Mixed bag of pretty things....

A few things to look at ...tugboats, pobblebonks, deluxes and the 6'8'' micro mal for the intermeadiate surfer girl. I love my job!!

a couple of custom fish out of water..

Here's a couple that I did a while back. The couple of bluey ones are the wonglepong 5' 9 '' x 20'' x 21/2'' for Tom ...he weighs in at about 80 kgs and about 5'9'' tall. The Swallow is the Quad o matic, 6'x 21'' x 25/8'' for Shayne...he weighs about 85 kgs.

The grey one is for a tree climer guy called Marty. It's 56 x 20 x 25/8 and kinda based around the Quad o matic and the punt Flyer. Flat deck and a vee bottom with a pretty hefty double throughout the tail. Marty weighs about 75 kgs and is 5'8'' tall.

This is a friend of mine called Elliot. He wanted something traditionl and with more glide and nose riding capabilities than a standard "modern" mal.
This one is 93 x 23 x 31/2...rolled bottom and 50/50 rails. The reverse 'D' fin was a nice touch at the suggestion of Barron von Weirdo.















The other blue mal is one for his Dad...it's a very nice colour don't you think?

cows and wood

The last few days have been a bit hectic... working on finishing a timber board for the Gold Coast City Council that they will present to the Japanese ministers on their upcoming overseas delegation to Japan . It is 6'2 x 18 3/4 x 2 3/8. I've also been working on a SUP for Rob. The SUP is a 11'6 x 30 x 41/2 gun for surfing both here and Hawaii. Both the blanks were made from recycled materials, pine packing crates, cedar, paulowina and the weed tree, camphor laurel...expertly knocked together by Jason and his good lady, Stacey. That is Camphor laurel on the deck of the short board that has been book leaved. Still a bit to go but I hope to have them finished by the end of the week.



















The other is just a view from my glassing stands with the cow for company.

Jed Done from Bushrat

Just had and inspiring visit from Jed Done aka Bushrat sufboards, located on the far south coast of NSW. He is the new rep for 4 way fins and was dropping in to say giddy which was a great opportunity to finally meet this guy , catch up on the south coast gossip and view the amazing flextail boards that he does. So good to talk turkey with a guy who thinks outside the box and is passionate about his craft. In this picture are mostly flextails, a D.Hynd inspired fish and Jed's finless surfboard....We are sooo lucky and privileged to create custom boards for people as a means of supporting ourselves....well almost!!! hahaha

wonglepong love

a new custom board for Richard from the great guys at the board room... this puppy is 510 x 20 x 2 1/2 and should be loving life in the in the ocean real soon.

BEEN A WHILE

too long no blog but here we go...been busy as usual and I've a bit to share... shaping lots and here are a couple that I did in the same week. Me in the bay rolling rails.. and the finished boards before heading off ot the glassers... a 9'6 x 20 gun for Scott Redford for a show at the Brisbane Art Gallery and a 4'10 x 21 Simmons twinny for Japan. Plenty of thinking going on that week. Cheers till next blog.

SUP...I don't know if you guys know it or not, but James Billy Watson and I have been working together on SUP's for the last 5 years or so. Here are the latest two that I've made for him. The pintail is 8'6'' x 27'' x 4'. The flyer swallow is 9'4'' x 271/2'' x 4''. The litreage on the 8'6'' is 106 and the 9'4'' is 113. Both these boards have step decks that provide superior stability whilst paddling. More importantly, they allow the rails to be sensitive and fine, that way they can be surfed through the rail rather than just turning on the fins. They are both vee double concave and as a thruster set up with a slightly larger tail fin. Bill is stoked with the boards and did really well in the Noosa Festival of Surfing event, coming an impresive first place and a very close second in the recent Malfunction SUP event.
Go Billy, go!!!

THE POBBLEBONK....Well it's been a while since I've blogged and I wish I could say that I've been doing nothing, but I have been surfing, shaping and painting heaps .... here are a few I thought you might like to look at.

