When people on the east coast think of Southern California, they imagine someone like Dan Mann, a water sports aficionado with sun-kissed hair and a warm smile; a down to Earth guy who finds a friend everywhere he goes. Dan is the quintessential Californian, and has called Coronado home ever since he moved here when he was twelve years old.
Professional Surfboard Shaper
As the son of former Navy SEAL Lance Mann, Dan grew up living near the ocean. He spent the first ten years of his life in Maui, Hawaii, but it wasn’t until he moved to Coronado that he “really got into surfing.” As a young child Dan never saw himself as a professional surfboard shaper (someone who builds and designs surfboards by hand), but as his interest in surfing grew so did the need to repair his own surfboards. In 1996, in addition to fixing his surfboards, he began making his own boards.
While employed as a lifeguard and having a job at the Chart House, Dan spent his free time repairing and designing surfboards. “As a surfer, it was something I felt I should do to understand surfboards better,” he recalls. It wasn’t until 2001 that Dan made the leap to professionally shaping surfboards.
Dan, who graduated from San Diego State University with an English degree, decided he wanted to own a business. In 2001 he bought an existing glassing company, and then plugged his own brand “Mannkine” into the bigger company he purchased, Northwind Glassing. He then began designing surfboards for Firewire Surfboards. “Any design I do for Firewire is a Firewire surfboard designed by Mannkine. Sometimes people get boards directly from me, and those are just Mannkines,” he explains. In addition to Dan, Firewire has a team of seven other professional shapers.
After he graduated from Coronado High School in 1990, Dan attended San Diego City College for what he calls “a long time.” He laughs as he reflects on his decision to major in English at SDSU, but says at the time he was just looking for “the quickest way out” of college. As someone in his early forties, Dan has a new respect for education, and says, “Now I would do a whole different thing, but back then I didn’t know what I wanted. In terms of school, I was always bad at school, and would always fake my way through it. Now I’d have a hard time deciding [what to study] because there are so many different choices.” When asked what he would choose to learn if he returned to college today, he lists a diverse array of subjects, including philosophy, physics, engineering, and architecture.
While Dan is no longer a lifeguard, he still actively surfs and paddleboards along with swimming and body surfing. “I think with new technology that comes into surfboards, I’m excited because I like to paddle, surf, and make surfboards. I can create equipment that makes surfing and other water sports more accessible. When you have better equipment, it makes it easier and more pleasurable. That’s the biggest thing to look forward to with water sports,” he explains.
Homeschooling & World Travel
Dan, who admittedly didn’t excel at academics himself, has not only changed his attitude about learning, but has also realized that the world is its own classroom full of an endless and wonderful curriculum. Dan and his wife Kara, who also graduated from CHS in 1990, made the decision to pull their children Lance and Lily out of public schools here in Coronado so the family could travel the world together.
The couple, who began dating in 1993 and then married in 1998, made the decision to homeschool, or more aptly said, worldschool. Dan’s work as a professional surfboard shaper allows him to work remotely, which allowed the family to rent out their home as they traveled with the kids as they were approaching middle school age. “That era of schooling was so brutal for us,” Dan says of the days when he and Kara were in middle school themselves in the 1980’s. He recalls how he and his wife thought, “Why don’t we take off and go during their [Lance and Lily’s] middle school time?” Of their decision to travel and teach their children while abroad, Dan comments, “It was a great opportunity for them and for us.”
Kara, who is a teacher by trade, “had a lot of confidence” that they could successfully teach their children, and Dan, who knew his wife was an exceptional teacher, was in full agreement. As they made their big decision, Dan teased, “I’ll be the principal.” He may not necessarily be the parent leading the academic lessons, but that doesn’t stop him from teaching his children other valuable skills, including surfing. He says that Lance is “a die-hard surfer” while Lily prefers to “surf when it’s warm.”
Lance, who’s now fifteen, and Lily, who’s now thirteen, have traveled all over the world, visiting places such as Sri Lanka, Bali, and Tonga. They’ve also spent a lot of time in Australia, which Dan calls “a second home,” and Europe, where both he and Kara’s ancestors originated. Of the lands his children have had the opportunity to explore, it is the developing nations that Dan feels have made the greatest impact on Lance and Lily. From a philosophical perspective, Dan says, “If I had to choose somewhere to go, I would choose more of a third world type place just because of how much closer to the souls of people you are.” He adds, “That kind of feeling you get in those kinds of places is pretty strong.”
What, in Dan’s opinion, is the most challenging aspect of educating his children in such an unconventional manner? “I would say it probably is the underlying concern that if they do go back to school, are they prepared enough? Are they going to have the confidence, and are they going to be comfortable enough with the fundamentals of school as our society puts it? I know that they’re going to be confident, comfortable, and able to sort themselves out at an airport or in an unusual country. They’re going to be able to figure out which food to eat, which food not to eat, where to get water, and all that kind of stuff; the school of life I’m not worried about.” With the current changes to education, including Common Core, Dan and Kara want to ensure that their children’s transition to public school, should they ever choose to return, is seamless.
