Garage Sale Steiny

Central Cal. charmer and all round legend Steiny is part of the Garage Sale Project. That means if you're anywhere near San Francisco this weekend you can score a fine addition to your art collection (or better yet, start an art collection) at a very reasonable price by going to between 730 & 740 San Jose St, SF CA 94110 on Friday (7-10pm) or Saturday (12-4). There will be photos and the like for sale, and Steiny will be the tall well dressed chap with the good stories. Do say hello to him.

boards & waves

Waves courtesy of Ben who lives in Western Australia and boards courtesy of Ryan Burch who lives in some sort of weird future apparently. There were some waves here today, quite big ones at times too. Usual story, the points were a circus and the beachies mostly closing out. Unfortunately it looked better than it was, there were some corners off of head high waves, but there was a lot of water moving around so being in the right place at the right time was not easy, and the occasional sets of well over head high stuff kept you on your toes. Finally gambled too long and there was the set that was inescapable so some cartwheels were done and I called it a day. After weeks of soft, blown out 2 footers this was almost fun, and in a few days when it backs down a bit it will be fun for sure.

Normal Transmission Is Resumed

Boards and waves time. This week there weren't really waves to speak of (again) but a jaunt to Ninelights Surfboards headquarters was made. A project was dropped off (more soon) and the amazing compsand modtwin was walked off with. Waves are coming supposedly, but I didn't mention that to Jeff as I strolled out with his handiwork.


From Mackie, a nice little peak and a shiny stunner of a classic sidecut fish.

Tomo, getting utterly mat barreled. If you'd like one of his mats, let us know- $195, shipping included to wherever you are. email info @ foamandfunction.com and we'll sort it out.

From another matter- somewhere on the hurricane coast last year. Hope you're all hanging in there OK Jamie

And there you go, boards, waves and some bonus mats. We try to deliver on promises.

Image Free

It's been a long day and it involved a complete lack of swell, very large Nigerians, outrageously beautiful Hyderabadi's, Lebanese Arak and 3 Weber grills amongst other things. I promise there will be a post of awesome waves and jaw dropping boards within 48 hours, but for now I bring you simple genius. Go here to vote for Mick Waters' segment featuring Dave Rastovich in the Innersection thing. Mainstream surf movies need more of this. Go here for Jamie Brisick, New Orleans and the One Minute Disco- this is truly fabulous stuff. Thank you for looking, you people are great.

wood & foam

The boards we like are definitely all from the more unusual end of surfcraft, but not all of them are hi-tech or high end. Case in point, Kevin at December Snowskates has been building what look like some very fun rides. His initial experiments involved spray foam and a couple of sheets of ply and rode well apparently. He's stepped up the game to real foam and ply and we await test reports. Homemade ingenuity at it's best here.

Oska

I'm going north for a couple of days, no surf but some surf related business might get done along with a bit of relaxing. In the meantime, here's Ozzy Wright being one of the most watchable surfers around today.

Wood

Meanwhile, on the shores of good old Blighty, they have waves and are tearing it up on some truly old school sleds even as the Squire is knocking out some 21st century versions. World Bellyboard Champs are coming up- how much fun would a surf contest that features a cake bake-off be? This is all absolutely non corporate and quite fantastic surf frolics, and we hope to have offer a few gems from Revolver available here in the USA very soon.

Merch

A few summer treats for those that may want them. Of course the mighty Ether book, and posed seductively on the December Snowskates board ($239) you have from left to right: Point Never zine ($5), 'Thread' book ($30 signed by Trefz), 'Jay Boy' book ($20) and the Johnny Abegg "___" dvd ($30 as zine, $50 as spiralbound book). All perfect ways to while away a bit of the summer (or winter for our Southern Hemisphere compatriots). Shipping is included in the price, email info @ foamandfunction to order or ask questions.

Rastovich & Waters

Lovely- our friend Mick Waters (who made 'Believe' and 'Little Black Wheels', two films you should own) has done a clip for the Taylor Steele 'Innersections' thing. Rasta riding all manner of stuff with outrageous style. You can check it out by following this link- http://innersection.tv/video/379 and please feel free to sign up and vote for it- as with Trefz's clip it's fantastic to see something 'alternative' make it into a mainstream film deal. I'd also like to point out that apparently the reason we have no waves is because the Australians have been taking them all- at least take some of our onshores as well you jaffle eating bastards.

surf rides

Admittedly for most of us the ride to the beach is probably along the lines of a 10 year old Corolla with a missing hubcap, or at best something in the 'modern, reliable and a bit mundane but keeps the significant other happy' range (or a dented black truck if you're me). Still, it can't hurt to dream. The bottom one would be the sort of thing you could do a trip in down the coast of Peru, or Morocco, or some Scandinavian spot, and do it in style. The Bucky Fullermobile might want a bit more forgiving roads, but would look mighty good cruising the Basque country for instance, especially given how many bottles of Patxaran you could stash in the back.

Fins Free & Flying

Mark Thomson. Photo by Hilton Dawes.

Classic, the best surf photo I've seen in a donkey's age, and the craft is a surfmat. Mark Thomson charging hard, and given the man's commitment to serious down-the-line speed, this is some g-force in action. Tommo knows his way around a surf vehicle too, he builds and rides incredible high tech carbon fibre boards with the same level of intensity he puts into the mat riding, as the photo below shows.


