More shirts and a surfboard for sale

The goodness keeps coming, here's the rest of the shirts and some hoodies, same deal as in the post below, get on while we have them. Also in the retail arena is the above used Hank Warner starfish- 5'6", probably 2.5" thick, a custom for a colleague who's selling and I'm merely the agent of relocation. Really juicy purple tint and pinlines, Geppy keels and a classic Hank shape in really good condition (except for that wax). $450 and it's a steal. There's new cinematic glory coming from Mick Waters I'll have up soon so stay tuned.

A POSTSCRIPT: Man, I've officially arrived as a blogger- there's a photo of mine (only a photo of dinner, but my photo none the less) up on Shipworm & Gribble, one of the high water marks of of the wavesliding end of the internet. Stoked. One more shirt to come too.

Patrick Trefz

This year really is kicking off in high gear (well, except for the actual surf) with much goodness looming in the near future. Case in point, P. Trefz has his 'Thread' book done and ready to go. It'll be out in April, is a 10" x 10", 128 page softcover selection of images from around the Thread project and is looking really nice. We'll have copies at foamandfunction and a tour of sorts is in the planning stage. I'm hoping that we can get Patrok to put together a reel of recent footage to show, and I'll get dates up here as it all comes together. Joe Curren and Mick Waters are on track with a book in summer and a film and tour in winter respectively, Hydro is taking great steps forward of late, Mackies are at the laminator and the Kidman Secret Laboratory is in high gear. More shirts and Festivus pics soon too.

Viva Simmons! Viva cerveza y ropas!

Rolled to San Diego for the Swift Soup Kitchen a few nights ago with Vicente Fernandez and Schooly D for the ride sounds, and it got more freestyle from there. We cleaned, we set up an epic rack of boards- all sorts of new Hydrodynamica Test Pilot series action for the punters to check out, a few Ekstroms for mad flavor, some Mackies of course and an old school sampling of Lis and Frye. The utterly heroic Eli Miradon showed up with 2 kegs of beer and a mindblowing array of the family board design to spice things up wildly and we were set.

As always a spectacular event, and this time the night took on two distinct phases. Earlier on it was the serious legends time- Elwell, Ekstrom, Bahne and more mingling with Baja ranchers, young hotshots and a cosmopolitan array of slightly dazed escapees from the trade show hell. There was a former San Diego Charger helping cook lumpia and we had a full array of new softgoods on display.

Later the second and decidedly more debauched wave arrived consisting of the surf shop people, artists and blogwriters. The kegs were depleted, new footage of the Coinstar crew doing the deal on the mini Sims was aired, J. Smart graciously played a great trailer for 'The Tyler Warren Experiment' (out very soon, looking glorious) and boards of all sorts were appearing out of vehicles for the interested.

It went way late but way successful, and I'm feeling like hell. (Thanks Eli, next time bring crappy beer. No wait, don't, I'll bring aspirin.)

For those who couldn't make it, you can still get a shirt. We have the fine designs pictured here: The Bernoulli Lift Equation, The Sim/mons, Mackie Surfboards and the Voyager as well as the Hydrodynamica Spiral, the Foam and Function masterpiece and an epic Kenvin drawn 'Bodysurfing Feels Good All Over' design, all of which I'll post pictures of soon. Colours are black, heather and silver grey (Mackie and Equation are also in red) for the gents, navy and purple for the ladies. Price is $25 with free shipping inside the USA. The Sim/mons and the Swift Tattoo letters are on zip front hoodies and those in grey, black or brown for a mere $35 with free shipping inside the US. Email me at info@foamandfunction.com but be quick, stocks are low and the shipping free on this run only.

Mackie Surfs- Thanks Jamie

courtesy of Jamie M (who's initial I now have correct and who's involved in the surfmatters blog which is good fun), some footage of Mick Mackie at work on the home ground. Swift party is coming fast and the shirts look awesome- here's my new logo and shirt design courtesy of the talented and lovely Jill Jordan. This and others will be on the website sometime next week. The Simmons shirts are epic.

