The Good Old Days of Antipodean Vehicles

Images swiped from the surfbooks.com e-newsletter, always a source of some fascinating stuff. The one with the spray and fantastic halter top wearer is a Holden, the other two Fords. I had the Ute version of the Falcon on bottom left, full on safety orange colour. My Mum hated it, told me it made me look like a hoon, but it was the first reliable car I'd owned and she was happy I was done with motorbikes and old Chevs. I loved it's outre-ness, girls were less impressed by it than I'd hoped (but the ones that were impressed were exciting) and I became everybody's friend when they needed to move. Still, I made some trips around the northern coast without worrying I'd never make it home and you could fit some boards, fishing gear and crude camping supplies in that thing with no worries. Sold it to a really cute blonde when I moved up here, and I'd take it back in an instant.

Stecyk and Lance Mountain

Personally I think Nike is pretty much the embodiment of corporate evil but they gave money to Lance Mountain and Craig Stecyk who made this so I'm helping disseminate it. I feel so unclean, which incidentally is how I feel after time at Salton Sea. It's good stuff though.

Thread Monthly #6

Point Conception Lighthouse by Patrick Trefz

A bit less than monthly, but that'll happen. After the last few weeks of work, missed surf opportunities and LA traffic looking at this photo feels real good. From Thread of course, signed copies available for $30. Trefz has a new film getting close to done which is good news.

Surf Haberdashery & A Reno Sandwich

New shirts all round- colours as seen although the silver we only have in XL. The new 'Galaxy' clour is an organic tee, the new Hydrodynamica Hiline shirt is by the multi talented Tyler Warren. $25 each, shipping included. email me here: info at foamandfunction.com.

A last loving look at the Sacred Craft- Wegener, Abellira, Kenvin. They look this good AND surf better than you too.

The Show (in brief)

Demo lineup

The Wegener Bluegill was the hit of the demo boards, seriously stoked a few unsuspecting surfers out

New Shirts, more of them soon.

Tomo started the weekend with 4 boards and a didgereedoo in his booth, and managed to upgrade to a car seat and another board before long. Doing it fully independent style.

There was new Yard Possum footage so good it could only be shown for the last few hours of the weekend.

I lagged on taking pictures because we were actually pretty full on busy. Thoroughly enjoyable show though, hung with lots of good people including assorted bloggers and internet friends which is always really fun- putting faces to the pixels as it were. Grand show too; Hess, Matt Moore, Stretch, Tomo, stunning Yater boards via Ancell, Stecyk and Ho putting in an appearance, Reno in full effect, everything from handplanes to logs and all the stuff I'm probably forgetting. Had a genuinely fine time.

Best In Show!

Bahne and Bahne Jnr. with the Ekstroms.

Well pleased- Carl Ekstrom was awarded the 'Best In Show' honor at the Ventura Sacred Craft. Pedigree beasts these asymettricals, no doubt about it. Brilliant show, lots of cool people but I'm thrashed and need sleep.

Sacred Craft, Ventura, Sat and Sun.

Correct, this picture has nothing to do with anything but that's because I hope to come back from Sacred Craft with such an array of surfboard related photo goodness that you'll be overwhelmed, like the kids who ate all the Easter goodies in one sitting. There will be the usual Wegener/Hydrodynamica combo booth, I'll be there repping a few Mackies, the Ekstroms should be there in person, both boards and designer, there's a stellar new shirt design from Tyler Warren to debut and hopefully some fun opportunites for surfboard fanciers will get of the ground over the next few weeks. Come on by and say hello, handle a few boards and enjoy the sheer extravagance of it all- I've heard there may even be some unannounced movie bonus on Saturday afternoon for those of you with an eye for kneeboarding and the like, so it's a definitely a something for everyone situation. You may even get to see Scott Bass himself.
OK, just one surfboard and one you'll not see in Ventura that's for sure- a Squire fish for the discerning English gent. Found this after the fish post and it's too damn pretty not to use.

Kook

No, not you, but this fine concept by Dan Crockett. It's genius, a surf newspaper with contributions from an impressive array of creative types, many of whom you'll know of, some who will be a pleasant discovery. It's printed beautifully on sustainable paper and is all round quite brilliant. Dan is going to cross the pond for a little surf holiday and he's bringing copies, so I'm providing an outlet for him. $5 per copy, add a dollar for post and it's yours. Just email info at foamandfunction.com. Hopefully some will find their way into interested surf shops too. Meanwhile, those of you in Socal should come on by the Sacred Craft show in Ventura this coming weekend. We'll be there with a slew of books, films, mini Sims, Ekstroms, a Mackie or two and of course the Jon Wegener wooden sliders. The show brings out such a good mix of exhibitors and their best work that there's always something for every surf perspective at these events, so it's a grand way to spend some weekend time, especially if you're in the market for a new craft.

Gonadman

Who doesn't love surf art? Now the genius that is Mark Sutherland is available on a convenient T-shirt via gonadman.com. You can also sign up for the monthly strip to be sent to you. Stoked. The photo is from another Australian, Paul the Simfreak. I could stand a setup like this.

Ether Monthly #10- Stanley Pleskunas

Stanley Pleskunas, Central Cal 2005.
Photo Kidman from 'Ether', available by emailing info at foamandfunction.com

Pleskunas is another of those low key San Diego garage geniuses. He's affected your surfing whether you know it or not. He's designed simple shaping tools that are still the best for the job, he's worked on outrageously complex shaping machine designs. He builds 'Wibbulators', wild, thin and flexy boards that evolved from the cutting edge kiteboards he makes. He was also there at the birth of the fish. From the interview in 'Ether' conducted by Kidman and Kenvin.

