To begin, a few random pictures from along the way...
Byron Bay Surf Festival.
Tom Wegener, Matteo Plummer, Mahself, Grant Newby and my lovely lady Lauren.
....And an in depth pile of surfboards we brought aaaaall the way from home plus a few.
A hypersexual picture of me and surfboards, shot by Ryan Heywood at his new studio. Ryan is an outrageously gifted and accomplished photographer that I've hear about through friends all over for years and it was a pleasure to finally get to spend a little more time with him, however brief it was!
Bali blew my mind. I ended up hacking out 14 boards, two of which were flex-spoons and one of which I glassed start to finish myself to show the crew at Deus the skinny on what makes a good spoon and how to get it. Above though, I was glassing a glass-panel flextail 7' sbStub...Mmmmmmm.
I do want to take a moment to thank everyone that made the most ridiculous summer ever, the most ridiculous summer ever. The guys in Italy, Axel and the Alaia Religion family in Rome, Thomas, Filippo and Paolo in the north...JB, Clovis Donizetti, Cesar and Rudy in France. Belgium was a trip and I was so exhausted from the previous weeks I'm afraid I appeared to be in a coma but Angelo and the kids over there took incredible care of me and showed me around...I wholly regret not surfing the evening I arrived there and missing the opportunity for waves the rest of my stay; its now on my list of things to do.
Thomas Cravarezza of Italy, backside attacking in Morocco...
Australia happened twice this summer...if I had ever thought one thing would be impossible it would be that. A biiiig thanks to everyone over there, far too many to list but I'll put in a few for posterity and name dropping sake; mr.Sickrat, evan daly. you're the man. Taylor and the guys at the Shop Next Door, Mateo Plummer up north; Sasha, and everyone in the house at Noosa...I still haven't found a problem you can't solve with a shotgun. The german himself, Nico for housing me and letting me make his board in the middle of his mosquito nest in the back yard...Evan, Dustin, Joe and the crew all up in it in Byron bay showed me a killer time and kept me well entertained! And of course my auntie Page in Sydney, for taking care of me while in standby for 5 days on my way home....
6'11 JethroHull - Shaped and glassed in Sydney (Glassing by Rhino...soooo sweet!)
Bali was beyond expectation. I met up coincidentally with Mike Lim, who ended up being our saving grace there for adventure and problem solving...what a G. Dustin and the crew at Deus put us up in a place that was so far beyond my wildest dreams, then let me play around with power tools and sharp objects in their shop and drink all their coconut water for two weeks, it was a truly unique experience and I can't wait to get back!
Yeah, Bali...
After a few weeks in Bali I found myself wondering why I live here when the water is so warm and the waves are so consistent in so many other place in the world...then just a few days later Santa Barbara woke up a bit from it's summery slumber and I remembered damn well after 9 hours of surfing I apologized for ever questioning.
So that was the past few, but for the next few months we can all look forward to why I love building boards so much...surfing with friends and playing with new shapes to chase yet another sensation.
Today marks the beginning of what ought to be a really interesting and fun season of shred, waves and foam alike!
The first winter experiments are under way so 'till I've got more news on that...Rock the F on.
