Saturday, December 31, 2011

Brian Jungen

mr.Nick Cook turned me on to some work by an artist named Brian Jungen:










Friday, December 30, 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Intuition


getting the next video all ready...couldn't help but pause on this one.
Once more, mr.Trevor Gordon.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

SB Stub for Cenen







Thank you Cenen, for the opportunity to further my knowledge and continue to play for a living!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Powers Of


Herbie.

I've been representing all week with this little ode-to-howl that I drew last week all over a shirt that I made for myself...one proud papa, one justified Herbert. I figure he blasts posi-vibes all over my life on a daily basis, so why not take the time to draw exactly that and put it on a shirt that I'll now likely wear until its tattered to bits.

Now I'm screwed 'cause everyone who knows Herbs wants a piece of his t-shirt debut also. As if I wasn't already a one-man sweatshop ;)


Monday, December 26, 2011

Kickstart'em!!!



Korduroy does more for small guys like me than anyone I could think to name, it has grown right in front of our eyes from day one and continues to thrive as an independent...thing..
I've seen the new korduroy.tv site and whats involved is mindblowing, what will come from it's next iteration will be a beautiful mix of everything we've come to rely on them for, infused with posi-surf steroids and tons of resources for guys like me to make a bigger impact, and at the same time help k.tv thrive. I can't wait.

I'm brewing my own Kickstarter campaign in the next few weeks and am so stoked the Cyrus and the crew at Korduroy are on the ball with this project and are bettering what is already so amazing!

Korduroy is an outstanding resource for all of us so if you've got even $5 click on the link and do it to it, you'll even get some stuff in return. If they don't reach their goal, they don't get any moolah, so pay it forward, friends :)











Friday, December 23, 2011

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Greenhouse Mysteries



Brandon DiPierri cruise through the shop zone last week just before a dawn session down at the point. He shot these of Herbie and I with a v.Bowls that I put my Pocket Please foil and bottom shape into...dig!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Heart

"i feel like a baseball. the skins been carefully pried off and there's a thread and i'm gonna pull it and i'm gonna end up a pile of string on the floor. but then maybe i'll be knit into something more useful, like a sweater. or perhaps something beautiful, like a hand embroidered masterpiece of a deer and two fawn drinking cold clear water out of a creek. but you never know."

read this...fantastic stuff:

http://www.marinelayerproductions.com/

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Surfing Backwards


Johnny McCann in santa barbara county, notice how he's going left...weird, huh?

Saturday, December 17, 2011

Trippin'


8' v.Bowls

Friday, December 16, 2011

The Pocket Pleaser in Words


nose < ----- > tail

This seems a good of time as any to give everyone a rundown on the Pocket Pleaser, I don't have a sketchbook page up on the website for it yet but I'll get one there shortly.

First off, the fabric on this was a total score from an antique store way up in Chico over thanksgiving...I saved enough for one more special project, I'm totally obsessed with the pattern which I'm guessing from the colors and feel of the material is from the early 70's.


And more importantly........

After riding my 8' v.bowls for the past 5-6 months and with winter coming on, it became increasingly clear to me that with wide flat tail of my original shape wasn't going to handle real juice that well and isn't confidence inspiring when it starts pumping, so I went to the brainstorm lab and made a few alterations on the original theme to keep the same feather-weight-freight-train-with-a-powerful-buttery-cutback-feel.

What I did in as simple of terms as I can explain is to give the nose rocker a little more lift and belly (more belly = more down the line pull when its good). From there I left the tail rocker the same but moved the vee back a few inches then added a pretty heavy spiral vee about 1 1/2 ft. ahead of the fin, running through the tail and then going dead flat in the last 3" of the tail. The rocker bend in the tail meeting up with that flat spot in the end creates a really positive last few inches of the board and gives you TONS of speed through the cutbacks...acceleration through the turn = good thing.

So keeping those curves in mind, add a long s-deck to the top with the volume all placed over the wide-point of the board (behind center), this concentrates all of the board's powers into a small area right between your feet. By moving that point forward and back I can alter where the board is going to react most from; the placement on these boards is to keep you on the back end of the board where most of us tend to sit, but to be very friendly when trimming forward on the board (where that frontal belly comes in reeeeeal nicely). I don't foil out my boards for no reason, they are foiled to concentrate the volume in a specific area so as to accentuate the best bits of the shape and give a more positive and connected feel.

