Wilding Fifty: Surf Tales

Get a Life with Jeff Kraus

Christine Foerster Season 1 Episode 9

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0:00 | 28:00

In this episode with Jeff Kraus, we discuss how he fixes and builds everything himself, his mini museum garage of old stuff, why he tells his kids to go for the scary waves, his move to a short board at age 40, and how his entrepreneurial work ethic has inspired his daughters. If you have any doubts about what you can learn and achieve, I promise that Jeff will encourage you to at least give it a try.

Highlights:
[00:00] Fixing and building everything yourself
[07:05] A garage as a mini museum of old stuff
[13:12] Go for the scary ones
[16:11] Moving to a shortboard at age 40
[21:20] A unique love story
[23:39] Doll Riot
[24:53] A budding entrepreneur

Quotes from Jeff:
"Anything breaks in my house. The dishwasher breaks. I go on YouTube. It's making this weird noise. How do I fix it? And sometimes it doesn't work and it ends up costing me more money and time. But for the most part, it works. It's not about trying to save money. I mean, it is a little bit but, the main thing is it just feels good to be able to fix something that you know nothing about."

"It’s good to get outta your comfort zone, or else you're never gonna get any better. I tell my kids when we go out, I'm like, go for the scary one. If one's coming and you're scared of it, go for it. It’s very rare that you're gonna die from this wave. You'll be fine. And it could be the wave of your life cuz the ones you're scared of are gonna be the good ones."

"I will go to longboards eventually. I did it backwards. Most people start with the shortboard when you're younger. When I was 14, I rode a longboard. Most kids that age, they have little tiny boards. And then as you get older you kind of slow down and you get the longer board. I got my shortboard when I was 40."

Get in touch with Jeff


More about Christine Foerster

Jeff: I've never done an interview before, so bear with me. 

Christine: You're super chill about it. I’d say you seem like a pro. 

Jeff: Actually, I, when I was 22 in a band, we did an interview, but I didn't talk very much. The singer talked. We just kind of sat there, you know, I had nothing to say. 

Christine: So you proudly fix and build everything yourself. And if you don't know how to do something, you say there's a world of shared knowledge on the internet that can help you to learn. So can you tell us a little bit more about that approach? 

Jeff: You can do anything from YouTube. You could be the dumbest, most non-talented person and still fix anything with YouTube. Not that I'm dumb, or not talented. But if you have the will, you could do it. 

Christine: That's gotta be reassuring for everyone

Jeff: Anything breaks in my house. The dishwasher breaks. I go on YouTube. It's making this weird noise. How do I fix it? And sometimes it doesn't work and it ends up costing me more money and time. But for the most part, it works.

Christine: In the water the other day you told me that you don't pay anyone to do something that you can do for yourself. 

Jeff: I try not to. 

Christine: So can you elaborate on that?

Jeff: Well, starting with basic things like yard work, I just do it all myself. If anything breaks, I refuse to call somebody. I look into it first myself, just so I could learn about it as well. 

Christine: Does that keep you on the move and tinkering constantly?

Jeff: Yes. 

Christine: I mean, do you ever get a break? 

Jeff: No. I used to be a lot worse before we bought this house. Uh, I did everything, everything. We bought a brand new house and it was just dirt and I pretty much did everything. We even built the pool and we didn't go with the pool guy. My wife Dana, she's kind of shutting it down, which is great because I'm doing too much. So she tells me it's taking away time from family and all that, which I do agree now looking back. So I have been slowing down a little bit, but I still do a lot myself and I love it. It feels good. It's not about trying to save money. I mean, it is a little bit but, the main thing is it just feels good to be able to fix something that you know nothing about. 

Christine: You and your family have renovated almost your entire house, yard, and you built this garage we're sitting in from the ground up.

Jeff: Correct.

Christine: And the skate ramp. 

Jeff: Basically everything we see, everything to the fire pit, to the barbecue island.

Christine:, And it looks really, really nice. It's not just some kind of hack job. I mean, this looks very stylish.

Jeff: It's permitted. I had help obviously with that. We had professionals come in that 
we hired, but we just pieced it up.

Christine: You’re talking about the garage specifically? 