Besides being able to travel without worrying about the constraints that come along with a public school calendar, what does Dan feel is the greatest reward of being able to educate his own children? “Selfishly it’s learning myself and hearing their discussions about what they’re engaged in and what they’re interested in. They have a huge say in what they’re learning.” Dan especially appreciates the flexibility that homeschooling has offered in terms of classroom settings, which some days happen to be the beach.
Now that they have returned from their travels for the time being, will Lance and Lily return to public school? “My daughter has interest in going back to school for all her own reasons, probably most of them social, but she likes the tasks and challenges, and rises up to them. My son says no. He went through sixth grade in [public] school, and says he’ll go to college, but not to high school.”
Does Dan offer any advice to any Coronado families who might be considering homeschooling the way he and Kara have chosen to do so for their kids? “If you can do it, do it,” he says. “As a family you learn. As individuals you learn. We’re all kind of blindly going down these paths of society, and it’s not all bad, but it certainly needs to have perspective attached to it. We all need to see what we’re doing here for sure.”
Paddleboarding Competitions
In 2015 Dan won the 40th Catalina Classic, a thirty-two mile prone paddleboarding competition from Catalina to the Manhattan Beach Pier. The first time Dan participated in the event was twenty-three years ago, and last year marked Dan’s ninth attempt at the race. After finishing in the top ten a couple of times, Dan says he “finally figured out” the winning combination of “eating and training” that made the ninth time a charm. “The whole year leading up to it everything changed from the food to the exercises used to condition myself,” Dan says of his training. He finished in five hours and thirty-three minutes on a paddleboard he created.
How did it feel to finally win the Catalina Classic? He says, “It was really cool! Talk about a community! The paddlers by and large are really dedicated. It’s a really old sport dating back to pre-World War II to Tom Blake and Duke Kahanmoku, the guys who pioneered what water sports are. The Catalina Classic race has a long, rich history with a lot of really good people that are in the sport. Every time you finish Catalina, it’s a big sense of accomplishment, and to finally win was exciting.”
Will Dan, as the reigning champion, compete in the 2016 Catalina Classic? He’s undecided still, and right now is focusing his attention on the Molokai 2 Oahu (M2O) paddleboard race, which he will participate in on July 31, 2016. He participated in the race last year, which goes from the island of Molokai to the island of Oahu in Hawaii, and placed fourth before participating in the Catalina Classic the following month. “I’ve got a little bit of time before Molokai and Catalina to decide,” Dan explains.
Thoughts about Changes in Coronado Over the Years
As someone who’s lived in Coronado for more than two-thirds of his life, Dan has certainly witnessed numerous changes in the Crown City, including differences in how people surf here. When Dan first started surfing here in 1985, he says that it was “more crowded, but more regulated.” There was a “hierarchy of the older, good surfer guys controlling who got what waves.” He says, “I was a young kid, and I got chewed up and spit out a number of times.” He notes how it’s different now, saying, “All that is basically gone. Now there’s a whole bunch of new, beginner surfers, which is great, but they don’t have the benefit of understanding and learning the ropes of what makes surfing manageable for when it is crowded and when it is dangerous.” Dan feels surfing is “more lighthearted” now, but also thinks it’s “not as organized” as well as “more chaotic” than he remembers in his early days of surfing. “That’s just me being an old crusty guy,” he playfully says. “By and large, there’s a lot of longtime, local people like Stan Searfus who are encouraging and helping young kids get into surfing. They teach the rules of safety so people can surf. As far as surfing is concerned, it’s changed radically, and probably, mostly for the good. The sport of surfing has changed a lot, and locally it’s changed in parallel with those changes.”
What changes has Dan noticed over the years in regard to Coronado’s community? “I’m actually kind of critical of it, he says, adding that the worst changes are “the busyness, and the byproducts and negativity that comes from that.” He continues, “There seems to be a fair bit of loss in terms of sense of community. There are a lot more crowds, and there are a lot more vacation homes, which create vacancies in the houses and communities,” he says. He especially has noticed that there seem to be fewer kids running around like he did when he was younger, and attributes that to the increase in traffic. Coronado parents are faced with worrying about their children’s safety as they try to independently get around town and cross busy streets, and Dan says, “That has more of an effect on us and our sense of peace and community than we know.”
While much has changed over the years, the qualities that Dan loves most about Coronado have remained. Overall he notes, “It’s still a great place to live! It’s tough to do any better! There are still little areas along the beach that you can find, and I appreciate that more than ever. Out in the water is just as beautiful as it’s always been.” Dan recognizes that other Southern California beach towns have been altered much more dramatically than Coronado has been over the years, and he’s appreciative that the parts that make Coronado such a treasure have endured.
Advice for People Interested in Water Sports
When it comes to enjoying the various water sports that Coronado has to offer, Dan offers simple advice to families as he encourages them, “Just go, and get on it! The more time you spend in the water is going to automatically make you feel like a better person, and make you fresh and clean and ready to go. I sound like I’m a tree-hugger, but the more in tune you are with nature, the better off you as an individual will be, which means the better off the community will be.” That’s certainly a valuable life lesson that no textbook will ever come close to teaching, proving that it’s not just surfboards that Dan Mann shapes.
Additional Photos of the 2015 Catalina Classic