Soup Is Good Food

And again it's time for a celebration of some sort. This go-around is looking champion- there will in fact be soup along with a load of new and really, really good t-shirt designs, some amazing new Hydrodynamica Test Pilot series boards, I'll bring what Mackies I have at this moment, musical treats of all kinds and no doubt some mysto film clips will be shown. Fun for the entire family.

340 16th St, San Diego 92101

12 months ago

About this time a year ago we were in the middle of the Ether tour. Kidman, Richard Kenvin and myself had driven up to the Santa Cruz/SF area for some shows and it was a stormer of a time. Alex at Aqua made the SF night genius, we hung with Danny Hess and then had a brilliant night with the Santa Cruz folks, Patrick Trefz ringleading all the way and winding up in an insane Italian restaurant with some of the most entertaining people I've ever met. We then nearly froze in the Trefz basement and had to hit the road early to get to Rincon as Skip Frye was there celebrating his 50th year of surfing. To be honest, I had no desire to go. I'd driven a lot the last couple of weeks, I wanted to warm up, sleep, enjoy Santa Cruz and then see what sort of amazing lunch Trefz would provide, but we were back in the van and away. Skip's mana was working- we made Rincon by early afternoon through the lightest traffic I've ever encountered on the drive south, entertained by a genius Kenvin monologue. Thrashed as we were, the water was restoring and I sat and laughed and watched Kidman, Skip and his Japanese surf team killing it, even managing a few waves in there. I sat on the shoulder and RK got a few as the sun went and it was an incredible day, one of the best in what became a rough year. Skip is a force of nature, long may he ride. Here he is prepping an 11 footer while some slack jawed fool with a board half that length marvels.

There is some good stuff on the way- Swift Soup Kitchen on the 23rd, Mackie's back in the shaping bay, T-shirts are coming very soon and I thank you profoundly for your attention. Please stick with us for another year.

Channel Bottom

Andrew Kidman on a self made 6 channel widowmaker. I really wish we'd get some waves here.

Fins

If I were of a certain degree of affluence I could solve my fin quandary. Thing is, I like playing with fins, you can do cool stuff by shifting them around. But I also like glassed on fins, they feel solid and they are then the fins the shaper who made the board thought would be the best for it. If I had that degree of affluence I could have certain boards made in pairs. One with glassed on fins, the other the exact same board with boxes. Then I could get a whole bunch of cool fins to play with, like these amazing looking Gullwings by Jeff McCoy. Swiped this of the Revolution Surfboards site which is the place to go for Horan/McCoy design thread in surfing. Insane looking 5 spitfire fin board there too, worth checking out. Tim Griffin has his site up too, so that's listed over there in the links as well.

Another one starts..

Felicitations of the season to you all. So far it's been a good year. I've hung out with my kid, had a surf (tiny waves, but a surf none the less) and done an update on Foam and Function- there's a Lynch/Griffin page with some beautiful single fins up now. Please check it out, and I hope you're getting better surf than me.

Kidman and Keels

This photo by me


This Photo Kidman

Andrew has a blog for the Ether book. 2 posts and it's off to a fine start. I stole this shot of Santa Cruz from it and have linked it. Check it out, then go to foam and function and buy the book. The keels are on the newest Mackie which is going to Panama. They're foiled beautifully and really flexy. Tomorrow I'll hopefully try out the blue keels on the post below, even if it's still thigh high. I need a surf.

Mackie Flex Madness

Mick Mackie on the job. 5'10" sidecut flextail. Fully epic with some hand foiled ultra bladed keels I'll show soon. This one sold right out of the box, more will follow. Best of all, this came with a bonus- the 5'9" prototype board, ridden lightly in the gentle surf of central NSW. As soon as there's swell I plan on putting some pressure dents in it. Oh yeah, check those blue keels- the inside is slightly concaved. Go Ulladulla.

knuckleheads night out

The rain put pay to surfing but not to socializing. Some of San Diego's finest arrived in a white Benz and we hit the circuit coffee fueled. First Shelter which was mellow, friendly and had some great art courtesy of the Mattson's and Tyler Warren. (The kid can paint) Then up to 'town' and the Friedman circus at Subliminal Gallery. Chaos, line down the block and we only got in through Jeff Ho throwing his weight around and didn't last long in the crush. Ditched there to Alva's Fairfax store for yet more festivities. TA on the wheels of steel in skate grom heaven. The legend is relevant as hell for a new generation. The night was bursts of standing around outside places not saying much interspersed between lots of driving, and it was really fun. Griffin sent some single fin pictures and they rule- I'll have them up on the site next week I swear.

