Another Sacred Craft survived, and here's what was, in my humble opinion, a couple of the best things I saw (that weren't in our booth). A total high point was the appearance of one of the single most stoked human beings alive, the mighty Mark Thomson. He was in town to show his brand new mat design off, and as a bonus brought a couple of the totally off the hook carbon fibre fishes he's been doing. Mark's been deep into the mat world for a long time, he's worked with the masters and surfs a mat as well as anybody alive, and these are what he rides. They sport a non skid decking and actually have concave and rocker. He's selling them for $150 shipping included through his website and there maybe a chance of getting one direct while he's up here if you're interested and we can find him....
Jeff Ho has a few new projects coming, all of which are quite epic, and here's the first- it's an old school Zephyr skate that you won't have to pay collectors prices for. It's made entirely in the USA and sports Tracker trucks and some nice black wheels Jeff sourced. It'll be available in the next week or two and will run around $130 complete. It's the first of a few new skate models Jeff will be doing and from what I've seen, they're all totally styling.
More soon, the new Trefz movie was really good, the party raucous and surfboards nice, but I need to recover a bit.
8 comments:
mark thomson has never made a surfmat in his life.
the mark thomson mt5 design is a mass produced popout made in taiwan.
it is also a ripoff of the dale Solmonson neumatic advanced design that has been available for over ten years.
Oh dear, there's surfmat drama as well as surfboard drama? Yes, it seems the mats are made in Taiwan from high tech fabrics made in Japan (would it matter if they were produced in Australia? Do we dislike everything made overseas or just things made in non english speaking nations? This has never been explained fully to me but no worries.) As far as ripping off Dale I honestly don't know the back story but do know Dale was building amazing high end hand crafted mats and is hard to find at the best of times. Anon, if you have any info you'd share (email or here in comments) on Dale's output, I'd gladly post it too. I've only communicated with him once or twice but he was an absolute gent and deserves any attention he wants. The Tomo mats are a cheaper option yet still of a really nice quality. It's nice a mat can be had easily now, I rode a $20 surfoplane knockoff for years because that was all I could find.
dale is the original and still makes the most advanced mats. surfers should wake up and stop supporting those who are happy to ride on the backs of others. ask george greenough what he thinks about mark thomson.
George doesn't like most people, what else is new. and who's not riding on the coattails of guys like George or Simmons or Simon Anderson? Lots of people make a living off surfing but its never the guys who are the original creatives. It's always gotta be some high school drama in the world of surf peddling, cause that's all it is. Just like the markets of Bangladesh, a bunch of snake charmers peddling their merch trying to claim it's the latest and the greatest.
Ha!- Anon #2 I'm trying to ride the coattails of George, Simmons and (to a lesser degree) Simon, but I'm certainly not making a living- how useless does that make me? You're right though, that's how it works. If people are serious and have some coin to spend, definitely buy a Solmonson mat, it'll be worth it. The Tomo is a more affordable option and I like the guy. Paul Gross makes some beautiful mats too- we should be stoked there's 3 guys making the things. You should all buy that Kidman book too, it's not the latest but definitely the greatest. No snakes anywhere near it.
Everybody hula!
have any of you anon's bothered to find out what mr Solomonson has to say about this krypt mt5 business?
there were pictures circulating of thomson on a white neumatic mt5 a while ago.
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