Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Fins Free & Flying


Mark Thomson. Photo by Hilton Dawes.

Classic, the best surf photo I've seen in a donkey's age, and the craft is a surfmat. Mark Thomson charging hard, and given the man's commitment to serious down-the-line speed, this is some g-force in action. Tommo knows his way around a surf vehicle too, he builds and rides incredible high tech carbon fibre boards with the same level of intensity he puts into the mat riding, as the photo below shows.


I'm not sure if I'm seeing more surfmat stuff on the internet because more people are riding them, or if more people are riding them because they're on the internet more. Either way it's a grand thing- proning it with handplane, paipo or mat is obviously the way to a more fulfilled and enjoyable surfing life given how fast people who are willing to try such devices become obsessed. You can see the positive effects of mats at 23 Breaths and more of Mark Thomson's magic at Krypt. Slide on.

4 comments:

Growling Gecko said...

An awesome image indeed and interesting too as I was told to keep that pic in safe keeping for the moment. Oh well. Oh and more mat stuff here too http://magictowelride.blogspot.com

Growling Gecko said...

And you are seeing more because more people are riding them!

Kirk said...

Ramsnake- it came via the Australian- maybe he knew I couldn't help myself, and Kenvin beat me with putting it up- you need to to post it now, the hell with what Tommo says! I'll list your blog too, nice stuff. It's awesome there's a few people building mats now and these guys are really putting some design thought into them- a big step past my $9 mail order job.

Anonymous said...

That first photo is really fantastic