Jeff: Yeah. We didn't hire a guy and say, hey, build this garage for me. We figured out what we wanted. My best friend is a general contractor, so that helped me out a lot. Most people, when they build a garage, they'll hire a general contractor and say, this is what I want, and then they just walk away and they pay this guy a bunch of money, and then he hires people out individually. We did the individual hiring ourselves. 

Christine: Oh, I see. So you were the jefe.

Jeff: Yeah, we were the boss. And then we would just pay these guys cash and we get to look at it every step of the way. We know exactly what's going on. 

Christine: So what has been then the most challenging project that you've ever built?

Jeff: Probably this garage or my pool at our old house. You know, I would say, I don't know. Nothing really seems too challenging. It wasn't like challenging, like oh no, it's not gonna work. But those were the biggest, the pool at our old house. It was a big pool with a spa. Everything, beach entry, six foot rock waterfall, big manmade boulders all around the pool. So it was nice. It's like resort style. There was 120 trees that I planted every single one with the shovel. I didn't rent a digger, nothing. I shoveled everything. Put 'em all on. That was the house we bought brand new, so we had a clean slate, just all dirt. I put grass in the backyard. It was a huge, quarter acre lot. I laid all this sod down, which was insane. That's I guess the most challenging, was laying all the sod.

Jeff: And then a year later, Dana's like, I want a pool. And I'm like, what? I just did all this stuff. And I was like, well, I'm not paying a guy to do a pool because the pool I want's gonna be very expensive. You know, 50, 60,000. That was a lot back then for a pool. So she found some guy that used to have a pool company and, he doesn't have it anymore. So there's no backing, there's no security that it's gonna turn out right. But this guy, we talked to him and he's like, I'll help you do this. I'll walk you through. I'll give you all the guys that I used to work with that will dig the pool, electric, the wiring and plumbing and all that. And I paid him a few thousand bucks. So he came over, got the permits, made sure it was all legit. And then he's all, here's the guy that digs the hole. This is what it cost. You negotiate as you want. So then I was there every step. So I'd pay that guy cash and once he was done, I'd call up this guy that was helping me and he'd come over and look at it and say, yeah, it looks good. Here's the rebar guy. And once again, this is what it should cost and all that. The only issue is that if anything goes wrong in the end it's all on me. But it turned out perfect. We probably saved $20,000 doing it that way. It cost us 32,000 to do our entire pool. And I'm talking six foot rock waterfall and it was big manmade boulders that they formed out of just concrete stained it to make it look like rock. It was pretty awesome. 

Christine: Incredible. So you say that there, you can't even think of a challenging project in the way that you would back off or, say I can't do this. So is this just incremental steps where you're just taking it one little piece at a time, is that's why it doesn't feel overwhelming?

Jeff: When you first think about it, you're like, I'm gonna build a garage. There was nothing. There was no slab, nothing. Anybody could do it. You just do it one step at a time. Anybody can do anything.

Christine: That's really encouraging. Well, what would you like to say about this sweet garage that we're sitting in? I mean, let's just give a little description. So you've got about 12, 10 boards suspended from the ceiling. 

Jeff: All vintage from the early or late fifties. Gordon Smith longboard all the way up to the mid nineties Dewey Weber and everything in between. I love old stuff. 

Christine: It shows.

Jeff: My old skateboards. 

Christine: And what are all these other things? You've got an old electric guitar here. And is that a radiator? 

Jeff: Those are valve covers. For, for old cars and all. A lot of this stuff has been given to me in the past 10 years cuz people know me. Most of the good stuff I bought when I was a teenager from like 15 to 25 because you could find stuff for cheap back then. But in the past 15 years, I really haven't bought too much old things because it is too expensive and I obviously, I really don't need anymore.

Christine: You've got it pretty well covered. 

Jeff: I have everything I want pretty much. And so nowadays, people, there's probably 30 items in here that people just say, Hey, I got this old item, I saw your garage. You might like it, like that guitar. 

Christine: It's like donating it to a small local museum that you get to see your stuff on display the way it should be, and in concert with all the other pieces.

Jeff: I love it. All these old farm, you probably can't see 'em, but the old saws and I got like six old 1900s farm pieces. The guy's like, you want it? And I'm like, heck yeah, I want that. But yeah, I love my garage. It is my lifelong collection of stuff. I could tell you where I got every little piece from.

