Surfrides

A stylish and functional quiver of rides to the beach. The last one would be expensive to run given gas prices, but you could get to some really good spots with it. I bet there's a slew of nice cold, empty cobble bottom points on Kamchatka.....

Hynd

Nice little aquatic frolic from Dezza and a few mates. The man is as smooth as it gets. I will say I'm a little worried by the history of surfing in 90 minutes and could stand to see a clip of him that doesn't use the Litmus styled talking head shot, but I'm just grumbling and pissy as there's been no surf for waaaaay to long here. Clip poached from Endless Bummer who are as entertaining as any surf related blog can hope to be. Nice work boys.

Widowmaker

This is a 6' 8" Parmenter widowmaker of the old school- paving stone thick, rails as hard as diamonds and just beautifully sleek. It came across the path of Chris in Hawaii who has some very nice boards on the way and didn't need this, but being the fine bloke he is and knowing I had strong affection for this style of board, he put it my way. A flurry of emails, a convenient visit for a Honolulu based friend and it's in my hands. Naturally the swell vanished, but it'll get ridden the second it gets over waist high. Very, very stoked on this thing.

Quad

I'm a convert. Top to bottom: Hanalei fin set, Mackie, Mackie, heel side for Paul's asym. Robin Mair builds those amazing looking Hanalei Fins and has more to marvel at here.

Flex

Young Mackie puts the cruiser flexboard through it's paces in the homeland, and shares a quick look at what is going to turn into a unique stoke machine.

Keels

Next best thing to a new surfboard is some new fins, and via Chris in Hawaii I've scored a pair of keels from Chubbies to try. Interesting keels indeed, obviously quite upright and large- 5" base, 7" height and apparently nearly 1/2" thick! Beautifully foiled with an inside concave and a little like the Spitfire fin I like so well. Less rake should equal some pivoty turns, and I'm interested to see how the thickness affects the feel. The flextail in the picture has been ridden mostly with those modified cutaway keels (a fin template I'd highly recommend to anyone) and they are my baseline so to speak, I had tried it with some standard keels but the Rasta cutaways were noticeably more snappy. The Richard Palmer leaf keels are great, the first pair Mackie sent were too small for my well fed (I prefer 'manly' as an adjective) frame and slid out beautifully, but this pair is the business- definitely loose but never totally letting go (admittedly I never used them in anything over belly to chest high), and with a fantastic springy geel in turns. When keel and tail worked together it was as fun as turning a surfboard gets (and although it may be a sad comment on my life, turning a surfboard is some serious fun to me). Naturally it's gone flat now I have the Chubbies, but a ride report will follow. His site is here and worth checking out- the quad sets look like the business too- maybe a set of Chubbies on the rear, standard quads on the front....

Cornwall Says Hello

Brilliant, especially John Isaacs and his rides. Bellyboards are mad fun, I've had a few good ones on mine of late although perhaps a little less user friendly for the 5 year olds and the ladies in their mid eighties if the waves are chest to head high and closing out. You do however get the shot-out-of-a-cannon feeling pretty nicely in those conditions, and the little narrow bellyboard holds a line very nicely I must say.