Pancho and Sancho

"Dude, that board is sick!"

Well it used to be, that is before my Surfer Boy husband decided to take it out into the ocean on a death defying big wave day.  He came home from the beach, two pieces of neatly cut foam and fiberglass, one in each hand with a bereft look on his face.

"Are you okay?"  I said while anxiously checking his body for signs of injury or limping.

"Yeah, I'm okay but my board is not."

Leave it to a surfer to be more concerned about the condition of his surfboard.  Enter the Ding Doctor at DingDrX Surfboard Repair in San Clemente California.

Off we went, to San Clemente, home of Randall, one of the original Ding Doctors.

I set my purse down in his work area when suddenly I saw two raccoons dressed in white coats going through the contents.  Out came my lipstick as they unscrewed the top with their deft little hands, trying to figure out how it worked, out came my wallet containing my life savings, out came a pack of chewing gum which they were just unwrapping when I finally stopped them.

Pancho and Sancho

"What the?  Randall, where did these cute little guys come from?"

It turns out that one of Randall's friends had a neighbor who had four baby raccoons born in his attic.  The mother ended up on the wrong end of someones gun.  The babies were left without a mommy.

"It was a natural decision to take them in." said Randall.  The raccoons were infants at the time.

How do you care for baby raccoons?  That's what The Ding Dr. wanted to know.  Local veterinarians weren't much help so it was off to the Internet trying to find the little information there was.

Thus started the long nights, up every couple of hours bottle feeding the little babes.  Hot water bottles had to be kept constantly warm to mimic the mothers body heat.  The nights were sleepless and the days were zombie-like for Randall.  Two of the babies didn't make it, but two did.  Randall proudly named them Pancho and Sancho, poured them a big bowl of Friskies cat food to celebrate, and put them to work in the ding repair shop, entertaining locals and customers alike.

Daddy/Mommy Randall with Pancho and Sancho

Randall, the owner and operator of the original DingDrX surfboard ding repair shop in San Clemente will fix your board so that you can't even tell where it was broken.  I took one of my boards on a surf trip to Costa Rica a year ago when the baggage claim folks decided it would be a good idea to run over the nose of my board with their truck.  Randall fixed it good as new.  He's also a talented artist and will paint whatever design you would like on your surfboard or stand up paddle board.

As for my Surfer Boy husband: "I've been surfing all my life and I've never found anyone who can fix my broken or delaminated boards the way Randall does." If that weren't the case, I'm here to tell you that this would not be a happy household.  And a hush comes over the land.

Kerry, Happily Back to Charging Big Waves

Next time you snap your board in half while shredding Pipeline or the Trestles, or the airline folks decide to play Frisbee with your short board, pay a visit to the Ding Doctor.  Who knows?  You may even get to play with Pancho and Sancho.

Call The Ding Doctor in San Clemente, CA for an appointment today:  (949) 294-4741