Spirit Of Akasha Deluxe

Heath Joske (photo Trefz)

Matty Yeates & self shaped quiver

Sam Yoon & self built hot tub

The above images are all from Andrew Kidman's 'Spirit Of Akasha' film which is a seriously excellent piece of work, a riff on where all that Alby Falzon documented in his seminal 'Morning Of The Earth' has gone or is going. In true Kidman fashion, he's  gone the extra distance to present his vision as entirely as possible, and there's a beautiful deluxe edition of the film soundtrack that includes not only music on CD and vinyl (with music by The Windy Hills, Tom & Leanne Curren, Bonnie 'Prince' Billie, Grouplove, Dirty Three, Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Atoms For Peace and more) but also a 'Morning Of The Earth REDUX' DVD, a bonus 7" a shirt, a film poster and an amazing 120 page hardbound book from where these images were grabbed, all in a printed box. The book features not only photos and stills from the film, but musings on design from Dave Parmenter and Terry Fitzgerald, stories of Curren's footwear, Sam Yoon & Alan Byrne and of course Alby Falzon explaining 'why'. It's quality beyond the expected levels and mirrors the quiet but intense  passion the participants in the film show. It's an attempt to make something lasting and function and beautiful, and it works. There's a matching 'Morning Of The Earth' set featuring the film's original soundtrack and the 'MOTE- Reimagined' album which features the original tracks covered by many of the same artists featured on 'Akasha', both on vinyl and CD as well as an exclusive 7", a MOTE shirt and the film poster as well as a 120 page book with original images from the film. Beautiful stuff and heinously limited but we have a single copy of each box available at $130 each. Email info @ foamandfunction.com for details. 

Golden Mean Machine

This one, dear readers, is mine. I've coveted this shape since I first saw RK's one some time ago and after much delay I have it and I couldn't be happier. The deal is, Daniel Thomson is a really decent guy- he has this fantastic setup with Firewire to produce his boards but he also made provisions to do a limited number of the CyberSim and GMM shapes for Hydrodynamica through XTR. This one is a 6'2", a boat by Daniel's standards where 5'2" is more the norm, but I wanted that rail length and planing area while still have something that's about 'normal' shortboard length. After 1 surf in small and mediocre conditions (which is the majority of what we have to surf in LA) it was obviously the right call, but I can see why Daniel likes to make 'em small- a 5'6" would be quite functional and I think a 5'2" would be fun, but at 6'2"- this thing is a monster. It paddles beautifully, gets into waves easily and just flies- get it on the face and it's away- comes off the mark like a sports car and feels incredibly responsive but solid on the wave, not a hint of the twitchy HP board feel. It'll see some water time for sure, and I would unhesitatingly recommend it as the sort of board you'll use in 'normal' conditions. Let me get into a bigger/better wave and I'll report back, but I have a feeling it will be equally at home there. XTR has all the info here, and the newer version in stringerless epoxy sporting the Evo style channels looks like a winner. 

Board Of The Week- 6'6" Mackie Sidecut

Photo: Guy Turk

Glide X Mackie Designs At The Heavens from Glide Surf Co on Vimeo.

Sort of boards of the week here as Mick Mackie has just paid the golden shores of the USA a visit, and left a trail of boards and serious happy surfers behind.  Mick is pretty much focusing on shaping his sidecut fish now because they're incredible boards basically, and he's found a nice niche and rhythm with them (This means the two single fin hull-esque boards I have here are the proverbial hen's teeth now, but more on them at a later date).  Mick is basically the reason we branched from surfing books into surfing boards- after trying his sidecut at the recommendation of Andrew Kidman, it was all on. The boards are an incredible ride: fast, flowing, responsive and super functional. Hooked is too mild a term, it was simply a case of wanting to help Mick get these amazing craft from his central NSW hideaway into the hands of the worldwide surfing public who had no idea what they were missing out on. Currently, we have 2 in stock- the pictured 6'6" x 22" x 3" EPS 5 box  and a matching 6' version. Although that may seem like a lot of foam, Mick is a master at distributing it where it needs to be and the board feels great under the arm and beyond great in the water. The boards we have are $850 without fins, although we can definitely organise a set of hand crafted quad fins from Nine Lights at a very good price if required. Meanwhile, east coasters should go and check out Glide Surf Co. in New Jersey where Mick shaped a batch of boards including some flex tails, and if our sizes don't work for you Mick did a few for Ryan Lovelace's Trim Surfshop in Santa Barbara in both EPS and Poly construction, sizes 6'4" to 7' if I remember correctly. To enquire about the boards here (or anything else we have) the email is as always info @ foamandfunction.com.

Litmus/Glass Love/Psychic Migrations

It's been a flurry of nice Kidman related high quality soundtrack releases and here's the latest- 'Litmus' and 'Glass Love' are finally available, as CDs, LPs and in a lovely box set package from Anthology Records. The genre redefining films are available from us here at Foam and Function as are the soundtracks (on vinyl  CD) of Andrew's latest cinematic extravaganza 'Spirit Of Akasha' and it's inspiration, the classic 'Morning Of The Earth'. Seriously good stuff. Meanwhile, freshly minted and quite epic is Ryan Thomas' 'Psychic Migrations' opus which is now available via iTunes & Amazon. Having this and 'Akasha' released within mere months is a pleasure....