OB surfboard maker Albert “Ace” Elliott lost much of what he\u2019s acquired, including 50-year-old irreplaceable memorabilia, when his shaping shed on Froude Street near Saratoga Avenue caught fire on Aug. 6. Elliott\u2019s workspace was full of old boards and photos of deceased friends he\u2019d made custom boards for.
\n“I saw my bike was on fire in my backyard and I tried to put it out,” said Elliott, who\u2019s been riding ebikes for years. “I picked up a fire extinguisher, pulled the plug, hit the fire \u2014 and it exploded. It just blew up in my face, like little shotgun shells going off, each one a little explosion.”
\n“It was a nightmare,” added Elliott of his loss. “It was my little go-back-in-time sanctuary. It\u2019s not a dollar thing.”
\nFortunately, the OB fire station was just around the corner and they came and put the fire out sparing damage to the property\u2019s main residence.
\n“[The fire] took all my boards and tools, got my truck and camper,” noted Elliott. “There was a lot of sweat equity and busted knuckles in that. It was not a life or death thing. But it\u2019s hard to put a total value on my surfboards and pictures on the wall.”
\nNeighbor Mark Phillips and a host of concerned others have since teamed to help the 70-year-old board shaper get back at least some of his loss, setting up a fundrasing page at GoFundMe.com. Since the blaze, caused by a defective e-bike charger, a total of $8,143 had been raised in community donations toward a fundraising goal of $50,000.
\n“He\u2019s just a neighbor and a fellow surfer who lives down my alley and we\u2019d wave at each other,” said Phillips of his relationship with Elliott, noting, when Elliott told him what happened, he replied, \u2018Why don\u2019t we do a GoFundMe?\u2019”
\n“I don\u2019t even know how to start one,” responded Elliott.
\n“I knew it would be easy,” said Phillips, who said $50,000 was the target goal because, “That would make a good start on his getting his tools back.”
\nPhillips noted a surfboard shaper uses a lot of different tools in the trade, pointing out even foam blanks from which boards are made aren\u2019t cheap, ranging from $100 to $400 apiece.
\nThe response from the OB and surfing communities to Elliott’s loss has been overwhelming. “It\u2019s very humbling,” he said, noting he\u2019s been contacted by people he\u2019s made boards for from all over.
\n“I got an email from a guy in Australia who\u2019d heard about it ,who bought a board from me in \u201981. I appreciate the support.”
\nPointing out he hadn\u2019t even thought of rebuilding right after the fire, Elliott added, “I guess I will just take the money raised to help me online and we\u2019ll build another shed.”<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
OB surfboard maker Albert “Ace” Elliott lost much of what he\u2019s acquired, including 50-year-old irreplaceable memorabilia, when his shaping shed on Froude Street near Saratoga Avenue caught fire on Aug. 6. Elliott\u2019s workspace was full of old boards and photos of deceased friends he\u2019d made custom boards for. “I saw my bike was on fire […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":258601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Longtime Ocean Beach surfboard shaper trying to rebuild after fire","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-258600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}