Christine: Tell us also about your cars. You've got an old Cadillac and then you have two vintage Ford vans sitting in the front driveway. 

Jeff: I have a 1955 Cadillac Coup Deville original paint, with perfect patina. It's got the wear and tear exactly where the paint missing. All that is, is exactly how I wanted it. The main reason I bought it is because it was the original paint and the way it's wear and tear like on the hood, you could see from just years of people leaning over working on it. The paint wears away where the arm rest is. You can see the paint's gone right there. That's just from someone putting their arm out for the past 70 years. A lot of old car guys really like that stuff too. You got guys buying brand or buying these repainting them and sanding them down in those certain areas to try to get that patina look. But this is the real thing. This is authentic. It's the real thing.

Christine: Yeah, it’s nice. I mean, it's that human interaction with a prized object over the years.

Jeff: It took, I don't know, 70 years for it to get like that. Why would you paint over that? People come over that really don't know me that good and they're like, what color are you gonna paint it? And I’m like, get out of here. Don't, tell me that. Like what are you talking about? What color am I gonna paint it? I'm all, look at this thing. This is a hundred percent exactly what I want. 

Christine: So how often does it get taken out and driven around?

Jeff: It's not roadworthy, but it does run. I take it out a couple times a month. Just around the block. I've had it like two years before we bought this house. I bought it and I got no problem with it sitting there cause I love looking at it. And then we bought the house. And the house was our project. So that's why I haven't done anything with the Cadillac. 

Christine: But you do take your van, well, at least your, one of your vans out. I've seen you driving all around the van to go to the beach and stuff. So tell us about your vans. 
Jeff: My 65 Falcon E Econo line van is my daily driver. Anywhere we go in Oceanside, out to eat, surf, anything. We take the kids, the dog, they all jump in. And then I got a a 61 van. I like 'em so much, I got another one. And they're both exactly the same color, which is weird. 

Christine: Yeah, they're just these twins on the driveway.

Jeff: Well, my buddy found the other one. Mine's a 65, which I've had for close to 10 years, and my buddy knows I like old cars and especially vans. So he called me and he's like, Hey, I found a 61 E Econo Line. Just like the one you have. If you want it, I'll deliver it to your house. It's on the trailer. So he bought it for a certain amount, sold to me for a little bit more, which I was okay with. The price he gave me was fine and he delivered it to my front door. 

Christine: And when I walked in here you were sanding down or just had cut a piece of plywood, that you're building some of the seats for that? 

Jeff: Yeah. I'm building the bench sheets in the back. I'm cutting the plywood out, I put the foam on it and then I got this Mexican blanket material, the gold, yellow, brown material. I'm just gonna wrap it and just staple underneath. I'm not trying to make it look too nice cuz it's probably gonna get messed up. Make it so it works and it looks decent, 

Christine: So it's gonna be this cozy lounge seating area in the back of the van. 

Jeff: But I did put, normally, like I said, I don't spend a lot of money or pay people to do things, except for the front seats in the van. I just bought the 61. I did have my buddy Rex here in Oceanside that does super high end work on old cars. I actually had him do the work just because I wanted it done. I wanted it to look nice, and I wanted him to do it cause I know him. He’s a really cool guy. So the two front seats are actually, I paid half what I paid for the van, just to have the front seats done. 

Christine: So there are moments when you will pay somebody, but it's gotta be a very specific situation, right? You wanna restore an antique back to its original luster, 

Jeff: That's pretty much the only time I've ever spent, had somebody, a professional work on one of my cars.That was it right there. And it was like the greatest thing ever. When I got 'em, I couldn't believe it. They're works of art, they really are. So if I ever sell that van, I'm keeping those seats no matter what. 

Christine: I gotta take a peek at those seats on the way out of here.

Jeff: If that van ever gets sold for some reason, I'm gonna take 'em out and just put other seats in there. I'll hang 'em in my garage. But I'll probably keep the van forever.

Christine: Well, let's go to our surf session the other day. Thanks for meeting me, by the way. I was tempted, I sent you a text. I was tempted to reschedule because the waves work forecasted about four to six feet. 

Jeff: It says that a lot, and they're usually not, but it was still decent. 