The rails are high to low like a hull's foil, the deck just necessitates the flow of that change; where the turn down happens and at what angle. there is a lot of hard edge in the tail, I love hard edge and the Pocket Pleaser's is pretty specific and tucks hard. I'm hoping that this is illustrating exactly how important each individual curve is to the whole of the board, there is no curve that can exist the way I want it without the others - - my shapes are becoming more space-shippy over the past few years as a result of this. The Pocket Pleaser's curves are so sensual its ridiculous, there is a lot going on even in a 7'4" package, this is a performance board and not a longboard substitute, the v.Bowls takes care of that well and easily; the Pleaser is (as mr.John Lyon put it) the Super-Sport version.



Thursday, December 15, 2011

v.Bowls in Words

Jon K. wrote me an email yesterday asking me about some details on the v.Bowls after watching this:




He wanted to know whether or not it's a hull and mentioned that it "got his soul fire burning" ( .awesome. ). I sat down this morning before breakfast and spilled my guts about my favorite board and thought I would share the details:


Hey Jon!
I have this internal battle over whether or not the v.bowls is a hull... I guess it's just a matter of how much of a purist you are. here's the skinny:
The foil is essentiall a backwards hull...the widepoint is 5-6" behind center, as it the apex of the rocker and the thickest point, having those things lined up is why hulls have the magical center that drives like nobodies business; that point that is like a loaded bouncy-ball under your feet, ahead of center. The bottom is a slight roll in the first half of the board, going into a flat panel vee through the fin then flat off the tail; the flat is what gives it projection and lift (recently i've transitioned to a slight vee to double concave to flat and holy CRAP it goes fast). The rails are thin but not pinched or difficult, they're regular 60/40 down rails in the center, the nose rails are turned up and and the tail is turned down.
So in essence, it's as if you've taken the middle part of a hull, the bouncy center bits, and chopped off the tail end by 2 ft or so then added a long, flat narrow nose on it (you can see this well in the photo of my 7'4 I've attached, it's got a little extra rocker but it accentuates the theory/curves I'm trying to descirbe). So you're drawing the same lines as a hull, with WAY more positivity off the back foot and no spinning out, therefore you can put that speed that a hull gives you and USE it instead of skillfully redirect it back to the pocket. It goes in shit waves AND it paddles like a longboard (the flat rocker and long nose) on top of all that...I can't find a longboard or a hull that doesn't make me wish I was on my v.bowls on any given day up to overhead waves.
I'm gonna guess after reading through that now you've sensed that I flipping love me some v.bowls and you'd be right..im completely taken.
-Ryan


I've said it to a few people lately, and I'll always be the first to say there's nothing new these days, but I'll be damned if I've ever seen these curves put together into a package like this. It's sparked a wee revolution around santa barbara over the past few months within my circle of friends and regular customers; I don't like claiming much, but I'll claim this design to my grave.

It is hands down the best I've ever shaped and I believe in it with all of my heart.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Phat P1gz




5'8" x 19 7/8ish x 2 1/2ish...Trevor and I have been wanting to make a high performance twin for a while now after we built the Fush, so here she is! Trevor dubbed it the Piggybacker.


I like flowing curves so I didn't make any extreme wings or bumps in the outline, a subtle pull that that does what you are after [to me] is much more challenging but offers a drastically smoother line on the wave:



T has been doing bunches of paintings lately inspired by tribal/native american art, super cool stuff, I now own a shirt that he painted with two dudes roasting one kine pig on a fire. win.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

9'5 RnR






Spencer's 9'5" noserider, based on a Rick Noserider owned by Mr.Andrew Buck. I made a few changes in rocker and fin template for this one ... and hows that 1 1/2" balsa stringer?!?!!?

Monday, December 12, 2011

The Ranch



^ from Brandon DiPierri of the 7'10 v.Bowls I shaped/glassed for him friday night.


My new 7'4" Pocket Pleaser..More details on the design/theory when I get a change to sit and type for a while!


Kabir sent me this one of his daughter getting a little first-hand knowledge :)


The ranch walls have a bit of time warn into them to say the least...