I'm not sure if I'm seeing more surfmat stuff on the internet because more people are riding them, or if more people are riding them because they're on the internet more. Either way it's a grand thing- proning it with handplane, paipo or mat is obviously the way to a more fulfilled and enjoyable surfing life given how fast people who are willing to try such devices become obsessed. You can see the positive effects of mats at 23 Breaths and more of Mark Thomson's magic at Krypt. Slide on.

Go Speedracer!

I know I just posted a bunch of Jeff Beck's boards and raved about them, but then he did this for a guy in Japan. Definitely a picture/1000 words situation but I will tell you it's 5'6", handmilled redwood skin, redwood tail blocks and redwood/balsa fins. Outrageously stunning.

This is the Jeff Ho board.

The shape you can get should you want a pretty awesome all-rounder from a Los Angeles legend. This one belongs to Paul, and he likes it:

"the Jeff Ho Sarlo model is a yes. I've ridden it four days in a row now. I freaked on all that foam, but Jeff compensates for it by using an extended hard edge and particular concaves. It gets in early and holds in big bu bombs. I put Simon Future Fins in it and they seem right. It snaps off the top and throws good spray for a quad. I did outrun a couple BIG waves, falling on my butt. I was surprised, though, by the board's functionality in overhead so cal surf."

Paul has a quiver most people reading this would froth over- Pavel, Seebold, Mackie and so on, so he definitely knows his way around a good board. If you want one of Jeff's board's yourself, just email info @ foamandfunction.com and we'll set you up. Feeling very enthused by surfboards today as I managed a trip to small but very fun waves near to Rincon. Wonderful way to spend a summer's day believe me.

Waves

Some more photos from Mick Mackie- the lucky bastard, it's 2 foot and crumbly here. No wonder he surfs as well as he does and shapes the boards he does. He should be getting some sort of kickback from the Australian Board of Tourism for his work because these shots make me want to buy an airline ticket.

More Surfboards (Mackie this time)

Mackie S-deck stubbie, volan deck patch and 2+1 setup with one of Mick's hand foiled flexfins for the box. Very ,very nice indeed. The fish is the EPS sidecut that's here and for sale at $800. 6', high performance shape with some float. A board than can honestly be described as 'epic'.

An Addenda- If you'd like one of those custom stubs they run $875 with fins etc. Sweet indeed.

Ninelights

Some surfboards built by another Jeff, Mr. Beck of HB this time. I've made quite a few visits to his workspace (Jeff very kindly has assumed the role of ding repair guy for me which is great because he's brilliant at it and probably good for him as it's steady work given how often I knock chunks out of boards) and I'm always blown away by what he's quietly doing there. He builds with compsand construction, the board is shaped from EPS and then a skin of wood is vacuum bagged onto the shape (usually cedar and poplar it seems) and Jeff shapes down the rails and nose & tail blocks. The result is an absolutely beautiful looking board (the work on the tails is pretty stunning), but it's also a really functional ride. I had a loaner twin fin for a while and completely fell in love with the feel. The board had the float and general feel of an EPS board, but the skin obviously makes it a bit heavier which in our often wind hacked waves makes things much nicer. What really hooked me was the feel of the board underfoot- solid like a PU/PE board but with a sort of twangy stiffness it that makes sense- like hard racing shocks on a car, it gave when it needed to give. Totally sold me on the construction, and Jeff's shapes are great. As nice as these stubs are, the modern twin shape is the business. He's here if you want to check his stuff out, and it's well worth doing so. These guys who are actually building interesting boards rather than just finish shaping what a machine pops out are a small gang, but it's them who will drive the progress of surf design forward.

Shirts For Summer

Yeah, it's summer. It's getting hot and the waves are tiny. You can however look mighty suave at any barbeques, beach days or what have you with a new t-shirt. The range above is the Hydrospiral, the Mackie and the Casper (ladies sizes only sorry). There's the full selection here although size and colour options are getting limited. Price is $25, shipping included to make it simple. Email the usual address- info @ foamandfunction.com and we'll set you up.

The Highly Efficient Jeff Ho

The Jeff Ho/Zephyr Designs mission is shaping up to be utterly simple and even quite fun. Jeff is really happy to be doing some boards, and they are getting finished quickly and nicely. For those who missed it, this is the deal- Dogtown Legend Jeff Ho, not a man who is easy to track down and order a board from, is building a run of his current favourite shape for those who want one. It's the design that Jeff has worked on over the last few years with input from Allen Sarlo and a core of the Venice crew. Things being as old school as they are with Jeff, I don't have a photo of the shape. It's not either of the above- there you have Jeff's Beachbreak fish shape (I surfed one of those literally into pieces, totally fun board and I credit it and Derek Hynd in 'Litmus' with triggering my fish obsession which is still going strong today) and some of Jeff's work in the current 'Art In The Streets' show at the Geffen Contemporary in lovely downtown LA. (Photo stolen from surfsister- thanks!)I will have photos of what he's actually building in the next few days however, as Tall Paul's board is done and getting picked up any time now. Best of all, these things are at non-collectors prices- $850 or thereabouts. Yes, I'm frothing over what is to most of you probably just some local underground guy from my adopted surf spot, but seriously- this guy makes boards that are aesthetically, historically and functionally brilliant. I'm honored to be doing the point man work for Jeff. Email info@foamandfunction.com if you're interested.