6' Channeled Parmenter MPegg

It is, of course, all about keeping things fresh and playing with ideas. Not something you can do so easily with a machine shaped/mass produced board, but quite wonderful when you're working with one the greatest shapers out there. Dave Parmenter has an incredibly functional approach to design, boards are built from a very deep pool of design knowledge, especially when it comes to the single fin and how it can still be modern. The original MPegg was of course a single fin, and we've had a few beauties through in the past. Inspired by the MP singles of the 70s with all the somewhat extreme design experiments tamed, it's a great board that rides so well it feels like cheating. But still, it's fun to play so why not throw in the channels that feel so good on the V6? And maybe some widowmaker-esque sidebite plugs to hot rod it a little? With these mods and at 6' it's a little rocket of board, and naturally the Waterman's Guild crew kept it looking superlative- summer sky blue tint with yellow pinline and a finbox drill through leash loop. All a bit bloody marvelous and it's available. $850- just email foamandfunction@gmail.com if you're interested or have questions.

Hydrodynamica Reboot

Admittedly it's not that they went away, it's just things slowed down due to issues with finding a glasser who could do the boards in EPS quickly and well. El Jefe Kenvin took the opportunity to freshen things up and the result is Jon Wegener is now shaping the boards, his guy is glassing them and they look utterly great. The first batch we saw contained a range of board models all of which were super high quality, so there will now be a flow of Hydrodynamica craft appearing here we hope. Should you want something like, for instance, a 6' Cyber Sim-esque beauty with tri Futures boxes, it's a mere $700. Usual deal, email foamandfunction @ gmail.com for the full details. Simmons' design concepts have never felt more relevant than now, and these boards are the source of the wave. The real deal,.

Kidman/Parmenter Widowmaker Fins

And these are the impetus behind working with Alkali- custom Widowmaker fins collaborated on by Andrew Kidman and Dave Parmenter. 7" centre with a little less area and a little more rake than the classic Widowmaker fins, it's going to be a brilliant set up for those of us who favour the concept. The quality of the Alkali fins is just incredible too, hand made and foiled by a small family operation in Australia, these are just immaculate fins. Proper happy to have these available, $130 for the centre with sidebites, one size and one colourway as these were done in a small run. Email foamandfunction @ gmail.com for ordering details.

Alkali Fins Round 2

Ellis Ericson Keels, 6" high x 6.5" base. So utterly good.

$130

7.25" Classic Singles are restocked, very nice clear one.

$90

Classic Twins, 6.5", single foil.

$110

9" Flex Fin, 9" Hull Flex Fin. Again, they feel so intuitively good.

$100

10" Flex Fin

$100

The second batch of Alkali fins arrived and they are easily as good as the first. Quite honestly the best foiled fins we've seen, these are something we're very proud to be making available. Email foamandfunction @ gmail.com for colour options. We've got some boards coming that will go very nicely with these fins too........

Damaged Goods Zine

We are very happy to be the official distributors for DGZ, New Zealand's finest surf zine, and a as good of a surf mag as you'll find anywhere. The quality of photography is pretty much exceptional, and the writing and stories are great, a little step away from mainstream surf media, but a step in the right direction. We currently have stock of issue 16 which features cover star Tyler warren, California groms Pat Curren, Noah Wegrich and Willem Banks surfing NZ, 'South To Sian', summer logging, local music and news and much more. Issues are $15 shipping included inside the US, $20 outside. Order the usual way- foamandfunction@gmail.com.

Alkali Classic Singles

The first run of fins from Alkali are here, and they are good. These are the Classic Single, available as 6.5" in red or black,  and as 7.25" in blue or green/white, $85 plus $5 shipping inside the US. Email foamandfunction@gmail.com if you're interested.....

Very Lightly Used Neal Purchase Jnr. Duo Available

One of the NPJ boards we brought up has come onto the market as it's owner is ordering something a little bigger. This one is a gem, 6' x 21" x 2.75", 6 x 6 Volan glassing and a lush green tint. Very good condition, as new really- Neal makes them to last. Price is great too, $950 with the board located in N. San Diego County. If you're interested just drop a line to us at foamandfunction @ gmail.com and we'll put you in touch with the current owner.

A Few Surfboards Handmade In Australia By Neal Purchase Jnr.

6'2" 2+1 that is mine,mine,mine!

Arted up Quartet.

 

Gem of a Duo, 5'6" Bumtail

6'4" Duo for Hawaii. Area pintail, domed deck and just felt utterly amazing under the arm. Neal is just delivering with these boards, they are quite fantastic and ride even better than they look. He's currently about to start on a new run of boards for the US, so if you're interested in one of most happening shapes out there get in touch at foamandfunction@gmail.com and we'll get you sorted out.

Apologies for the lag in posts here, we have no intention of letting this blog fade but it's been a very hectic few weeks of dealing with board shipments, board orders and a couple of very exciting new projects happening- fins and magazines happening very very soon. There's going to be a flurry of posts and it's good good stuff. As always, thank you so much for looking at this. Support for these hand crafted independently produced items is very much appreciated.

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

Alkali Fins!

Ellis Ericson twin

Classic Twin

Classic Single

Flex Single

Apologies for the lag in posts, but we've been working! The planned Kidman/Parmenter design widowmaker fin set is so happening the first batch will be done next week, and Alkali Fins of Australia are the ones doing it. As a bonus, we've got set up to bring in a few other designs from their range and should have them all inside a few weeks. Alkali are a very small operation, laying up and foiling fins by hand in Australia, and they do utterly exceptional work. Very very happy to have this chance, and as soon as we have prices/delivery dates sorted out, they'll be posted.