Christine: Yeah, they were decent size and I'm really glad that you did. You said, I'm not concerned about that. We’ll go check out The Rock, see what it’s looking like there. And then we met around 7:00 AM and then we moved on to the harbor and it was great. I'm really, really glad that we went that day. It was definitely bigger than my comfort level. It was a really nice workout to paddle out to the line up. And then, I caught one, got a little pummeled and I actually, I dunno if you saw that at the very end. I did catch one. 

Jeff: I saw you on the way in, but I told you you can't paddle in. That's like, the paddle of shame. That's what they call it. I've done it. Maybe once or twice in my life. That's just cuz it's been so bad and I'm like, I have to get in. So I've done it and it sucks. I'm like covering my face. 

Christine: Well see, I did the Paddle of Shame today and I didn't even know I was doing it because I went out this morning and then I wanted to be on time here. 

Jeff: I went out too. It was fun. I went at the rock. Yeah, it was decent. 

Christine: It was good, and I was thinking about this. So you said they often forecast it higher than it is, and from my perception as a beginner is it always seems bigger than what they forecasted, but today it was three to four feet and it felt very manageable. And I think actually that's having come out of the session with you the other day where it was bigger. So, then going to Terramar, which is like a little bit of a cleaner, simpler wave. It feels better. 

Jeff: It's good to get outta your comfort zone. You're never gonna get any better and surfing does that. I tell my kids when we go out, I'm like, go for the scary one. If one's coming and you're scared of it, go for it. You're not gonna die. Most likely you're not gonna die. It’s very rare that you're gonna die from this wave. You'll be fine. And it could be the wave of your life cuz the ones you're scared of are gonna be the good ones and you never know most of the time.

Christine: And you caught some really nice lefts that day, you said?

Jeff: Yeah, I got two of the best lefts I've had all month. And I go out four or five times a week. Usually The Rock isn't that good. We just like it because of the people there, the vibe, everything. It does have its moments where it gets pretty decent, but if The Rock's good, the Harbor's gonna be better almost every time. But you got more people and I don't know, it's just, I'd rather go have a crappier wave at the Rock than go to the Harbor and have a better wave. I'd rather stay at The Rock. It's our spot. 

Christine: When I first started, I was bound to determined. I said, I'm gonna surf the Harbor. This is my spot. This is my place. I love this. And, I now have been going a lot of different places. And that's been good too, to just say, okay, there’s a whole wide stretch of surfable places and you also have to try different places, especially as a beginner, to see what's more appropriate for your level and where you can learn better.

Jeff: See, I made the, the mistake of learning at the Rock, which took me the first couple years, like I've only been surfing shortboard for six, maybe seven years. I go to the Rock every time and it's just slamming, not big, but it's just fast. So every time I go out there, I'm just getting slammed, hitting the sand and stuff. And so after going there for a year and a half or whatever I was doing, trying to I finally went to the Harbor and I'm like, well, this is way easier at the Harbor. You know, just getting these nice, slower waves and, but I'm glad I did that at the Rock because I just threw myself into it.

Christine: Well, why don't we go into that a little bit. You said that it's only been about six years since moving to Oceanside, that you've been consistently working on surfing. 

Jeff: Yeah. I call it surfing a short board. To me that's my surfing now and it's completely different than when I surfed a long board. I started surfing maybe at 15 years old, and I had a 1960s long board, big old thing, and I surfed it for probably 10 years. It's a late sixties, Gordon Smith skipped Fry Pro model, super awesome board. It's actually on my wall in my house now. It's a piece of art. I surfed that from, I don't know, probably 14, 15 up until right around 25 and then didn't for 10, 15 years maybe. 

Christine: And that was logistical? You were working and lived a little inland?

Jeff: In Corona and then Lake Elsinore. We bought a house there and got married. I had to start my business, had to make money. I just kind of got out of surfing and I loved surfing so much when I was younger. Surfing my longboard. It was like the greatest thing ever. And then you just kind of get out of it. When you don't do it for a year or two, you just forget about it. Like I really did. I'd go maybe once a year. I look back now and I'm like, man, how did I go that long without surfing? 

Christine: So what was it that sparked the return to surfing? 

Jeff: I don't know. Cuz we started, before I moved here in Lake Elsinore we had a couple buddies, probably the only four people in Lake Elsinore that surf. Luckily I met the other three and we all took every Friday off and we would drive over the Ortega.

