Asym Minisim by Carl Ekstrom

Seriously, this thing is beyond amazing. The first of the Asyms finally done (look up 'perfectionist' in the dictionary and there should be a picture of Carl there) and so utterly worth the wait. My bumbling Ansel Adams effort doesn't do this board justice, it's freaking beautiful and felt incredible under the arm. 5'11" goofy foot asym, PU/epoxy build, boxes and bamboo 101 Fins, Ekstrom hand shape. Andy Warhol bought boards from this guy and I understand that completely. I believe Eric is going to be very happy.

Trefz- Idiosyncrasies

idiosyncrasies. a new film by patrick trefz. coming summer 2010 from patrick trefz on Vimeo.

The good stuff just keeps comin'. Trefz preview.

Ether Monthly #11- Further Fish Tales

Dicko on a Mackie Fish, screenprint by Andrew Kidman

Dain Thomas on Steve Lis, from the interview in 'Ether', available from info at foamandfunction.com
"We spent five afternoons together: first day we drew the curves on, next day we cut them out, next day we did fins, the next day we cleaned up all the curves and on the final day he drew some curves out for me on a couple of blanks. The we bid our farewells as he was going to New Zealand the next day. The next morning, I got up early and I could hear this rustling in the shaping bay outside my bedroom window. I was baffled as to who would be in the shaping bay at that time of the morning. So I walked out there and there was Steve, tinkering around with the curves he'd drawn on the blanks the afternoon before, and he said he'd been up all night thinking about it and thinking about it and he just had to bring those tails in half an inch. So he came back and brought the tails down, an eighth of an inch at a time. He's so meticulous. He's got such an attention to detail. It was a just a classic to think he drove an hour out of his way, the day he had to get on a plane, just to bring the tails in half an inch on the fish."


6'1" Lis, courtesy of Kidman. Photo courtesy of Shipworm or Gribble. Shit courtesy of a small dog.

No joke, of all the stuff I've done in more years than I'll admit to, 'Ether' rates as one of the things I'm proudest of having a hand in.

Air

A few posts back was the Gonz skate shot, one that blew my mind when I first saw it. This was another. No idea who the skater or photographer is sorry, but it's a gem. Curse these winds, there's a head high swell and I'm looking at skate photos? It's a better option than dealing with what I paddled out into on Saturday.

There Is No Surf In England...

...but there's a really good surf newspaper. Put together by Dan Crockett, 'Kook' is 20 pages of tabloid sized newsprint genius and I wish I'd thought of it. It's surfing, but it's also sheep, plywood sliders, channel bottoms, tea, bird pictures, a recipe, the funnies and some superb lo-fi photo reproduction. Dan, who is what I believe his countrymen refer to as a 'diamond geezer', stopped by the compound, ate some bison and left a stack of Kooks which you can purchase for six american dollars (postage included) and help fund his explorations. You get a highly entertaining read at 30c a page and a very cool artifact of the independent brilliance that surfing can still spawn. He gets a gallon or so of gas or a taco plate while traveling and accumulating material for the next edition. Speaking of things to buy, Crockett nearly walked with this.

It's a 2+1 diamond tail Mackie, 5'10" x 21" x 2.5" (or thereabouts). I've been making no effort at all to sell it because I want to keep it, and I sort of avoided the question when Dan asked about it which is not at all what I'm meant to do with the boards Mick entrusts to me. It has a handfoiled high aspect center fin and sidebites, and it's yours for $725 which is a steal. I'll even throw in a free Kook. Unless of course I cave and surf it in this upcoming south...

This Time Next Week

Friend of the family and all around good bloke Chris Rule (and the lovely Masa) are celebrating the opening of the SurfIndian shop right next to the gallery. The expanded space means more good stuff, mainly in the form of surfboards from a stellar roster of shapers including genuine next gen. Hydrodynamica boards. It'll be a fun night no doubt and it's great to see these new surf shops open. Further worthwhile ephemera will also be ready to go soon too as Dan Crockett is in town. He's been laying down some limey shred at Malibu the last couple of days but I'll have Kooks very soon, so if you've ordered one it'll be on the way and if not fire me an email to info at foamandfunction.com and we'll set you up with the world's finest surf newspaper.

Thread Monthly #7- Idiosyncrasies

Harbour Bill by Trefz

Patrick Trefz seems to have the keenly awaited follow up to 'Thread' near ready to go. He has an exhibition coming up at the NoColor Gallery in Zurriola for our European friends, and is a part of the really quite fantastic Surfilm Festibal, who in turn have a place where you can check out the short film contest entries.
http://www.dailymotion.com/group/surfshortfilmcontest
This is some cool stuff.

South Bay/P.O.P.

Spent the last few days rejiggering the Foam & Function site and surfing wind thrashed closeouts as a change from the regular closeouts. It does sometimes get good here but not as good as this fine archival shot. Bet that guy would have made it if he'd been riding a flextail like mine though.

Mick Mackie Fish, Larry Gephardt Keels

Some posts back I had a shot of some keels I'd picked up from Geppy to send to Mick Mackie in Australia. They made it there and he made this,photos lifted straight from his website. Very nice indeed and one of the juiciest tints I've seen in a long while. His emails usually have a good lineup shot in them,guaranteed to make me, suffering through SoCal waves, a little jealous. Here's the most recent one. With this stuff around I'm amazed he finds time to shape at all.

Gonz

I've had this picture sitting around for a bit and had wanted to use it, then today I saw a '60 Fury which seemed good enough for me. Mark Gonzales redefining how it's done, in the rain. An epic moment. Surfboard pictures tomorrow I promise.