"___" is here!

Well done Australia Post, less than a week and they're here. It's a really entertaining film, I'm stoked to be involved. The concept is simply the Byron crew doing their thing. This involves a lot of surfing, mostly on very nice boards from Dain Thomas and Sea Surfboards, a fair degree of partying, and some loitering between swells. They have nice waves, a good ear for music, substances to abuse and fantastic surroundings to be creative in. There's no message, no chest beating shredders, no dolphins are saved and it's the best surf film I've seen in a very long while. It comes as a 50 page b&w photography book with DVD for $50, or as a 25 page photo zine with DVD for $30, shipping included inside the USA. Foreign friends, you'll love it too as long as you have a NTSC compatible player and an extra $7 for postage. Ordering is done by emailing me at info@foamandfunction.com. Messrs. Abegg and Yeates, my thanks to you.

Mackie EPS Sidecut Quad- deal of the summer.

$725. Really. There's a 6' in the works that I'm keeping if no one claims it before it gets here, and as these things are all hand shaped customs, Mick can do whatever size you want, just email to the usual address- info@foamandfunction.com- and you're set. I've been frothing on these since I saw the first photos, and at that price you can't miss. Stoked mightily, just wish I had it now for this filling south.

Kids Korner

No really, this is actually a surf and book related post, even if it's a new-fangled form of book. Our good friend Aleks Petrovich, he of Aqua Surf Shop and some really brilliant extra low budget surf films, has a really quite brilliant project. He's produced a kids book about 'an old fashioned hand drawn American farm' that you download to your iPhone or iPad for $1.99 at www.gnomiekids.com I'm ashamed to admit that I have very little clue about the iStuff, but I'm sure it's all really simple. Petro rips solid Ocean Beach on a fish and does nice stuff for kids, what a champ.

Ether AND Thread Monthly

Andrew Kidman, photo by Trefz.

Bit of a cheat yes, but I dig that photo and both these gents have new projects on the way. Trefz debuted 'Idiosyncrasies' to much acclaim at the very awesome Surfilm Festibal in Spain. A bunch of basques putting on a giant surf/film festival? How can you go wrong. US dates will follow, I'll keep you posted. Meanwhile as Australia drifts towards winter, Kidman labours away in the shed. There's new stuff coming and it's epic, that's all I'm going to say. Again, I'll keep you posted. In the meantime both the 'Ether' and 'Thread' books are available by emailing info at foamandfunction.com.

"___"

"___" is a new surf film by Johnny Abegg and Matty Yeates of Byron Bay, Australia. It's not one of those movies with guys going to technicolour dream waves in exotic surrounding and shredding hard, nor is it one of those ones where someone gets soulful and jets around the world to share the love of surfing with cheerful indigenous locals and ride 'unusual' surfcraft in fantastic waves. It is a more experimental take on it all, "Exploring the fragmented world of a surf culture, through the blurred eyes of a few." as Johnny says. There is great surfing, cool boards and lots of dementia. The protagonists party and surf and do what you do when you're them and not surfing. It comes either with a hand assembled zine or a hand assembled book, and they're on their way from Australia now. Hopefully we'll have some screenings set up over the summer too. If surf movies were jam, "___" would be neither the slick supermarket version loaded with corn syrup and pectin nor the high end organic potage with a cute label and some fancy fruit (probably grown for next to nothing in Chile or China) but the homemade stuff in pickle jars the mad bloke down the road makes out of whatever grows in the neighbourhood, battered though it may be. Jam is good, homemade is good and "___" is good.

Nextstrom

Go a bit south of here and you'll find this wave (on the right swell). It's frequented by one of the most hard core Simmons fans I've come across, and he's the next in line for some of the Ekstrom asymmetrical handiwork. It'll go alright on this little gem I'm sure.

Coming Soon

"___"

a + b is to a as a is to b

Shirts here.
Ammonites here.
The future? here.

EPS Quad Sidecut by Mick Mackie

Boards and photos by M. Lumiere Mackie, talented bastard that he is.

Two quite phenomenal board posts in the space of a week? I know nothing about these beauties except they're EPS and quads. And sidecuts as you can see. And they look like they would be outstanding under the feet. Mick will custom build one for you if you want- I may well need one myself. Who knows, there may even be surf for it to be ridden in sometime too although there certainly wasn't this AM. The Ekstrom went to it's new home today and he was indeed stoked.

Hmm, a further note- Mackie's lawn looks nearly as bad as mine. He's been surfing a lot admittedly, I have no excuse.

Asym Minisim by Carl Ekstrom

Seriously, this thing is beyond amazing. The first of the Asyms finally done (look up 'perfectionist' in the dictionary and there should be a picture of Carl there) and so utterly worth the wait. My bumbling Ansel Adams effort doesn't do this board justice, it's freaking beautiful and felt incredible under the arm. 5'11" goofy foot asym, PU/epoxy build, boxes and bamboo 101 Fins, Ekstrom hand shape. Andy Warhol bought boards from this guy and I understand that completely. I believe Eric is going to be very happy.

Trefz- Idiosyncrasies

idiosyncrasies. a new film by patrick trefz. coming summer 2010 from patrick trefz on Vimeo.

The good stuff just keeps comin'. Trefz preview.

