to like Go Listen, I was listening, Tom DeMarco.

[01:33:25] Charles: I finally figure that guy out. . He's so good and he's great. Love his stuff. So good. And I just got so chill. Listen to like four of those albums. I'm shaping boards for the Jersey Shore, listening to a kid that's making music around that area too, you know? And I'm just like, this is amazing. So if. if garden glassing can be a dominant and, and like forward facing glassing house for our area, for Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, I would be very proud of that.

[01:33:52] Charles: And that's my goal. You know, I played very possum and very cool, but my wife is right. I'm a hyper competitive person in [01:34:00] that. Like, uh, it's not that I like to win. I just don't lose. You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't really like. I don't really fumble too hard. I have for sure. But again, that happened very early in my life.

[01:34:11] Charles: So now I've kind of gotten to a place where like most of the risk I take is very calculated and an intention. So we're hoping to really service our community first. If I can do fast, awesome, reliable customs for New York and New Jersey. Done to if we can service our retailers to like a real meaningful way Collaborate with them to get who that Mac DeMarco on the board great But more importantly it's about like having like a future and we're definite goal people I should be I should have probably said that a long time ago to like that's a big part of it like Everything we've done.

[01:34:45] Charles: We've said we're gonna do we're not like I hope this works out. It's a Not saying we're sociopathic, but there's definitely like a, an intention and like, uh, we need to do this by this time. So, you know, to still be in business, amazing, but to really serve as [01:35:00] community, friends, family, retailers, AKA, um, that's what we're hoping to do.

[01:35:05] Charles: Um, And you know, more than anything, you know, this Tyler, like, I'm very proud of where I'm from. Yeah. I ain't from Chicago, bro. And I, you know what, I'm not from Florida either. You know what I mean? And, um, there's a lot of people that really like, I think kind of get some of that confused. I'm from New York and New Jersey.

[01:35:21] Charles: Uh, I went to grade school and St. Ignatius Loyola here. Uh, I have roots to New York. I've, I've, it's, it's, it's created the person I am. And so if I'm able to kind of keep. allowing for that to be a part of our story and, and, and being a part of that. But that's enough. I don't need to be sold worldwide. I don't want it to be international.

[01:35:42] Charles: Why not? It'd be cute. You know. Rebecca's

[01:35:44] Tyler: gonna be the one.

[01:35:46] Charles: Yeah. I would love it. Yeah. I'd love a Japanese dealer. And uh, and some boards in Poland too. Well that you should do. Definitely. Do a trip to Japan. Sure.

[01:35:54] Rebecca: Yes. That's on the book list. We'll get there. But I

[01:35:56] Charles: argue back that like, there's still plenty of work to do here, you know?

[01:35:58] Charles: And

[01:35:59] Rebecca: [01:36:00] so.

[01:36:00] Charles: That's really our look. Well,

[01:36:01] Tyler: who's to say you couldn't also just like, you know. Do residencies in other places. That seems to be a growing business model and trend in surfboard shaping where you can go to, you know, France and spend a month there, shape boards, bring the kids and then like, you know, maybe even do a shaping, shaping based swap out.

[01:36:20] Tyler: You know, I, I

[01:36:22] Charles: don't know, maybe like six years ago you would have, I would have, I should have said like, yeah, that's a great idea. That's what so and so does too, right? But it's just not me. And like, again, like if they want to come here and do it at my shop and hang with me and I'll cook them barbecue and we'll laugh and play.

[01:36:37] Charles: Awesome. But, um, man, there's just too much work to do here and I'm just too obsessed with this place. And yeah, I just, I just love it here. I have nothing bad to say about it. I really, I'm going to challenge people to like. If there's a flat spell, like, get a grip, stop talking about there being a flat spell and do something to be ready for when there is a flat spell, because I'm gonna tell you [01:37:00] right now, a month and a half ago, two months ago, all these people were yapping, complaining like, worst winter ever, I can't even believe it, I give up.

[01:37:08] Charles: Don't even get me started. Worst winter ever. And then, oh great, and then Thursday hit and the mania broke. And it's like, I cannot believe, it's like, shut up dude. It always comes, it's just, are you ready? And I'm gonna say like, 8 Nobody was ready for that, you know, so, um, I know, actually, I do know some people that were, and they weren't the ones complaining that there were no waves for those last couple months.

[01:37:32] Charles: They were saying, fuck, some of the biggest storms come in February, March, you know what I mean? And there that was. So, yeah, um, there's too much work to do here, I think. That's my thesis.

[01:37:42] Tyler: Um, yeah. Lastly, uh, just wanted to just give you the opportunity to now, uh, sell yourself. Where can listeners find you?

[01:37:54] Tyler: Where can shapers find you? Where can all these people come to you guys? [01:38:00]

[01:38:00] Rebecca: Um, people can come, uh, via the website, mensalsurfboards. com. You can reach out via Instagram at mensalsurfboards. We don't have a TikTok. We don't do any of the things. We're just kind of like doing a lot of other things, but, um, Garden

[01:38:14] Charles: State, uh, Glassine,

[01:38:16] Rebecca: Undefends.

