Surfboards Pt. 6- Erle Pedersen

What I love is that you have a lot of the things that interest me in surfboard design going on here- channels, asymmetry, experimental fins- but it's all taken to such mad levels. Good old Erle, we need these guys out there exploring new frontiers. That's his website address watermarked on the photos, check it out. And according to one who knows, the answer is 'fast and tracky'

Surfboards Pt. 5- Mick Mackie

The Ulladulla output is looking good- some very clean & elegant lines happening with these boards.

Surfboards Pt. 4- Jeff Ho

Good karma? I'm not sure what helped this along but it's here. 6'2", thick, wide and feels like a winner.

Surfboards Pt. 3- Mark Rabbidge

There's a shot of one of Mark Rabbidge's finless extravaganzas a few posts back, but now we've got some first hand feedback. Top notch Ulladulla photographer Dean Dampney has been working with Mark on the pictured board, and here's a report:

".....I’ve been trying to replicate the slide and speed of the alaia, so Mark generously agreed to go back to the drawing board and see what he could come up with.
The board pictured below is the result. Looked unreal but I couldn’t get my head around how I was going to find enough edge or bite to come off the bottom. In my first test drive, my instincts were right and although the speed, slide and spin was all there, the control and bite off the bottom was not. Again back to the drawing board….
Mark put a 3omm high centre keel between the double concave at the tail, and two 10mm keels on each rail. The result…
Welcome The Slidrofoil! I’m absolutely blown away by the likeness this board holds to the alaia in every department, with one exception, and that’s the floatation. In surf that I’ve put in the hard yards and laboured away paddling the alaia around the lineup, I’m now paddling around with ease. Basically I’m wondering if the day will ever come again that I resort back to the timber plank.
Check out Marks site and give him a call if you’re interested in this stuff: http://www.markrabbidge.com/"

Surfboards Pt. 2- Kneeboards by Chris Cockett

I found these really quite amazing creations at a highly recommended kneeboard site called Legless.tv. The site itself is completely worth a scroll through, there's some great photos there, but these boards jumped right out at me. One Chris Cockett came up with them, and there's some interesting explanation of what he was aiming for as far as rail curve and flex go. I'm very much a proponent of 'modern' materials in boards, so seeing carbon and kevlar used this well makes me very happy. Chris' ride reports seem to bear out his ideas as working, so this is great stuff all round.

And an update- Chris is apparently in the UK and there's a thread on his boards  on a kneeboard forum here that is totally worth checking out- he's doing some very wild stuff with construction.

Surfboards

Alright, back to pictures of surfboards for a while. To maintain a sort of narrative flow here, these are Parmenters made for the 'Spirit Of Akasha' project Andrew Kidman is working on. There's a blue trimmed MP inspired stub and a yellow trimmed channeled single made expressly for Stephanie Gilmore. You can see more of this over at the Akasha site, and I very seriously suggest taking a look at this, which is some footage shot for the film in Ireland- heavy, heavy water in action and filmed beautifully. You can also visit Andrew's site and get your hands on one of the limited edition books he's done over the last couple of years. Both 'Lost In The Ether' (DVD & book) and 'Single' (based around Steph riding her board) are only available there and are nearly gone.