NEW MAGIC FOR TAKA

Well time flies and there have been lots done in the process, in particular a few new models that I've been working on with my good mate Taka in Japan. So here are a few boards that we have come up with that he is really stoked with and I'm really excited about. The board here on the left is a new take on the bullet. It has slightly deeper double concavees, refined in the rail and foily in the tail.... cool artwork by Louis.







This one is an old favourite that has been a great friend over the years for the clean hollow waves that we have on the Goldy. Tuned at Burleigh and proven in Indo, it's an awesome acceleration machine that pulls you down the line when you need it. Single double concave leading into 6 deep tail channels combined with down foiled rails is what defines the Phantom 6ix....nice.







The Bill'o'matic was a collaboration between my team guy James 'Billy' Watson and his desire to surf a fish that didn't just flap around in the mush but rather drive in the good stuff and actually behave it's self under pressure. Quad fins, triple concave bottom with a vee out the tail, pulled in nose and tail....high performance in crap to pumping surf....yee ha!







This one is a new design,the Tug deluxe, and yes it's essentially it's a cross between the deluxe and the Tugboat....more a tug with the narrower deluxe plan shape and still keeping the big double conny's and down rails. This one belongs to surf shop owner and all round good guy Mr doors...legend








This one also is Tug deluxe ...with another artwork piece by Louis


Cheers for now ...phantom

ASYMMETRIC QUAD FUN IN WA

Hi there again, well after a crazy month of playing catch up with orders for the local crew and Japan, dealing with chooks , veggie gardens and broken down cars I thought that I better get back to you about the the board that I mentioned previously. It stems from an idea that has been rattling around in my head for sometime as to why the side fins are always set the same distance up from the tail on both sides and not asymmetrically given that your back foot doesn't place squarely across the board. The idea being that if you set the side fins at different distances up from the tail , you can have a fin under your toe and then another under your heal.... that led to well why not make the planshape specific as well.(and why are boards symmetrical anyway?)...ie; a long rail on the inside for the bottom turn for drive down the line and then a shorter rail for the hook off the top and cutback. The boards would be have to be wave specific, ie; a board for rights and another for lefts....rather than just goofy or natural.  I never had any intention of riding it as a thruster ...but put the extra plug in there anyway....don't know why!!...any way ...this one is 5'11' x 183/4'' x 25/16''...I weigh 62 kgs. I like the holding power of the quads and you can go quite short with the length without sacrificing too much drive....just the paddle in can sometimes can be a bit fun!!!....anyway     
I'm certain that I'm not the first to ponder this and sometime after making it I  recall Allan Byrne doing asymmetrics years ago..... and I'm sure that there was someone before him too but... for me it's a first... and that's all that mattered to me. It worked surprisingly well in the lefts in WA and performed beyond my expectations.I didn't really get a good crack some solid waves as we were out of timing with the swells a bit, but managed a few decent 4 footers that I was pretty happy about.  Since being back home and surfing the right hand points, I couldn't help but give  the board a run and see how it went. As to be expected the shorter inside rail was not that good for driving down the line in overhead point waves but then again it's remarkable how fast you adapt to the idiosyncratic nature of what your riding. I'm in the process of making one for rights this week.  Here is  a couple of short vids of the board  and a silly one of this dragon fly that was on our grill for nearly the whole of our trip!!! Sorry that the sound is a bit average...still not up to speed with video stuff yet...but you get the basics....Big thanks to Kirsten and Tim Baker for their help with this....you can check out his on line blog of their trip around OZ as well   
  part 1  part2
dragon fly cam 

cheers for now ...phantom