Mike Ness of Social Distortion Autographed Surfboard

Mike Ness Autographed my Surfboard!

The Short Story: Dean Miller Surf Bedding sponsored a charity fundraiser event a while back for a fellow surfer in need, and Mike Ness of famed punk rock group Social Distortion played a solo show at the OC Tavern in San Clemente, California. This show was entirely sold out, and even though we were on the "VIP" guest list, we still couldn't get through the door. So what do loyal Social Distortion surfers do? We went next door to another bar, and threw a few back while grumbling about not being able to get in. It was pretty fun, but no Mike Ness in this bar.

So finally the sheriff and fire marshall cut the show short due to the small bar Mike Ness was playing in being SO overcrowded. The whole place emptied out with Social Distortion fans piling in their cars heading home after what must have been a great intimate night of music with punk rock legend Mike Ness. It was about 10:30pm on a Thursday night, and we didn't want to go home, so we decided to head into the OC Tavern now that we could get in, and say hi to some friends, and see how the charity raffle went.

So we belly up to the bar in the same room Ness had just played, and order a couple of beers not expecting much since the place was pretty much empty with only a few drunk stragglers left behind. And all of a sudden this guy riddled with tattoos walks up on the stage with an acoustic guitar, and starts strumming away. Mike Ness was back on stage with NOBODY in the room.

We grabbed our beers and walked over to where he was performing and watched him sing classic Social Distortion tunes, and Mike Ness originals for about another half hour before he retired. There were maybe 30 people in the entire room just chilling and listening to Mike Ness perform, it was epic. You could have reached out and grabbed him, the stage was maybe thigh high, with no barriers at all. Mike seemed happy to just relax and strum away on his guitar, taking a request or two, and chatting it up with the remaining audience.

Mike Ness autographed this surfboard for a charity raffle right on stage in front of me, and I ended up with this custom shaped Matt Biolos Surfboard originally made for pro surfer Chris "Psycho" Ward. The board is a 6'1" Mayhem

I originally said I wasn't going to surf this board since it may be the only surfboard that Mike Ness has ever autographed, but the board looked so much fun to ride I had to take it out for a test drive, and what a fun surfboard it is to ride, so now every time I paddle out I have Mike Ness's blessing! And the autographed was sprayed with a clear acyclic so it shouldn't ever wash off.