Alessandro Puccinelli

Absolutely stunning wave images from Mr. Puccinelli who I discovered via Rebecca Olive's excellent blog. There's a colour palette in these photos that is making me very happy. Sorry about the layout glitches here, Blogger keeps changing my attempts to centre images and make things look tidy.

This Is How Fine Surf Movies Get Made

 

Kidman and Mont Mercury have been working like dogs to bring you surf entertainment. Mercury was later served more indignity when he was left standing around LAX by an idiot. It's a hard life being a surf star. Picture by the lovely Mish.

Flexspoon

 

A Flexspoon that Hawaiian Chris had built for himself by Roberts Surfboards. Absolutely beautiful work on this thing, it's an incredible piece of hand built craft- there's a noticeable flex in it, that spine is a great idea and the fin set up is great. Chris has a serious archive of interesting boards and a really good knowledge of what works which makes him a pretty useful resource at times. I volunteered to go and collect it from Ventura which was entirely self serving. It meant not only did I get my hands on the boards, but I managed a fun surf, a quite informative chat with Robert and a stop at a favourite Mexican restaurant in Oxnard on the way home. Not a bad way to spend a day off.

Used Surfboard Deal

Couple of Rob Royal's 4 fin personal rides he's letting go, both look like they could be a lot of fun. Top is a 5'6" PU/PE (I like that shape a lot), bottom is a 5'8" epoxy. They're barely ridden, in Santa Cruz and only $225 each without fins. That's a couple of very good scores for someone. Email him at royalsurfboards@gmail.com.

unnecessary

8'6" Parmenter widowmaker (in Hawaii), complete madness to take this out in the waves it's built for, but it's a beautiful piece of craftsmanship.

Joel Fitzgerald

Joel has been off the radar a bit of late, but the son of the Sultan has not mellowed any on the surf front as proven by these photos. (Lifted from the excellent Deus Bali blog- those guys seem to be having as much fun as it possible to have at any given moment, and they photograph it well.)

Joel was a crucial part of why Litmus was just so amazing on release, charging slab reefs in Ireland, waves most of us had never even dreamed of yet alone seen at that point. There's still copies of the film available and if you don't own this classic, you should. Especially since this is the last time it'll be offered at $15, shipping included thanks to the post office basically doubling the shipping rates, apparently in an attempt to drive the last of America's small businesses into the dirt. Email info @ foamandfunction.com to order or tell us something entertaining.

Another Channeled Asym

Photos lifted from the very excellent Board Collector blog. It's an early 80's Allan Byrne shape, his trademark channels on a beautiful looking asym- tidy stuff indeed.

"When testing a new board.....

...I like to push it as hard as I can off the bottom to see where it will give and spin out" Classic- Kidman mug designed and made by Gerry Wedd courtesy of Paul Whibley. Scholars and Gentlemen, the pair of them. There was a great thundercloud photo of Paul's in the box too, so I'm extra stoked. It's made up for missing the one decent day of surf before the rain set in.

Half Men

Those spoons in the last post got me thinking about kneeboards, and here's more. Those boys are just killing it, really lovely surfing. LA Residents/visitors: go check this out.

It's in a very small and cool East LA gallery/retail space which is well worth your time to visit should you be in this fine city.

Michael Mackie

A few from Ulladulla: another shot of Mackie's hybrid board- there's a lot of design finesse gone into this one, the bottom has a bit of MacTavish hull style in the nose and a decent concave running into V to set up some trim, and rails are pinched down in the nose and tail. Mick is very happy with it and seems keen to put it into some solid surf. Tidy little fish, and a couple of nice looking spoons made by one Neil Cameron of Byron Bay, who is one of those low key Aussie legends- he charges on McCoys and kneeboards and apparently shapes very well indeed.

Stephanie Gilmore /Andrew Kidman

This arrived in my mailbox, and it is very, very good. Built around frame grabs from the 'Spirit Of Akasha' project, the book documents a 70's style single fin built by Dave Parmenter and put under the incredibly talented feet of World Champ Ms. Gilmore. It's a good concept- one of the best surfers in the world on a type of board she has little experience of, and it's documented in a fantastic speed blur style that still lets you see not only how well she rides but the evident joy Steph has in riding it. Kidman is working away self producing this stuff because it means his vision of how it should be isn't compromised, and that's a rare thing nowadays. You can only get this book here and it's worth it on many levels.

More Wooden Surfboards

Twinfins too. The top one is a stunner of a classic twinnie, 6' and built from balsa by Pat at Currumbin Woodworks who's boards I keep seeing and they keep looking amazing. Bottom two are a Ninelights ModTwin with a tri option- awesome. I have one of the twin versions and it's a flat out brilliant board. Mr. Beck is doing a couple of boards for friends of mine currently, so I will pay him a visit with camera in hand very soon.

Guns

What you have there are a few for the serious stuff. First couple are by Mackie: an 8'2" for Garth Dickinson and a serious looking carbon hybrid single. Then a stunner of EPS/wood skinned brute made for Carlos Burle made by a guy in Cornwall named Mark Thomas. I'm a fan of these wood/foam composites as you may well know, and the Mr. Thomas' Glass Tiger boards look very pretty indeed. The asym finally got wet, and I couldn't be happier. The surf was pretty dumpy and crappy basically, but I got a taste of a few corners and I can feel how good this board is going to ride when it actually gets on a halfway decent wave. Well pleased with it, and there's hopefully going to be the time ahead where I'll be able to give it a good run.

Happy New Year To Me

5'11"/6'. Ekstrom bamboo fins. Mad thanks to Hank Warner, RK and Carl. Now if the weather and waves would cooperate, I'll have a ride report. Please note the 'lawn' in the Skip Frye post a week or so back as compared to it in this one. It's been raining.

Paul's Single Fin

Working with hand made surfboards and the shapers who hand make them certainly has no financial reward, but that's what day jobs are for. It does however mean you get to know some pretty classic characters. Cases in point: Andrew Kidman, who shaped this stunner for Paul Whibley, gem of a bloke from South Australia. Glassed by Simon Jones I believe and sporting some serious channels (the board that is, not Paul), this is wall hanger quality that will get put into the waves it needs. Impressive, as is Paul's photography which he posts in on Tumblr along with other good stuff. That wave shot comes from there and has been my desktop image for a while. And if you're in L.A. and need something to do Boxing Day night, try this.