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Why I Love Glassing My Boards

ex.1) 8'6 Evening Star:


Gloss/polished deck, sanded gloss bottom for ultimate speed feeling:

Friday, December 9, 2011

Burch'd


A few weeks ago Ryan Burch cruised through SB and spent the day wandering in and around my shop zone. We glassed a couple boards, ate some unreal food, explored some gaviota coastline, talked about our OSHA approved powertool techniques and geeked out on some seriously cool boards that he brought by on his way up north...now you can geek out too.

If you haven't been paying attention to Mr.Burch's work, start now.


Thursday, December 8, 2011

Covular Evenings



One kine 16 yr old Spencer Gordon on the 9'5" nose-rider I just finished for him!

Need to find the card reader for my camera then I'll have the deets on the board...she's a smooth one!

Frame-grab courtesy of Mr.Kew

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

7'Four Me!


My new board in progress.............uuuh.h.....huh...yeah. I'm stoked.

Get Down


Travers Adler

Monday, December 5, 2011

Coverboy McGordon


Morgan and Trevor snagged the cover of this month's Tracks magazine, and I couldn't help but notice that funky fresh surf-sled he's on!

It's official.
I'm f*ing amping after Slide, the Surfer's Journal and then THIS showed up?!?!!! WTF!?!?!!?!??
Win for the dude who makes boards out of a one room shed!
GO B4NANuHZz!!!!!!!!!!!1!!!!!!!!!1!!!!111!!!!1!1!1!!1


Friday, December 2, 2011

Oh Boy Oh HerBerTo


If you've ever come to see me and Herbie at the shop, you know the drill.
Power tools = music to his ears. Planer, router, anything that goes REEEEEEEeee3333333333rrrrrrrrRRRRRRrrrrrrrr and Herbs is on it with impeccable howling precision and unmatched tone. What a G.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

PiggyBack


New 5'9 for mr.Gordon. A mixmatching of templates for this one, dubbed the PiggyBacker. Shortboardy to the max for ultimate shred, 2 1/2" thick and about 19 7/8" wide, interesting dimensions for me to work with for a change! Majorly simple and flowing bottom contour, I'm intrigued.

High performance twinny for the winny!




Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Frame Grab Grab Bag #2



a frame grab that Kew sent me last week of trevor and the 6'7. I didn't look at it too closely until I actually LOOKED at it...super cool.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Herbie DOoo0o0o0oooo00oooooo

Ninja


Kyle Lightner shot this back in 2008, good times...gooooooood times.

I've always loved this shot, it was somewhere around 30 degrees in the shop that morning and was glassing the board that I cannibalized out of my first shape ever. Kind of a bummer that I killed it. But I'm glad I don't have that possession in my hands and that its out in the world with a good friend that I don't have contact with, but randomly run into once a year or so on his travels through California.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Values





From a few weeks ago...makes me happy. I shot it in the mountains at sunset overlooking Gaviota, Santa Barbara and Ventura from the very tippity top of Gibraltar...no editing necessary; Vibes eminating naturally.


Friday, November 25, 2011

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Cleaning Day




.....Thanks goes to Fiberglass Hawaii for feeding my insatiable appetite for resin....I seem to go through about 1 of these a week, now. Work in the new shop is going swimmingly after the first week, catching up on my orders pretty quickly now! One 11' glider, two SB Stubs, a 9'5 noserider with a 1.5" balsa stringer and about 12 ding repairs, in one room...yeehaw!






And yes, if you couldn't help yourself and did the math, that means I clean once every 2 months...heh.

Monday, November 21, 2011

Surfer's Journal


Go snag a copy of the new Surfer's Journal...Trevor's reppin' and rippin' on the ThrougHull in India with Craig Anderson, Chad Konig and company, written by Michael Kew and documented by Alan Van Gysen:



...Shark's view of the Fush...


On the througHull.
Above shot by Kew, below by Van Gysen



Having the opportunity to consistently have a surfer like Trevor ride and report on my work is surreal, but having him as a close friend is the icing on the cake. So here's to you and congratulations Mr.Gordon on all you've achieved in your past few years...I have no idea what you're capable of and I can't wait to find out, and thank you for piloting my vehicles into the pages of the best surf magazine in existence!

YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!