Eva Hollman..."The Board Lady," the legendary west coast repair magician famous globally for the great repair advice she's given in online forums like rec.windsurfing, recently mentioned in that forum that she was going to retire. We here at the Puffin are big fans of Eva, so we reached out to her and asked if she'd ever repair her 5,823rd board. Thus spake Eva:
5822 is my current total. I will need to keep on working part time, so that total will go up (besides - who am I kidding? - I thoroughly enjoy the work itself, and the interaction with my customers!). My plan is to enjoy all the delights around my new home at Lake Isabella (windsurfing of course, hiking, rowing, sailing, kayaking) during the season (April through October), do a bit of repairing for the locals along the way and continue to build little wooden toys, like kayaks and SUPs.
The next part is exciting: Eva is going to do some traveling to teach her repair magic to others, hopefully at a spot near you.
Winter 2009/10, it will be a SUP shop in Hatteras, then a SUP shop in Puerto Rico, then a surf shop in Costa Rica. There is an astounding dearth of Epoxy repair people, and an avalanche of new boards, so there will be a decided need for quite a while to come. Good for me :)
I myself am going to try to get down to the Outer Banks when she's down there. In the meantime, if you're not familiar with the Board Lady, check out her website...in particular Disasterpiece Theater and the photo essay of the construction of a gorgeous canoe she recently built.
(Photo of Eva swiped from her website.)
Would you believe it - I was thinking about this lady this morning (can't remember why she came into my mind). Then this evening I come onto your blog and ''lo and behold'' she's there waving at me!!
Posted by: Bunty | January 30, 2009 at 03:59 PM
How wild, I was thinking about Eva this morning also. I need to learn how to do epoxy correctly so I can start working on my Winter project.
Posted by: Joe Rouse | January 31, 2009 at 12:14 PM
That's cos great minds think alike!!
Posted by: Bunty | February 01, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Job 5822 was the repair to my Woody Board! That's pretty cool eh. Nice to read your site. I've gotta get on an update for mine someday.
Cheers,
Woody - CAN757
Posted by: Woody | February 02, 2009 at 10:54 PM
im opening a ding repair shop in maui and my experience with epoxy and softtops is limited, coming to maui by any chance?
Posted by: curt hanneman | March 18, 2010 at 10:02 AM
Does anyone have the phone number of the guy in LA who Eva trained to do repairs? Thanks, Ken
Posted by: Ken Mcknight | September 26, 2021 at 08:30 AM