Another Channeled Asym

Photos lifted from the very excellent Board Collector blog. It's an early 80's Allan Byrne shape, his trademark channels on a beautiful looking asym- tidy stuff indeed.

"When testing a new board.....

...I like to push it as hard as I can off the bottom to see where it will give and spin out" Classic- Kidman mug designed and made by Gerry Wedd courtesy of Paul Whibley. Scholars and Gentlemen, the pair of them. There was a great thundercloud photo of Paul's in the box too, so I'm extra stoked. It's made up for missing the one decent day of surf before the rain set in.

Half Men

Those spoons in the last post got me thinking about kneeboards, and here's more. Those boys are just killing it, really lovely surfing. LA Residents/visitors: go check this out.

It's in a very small and cool East LA gallery/retail space which is well worth your time to visit should you be in this fine city.

Michael Mackie

A few from Ulladulla: another shot of Mackie's hybrid board- there's a lot of design finesse gone into this one, the bottom has a bit of MacTavish hull style in the nose and a decent concave running into V to set up some trim, and rails are pinched down in the nose and tail. Mick is very happy with it and seems keen to put it into some solid surf. Tidy little fish, and a couple of nice looking spoons made by one Neil Cameron of Byron Bay, who is one of those low key Aussie legends- he charges on McCoys and kneeboards and apparently shapes very well indeed.

Stephanie Gilmore /Andrew Kidman

This arrived in my mailbox, and it is very, very good. Built around frame grabs from the 'Spirit Of Akasha' project, the book documents a 70's style single fin built by Dave Parmenter and put under the incredibly talented feet of World Champ Ms. Gilmore. It's a good concept- one of the best surfers in the world on a type of board she has little experience of, and it's documented in a fantastic speed blur style that still lets you see not only how well she rides but the evident joy Steph has in riding it. Kidman is working away self producing this stuff because it means his vision of how it should be isn't compromised, and that's a rare thing nowadays. You can only get this book here and it's worth it on many levels.

More Wooden Surfboards

Twinfins too. The top one is a stunner of a classic twinnie, 6' and built from balsa by Pat at Currumbin Woodworks who's boards I keep seeing and they keep looking amazing. Bottom two are a Ninelights ModTwin with a tri option- awesome. I have one of the twin versions and it's a flat out brilliant board. Mr. Beck is doing a couple of boards for friends of mine currently, so I will pay him a visit with camera in hand very soon.

Guns

What you have there are a few for the serious stuff. First couple are by Mackie: an 8'2" for Garth Dickinson and a serious looking carbon hybrid single. Then a stunner of EPS/wood skinned brute made for Carlos Burle made by a guy in Cornwall named Mark Thomas. I'm a fan of these wood/foam composites as you may well know, and the Mr. Thomas' Glass Tiger boards look very pretty indeed. The asym finally got wet, and I couldn't be happier. The surf was pretty dumpy and crappy basically, but I got a taste of a few corners and I can feel how good this board is going to ride when it actually gets on a halfway decent wave. Well pleased with it, and there's hopefully going to be the time ahead where I'll be able to give it a good run.