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

Hi there...well this isn't the blog that I was going to tell you about but I think it's something that you might like anyway .....this is Heidi Ledwell...she is a local fine artist & has just painted a board for her man Jon, for his 40th. It's a 62 x 20 x 21/2 phantom deluxe. Anyway ...the local artists of Fingal are having a bit of an art collective & music night on August 6th at the Sheoak Shack to raise awareness of the pressures on their local environment & the importance of protecting it.... something that we can all relate to I'm sure. Cheers... Phantom

Hi there ...long time ...sorry for that ...just had 3 weeks in the desert of WA surfing and camping with the family....didn't score a whole lot but never the less had a great time catching up with Friends and family. Dropped off a new shooter to my mate Rosco....it's the hybrid kneelo/stand up quad that he is in love with ...this one was a fun board to make ...the brown paint job is actually mud smeared on the blank before I glassed it ....worked a treat!....anyway he loves it and that's all that matters. ...I've got another interesting board that I'll show on the next blog ...Cheers for now ...Phantom

Hi there,
another nice mixed bag of boards... from the left is a Qua'o'matic custom for a client , the next one along is a Simfish for Billabong...inspired by the simmons of old but with a new school feel to it, the blue one with the red tail is a punt flyer and the last one on the right is a rehash of an older design I did in the late 90's called the Bullet. It has the deeper double concave that are a feature in a lot of my boards.

Hi There, ...just had the pleasure of Beau Nixon dropping in to have a chat about his last trip to the Maldives ( video to follow soon about that trip) and pass on the feed back about the boards that I've been making him. Beau's an impressive young surfer who's having a crack at the longboard tour this year and by the sounds of things , I think that he'll do pretty dam well at it too. He is about 5'9'' tall and weighs about 80kgs...his high performance comp boards are 91 x 22 x 25/8, ...nose concave running into a vee into a double vee concave out the tail.....pretty standard set up really but coming from my hands is anything but!....but then again ...Beau is not a standard surfer either! so I think he'll go OK. The short board is a 63 x 191/4 x 23/8, triple concave and can be ridden as a quad or thruster. Both boards are glassed with single layers of 4oz top and bottom.....anyway ...the feedback is all good and he just ordered two more but as square tails....I'm off to shape ...have a great day ....cheers

Hi there...here's another batch of boards that I just droped off at the Boardroom surf shop at Miami. The boards out wide are Wonglepongs....the wavey one to the left is a Tugboat and the yellow one is a Punt Flyer.















This lot features from the left...a punt flyer, a doudle flyer swallow....modeled of Wilba's quad except this one is a thruster, a Quad'o'matic, and then a Tug boat....all looking pretty sharp and ready to surf.