6' x 20 1/2" x 2 3/4"

Sweet little thruster from Tim Griffin, check that double bump tail. Tim has kindly allowed me sully his reputation and put his boards up on Foam and Function, so hopefully there will be a new page added in the near future. For those of you who were unaware, Tim is the Wayne Lynch approved shaper for the US and is doing a line of Lynchy's modern singles and thrusters all of which look epic. More soon I swear. Some adds over there on your right, This Rich Tapestry is Daniel Crockett's excellent blog and I'm hoping for class and intelligence by association. I've also linked to the MofoSurfer forum because I unashamedly love me a good surf forum. At their peak they can be an online parking lot bull session with a really good board pictures as a bonus. A truly entertaining way to while away time I should be spending working. Finally, if you're in the general LA area this weekend, it's all on for you. Shelter in Long Beach are hosting yet another excellent party, this time with art work from the very talented Tyler Warren, music from the Mattson 2 and some film goodies. Meanwhile up in the hip heart of the beast, Shepherd Fairey's Subliminal Gallery at 1331 Sunset will having the opening night shindig for Glen E. Friedman's retrospective show. Plenty to keep you occupied while the rain washes all those toxins into the surf....

Sailin' On

Richard Kenvin rolled into town with a van full of boards and a mission this past week. He collected myself and a couple more boards and we ducked up to a Cuban coffee joint on Sunset Blvd where we first handed off two very fine surfcraft to some Austrians heading to Indo (I'm a loser for not taking a photo of the red pintail gun, but needless to say it was exceptional). We then hooked up with dedicated Surfer's Journal reader Tony Alva and his friend Tere. It seems the folks at Shelter got TA on a mini Simmons, he loves it, calls were made and Richard set up a board loan for him. Tony and Tere were legendary, totally unequivocally stoked. So fully excited about surfing it was contagious. We drank some coffee, talked board design and checked out Alva's crazy little dogs. After a quick tour of the neighbourhood from Tere, RK and I headed back down to the hood via downtown to check the Bradbury Building and got to see the most Blade Runner-esque deal ever going off at the Staples/Nokia complex- searchlights, giant TV billboards and architectural madness. It was a very good day. Things are moving along, we're psyched and to cap it there will be Mackies arriving on Tuesday with a 5'10 flextail that will be up for grabs.

Big Daddy

So there I am, thinking Andrew Kidman is doing a fine job of keeping all the various projects going down there in Uki (when he's not washing dishes, scrubbing the roof or chasing the cows out of the laundry) and maybe I should send him a nice Christmas Card for all his hard work, when these pictures turn up. Being busy isn't good enough, he's got to be busy and shaping an epic 7'6" gunfish. I bow to his work ethic and shaping skill, and would like to remind everyone that we hope to soon have some of his boards over at Foam and Function. Only surfed once since Monday, but it was a good session despite the boggy tide. Been plenty busy though, certain boards have been passed to unnamed parties in different cities and there may be photos.

Pokarekare Ana

Back after 2 pretty grueling weeks of being away, no surf for me but for a glimpse on an overnight visit to friends in Piha. Awesome stormy gray beach day, quite a change after leaving LA all in tones of red and orange because of the fires. Thanks for the kind words about the website. It's crude, but it's up and will improve. The idea is a more focused place to obtain the cool stuff that's out there. All boards fully approved off from experience. I'm stoked on the response I'm getting from people on the Casper boards too, thanks largely to the excellent Mini Simmons article RK has in the new Surfer's Journal. He's got it posted over at the Hydrodynamica blog too, but the mag is well worth buying as the rest of it is pretty excellent too.

