From the Kew Files

Tired of Rabbit's Foot frame-grabs yet?

Framegr4bz

ThrougHull | Trevor Gordon

RabbitsZ

The First Foot Of Hare. from Michael Kew on Vimeo.

A quick edit of Dan Malloy and Trevor Gordon on the first and second versions of the Rabbit's Foot...dopesauce!

And a quick one of #5 here in Noosa a few days ago during the finless division @ the Noosa Festival...piloted by mr.Ari Browne:

Today's the Day!

I'm off on shaping/travel duty today, I'll be touring the North-East coast of Australia until April, holding down the fort in Byron Bay and Noosa; I've got a Rabbit's Foot with me as well as a v.Bowls and a few other funky machines for the journey! STOKING!!!!!!

Above we have Trevor Gordon and his 16 year old brotha' Spencer, plus Will and Travers Adler making for a whole bunch of shred.

There's a bit of Rabbits Footing, v.Bowlsing, ThrougHulling, and Travers putting it down on a White Owl.

Dippin'

Kyle Albers + v.Bowls, sent along by mr.Kew.

Kyle has the best karate hands in the business, though I've heard his dad has a mean pair also.

TG fo' REEEEEEEEE

..then he was all FWAP under the lip and made the wave. It was radical.

DraggleMe

One mr.Johnny McCann ripping his squash-taily 5'7" t.Rev last week, yew!

Tangerine Dream

With a bit of inspiration from Ryan Burch's outrageous work, Kew and I dreamed up this 5'2"understated asym:

Intuition and Reassurance

Around the New Year I usually write a little bit about the past and coming months; I was curious last night what I had written last year so I dug it up and read through. It was reassuring [as I read] to feel that I've stuck to my path and done justice to the hopes that I had set for myself in 2011. In fact, the last year has tested me a thousand times beyond what I had ever thought possible, and I'm proud that I've held up my end of the bargain.

Leaving Point Concept behind was a big deal to me. It was a choice based on honesty to myself and my chosen path as much as it was a choice to boil down the important parts of my 'job'... To make sure that I'm keeping myself true to my passions and curiosities so as to stay inspired and on an honest path and not one run by glossy marketing schemes, machine shapes and t-shirt lines. I may be naive, but I'm living for honesty right now over monetary profit.

I asked myself to trust in people's goodness and give them the benefit of the doubt as long as I hold up my end of the bargain; take out what I put in and trust that others will do the same. I have most definitely been shown that this kind of action is not always reciprocated, and has revealed some true ugliness in the past year; but it's also brought me the most surreal of opportunities and friends. Its like an automatic sifter of good and bad...You learn about yourself and about other people, then make an informed decision on what to do with the information from there. And thats exactly what I wanted to do when I started building surfboards for other people: Learn. About friends, surfing, myself, and about my path in life through surfboards.

As 2012 starts, I'm poised in front of as many new opportunities as ever. I am humbled and grateful to everyone who continues laying down the challenges in front of me, and flattered that somehow week after week I just have to keep building honest, good surfboards and everything will work out. I'm more than happy to do that. I want to be transparent, and I want what is inside of that to be honest and grateful. Thank you for supporting my ambitions, publicly or silently, I truly appreciate what my life has become.

So with all of that said and my slate clean, I want to share a short edit that I put together of some clips taken by mr.Kew. I've been holding this one in my back pocket for a couple of months for some reason, waiting for the right time to let it go...This feels as good of time as any. Trevor draws some beautifully clean and effortless lines on his v.bowls; Full-screen it and turn up the volume a little; it'll increase your mellow.

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

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.

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!!!!!!!

Pages

A couple of pages from the Slide mag. interview.

Warning, large files...

Trevor and the ThrougHull

A small edit I did with some Michael Kew footage of Trevor Gordon grooving around on the througHull! Trevor lays down some beautiful cutbacks in this one (in this video it's ridden as a singlefin, by the way).

I highly suggest watching them a few times over to actually get something out of this short clip (if you're searching for higher understanding of surfboard/surfer application). You'll be able to tell what makes this board so different from a normal 'hull'. It's still got all kinds of down the line speed but that cutback is unmistakably more user friendly while at the same time projecting through the second half of the cutback where more traditional hulls just don't cut it:

:::::

photo: Keith Novosel

...Had enough videos yet? If not I've got a good pile by now in my vimeo uploads of all kinds of surf goodness:

http://vimeo.com/ryanlovelace

Colorstack

Delivery time from Michael Kew

Weekday Bouree

enjoy :)

The footage was shot by Michael Kew on a recent weekday, the boys putting it down and having a ball in the early-season that we wait months for every year.

I'm truly blessed to be able to provide my best friends with the equipment necessary to have a really. good. time. in the water; this video is fun stuff and is what I love so much about the small community that we've built around friendship and surfing.

Contained is about 70% v.Bowls, 5% Silky Love, 10% Triplane Single and 15% Squashed t.Rev.

The song is Bouree by Jethro Tull, and if you really wanna see them get into it, check out this gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5_hZV9U4aA

@ Tally's

photos: Kew

TG | Fush

photo: Kew

Mond33

#960

(t.revor gordon, last week)

Funny, how every year the opportunity for progression of surfboards and self seem to grow; I always wonder if that will have been the most productive and joyous year to date; if the energy will soon dissipate.

Then the unthinkable happens, without fail. That next step/occurrence/year blows it away. It's unrelenting.

I'm starting to think that age/time is quite relative, it's all an expanding timeline of progress and learning; maybe we should stop celebrating every year, and celebrate every day instead.

Be Present.

(frame-grabs courtesy of Michael Kew)

...Feels like climbing a ladder that only gets more stable the farther we get away from the ground. The earth is a good reference point below you, but the only experience that truly matters is the rung that we find ourselves grasping in this exact moment. It's your choice to climb, stop, or retreat back to earth.

up.

up.

and away, friends.