Both these boards are Pobblebonks. This is a board design that I made years ago in the late 90's to see how short was too short...made a few of them in all shapes and sizes around the 5 foot mark...I only went as short as 4'10''.... that worked OK and never really went any shorter, so I still don't know!....maybe it's time to revisit that again....anyway, the latest one that I modelled these on started out as a thruster and after moving the fins around the board 3 times, it ended up as a quad. Just a crazy thing to ride, with so much planing area, vee double concave and no nose, getting barreled on it was like you were riding the barrel with no board.. just you in the tube!!! ...Rode it in anything up to about 3 feet before another mate of mine Adrian,'had' to have it....anyway... the guy with the black pobblebonk is my good friend Tom's mate from the UK...George....his board is 5'2'' x 21 1/8'' x 2 1/2'' quad fin. He painted it himself and from all reports loves it to death...The blue one is 5'x 21'' x 2 1/2''and is a sample board for Billabong in Japan....and they're frothing!...just wait till they actually ride it!!!





















I do like George's skull with the gold tooth ....nice touch mate!!

SURF CANDY

Just a bunch of boards swimming their way to the board room for a while to hang with their mates before being liberated to the sea. Some punt flyer's, a deluxe and a quad egg fish.

BILLY AND JAMIE ...hey guys ...not much to say today except go check and see what Billy and Jamie have been up to in Hawaii and northern Cal....here's the link

http://www.jamiemitcho.blogspot.com/

THE TUG BOAT...
This is Brent Savage. He's a pretty good little surfer (rated 8th in the juniors last year) and we've been working together on boards over the last 4 or 5 years. This one we've been refining for the contest slop, 1 foot and under.....funny thing is that it goes remarkably well in the good stuff up to 4 feet. I tend to do all his grovel stuff....and this was a change of tack for what we've been doing lately after I lent him.....'the death sled'.... that belongs to my friend Nat. Brent is about 6'2" and weighs in at 80kg's and this board is 59 x 19 x 23/8, bump flyer...the wide point is 4 inches back from centre, flat deck and foily rails. The first couple were concave into a deep double feeding into a hefty vee out of the tail....the lastest has a concave out of the tail....this is the favourite for the moment.....Brent likes to garden and is fond of cute little kittens.

QUAD'O'MATIC ...FUN FOR ALL!
This is Mark after he picked up his new board ...it's 6' x 21'' x 25/8'' and you guessed it...a quad. He is 6'1'tall and weighs in at 85 kgs. Judging from the phone call the other day...is really happy with the it. This board has a pretty flat deck which gives him the paddle power that he needed and to conpensate for this extra volume that would normally be in the rails I actually make them quite refined, down and foily and this, combined with a vee bottom feeding into two concaves under the back foot, gives him the sensitivity and control that he needs to still be able to dominate the board, with out being taken for a ride by it. Normally this type of board will be ridden in small waves but I know that as his confidence in the shape grows, I'll be seeing him in the bigger stuff for sure...the artwork was done by me.

THE 'BEZ'...
Well it's not often I win something, in fact the only thing that comes to mind is a second in the chook raffle at the Tugun surf club some time last century before they... 'modernised' it....anyway I'm pretty stoked at winning 'The Bez'. This an obscure comp run by a bunch of surf crazed Welshman that live around here to honour the life of a pretty remarkable English writer/surfer...'Bez' Newton. Chatting with the boys on the day I found out that Bez wrote a few books, was instrumental in the establishing of the first surf mags in the UK and led a pretty bohemian lifestyle cruising the coast in search of the perfect wave. The trophy was made from found objects and features a look alike of Bez surfing a pen, complete with glasses wired to his head with all kinds of string and 'glasses holding on' apperatus....you see, Bez couldn't see without his glasses and had to tie them on to his head in order to surf. So ...turning up on the day, surfing for and hour or two with a great bunch of blokes, a barbie breakfast with scotch shots to follow was a ton of fun!!!.... to find out that I'd actually won by a consensis vote a couple of days later was an honour. That was 12 months ago and it was last week that the Bez went off again. I was unable to make it this year and defend my title....as if ...the boys say that you can only win it once!... and I had to settle for being there in spirit only. It's great to see mates honouring mates and surfing comps for fun...long live the spirit of BEZ.