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Dicky Taking Off At San Miguel
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San Miguel, Baja California

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Kenyan surfer
outside point,
San Miguel
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San Miguel In Baja


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A Kenyan surfer fading into a bottom turn. 

Cliff On his Single Ski









Cliff on his Bahne
single ski in the
powder!

Snow!




The truck in the snow!
It snowed 36 inches
in six days!

Ruidoso, New Mexico
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The Sierra Blanca Hole in the Wall Gang!
This a shot of (left to right) Steve Tyau, shaper extraordianire, surfer, skier now living in Venezuela, Roxanne and Cliff Schlabach great friends and surfer/skiers, Chuck (C.J.) Kuklinski, another great friend who is multi-talented. He is now working as a mud engineer on an oil rig on Sakhalin Island off the coast of Russia!
We went to Ruidoso to stay in the Schlabach's winter cabin and get in some skiing on Sierra Blanca.

Dos Equis Break!



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Dicky, top, C.J. bottom, playing with Temba.

Building The Truck!






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Above: Dicky cutting metal, truck in C.J.'s driveway.


C.J. got a good deal on a 1969 Ford F350 four wheel drive that had been converted to an off road fire truck. It was in good condition, with a heavy duty suspension and a 360 engine.
At the time we were both welders and we could get welding supplies, metal stock and other items at good prices and sometimes we just improvised with materials readily at hand.
The truck was parked in C.J.'s driveway at his place, just out of the north side of town.We stripped it down to the frame and built a new bed, 7'x10', out of angle iron and 2x6 boards with the side boards coming from C.J.'s fence.We also built a 56 gallon fuel tank. It was tucked up beneath the front of the frame ahead of the wheels. A new tool box was put on the other side where we carried a complete set of tools, jacks. spare parts, a first aid kit, fibre glass materials for possible board repairs and other necessary items.The frame was beefed up and reinforced with tubing, angle iron and flat stock. Just about everything was replaced with all heavy duty, new stuff, shocks, tires, radiator, all lines and hoses. We installed two heavy duty batteries with a switch to go from one to the other if needed. We had a valve on the tanks so we could switch back and forth there too. The stock tank was 18 gallons, giving us a 74 gallon capacity. We installed an electric fuel pump.
The engine, 360 cubic inches, was blue printed by local engine guru Bruce Sanders. Dual exhaust with headers was added. The ignition was provided by a high performance distributor with heat resistant spark plug wires. A large four barrell Holley was mounted on top of a free flow manifold. The truck ran like a race car!
We built a cow catcher frame bumper on the front.
Over the bed we placed hoops made from rebar and stretched a custom made canvas cover. It was something like a covered wagon, we could roll the canvas back to open it up if we wanted or cover the back fully. We had tie down cleats placed along each side so we could tie it down solidly and in the position we wanted. It was very waterproof also.
We had a box inside for clothes, wet suits, snorkel gear, swim fins, a spear gun and a Hawaiian sling, a boogie board and a twenty gallon water jug with distilled water. We had a small, pipe BBQ pit, a Coleman stove and a lantern.
Of course we had sleeping bags and blankets. A mosquito net was also in our kit. And we had a small two person pup tent. We could sleep inside the truck if we needed or wanted to. Once we were inside and all buttoned up there was nothing visible to show we were there or what we were carrying. I am probably forgetting some things but we tried to be well prepared.
We installed a tape deck and speakers and made some custom cassette tapes for traveling. We had a lot of blues, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Muddy Waters, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and others. We had a lot of Bob Marley and Toots Maytall. Dave Edmunds and Rockpile, rockabilly, turned out to be one we listened to often. Others included Hendrix, Miles Davis, Beach Boys, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and more. We had hours of music. We needed it some times!
We wanted this to look as much like a Mexican "vegetable hauler" as we could, figuring we would attract much less attention than would, say, a Blazer full of Gringos with new surfboards on top of it!
It took a year of planning to accumulate all our materials, build the truck and gather together all our supplies, maps and everything we felt we needed.
(To be continued)

Quiver and Truck!

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C.J., Dicky,Truck and Quiver!
This is C.J.'s truck which we built especially for this trip. It looks like an old truck but it is all new where it counts! We designed and built this vehicle to blend in in Mexico.
This pic is just before we left from Corpus Christi to go on a long trip of 16 weeks and over 8,000 miles!
Our quiver consists of, left to right; a 9'0" round pin shaped and glassed by C.J. This is a great board! I have ridden this board in Texas, California, Baja and Mainland Mexico and it rides great! It is maneuverable, nose rides and catches waves like a dream. Next is my yellow David Nuuihwa round pin Infinfity. This board was a birthday present for me from my girlfriend. She had me pick out the board I wanted from any shop in Huntingnton Beach. I chose this one, from the Infinity shop. The blue board was C.J.'s favorite for many years. It is a Steve Tyau East of Hawaii, 7"8", double winger round pin. C.J. rode this board in large and small waves. He drew some incredible lines with it. The last board is a beauty, an 8'6" Tyau full gun. It is fast! I never got to ride it in any sizable waves, mainly because I felt more comfortable on my own board. But I did ride it in some Mexican point surf a few times in some fast breaking 3-5 foot waves with good shape. It was a lot of fun.