Lost In The Ether

Mick Mackie riding one of his sidecut rocket fish, image Kidman from 'Lost In The Ether'


Garth Dickinson with a Mackie sidecut fish, reworked image Kidman from 'Glass Love'
Frame by Joe Curren who will do just as nice of a job framing art for you if you'd like.

Lost In The Ether is Andrew Kidman's new film. It further develops the themes he's worked on in his last two films and it features some brilliant surfboard designers. Here's Garth Dickinson talking about Mackie:

Garth: Peak moments he calls them, “I’m always looking for Peak moments,” he says. I think the other thing that’s unreal is; having a shaper that lives around the corner and he’s your mate and he sees you surf all the time. I think that’s a real privilege to have that kind of situation. Also he’s such a great surfer, he’s just a classic guy to hang out with.

The film is initially only available from Andrew directly by going here and it's in a signed and numbered edition of 1000 copies, packaged with an 80 page hardbound book. It will be very good indeed I'm sure.

Simmons Style

I doubt that just a few years ago when John Elwell, Richard Kenvin and Joe Bauguess collaborated to re-envision the legendary small Simmons board they had any idea what they were about to unleash (although I'd bet they all claim they did). The mini Simmons has become a bit of a cult inside alternative board design circles, probably the most copied board of the last few years (and worst copied- how may of those purported legit mini-Sims out there were shaped from nothing more than a photo on the internet and a vague idea of who Bob Simmons was?) It's also provided a new design springboard for a lot of people to work from, and some very cool cross pollinating has taken place. Here's probably the earliest re-envision of the re-envision, and RK 's crew are still making them beautifully. Keels out on the wings for that planing goodness, pulled in tail that's still within Lindsay Lord's specifications for clean water release, and a little trailing fin for added bite. I like these boards a lot, they're fast, responsive and feel really solid in the turns. Hank Warner shaped this one and it's a beaut. Although it's hard to get a good idea from a bad photo, I can assure you this board (a 5'8" I believe) felt very, very good under the arm. As with the quad from the previous post and the asym a couple back I really wish you could actually heft the thing yourself, see how the rails blend so nicely into the deck and how the foil works, feel the lovely balance of the board and get that surge of 'I want to go surf' excitement. I'm getting that quad in the water tomorrow finally. I'm stoked, surfboards are things of great beauty.

Post surf quad update:
Yes.
Yes,yes,yes.
Yes indeed, yes.
And that was a short session in smallish but OK waves with a few longboards clogging it up.
The quad is a thing of great beauty and amazing function.
Stoked.

The Fruits Of A Decade Of Flex Research

EPS Quad. 6'0" x 21 3/4" x 2 5/6". Hand foiled fins. $750 but I think I'll be keeping this one. We'll sort a custom for you if you want one.



PU/Carbon Fiber Flextail. 5'9" x 20.5" x 2 7/16". Hand foiled keels. $900. Again a custom can be done but may run a little more due to exchange rates. info@foamandfunction.com for any questions


???? Full images soon enough.

Mick Mackie delivers. (Well, actually Jeff delivered them but you know what I mean.) The boards arrived and exceeded all expectations, and those were some very high expectations. The quad is one of the most fantastic surfboards I've seen, it's like a totally clean MotoGuzzi, the thing looks fast and lethal just sitting still. The foil on it is pretty amazing and it weighs next to nothing. The flextail is the essentially the same dims as the one that has given me several of the best sessions I've had in the past year, except this one sports some handmade keels that are foiled to a knife edge. The Project board (dubbed the WTF? on being unwrapped) is essentially ground zero for this stuff, the beginning of the path and damn near impossible to adequately describe. Mick Mackie is the real deal surfboard shaper, a genuine innovator who is lucky enough to be able to build the boards that interest him and do it by hand. There's no pandering to the mass market by cranking out machine shapes or slightly modified versions of whatever is currently hip. These are his design concepts that he's quietly refined and tested, and I'm very proud to be involved with it in any form. My enormous thanks to Mick and all the others that keep surfing interesting- you guys are doing a great job at the moment.

More Kidman

She Was a Girl - New Music by The Windy Hills from Andrew Kidman on Vimeo.

Yes, I just pulled these from the site but they're really good. Wayne Lynch with a serious surfboard. Mick Mackie with a serious surfboard. Go to the site, check it out, buy something (or come bacjk here and buy Ether) You'll be supporting these people and what they do. I'll have mind-frying new and old Mackie boards on Monday, stay tuned.

Ether Monthlyish 14.1- The Website is Go.

Lost in the Ether from Andrew Kidman on Vimeo.

Well done Mr. Kidman. Go to www.andrewkidman.com and take a stroll around. There's some very nice work there.

