Dr. Zaius understands we're doing important work.

Bauguess is back from the Forbidden Zone very soon, but in the meantime Trefz has the Santa Cruz program under total control and the sideshow came north to El Porto for the weekend. The trilobite mini Sim is absolutely epic. This is experimental brain surgery we can wholeheartedly support.

Secret Spot

This shot came from mysto photog Sean Shafer- blue skies, blue water, no crowds- some guys have all the luck. I'm stoked to just surf somewhere different in the South Bay at present. If you're feeling sociable this weekend, Shelter have an art show/party going on Saturday and our friend Peter Halasz has an opening at the Heller Gallery in Bergamot Station down in Santa Monica from 5-7 on Saturday as well. Peter is a fantastic painter, his stuff is well worth checking out.

The Sea Is History

image Trefz

'Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs?
Where is your tribal memory? Sirs,
in that grey vault. The sea. The sea
has locked them up. The sea is History'

Derek Walcott

Cold, bit rainy, no surf fun but Foam & Function has been updated with shirts, boards, etc. If you like the literary concept check out Kurungabaa, there's some good stuff there.

Citrus

So the OG Mackie flextail is now in the care of one Joey Clams of New York, well known to all discerning bloggers as the creator of Grey Ghost surfboards (and the subject of a really cool interview on Phoresia that's worth checking out). Joe was well stoked on the board and immediately made the fins you see above, then took the setup to Puerto Rico for some warm water/head high fun. His take on it all is here
Thanks Joe.

Fins, films and Searching For Michael Peterson

So while I was arriving late at El Porto and missing friends (but getting a decent & cold surf) people had the proverbial noses to the grindstones around the globe. The Aussies are productive as their summer comes to an end, Mick Waters has sent these new deluxe Believe DVDs, signed and numbered run of 500 in a fancy digipak and they'll set you back $25. The Brown Birds From Windy Hill have got the soundtrack to the new 'Searching For Michael Peterson' film done and I should have copies very soon. It the same style as the music they did for the Hot Buttered film, it's more or less improvised to the film. There's a really good site for the film at www.searchingformichaelpeterson.com.au although no word on release/distro up here yet. The ever on it Tim Griffin has made available the Lynch fins I've been loving on the single (oh man, that thing on a decent Porto wall with a bit of juice was utterly awesome by the way), probably out of relief that I haven't ruined his board. Centre fins run $50 and the nice little Lok Box sidebites are $30. When I finally get one of these boards I think the widowmaker set-up is the go.

Wintersticks and binding free

Mackie with early fish experiments, photo Kidman

Winterstick

And this is actually Dimitrije riding a winterstick, not Mick- sorry!

Wolle, bindingless carve

Snowskate



From the Ether interview with Mick Mackie:

When did you start tinkering around with the idea of combining Milovich's Winterstick snowboard design with the fish and flex?
MM- It was around 1996-7 I think; when Curren rode Skip Frye's Fish at Jeffery's, all those years ago, it all came back. I was kind of bored on my Thrusters and wanted to feel other things. My brother-in-law, Pete, he was pretty into it, and we just played around with it; it was a private thing. Other guys were a little interested in it, but it didn't really take off. We just wanted to see what they would do. It was just from my own wants; from wanting to feel the sensation of what that design would give you. To see if they work I guess.

How do you find the design-can you feel the similarities between your surfboard and the Winterstick?
MM-Yeah, just from sinking the tail and riding off one swallow a t a time-one pin at a time-you get a nice slice off either pin and a whip out of the tail and whip out of your turn; the surfboard is in a soft medium, which is water, so you're sinking and flexing the tail as well. It seems to work.

The Other Fishes you make, with the sidecut tails-where did the idea come from for them?
MM-The sidecut tail came directly from Dimitrije Milovich's Winterstick.

Not that I know much about snow (been in real snow 3 times- I come from the South Pacific for crying out loud) but these links and connections are fascinating, and the binding free concept seems wild. I've linked the snowskate guys, they have some cool stuff on their blog. Patrick Trefz tour is go, more on that soon but the west coast jaunt will include a May 16 stop at Tom Curren's Rip Curl store in Santa Barbara over the Sacred Craft weekend, with Tom's band providing musical entertainment and Primo providing beer. Sweet. We'll be at Sacred Craft with the Mackies, a few Lynch Design boards and some Swift stuff so come on by.

uno, dos, tres...

Still loving that Lynch single, it's become the new daily driver.