AK: Can you tell us the whole story about the board in the cave?
SP: My memories of it are: it was a cold day and the surf was big. It was probably Christmas, and we'd just gotten short johns, the first wetsuits. Stevie (Lis) and I went out at Osprey. It was big; I was haired out, but I had to go. There was a guy out surfing, the tide was coming in, he lost his board and it went in the cave. It was too gnarly to go in there nd get it, especially without a pair of fins on. The guy swam in and he got out of the water, and we knew he left the board in the cave. So the next day the surf dropped, and we went down there , and we pulled the longboard out of the cave . We got a hammer under the glass and we peeled the glass off-worst itch I've ever had in my life! Then we sawed it in half, and then Stevie shaped a board and I shaped a board. He got the nose; he had the better rocker (laughs). Mine was terrible. That was the piece of foam that Stevie built the first fish from, that I remember. It was a bright red Fish. This first one had, kind of, spiky pins on it and it was really thin, double lap; black fins. Sort of peaky fins: a fin with a little tip on it, about the same base as it was high. I remember him surfing that, on the lefts at South Beach, and just ... ripping. That board was probably 4',4'2". Stevies a small guy, y'know?

RK: How about your first exposure to Greenough?
SP: The thing that nailed me was the article with Nat Young, Bob McTavish and George at Honolua. They had pictures of George riding. I was kneeboarding, and I'd heard rumors of him, right, and when I saw those pictures then I immediately tried to emulate, and shape, and build boards, and look for information. I mined information from everybody I knew, to try and figure out what those boards were and why they worked. I started building a few. I think, at the same time, that thing really kicked off the board building craze here y'know? The back yard thingin our area. I think, more than anybody in our area, I was kinda more on George's thing than some of the other people. Stevie was building the Fishes, and people understood what was going on by then, with Steve. But I was more on George's thing.

Jon Wegener Blogs!

Nice. Jon Wegener, definitely one of the top ten nicest men in surfing, is blogging. Now that summer is creeping on, many a youngster's thoughts turn to hot days and little souths wrapping onto pointbreaks, and of course the alaias they plan on riding. Here's the source for the woody goodness. Those of us who are happy with the sideways slide we get with fins are still welcome, Jon shapes a mean foam craft. Still got some t-shirts too, I'm wearing one as I type and feel pretty good about it all.

Kevlar rails, cold and a setup

Once again, thanks to Mick Mackie for providing some excellent imagery. I certainly could use that wave, but he's welcome to the roof of snow. Mad bastards to be wandering around in that stuff, but that's an Australian for you. I'm off for a surf finally.

The Fish in it's glory...

Some time ago a surfshop owner told me the fish was 'over'. His logic was that everybody who wanted one had one by now, lots of people found them harder to ride than they expected and as it was a 'retro' board it wasn't one that was being replaced or upgraded in anyone's quiver. Never really was comfortable with that concept, and here's a selection of relatively current fish I've seen that vary from classic to ultra modern that I believe prove there's life in 'em yet. I've been having fun on one the last few weeks anyway.

Hynd Bushrat, worth clicking on to see the art.


Redwood Simmons inspired quad! SWEET! By Jeff Beck at Ninelights


Daniel Thomson quiver. Indeed.


Sidecut polisher's nightmare from Rob Royal.


Pure candy from Hank Warner. I'm going to go out on a limb and say Hank is basically THE man for an old school fish. He makes what I've found to be a magic board.


My other magic fish is of course a Mackie. This is someone else's magic fish, a textured deck sidecut I wish I'd been able to keep.


Check the water flow slot in this one from Reverb, and then check how nice that outline is.


Eli Mirandon made this 4" agave stringer job. It was the board I wanted most at the Ventura Sacred Craft show, felt absolutely perfect under the arm.


Sorry, an obvious shot but stuffed with lemon and rubbed with sea salt and oil then grilled, they were delicious.

Suave Garments

The ongoing winter of swell is still with us, another week of what were by all accounts decent waves but I only had a mere taste of it as the storage space needed attention so it was a week of labour. That's not really a complaint, maybe just a little whimper- there's been plenty of surf for all and an annoying task is dealt with. In the process I dragged out the last of the hoodies, as seen above. There's Simmons in heather, brown and black, OG Swift in heather or brown, Mackie in black and I believe a few Bernoulli equation in brown. All are front zip lightweight hoodies, ideal for the chill of early AM session, and $35 each. There's Casper shirts as well, blue for the ladies, seafoam green for the gents, very quantities numbers left so get 'em now, $25 each. Email info at foamandfunction.com or check the Foam& Function site, there's more shirt designs there and stocks are getting low. Fingers crossed the rain holds off until later in the day tomorrow and I may get a session in.

Tomo in Japan

Daniel Thomson has been a bit of a one man show of late. He turned up at Sacred Craft with just a banner and an armful of boards and blew people's minds, he's shaped and surfed a lot lately, and most recently turned up in Japan at a trade show with more boards but a rack and another banner this time- moving up in the world. Axxxe wetsuits helped him out, and they deserve whatever little plug I'm giving them as they make a damn fine custom wetsuit.

Aaaaah

And again from Carl. 6'0" this time, boxes are an option.

Mmmmmm

Ekstrom. Doing it so old school that it's new school.

Ether Monthly #9- Art

Some of Andrew Kidman's screen print art, processed from images taken for the film 'Glass Love' and several photos featured in 'Ether'. There are framed originals of some of these pieces available and thre's a section of this work in 'Ether', which is in itself a limited piece signed and numbered art. A piece of art with a 10" record, but a piece of art none the same.