Ether Monthly #11- Further Fish Tales

Dicko on a Mackie Fish, screenprint by Andrew Kidman

Dain Thomas on Steve Lis, from the interview in 'Ether', available from info at foamandfunction.com
"We spent five afternoons together: first day we drew the curves on, next day we cut them out, next day we did fins, the next day we cleaned up all the curves and on the final day he drew some curves out for me on a couple of blanks. The we bid our farewells as he was going to New Zealand the next day. The next morning, I got up early and I could hear this rustling in the shaping bay outside my bedroom window. I was baffled as to who would be in the shaping bay at that time of the morning. So I walked out there and there was Steve, tinkering around with the curves he'd drawn on the blanks the afternoon before, and he said he'd been up all night thinking about it and thinking about it and he just had to bring those tails in half an inch. So he came back and brought the tails down, an eighth of an inch at a time. He's so meticulous. He's got such an attention to detail. It was a just a classic to think he drove an hour out of his way, the day he had to get on a plane, just to bring the tails in half an inch on the fish."


6'1" Lis, courtesy of Kidman. Photo courtesy of Shipworm or Gribble. Shit courtesy of a small dog.

No joke, of all the stuff I've done in more years than I'll admit to, 'Ether' rates as one of the things I'm proudest of having a hand in.

Air

A few posts back was the Gonz skate shot, one that blew my mind when I first saw it. This was another. No idea who the skater or photographer is sorry, but it's a gem. Curse these winds, there's a head high swell and I'm looking at skate photos? It's a better option than dealing with what I paddled out into on Saturday.

There Is No Surf In England...

...but there's a really good surf newspaper. Put together by Dan Crockett, 'Kook' is 20 pages of tabloid sized newsprint genius and I wish I'd thought of it. It's surfing, but it's also sheep, plywood sliders, channel bottoms, tea, bird pictures, a recipe, the funnies and some superb lo-fi photo reproduction. Dan, who is what I believe his countrymen refer to as a 'diamond geezer', stopped by the compound, ate some bison and left a stack of Kooks which you can purchase for six american dollars (postage included) and help fund his explorations. You get a highly entertaining read at 30c a page and a very cool artifact of the independent brilliance that surfing can still spawn. He gets a gallon or so of gas or a taco plate while traveling and accumulating material for the next edition. Speaking of things to buy, Crockett nearly walked with this.

It's a 2+1 diamond tail Mackie, 5'10" x 21" x 2.5" (or thereabouts). I've been making no effort at all to sell it because I want to keep it, and I sort of avoided the question when Dan asked about it which is not at all what I'm meant to do with the boards Mick entrusts to me. It has a handfoiled high aspect center fin and sidebites, and it's yours for $725 which is a steal. I'll even throw in a free Kook. Unless of course I cave and surf it in this upcoming south...

This Time Next Week

Friend of the family and all around good bloke Chris Rule (and the lovely Masa) are celebrating the opening of the SurfIndian shop right next to the gallery. The expanded space means more good stuff, mainly in the form of surfboards from a stellar roster of shapers including genuine next gen. Hydrodynamica boards. It'll be a fun night no doubt and it's great to see these new surf shops open. Further worthwhile ephemera will also be ready to go soon too as Dan Crockett is in town. He's been laying down some limey shred at Malibu the last couple of days but I'll have Kooks very soon, so if you've ordered one it'll be on the way and if not fire me an email to info at foamandfunction.com and we'll set you up with the world's finest surf newspaper.

Thread Monthly #7- Idiosyncrasies

Harbour Bill by Trefz

Patrick Trefz seems to have the keenly awaited follow up to 'Thread' near ready to go. He has an exhibition coming up at the NoColor Gallery in Zurriola for our European friends, and is a part of the really quite fantastic Surfilm Festibal, who in turn have a place where you can check out the short film contest entries.
http://www.dailymotion.com/group/surfshortfilmcontest
This is some cool stuff.

South Bay/P.O.P.

Spent the last few days rejiggering the Foam & Function site and surfing wind thrashed closeouts as a change from the regular closeouts. It does sometimes get good here but not as good as this fine archival shot. Bet that guy would have made it if he'd been riding a flextail like mine though.

Mick Mackie Fish, Larry Gephardt Keels

Some posts back I had a shot of some keels I'd picked up from Geppy to send to Mick Mackie in Australia. They made it there and he made this,photos lifted straight from his website. Very nice indeed and one of the juiciest tints I've seen in a long while. His emails usually have a good lineup shot in them,guaranteed to make me, suffering through SoCal waves, a little jealous. Here's the most recent one. With this stuff around I'm amazed he finds time to shape at all.

Gonz

I've had this picture sitting around for a bit and had wanted to use it, then today I saw a '60 Fury which seemed good enough for me. Mark Gonzales redefining how it's done, in the rain. An epic moment. Surfboard pictures tomorrow I promise.

The Good Old Days of Antipodean Vehicles

Images swiped from the surfbooks.com e-newsletter, always a source of some fascinating stuff. The one with the spray and fantastic halter top wearer is a Holden, the other two Fords. I had the Ute version of the Falcon on bottom left, full on safety orange colour. My Mum hated it, told me it made me look like a hoon, but it was the first reliable car I'd owned and she was happy I was done with motorbikes and old Chevs. I loved it's outre-ness, girls were less impressed by it than I'd hoped (but the ones that were impressed were exciting) and I became everybody's friend when they needed to move. Still, I made some trips around the northern coast without worrying I'd never make it home and you could fit some boards, fishing gear and crude camping supplies in that thing with no worries. Sold it to a really cute blonde when I moved up here, and I'd take it back in an instant.