Tim Griffin

I saw Tim Griffin briefly this past weekend, and that made me want to see this 2 + 1 diamond tail which seems like it's the sort of thing you might want around during winter. As would be the Lynch designed swallowtail single he makes. Time to start thinking about runs north, cold kelpy water and bigger, pointier boards- widowmaker season.

Ether Monthly #7

Larry Gephart by Andrew Kidman, from the book 'Ether'

Think how many keels Larry has crafted over the years, and think of the boards they went on and who rode and still are riding them. Many of us certainly- I think I ride some of his handiwork every week. Thanks Larry.

Geppy, Bernoulli and Kidman

The above tableau is largely the fruits of more coasting, this time to collect some keels from Larry Gephart which are destined for the hands of Mick Mackie. The fins are beautiful, and I'll be interested to see what Mackie bolts them onto. There was an outburst of interest in the Bernoulli formula via Daniel Thomson's use of it over at Swaylocks, quite a long post with all sorts of engineers and boffins weighing in, quite mathematical and actually interesting as far as I could follow it. Hence the shameless plug for the Bernoulli formula shirt, art by Jill Jordan, $25 ppd by emailing info at foamandfunction.com.




Meanwhile Andrew Kidman has emerged from his lair in deepest Convictland to score what seems to be an absolutely epic Autumn out in NYC as you've no doubt seen via Shipworm and Gribble. He's not just larking about the entire time though, there's two photo exhibits in the works for December 16 and 19 respectively. More info as I get it and in the meantime here's an excellent Trefz shot of the business taking place.

Ekstrom

Just in case anyone may be interested, there's talk of a run of these beauties. Asymmetrical mini Simmons by Carl Ekstrom, obviously quite custom to the rider. There's a little story on Carl and his boards here
http://www.surfscience.com/topics/surfboard-design-and-anatomy/tail/asymmetrical-surfboard-designs. If you're interested let me know via info at foamandfunction.com.

Coasting

Had to do a short road trip- a custom was dropped off, a demo Simster put in the hands of Joe Curren, who's book I promise is still going to happen, and I got a fading swell surf.




If you're in the LA area, head to Santa Monica and check this out- it's pretty brilliant and it's up for 6 months.

Weekend Update- I Heart Fins

Random Image For Update, but I wish I had this spray.

So there was some swell, a bit too north and a bit thrashed by the wind, but over the course of a few days and a few beaches it was from chest to head high and enough push to warrant breaking out the flextail with the new fins as seen in the pic below. Could not be happier, they felt utterly great- loose and with some very noticeable twang out of the turns. Sketchy late drops were no problem and they held in on some barely controlled hacks- I felt like an over caffeinated 21 year old at times, with the board turning like a thruster but driving like the fish it is. On a few good ones the board felt totally alive, like a puppy straining on it's leash and I came way from each go-out full of what it is that makes surfing so great- pure joy basically. A well designed surfboard is a wonderful thing, Mackie is a genius and I take back nearly every bad thing I've said about Australians over the years. Thanks for your time, back to out normal programming.

November

I love Autumn, there's some swell in the water, the warm spell has given a burst of life to the garden- aside from the Queen Emma lilies there's all sorts of greens coming in- and the temps are cooling off which is always nice. Of note to you surfboard fans is the fact that you can get a really nice hand shaped surf craft from Speedy Kidman- he's doing some customs while he's here in the States and he makes a decent board. Check Shipworm and Gribble for details or drop me a line- it'd certainly be a nice Christmas present for someone. I've also found a few of the black Casper with Casper shirts too.

Fins, and the lack thereof...

I'm coming over all obsessive about fins again, I do this occasionally. Lack of fins counts too, and this thing being foam and finless is really interesting. A Jon Wegener craft (I told you those shirts would make you cool), it's certainly the answer to kelpy spots and it felt good under the arm- it had that intangible air of 'Oh, this board is going to be fun.' The new keels are on the Mackie, there's some board delivery road trips to be done, maybe this swell sneaking in....