Ether Monthlyish #14- Kidman on the go

An update from the world of the edit shed where things have only seemed quiet. Young Andrew has been keeping very busy, a nice show at the LoFi Space in Sydney this past month hasn't keep him from working. The new website will up and running very soon for starters, and you can see him doing his thing in the fine Patrick Trefz film 'Idiosyncrasies'. It just screened at the New York Surf Film Festival (hence the tribute Lightning Bolt pizza from chez Kidman) and will be playing, along with a lot of other quite good stuff at the 1st Annual Canadian Surf Film Festival, which are some of the many events of late I wish I could have attended. The culture seems to be thriving, and many thanks to our East coast brethren for doing their part in keeping it so.

The Zen Of Asymmetry

The above item, dear friends, is a 5'10" regular foot asymmetrical surfboard designed and built by Carl Ekstrom. Carl lives in a elegant yet unassuming house in a quite lovely grove of Eucalypts. He designed and built the house himself, which is sort of a theme with him. Inside the house (which is incredibly organized and immaculate given what he does there) he has not only a museum quality array of cultural ephemera but a functional shaping bay to build these boards in and a workspace where he is designing and building some impressive fins. I will admit to being enthused by surfboard fins, and Carl's set up was the proverbial candy store- carbon fibre, flex resins, new jig designs for fin boxes- I was frothing to put it mildly, and he hadn't even shown me his flex board concept at that point. Needless to say it was an utterly enjoyable visit and should any of you be interested, Carl will build you a custom version of the above board, which is a very nice deal. This one belongs to Aussie Paul who is going to be a very happy bloke in a week or so. He's a mad bastard though, the wave below is one he plans on surfing.

Outside

Winter's coming. It got better here this past weekend too with the south, solid glassy closeouts that were surprisingly fun. The flextail worked it's magic, pure projection off the bottom and around sections on the few that had corners. I'm still feeling the glow, and those new Mackies will be here on the 4th. More boards very soon as I have a finished Ekstrom to collect tomorrow....

Offshore

All photos by Mick Mackie. If you think these are impressive, wait til you see the boards that are on the way. One is Mick's own lightly used flextail rocketfish, which will be a nice score for some lucky devil. Pictures soon I promise.

Merch Box and Some Tiddlers

So I surfed this past weekend. Generally LA beach + weekend is to be avoided, but there was talk of it being 'good' and even some mumblings about 'size' and 'south filling in, crowds at points'. so when I found a window in the AM I went for it. The 'size' was knee to thigh high breaking in knee deep water with a few waist high set waves- clean little waves to be sure, but little. I cursed the teller of tales and the fact that I hadn't got around to throwing a mat or a paipo in the truck for these sort of days, but having blamed other people and my equipment decided to go for it. I'm a surfer I told myself, we're meant to be into this wholeheartedly, big days, little days- it's the love of the glide and the ocean and the culture. The waves were working on somne level as there was a 1/2 mile string of longboarders down the beach, but I managed with a bit of a walk to find a nice little corner and sure enough there were some clean little ones. It was all about a low center of gravity and finding that line, turns were a bit pointless but you could slide one into the sand with care. I started realizing how much I like turns as opposed to sideslipping up and down the tiny faces. I rode a few on the knees to keep it interesting. I found going straight is more fun on the backhand, little dropknee tucks into the shallows. I scored a macker, legitimate belly high wave and managed something close to a turn at least, from the bottom of the wave to the top and back to the bottom, nose changing direction and both rails used at least a little, and decided to quit on that high point. Where am I going with this? Well, some days you just need something else to do, and I found so fun stuff while unpacking the merch box. Above you see copies of "___", fresh from Australia, numbered zine/DVD editions for $30. There's also 'Last Hope' DVDs ($25) and Kidman/Brown Birds CDs ($22) for your audiovisual pleasure. Literary action too- signed copies of Patrick Trefz's 'Thread' ($30), the last few copies of the wonderful 'Kook' newspaper ($6) and Jim Newitt's brilliant little 'Point Never' zine ($8). As the temperatures cool, there's even a few lightweight hoodies to keep you comfy while imbibing all this culture- Swift and Simmons designs, only $30. Postage is included on all this stuff because we like you, and you can order by emailing to info@foamandfunction.com. I'd also like to direct you towards Foulweather. Pete sent a couple of his zines and they are really fantastic, totally worth your support. Very simple, just non fiction writings on an oceanic theme, but exactly what a zine should be- entertaining, engaging and personal. $5 and you're set, it's an absolute bargain. Sorry for the mercenary nature of this post, but honestly these are all things worth supporting. This is the creative edge of the culture asserting itself on it's own tiny scale. None of the people doing this stuff have house on bluffs somewhere or take long exotic boat trips with the proceeds of self produced films or zines. This is simply done for the love of doing it, and I'm glad these folks are out there.