DONE

www.foamandfunction.com

barrack all you want, I'm on a plane in 3 hours and will be thick skinned by the time I get back. Actually, I'm OK with it although there's a few minor changes I'm ready to make already.

New Day Rising

Sometimes things are so chaotic it seems they couldn't get worse, and then they do. Should be posting the news that a temporary, beta sort of website is going up to do the retailing of some excellent product. This economic collapse seems like the worst time to be trying to sell strange looking but high performance surfboards and exceptionally nice photo books but that's how we operate around here, so the site, or at least a version to give the idea of what we'll be doing, is nearly done. There should also have been some new insanely fine surfboards available, but a last minute emergency has me heading back to the shores of NZ for a couple of weeks, and it all goes on hold. Ah well, I may still have the site up before I go given I can deal with no sleep for a day or two, and the new boards will be delayed a few weeks but it'll all happen eventually. The very useful Andrew Kidman has stepped into the breach to help out and ensure the blog gets not only an update, but a stylish one by sending these excellent images of Dave Rastovich putting one of Mackie's flextails through it's paces recently. There should be an available 5'10" one of these in the next board arrival, and there's all sorts of epic new design work taking place in the Swift thinktank, complete with successful test sessions and stoked riders. This is all getting quite interesting so I'll be back soon.

AN UPDATE: Go look at Safe To sea- he's posted purchasing info for Musica Surfica, the award winning film where Derek hynd tells us to get rid of our fins. Brilliant.

Rain On The Roof

First decent rain of the season here in SoCal, so all the goodies stored up in the drains and on the roads have washed into the ocean leaving it a broth of filth. Luckily I got in a Saturday AM session before it kicked in, and it was plenty fun. Few decent sized closeouts, plenty of peaks and quick rain shower to keep it fun. The size and peakiness vanished as the tide shifted but I'd had my fun. Linked Rob Royal's Alma Pura site over there on your right, he shapes some nice ones and the latest post is an excellent looking fish with a fantastic red and gold resin job. I'm a sucker for those ali'i colours. Keeping in the twinnie vein, above is a selection of keels. A Horan winged single at top, Rasta cutaways (the keels that come with the Mackie fish), single foiled hemp cloth home made beauts courtesy of my friend Ben in West Australia and a set of classic Geppy hand mades that were gifted to me by RK. Not a bad fin in the lot.

Sand In My Joints

From Terra Australis comes the above: new Mackie/Fibre Flex boards. Carbon Fibre rails, EPS foam and heavy duty epoxy glassing. Close to bullet proof and from the look of the shapes really fun. There's a model in between these two as well. Serious bottom concaves, pulled in profiles- these things will fly and I'll share more as I get it- check Mick's site though, he has a section for them with more pictures. Some ways north of these Kidman is hard at work and reports that the Brown Birds From Windy Hill hit the studio this week to record the soundtrack for a new Michael Peterson film that's due very soon, and there's two new cinematic offerings due from Andrew himself in 2009, the first being a collaborative venture that should appear in the early part of the year. Again, I'll keep you updated- all a ploy to make you come back to the blog. Recent Socal swell has been interesting as it's coincided with mega tides (in my window of opportunity anyway), so a bit of finesse has been required. The points were good but according to one of the gladiators out at Malibu this past weekend, a bit hectic. I opted for the beachy as always and managed to time the tide/wave size and sand banks to get some really fun peaky stuff yesterday and a bit more walled and thumping earlier in the swell. Yesterdays session did involve surfing in about 30 foot visibility from the fog though, and it was weirdly fun. Pelicans appearing out of nowhere, dolphins I could hear but not see and a couple of seals hanging around. The problem with the beach break/swell/high tide combo was as always that around those fun peaky little runs it gets pretty dredging, although being used to alter the bottom contours of the Santa Monica Bay a few times was a small price to pay for a couple of hours of solo walls.