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Why SBSI:
Santa Barbara Surf Implement began in early 1999 as a means by which to
showcase Santa Barbara-area longboarders on the Internet. While Tim Maddux's
excellent Santa Barbara Surfing
site had been around for several years by that point, I wanted to
create a page of my own, dedicated to "classic"-style longboard surfing that was low on hype
and attempted to capture the laid-back, "soulful" vibe of the area surf scene.
Whether or not I've succeeded is really your call, but I hope you enjoy yourself
all the same.
What's up with this "Surf Implement" business, anyways?
Why did I name this website "Santa Barbara Surf Implement", instead of something rather inspired like
"Shaka Brah's S.B. Surf Shack", or perhaps more mundane, like "Steve's Santa Barbara Surf Page"?
Good question!
Since starting Santa Barbara Surf Implement, I've learned that most people, while I don't actually force them to admit it, have absolutely no idea why this site is named
surfimplement.com, and what's worse,
many people appear incapable of correctly spelling "implement", choosing more creative versions such as "impliment" or even "implimint".
Oh well, my bad, I guess.
But I digress. The idea for "Surf Implement" comes directly from the way that farming equipment dealerships are named through the
heartland of the U.S. In every farming community, you'll invariably come across the local John Deere, Case, or New Holland dealership, which often has a
name like West Plains Implement Company. "Farm implements" are the heavy equipment used for
farming, and in today's age, that means giant diesel-powered tractors, swathers, mowers, bailers and so forth.
Well, the "heavy equipment" used in surfing is most definitely the longboard, so in keeping with that spirit (and employing more than a little of the good old
fallacy of the undistributed middle), I came up with Santa Barbara Surf Implement. Now all I need to do is get one of those giant mesh-backed trucker caps with a nice big "SBSI" embroidered logo patch across the front. Hmmm, sounds tempting!
About This Website:
This is SBSI version 3.0. The original version was hosted via the web space provided
by my 56k dialup AT&T Worldnet account, and was coded using both Microsoft Notepad and a
funky web-based AT&T Worldnet interface that really sucked--you had a text
field about 40 lines high and 60 columns wide in which to "paste" your code.
I ended up spending hours coding within the interface itself.
Towards the end of 1999, I shelled out the cash to buy the surfimplement.com
domain name and set up hosting with HostSave.
Version 2.0 came along in early 2000 and featured a Flash interface. At the same
time, my career as a professional web designer with the local Santa Barbara firm WebVIP
started to really take off, so the amount of time I got to spend
working on SBSI dropped to nearly nothing. As a result, a number of the cooler
features which I had planned on implementing in the Flash version of SBSI just
never happened, despite the fact that I was building nearly identical pieces at work.
In any event, here we are in 2003 and Santa Barbara Surf Implement is still chuggin along. I've loaded up
the front page with every conceivably useful Santa Barbara surf forecasting tool I can think of, including swell model
images, buoy readings, tide predictions, surf zone forecasts, and weather reports. I know it takes a while to load, but
I really have tried to make it a "one-stop shopping experience" for the Santa Barbara surfer trying to decide that eternal
question: whether to drive north or south.
Take Care and Have Fun!
Steve Lange
Santa Barbara Surf Implement
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