The idiosyncratic Harbour Bill

'Idiosyncrasies' is now available, as an actual DVD or some sort of download setup. It's a fine film, Trefz has the the touch and you should own it. Personality driven is I suppose how you'd describe it, the worlds of some slightly crazy but surf obsessed folks rather than the surf mag perfect wave shredding action. There's no shortage of exceptional wave riding going on though, and some of the best was from the Mulcoys. Trefz says the above photo is Harbour Bill a decade or so ago at the spritely age of 50. The man is a legend.

Afoot & afield in the North with a 5'5" & some tropic wax

Here's a tip for an Oregon secret spot. It's off the 5 of course, as there's no surf in Oregon- wind, fog, sharks and cold there's plenty of, but no surf so ignore the coast road. So exit the 5 at Central Point OR and find the Rogue Creamery. Buy some of the insanely good cheese (I was partial to the Caveman Blue) and a bottle or two from the expansive selection of beer and wine. Drive a bit further up the 5 to the Rogue River park, and have a picnic with your cheese and the apples and pears you bought earlier from a farmstand. Stoked. Actually did surf a bit between WA and L.A., and the mini Sim was perfect. Waves were fun, chest to head at best and colder than Lappland. At the mushier spots the planing deal came into full play and a few mediocre waves felt like an aquatic snakerun. At the better spots it was all speed and rail grabs, and the whole venture wound up with a little central cal peak being shared quietly with a goofy footer. That dog is still asleep and utterly worn out.

ADDENDA

I'm getting good at these- this was in the emails and I bet it'll be a lot of fun. If I can muster the time and willpower to get back in the truck I'll hopefully be there with Way Of The Bird books and the like.

On The Road (soon)

A digression here. At several occasions over this past summer, I've had visits from friends who are serious travelers. I've talked about Hokkaido and Chile with Joe, the Hebrides and Morocco with Dan, Spain and Morocco with Arshia- you get the idea, a comfortable evening spent imagining epic trips, hopefully with a surf element. It's been a classic surfer preoccupation since Simmons bounced up the coast in the frame of a car. The ideal road trip/camping vehicle debate is a fine way to while away a few hours, and here's a favourite of mine- the Czech built Tatra. Serious off road capabilities, probably fixable with duct tape and fence wire, and that looks like an easily customized load space. For about town they built a few interesting looking cars too- it'd be nice to roll into the carpark of the local in a T-87. All this is round about way of pointing out there will be a lull of blogging as I'm road tripping north for a week or so. SERIOUS board photos on return though, there's an Ekstrom finished, there's Hydro planing hulls being finished, there's the new Mackie- check back and have a fine week.

ADDENDA

If you're in San Diego or environs this weekend, swing by the Hydro loft at 340 16th St on Sat 4th. There's an open studio event going on and RK will as always have something interesting happening there.

Sacred Craft III- Wegeners

bodyboards

bluegill

One of the personal high points of the whole board show deal is that aside from letting me slide into their booth with a few books and Mackies, the Hydro crew have partnered up with Jon Wegener and his creations for the last few shows. From the set up where Jon and Rosa (who is both 'petite' and 'elegant') quickly assemble a simple functional booth in the the time it takes us to break the TV and realize we've brought the wrong boards from the van to the teardown where we bail and leave them standing in a pile of our debris, the Wegeners make this show a much better experience. And they have a stash of good snacks that are poorly supervised. Jon makes Alaias obviously, but generally I'm more moved by his finned creations. He had an epic hollow wood fish shape this time, and more of the bluegills which are basically the missing link between an alaia and a surfboard. The folks I know who own one all seem to get as wild eyed and fanatical about them as the worst of the wide eyed alaia fanatics. Jon also had a few nice looking bellyboards, and with this coming up, it's getting me thinking about a few prone slides.

Point Never

Jim Newitt is a friend of ours, and a very talented designer. He worked with Andrew Kidman on Ether amongst other things, and in his spare time produces Point Never. It's a beautiful, minimal little fanzine, 32 pages long and this issue features the art of Ann-Marie James, Ray Potes (of Hamburger Eyes infamy), Noritake, Nolan Hall, Jeremie Gindre and Benbo George. Neat, sweet and petite as the Addams Family put it, or as Jim more elegantly says "Point Never is an independent publication devoted to the diffusion of images and texts relating to surf and skateboarding culture; a portrayal of multiple truths, mythologies, abstractions, antipodes, commonalities and communities" A copy can be yours for $8, shipping included, with a portion of the price going to the National Geographic Society Oceans Project. Direct inquiries to info at foamandfunction.com. I'm aware this gets mentioned a lot, but it's really a wonderful thing that there's still people willing to produce independent and creative projects in the morass that is corporate surf culture. Your support helps and is very much appreciated, even on the basic level that you're looking at this rather than or as well as a slick corpo website.