Dave Parmenter Channel Bottom

The board in these images is a 6'2" 6 channel single fin shaped by Dave Parmenter and glassed to a degree of extreme amazingness by the good folks at Waterman's Guild. Better yet the Guild has this quite magic board for sale at $885 which is a bargain. As beautiful as this is as a piece of sculpture, it's a truly functional surfboard as well. Dave created the original for Stephanie Gilmore as part of the 'Spirit Of Akasha' film project, using the single fin shortboards of Michael Peterson and crew as jumping off point. It's truly a modern single fin design, it feels as nimble as any multi fin, but has that wonderful buttery glide of a classic single. It's an addictive board to ride, and this rather spectacular example is available- email customerservice@watermansguild.com for all details.

Surf Craft At The Sonoma

Currently open at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art is Richard Kenvin's very wonderful 'Surf Craft' exhibit, probably the most eclectic and interesting array of surfboards displayed in one place, and definitely a superb look at how the more experimental and progressive design elements of surfboards have evolved. The exhibit is a must see, and the Sonoma Museum has upped the col factor with a range of events- surf movies every Friday,  Christian Beamish talking about his travels on his home built boat 'The Cormorant' on Sept 24, RK and Carl Ekstrom discussing design on July 30 and Saturday July 16 there's not only a paipo building workshop with Jon Wegener during the day, but also what looks like being an incredible evening presentation called 'Shape Heroes' with Dave Parmenter, Dannny Hess, Griffin Stepanek, Stretch and Jon Wegener all discussing their craft and Mr. Beamish (an excellent shaper in his own right) will moderate. Just go, it'll be worth every effort.

Single Fins & MP

Dave Parmenter with one of his 6 channel singles

6'3" 6 Channel currently available- $850

L to R: Parmenter single fin, Neal Purchase Jnr single (8.5") NPJ single (7.5") 

Also available

"As a shaper and a surfer you try to synthesize what you see that excites you in the film and how it looks, but as a designer and being pragmatic about what you know works today, the genie is out of the bottle and we know that certain components, certain things work today better than they did back when they were still exploring the early short boards. It's knowing what to take out and what to keep for the sake of what works. It's not to create a retro board for the sake of being retro, to pose on it like an Alaia or something. Knowing what components work, and put them in a board.

What are the active ingredients in that incredible sequence of MP.... the speed, the drive, the forward trim, moving back on the tail to turn, moving up to highline it. And just the hull speed, the board was digging a groove for itself with that rounded hull on the bottom, with that S-rocker....some of the things that made that short of a board be stiff enough to have that kind of projection, you wouldn't want to put in a board today.

It is kind of knowing the best of the romance of that era and being struck by that as a viewer and wanting to go surfing, and as a shaper knowing what you have to keep out, like that S- rocker is pretty limiting on a board. The fin was too far back, it was fun to look at but almost without exception almost all of the single fins of that era through to the Brewer era, the fins were too far back. Maybe with a little bit better fin or moving the fin up, even just a couple of inches, you're going to get better performance. A lot of it is just looking at it as a historian but then  as a designer who wants to improve on it without throwing the baby out with the bathwater."

Dave Parmenter interviewed in the 'Spirit Of Akasha' book discussing the project to build an MP style board that led to the 6 channel single. 

Ellis Ericson Alkali Fin Action

As you may guess, we're pretty excited to be getting these Alkali Fins. They're craftsmen working on a small scale and thats why the fins are so damn good. Handmade with care to detail and often in limited runs, some interesting stuff gets done. Alkali are a great fit for working with shapers who are doing the same thing with boards. Hence the Andrew Kidman?Dave Parmenter Widowmaker set we have coming (and will have images of soon), and there's these Ellis Ericson keels. Here's video of Ellis doing his thing:

https://vimeo.com/162301902

which is being difficult about letting me imbed it, but it's worth following the link- it's great stuff