Christine: And you were still on a long board at that point? I was on a long board. So your move to a shortboard happened when you moved to Oceanside? 

Jeff: Like five months before we moved here. I got a shortboard and I was like, okay, I'm gonna try this. So I went from a nine six to a five six shortboard. 

Christine: Oh, that's a huge jump! 

Jeff: Yeah, it was ridiculous. 

Christine: That's crazy. 

Jeff: It sucked for like for months. 

Christine: And you just stuck with it? Stubbornly.

Jeff: I'm like, this is it. 

Christine: Is that what you're still writing?

Jeff: No, now I have a 5’ 2” but it's a fish, so it's got more volume. 

Christine: What were some of the technical challenges then of that jump down? 

Jeff: Oh man, you just, you don't go anywhere. You get in the water and you try to longboard, you paddle and you get going. On a shortboard, you get in the water and you're paddling and it's like you're not moving, it feels like you're just paddling and nothing's happening. 

Christine: And the board is submerged too, which is such a strange.

Jeff: It's in the water, but you are moving. It's just a lot slower, obviously. And just catching the wave was the hardest part. Longboard, you could just paddle and you're already going so fast, you could jump up before the wave even starts to break. On a shortboard, it has to be breaking right behind you, pretty much to get up a lot quicker. But now I don't think I'll ever get on a longboard ever again really until, unless my body says I can't do short boards anymore, until it starts slowing down.

Christine: It’s so interesting to hear how people move between the short and the longer boards. And some people I've heard that they've surfed for a long time on a shortboard and said, oh, I'm never gonna ride a long board. And then all of a sudden they take it on and they have so much fun with it and they experience surfing in this whole different terrain. But it sounds like you already understand what that's about.

Jeff: Yeah. Don't keep me wrong. I'm not saying longboard sucks. Longboards awesome. I love it. You know, any type of surfing is. The shortboard, I guess, was so difficult. It was like, okay, I gotta figure this out. And now that I'm getting a little better and I can catch the wave. Now I'm at the point like, this is way better than a longboard. You can actually like do things fast. Things like hit the lip.

Christine: Yeah, I'm right there in the middle. My board is a seven foot and so, and I'm very tempted right now to get a longboard cuz I wanna learn some basic skills and catch wave after wave and really build that up. But at the same time, I have a sense, like if I go out to Terramar, most people are on long boards and I'm on more of a mid length. I have got to paddle a little bit more for the waves and I think that's also good training and then I really wanna duck dive at some point. So I'm not sure. I'm gonna hopefully explore it all.

Jeff: You're not gonna duck dive the longboard for sure. 

Christine: No, not even with the one I'm on. It's pretty challenging to learn on. 

Jeff: I will go to longboards eventually. I did it backwards. Most people start with the shortboard when you're younger. Well, it depends what age you are. I was 14 and I had a long board. Most kids that age, they have little tiny boards. And then as you get older you kind of slow down and you get the longer board. I got my shortboard when I was 40. 

Christine: It's good to throw some challenger your way when you get on in your years.  
Jeff: Yeah, it's definitely a challenge, but I love it.

Christine: Let's go on to your very unique relationship with Dana because this is a love story that you don't hear about so much anymore. You two met in junior high school? 

Jeff: Yeah, she was 13 and I was 14, we're a year apart.

Christine: Incredible. And you're still together. 

Jeff: I moved from Roland Heights to Corona, in the middle of school year. I came in and I had the surfer look and there weren't that many people that had the surfer look in Corona, but she did. So for some reason I just noticed her. I was like, whoa, she looks like she might be into what I'm into. You know? She had a Bonjovi shirt on, which I liked, skid Row, all that stuff I was into back then.

Jeff: I was like, wow, she looks kind of cool, but I was super shy, so I know I wouldn't go up and talk. She was not shy, so she probably said something. She probably yelled something out, like, Hey, surfer boy or something. 

