Tourmaline

Name: Steve Mast

Vehicle: 1968 Volkswagen Bus

Lives: Ocean Beach

Surfing: Tourmaline

Steve Mast came out from Cincinnati ten years ago and has since immersed himself in the surfing community. "When I got here I knew I wanted to surf so I saved up my money and bought a board. I taught myself to surf. When I felt I wasn't a hazard anymore, when I knew I wouldn't crash into other surfers, I came to Tourmaline and the old guys helped me out, gave me tips, immediately." Steve says he was lucky to find his '68 Bus. "I had a bus before this one that I intended to restore, but never got around to it. So I found a guy out in Ramona with this one; it was almost completed, everything except the engine. It's my daily driver, so I couldn't keep it in the shop for months at a time." He carries two Steve Mast original boards with him, a 9'1" and a 7'3", boards he shaped himself at Channin's board factory in Encinitas. "I got into shaping my own boards because the boards I was looking for -- quality boards by Skip Frye and Mike Eaton -- all had a long waiting list so I started making my own."

Steve comes to Tourmaline almost every day. "There's a morning crew here that's really tight. Everyone knows each other; it's a community. There's a lot of history here, a guy we surf with regularly just celebrated his 89th birthday, and he's been surfing here his whole life. We also just did a memorial paddle out for a young girl, Ali, who died of cancer. It's something that we do, we come together. "