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Our
latest “Who’s Hot” feature is
on Scott Joseph Whitmer. You can usually find him
logging in dawn patrol hours down at his staple
break, the Manhattan Pier, but when those bars aren’t
working he’ll tough it out in the crowded
El Porto line up.
Scott is affable and gregarious on land but once
he hits the wet stuff things seem to get a little
more serious…he’s a competitive Mother
F$#%er. Although relatively small in stature he
crushes the lip like Iron Mike Tyson threw blows
early on in his career. His mantra is 4 to the shore.
Basically he tries to hit the lip as many times
as possible on every wave. He surfs a never ending
heat! When I asked him if he considered himself
a contest surfer or a soul surfer, without hesitation
he said contest. He loves to surf in contests and
pushes the technical aspect of wave riding to it’s
limit. The end result is that he is ripping. I personally
love to surf with the guy and we even have mock
heats. I don’t stand a chance, but it’s
fun to hold up 2 fingers, (his wave score), when
he takes off on a bad one.
Whit, as most people call him, started his surfing
career at the age of 12, in November 1982 on the
South side of Manhattan pier. He credits Dr. Steve
Olivera, (a Dentist who sets up shop at 40th and
Highland), as the man who first got him out into
the line up.
Born in and raised in El Segundo and now living
in Redondo, Scott hopped on the contest trek at
the age of 14. He quickly went from a soccer player
to a full time surfer. It wasn’t long before
he had Pacific sun wear and Wavelength wetsuits
as sponsors. He continued competing on a regular
basis for years, but one day he was sitting on the
beach, watching a buddies heat, and scoring all
the contestants with a stick in the sand. Out of
curiosity he compared his scores with the judges
and realized he was right on target…so did
the judges. It wasn’t long before he was judging
NSSA contests. Nothing you’ll get rich doing,
but something he truly enjoyed.
As a youngster Whitty began shaping surfboards.
First for himself and then for the hordes of others
that saw him tearing it up on a “Whitstik”.
This went on for about 5 years and then something
in his mind snapped and he decided, “I hate
shaping boards. It’s way too monotonous!”.
From that point on he went from shaper to ding repair
guy.
Over the years he has built a reputation as the
number one ding repair guy in the South Bay. He
is meticulous, extremely anal, and puts a great
deal of pride into each and every job. At one point
his business was spiraling out of control, (in a
successful sort of way), and he had to scale it
back. I asked him why he didn’t hire a few
more employees and let the biz take off. I could
envision him sipping Margy’s by the pool while
his staff makes him bag loads of money…but….he
said he had gone that route before, (minus the pool
and cocktails), but other people just don’t
care as much as he did, and he wants to be absolutely
sure that any board leaving his shop is perfect.
You have to admire his pride in craftsmanship. If
it was me, I’d pick up a couple of Day Laborers
at Home Depot every morning and rake in the cash.
I toured his facility recently and he is extremely
proud of it. He has all the latest state of the
art equipment and enough room to handle a sh#tload
of boards. If there is any fault to his business
it is that he cares too much. Aside from his father,
who picks up and drops boards from an array of surf
shops, it’s pretty much a one-man show.
He makes sure to allot himself time for a daily
morning surf, (after posting, in a timely fashion,
a detailed, accurate surf report for Manhattan Pier...yes
he works for us), but after that he’s immersed
in toxic repair chemicals for a good 9 hours. He
swears he still has time for his girl friend Karen
but she was unavailable for comment. Rumor has it
she started dating the Gardener....
Story by MD
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