...THE POWER OF BLOCK...

Well I don't think that this may mean much to you guys but from my perspective it speaks volumes. This is my shaping block that I use on every board that I have shaped since about the mid eighties and here is it's story.



Back then Dirk Van Straalan was getting his boards glassed at our factory in Burleigh and we used to have some great rants about life, surf and stuff, anyway, one of the things that he did have was an old pile of balsa off cuts left over from a reshape of and old malibu that he had done and he let me have some of it to use as tail blocks on mals etc. I looked at the history of the timber ...that being from an old malibu that had probably already caught heaps of waves, was bound to full of good energy....and the fact that I really needed a decent shaping block...I put it to better use. The pieces were a bit small but I managed to glue a couple together and make the size that I needed. I'm stoked and passionate about this block on so many levels....light weight, given freely from and old master shaper, recycled from the ocean...etc. It used to have square corners and a flat smooth back....the face side is still quite flat...now it's well worn, well used and gets better as the years go on....I like to think that there is a little bit of the balsa block that gets rubbed off in each board....maybe I've been spending too much time alone in the bay ...who knows but I love it anyway!!!