[01:38:18] Rebecca: What else? Come

[01:38:18] Charles: find me in the water. If you see me surfing, if I'm in the parking lot, if you think I look imposing or whatever, I'm really not. I'm a total yenta. I'm a total ham. And I'd love to talk to you and those that know me well know that's true. So don't be shy. You know, there's so many people that kind of get it confused or.

[01:38:34] Charles: Think some of these guys are so they just think it's like Oz like out in Montauk. They, they refer to me as the guy that works for Mencel. I swear they'll say, Oh, look, it's the guy that drives up for Mencel. And Pat loves that. He's just like, like, it's so bad. And I'm like, that's what he'll say. And then you're kidding me.

[01:38:51] Charles: Oh, I feel so stupid. Right. So don't, uh, don't, don't play any of that. Throw us a message, throw us an email. We'll get back to you as soon as you can. And the biggest thing is we just, you know, we're [01:39:00] always surfing. So if you're surfing, come say what's up. And, uh, let's make a board. Yeah,

[01:39:04] Tyler: and if you, where can they find your boards if they are, uh, stock boards right now?

[01:39:10] Tyler: Yeah,

[01:39:10] Charles: Pilgrim Surf Supply, which is the closest retailer. We just want to formally thank Chris, as we always do. Chris is, without question, the best thing that's happened to New York surfing, at least in the last 15 to 20 years. Um, and I know he would just go nuts, me saying that, but someone's got to say it.

[01:39:26] Charles: And, uh, he's just been really steadfast and like honest, heartfelt support. Smart, he's driven, him and Aaron do an awesome job, that's just undeniable, the culture that they've created, which is probably the hardest thing to do nowadays, and they do that, uh, and they've supported us from day, day one, um, so I just want to say that, um, out east, whalebone is our, is our Crew out there, Jesse and his wife, Maggie, have created a grassroots brand.

[01:39:52] Charles: Just like ours are along the same timeline as ours. They've been through a lot in terms of branding and rebranding and the whalebone creative [01:40:00] crew. Um, they're just the best and they really kind of have been doing everything they've can out, out, out East. And by us, it's, um, bear wires in spring Lake town, Adam and Brian who have, uh, been in our town for a long time in spring Lake and do great stuff.

[01:40:13] Charles: So if you're ever in town, you need wax or whatever, go to them. Um, and then obviously bear wire, uh, sorry, brave new world and point pleasant. That's our ocean County, uh, retailer and massive great store. Kyle Murray there, uh, their GM has just been awesome as well. He's got a young family. He kind of knows how hard it is to run an independent small brand like that.

[01:40:32] Charles: And he's really given a lot of us a nice voice. Um, they're also our snow and surf, so they really help us with our snow gear and they're a great snow, snow group. And then last is Farias down in LBI. And Brian and his family, again, there's kind of a common, common thread here that we're really doing businesses with these legacy families that have had these legacy kind of names.

[01:40:52] Charles: And, uh, Brian came up, surfed with me all day Thursday, came back to the factory afterwards. He's a snowboarder as well, skier, all that stuff. And [01:41:00] so, uh, we do business with them and they've just been, you know, Rocks of that community down there, uh, based on post Sandy effort, but also just in terms of what they continue to do.

[01:41:10] Charles: And, and, you know, Brian's been really generous to us. And, uh, I'm just fortunate to have people like that, that have grown to us. And I should say too, like, you know, as aggressive as Rebecca and I maybe could be potentially we, um, We've never ever courted any of that business, um, that business all came to us naturally.

[01:41:26] Charles: A lot of people see Instagram and think like it happens overnight or it happens quickly. Uh, you know, those retailers are very hard to, to get. Um, once you do, it's, it's a high pressure to keep up with it too. It's anyone can come in once and then split, but to continue those relationships. It's to this day, it's still a lot of work.

[01:41:44] Charles: It's still a lot of second guessing and, and, and anxiety. We're really lucky to have it. And, um, they've been

[01:41:49] Rebecca: very loyal to us too. And they

[01:41:51] Charles: have, yeah. So we just continue to kind of be loyal to them.

[01:41:55] Tyler: Well,

[01:41:55] Charles: really appreciate you guys. That was awesome. And we should [01:42:00] thank Tyler, honestly, thank you for doing this.

[01:42:01] Charles: There's not many, there are no podcast voices for our area. Uh, this has been a great bastion for local, regional coming goes. And we just really want to thank you for investing in this and, and giving us a small bit of your time. And, um, you know, it. We're, we're just two dumb kids from Jersey, but in the end, we're trying to do the same thing that everyone else around here is, you know, and it's just like, it's cliche as a Bruce Springsteen song.

[01:42:27] Charles: Totally.

[01:42:27] Tyler: Oh my God. Totally. Maybe as bad as Bon Jovi. Oh, living on a prayer, baby. Oh, there's your opening song, by the way. Please don't. Please don't. Please don't. Well, guys, really appreciate you being here. Uh, listeners, for dropping by and listening. First, got to give a Quick shout out to Joe, our engineer here and the, uh, new stand studio, Rockefeller Center for hosting us in this awesome space.

[01:42:53] Tyler: Uh, it's awesome and always fun to see people walking by. And, uh, of course, don't forget to hit [01:43:00] like, and subscribe. And of course, follow us on Instagram at swell season, surf radio. And, uh, yeah, I'm Tyler Brewer and we'll see you all down the line

[01:43:08] Rebecca: in the water.