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Feb, 13Vital Way of Life
Surfing, alone among sports, generates laughter at its very suggestion, and this is because it turns not a skill into an art, but an inexplicable and useless urge into a vital way of life.
- Matt Warshaw, Maverick’s: The Story of Big-Wave Surfing
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Nov, 12
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Oct, 12From the Archives: Cheka-Looka Surf Shop – Eastlake
Maybe a volkswagen bus with a surfboard on top caught your eye, or you noticed it on a sunny day. Well, there’s a bit of the beach on Eastlake in Seattle. Cheka-Looka is a traditional style surf shop. From the shaping room to the flip-flops, this little surf shop has it all. You can find handcrafted surfboards on display that are shaped right next door, and they will also custom shape any paddle or skim board that you can think up. Among their other products are sandals, shorts videos, a ding repair shop, fin replacement, and wetsuits to keep you warm in the Washington waters.
The shop originally started on July 1st 1998 as a sort of hobby shop that had a good vibe where friends could hang out and talk of the washington surf and at the same time get good deals on equipment. Now the owners Jeff Abandonato and Jason Richardson along with Brian Anderson in the shaping bay, run a surf outlet with name brands such as Rip Curl, O’neil, Mormaii, and Channel Island Surf along with used boards and a full range of rental equipment.
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Oct, 12From the Archives: Surfing La Push – 1975
Courtesy of Jeff Abandonato
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Oct, 12
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Sep, 12From the Archives: Cheka-Looka Surf Shop – Eastlake
I drove up to Jeff’s place today and snagged a box of photos from the old surf shop. It’s always a treat digging through the Abondonato’s garage…Ricky’s 10′ log in one corner, a box of Star Wars toys from the 80′s in the other. I dropped off the board Jeff and I started shaping 5 years ago. It should fit nicely somewhere in between the Dark Tower board game, and Lea’s old red tricycle.
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Sep, 12From the Archives: 50 Cent Taco
From the depths of Fremont..came a trio so metal, that women in Bellevue were forced to cover their ears to avoid becoming impregnated by the devilish sounds of 50 Cent Taco!
50 Cent Taco: Jeff Abandonato + Doug Mitchell + Shawn Paul Jennings
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Sep, 12From the Archives: Cheka-Looka Surf Shop – Fremont
Sifting through the ol’ hard drive, and found this shot of Bubba and Jeff. Jeff is clearly a very angry person. Note the poster on the right hand side, for our ‘Invasion From Planet C’ movie night.
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May, 12From the Archives: Ricky Young Manhattan Beach 1960
We posted this photo on our Facebook page a few months back…but I think it deserves to go up again. When I got hired at Cheka-Looka, Ricky was doing ding-repair for the shop. Back in the day, Ricky was ranked the fifth best surfer in the country and was both working and riding for Dewey Weber. In 1998 Ricky had his own shop in Bellevue, Wa…and was hosting The Kahlua Westport Longboard Classic.
Ricky would take breaks from the shaping bay and school me on the ways of surf life. “It’s important to take coffee breaks when you’re surfing with chicks,” and “you HAVE TO surf a Dewey Weber Performer with a hatchet fin.”
Here’s a Seattle Times article on Ricky from back in 98.
Cheers,
- Shawn