Christine: Knowing Dana…

Jeff: She's not shy. She probably said something like, Hey, who are you? And then I was like, oh, somebody's talking to me. Oh no, what do I do? That's probably it. But we did have typing class. I remember that. She sat in front of me. I put her hair in the typewriter, typed on it. We hung out. You know, I was persistent. She didn’t like me at first. I was a hundred pound skinny, little dorky blonde-haired kid, and she was popular one. She was super nice. She's always been the nicest person in the world, you know, real friendly. Everybody knew her cuz she was so loud and outgoing. And she was pretty, all the boys liked her and, but she liked me. We were friends for probably a good five months to a year and I would always skateboard to her house and one day we just got together after about a year of me slowly being persistent. Yeah. I didn't push anything cause I didn't want to upset her. I was just slowly working my way in. 

Christine: But it's been like 31 years now. It's just wild. You guys met at such a young age and we change so much, especially through our teenage years, our young adult years and you sustained it. And it's not just like you've sustained it grudgingly, but you guys hang out together a lot. I mean, you guys actually are a couple that really seem like you’re best friends and you really enjoy each other. All of your social stuff, it kind of overlaps, which is really cool.

Jeff: Now we have two crazy kids. 

Christine: Well let's move on to the kids because you said your big family project right now is supporting your oldest daughter London and her band, Doll Riot. 

Jeff: Yes. 

Christine: I've watched, because London is friends with my daughter too, and I’ve watched this band grow. They're great. 

Jeff: Thank you. We love it. 

Christine: It's so fun to get on Spotify and look them up. And there they are. They've got quite a few songs going now. 

Jeff: It's awesome that they're writing these songs that are really good. It's not easy to write a good song, and they're doing it. They've done it I think six, they might be working on the seventh song. Every song's better than the last. Which is amazing.

Christine: Well it also, it seems like there's a lot nice continuity too. You said that you're there for support, but they're doing all of this themselves. There's that can-do, can fix, can build attitude. 

Jeff: We're building it. We're doing the behind the scenes building. Eventually they might wanna take over, but we set up the PA most of the time. Now they're starting to set it up. We got 'em, their shirts made, the stickers, and we've been getting band shows. But now they're starting to get their own. They're pretty well known now. They're in the band circle. All the bands contact each other and say, Hey, you wanna play this show? And so they're getting shows on their own now. 

Christine: Well, stay tuned because we're gonna finish this one with a song by Doll Riot. Let's talk about your younger daughter, Brooklyn. Who is a budding entrepreneur on her own. She developed her own brand of lip gloss, and then had, I remember a market that she and her girlfriends had put together. 

Jeff: The mini maker's market. 

Christine: And now she’s doing resale of thrift clothes…

Jeff: She's the entrepreneur. She's an amazing singer. Brooklyn actually has an amazing voice and she's written a couple songs. 

Christine: I actually heard her. I mean, her voice just thundered me. I couldn't believe it. I was like, that's Brookie?

Jeff: Yeah, with no lessons either. It's quite a voice there. She naturally has it, but she's taking a break from her music career right now because of her business. She made her own lip gloss and made her own handbags and was doing that at like 10 years old. Started her own Etsy all by herself. She wanted me to help her with the payment thing, and I'm like, nope, I'm not doing it. I have my own business. You run it. But so she hooked it up. She connected it all to my PayPal and did it all herself. She prints out her own shipping labels, talks to customers, does her promoting small business little ads. She's a go-getter. 

Christine: I can't wait to see what she creates. And you also have your own business, fire extinguishing systems. What's the name of your business? 

Jeff: Fire Smart, fire protection. Basically, I service fire extinguishing systems.

Christine: Do you feel that you've taught your kids this idea of self-sufficiency and having an entrepreneurial spirit? Or are you just modeling it by doing, is it something you talk about with your girls at all? 

Jeff: I mean, not that much, but I hope they see that I'm not gone nine to five every day. I'm here a lot of the times throughout the day. They see that and I think they're like, wow, you have your own business. You could stay home and you don't have to be gone every single day. So hopefully they see that. And I do tell 'em, we don't push college, but if you want to go, that's great. Find out what's interesting in the world, what people want and start a business. 

Christine: Well, let's end with Doll Riot's song, Get A Life, which I think is a perfect ending for our interview, since you and your family's approach to getting a life is to create a rich life by learning how to do stuff yourself.

Jeff: Alright. Awesome.

Christine: Thanks so much, Jeff.

Jeff: Thank you, Christine. It's been great.