THE FIRST SURF ON THE FINLESS!!!

Hi Guys ...well the finless is glassed and in the drink....I've been away on a private yacht charter with a couple of mates to xxxxxx..for a couple of weeks but more on that later .... and in my absence the board was surfed. Here's a blog post that Deus did on the board being made and a little vid Jimmy James did on it's first excursion to the beach ....hope you enjoy it!!...

FINLESS AND FREE... IN BALI

It's been ages since the last blog and it's taking a while to settle here in Bali but I haven't been sitting on my hands! Dustin was quick to team me up with a young surfer named Jason ' Salsa' Salisbury and craft out a few boards for him. One that was of particular interest was the a finless board and I must say I really enjoyed the challenge. Starting with no preconceived ideas apart from wanting to have fun ... keeping my mind open to what ever direction the shape will lead me ....here it is in the raw....it's not over yet... I still have a few more additions in the glassing side of things that may or may not materialise but never the less it is going to be interesting to see the finished board... I'll keep you posted...

Ps...My long time friend Phil Ward has been shaping himself a board at Deus this last few days and having seen my finless board, suggested we take a look at a shaper friend of his in California by the name of Hoy Runnels...the similarities are uncanny considering that I've never seen his work ...marvelous how our brains tick

Pps ...yes it does look like a pair of breasts on the tail ...what ever was I thinking?!!!!

FATHER , SON AND SINGLE

The last run down before moving to Indo has been a pretty interesting time and this last week has been no exception. Lots of new boards, lots of change and friends dropping by. This is Pete Harris and his new board. Pete and I have been making boards together for a long time and this is the realisation of one of his designs. It's basically a single fin that has provision for optional side bights, 7'2'' x 213/4'' x 3 , light conny feeding to a double vee out the tail... low, relaxed nose rocker and an accelerating tail release....down rails and this one has a hard tucked under edge almost to the nose. Pete surfs Burleigh a lot and drives quite hard off his front foot and needs the edge to set the rail and because of the tuck ...it doesn't catch....although the photo doesn't show it ...this one is tinted coke bottle green.


Dropping by for a visit was Pete's son Nat. He was out cruising the hills on his Vintage BSA Bantam. Super styling and grinning from ear to ear.... Nat is hooked on my epoxy /carbon fibre boards and was just ordering another before I go...good luck!!!








And the yummy mummy Louise and her new Single fin. Her new shooter is 6'x 20'' x 21/2''. She is about to set off on a trip to WA with her hubby Grant another long time customer of mine who loves my 6ix channel bottom boards. Below is a pic of him surfing on one of his recent surf guiding trips.

BEAU'S NEW TOYS

Beau was around picking up a couple of boards yesterday and I managed to pin him down for a photo. He rides competitively in the long board circuit and these two are a couple that he rides when not in training for the comps...or when he gets bored of riding mals and wants to just smash it. The main focus for me as a shaper was to get the boards to relate to his longboards so the transition between the two is not so radical. I hope to have achieved this with this pair. The initial response is good....just need some surf to surf them in!!....it's been so crap lately. The Blue board is a Deluxe...66 x 191/2 x 25/8 the yellow one is a a Bill fish...510 x 201/2 x 23/4
Below is a previous quiver of boards that I made for him to take to the Maldives where he was working as a tour guide for Tropic Surf. Beau's standard board dimensions for his comp boards are 91 1/2 x 22 x 25/8 . This model is called the HP mal and is designed to surf tight in the pocket ....it's basically a 9 foot short board that nose rides....which it does really well now after we increased the nose rocker to slow it down when you're forward on the nose. This keeps it in the pocket and stops it accelerating out of it allowing him to stay there for as long as he wants. Beau weighs in at about 85 kgs.

below are a deatil of the drawings that I did on his boards...

A NICE BOX OF STUFF

This is my good friend Luke who was just in the states recently and while hanging out in southern California picked himself up something to remember the occasion by. What turned up at my house today was a box of superbly handcrafted boards shaped by Mandala and a bonzer from the Campbell brothers ...Luke can't remember which one.... So nice to see these boards in the flesh and see such beautiful resin jobs done by artisan craftsmen that are passionate about their craft. I can't wait to surf them!!!

THE LONG AND THE SHORT

This is Scrubs....don't really know his real name but it doesn't matter anyway...he is picking up his new death machine. It's 56 x 19 3/4 x 2 1/2 ..13 in the nose and 16 1/2 in the tail. This original design was done in collaboration with my friend Nat....he has now modified it to be called the Albat Ross...,but back to the death machine.... the nose rocker is typically quite low at 3 1/2 " with a decent concave feeding into a massive double and out through a vee at the tail. There is quite a bit of thickness at the tail and with the vee, puts you on rail easily even though it's wide at 8". The wide point in the plan shape is 4"back from centre giving you a nice pivot point between your feet. The volume is loaded towards the tail....this board was the fore runner and inspiration to the Tug Boat.

This is my mate Steve picking up his new board. It's a HP mal that is 91 x 22 1/2 x 2 5/8 .... the nose is 17 7/8 and the tail is 14 1/4. The HP stands for High Performance....I know really original hey but if you can come up with a good name just let me know....anyway this has a lot of rocker in it nose 5 1/4 and the tail has has a hefty 3 7/8 that allows you to surf tight in the pocket. This is based on the boards that I have been doing for Beau Nixon and is for the crew that want to take the short board approach to long boarding. Steve has a lot of fun on my boards and with the custom artwork done by Morgan when he was here a couple of weeks ago....is beaming!

BLACKIE FISH

..last weekend Blackie dropped by to grab his new fish for the summer slop that he's expecting in the next few months....this one is 64 x 20 1/2 x 2 5/8 with a quite flat nose entry at 4 inches over the length of this board makes it quite the wave hunter. Tail lift is also quite flat at a little over 2 1/4" but to keep it alive and turning it has a vee bottom with a substantial double concave in it to put it on rail and keep you there and driving. Foiled rails for extra sensitivity and running off a flattened deck for good paddling. ...A couple of flyers because I think that they look good!.... in the background you'll notice the container ....yep the move to Bali is on and with less than 3 weeks to go, I'm getting excited!!!!