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A couple shots of Miguel's spoon from my trip to Portugal, 

thing one came together cleeeeeeeeeean!

Follow The Light

My fantastically talented pal Morg Maassen is a finalist for the Follow The Light Foundation's grant this year; he's up against some fine photographers but I don't think it's been much of a contest since Morgan put in his submission:

Morgan Maasen FTLF from J P on Vimeo.

Good luck at the finals and congrats Morgan, you're the man!

707

Have you cleaned your feet today?

Unidirectional Fin

Here's the fin build and final product...bear with me and the explanations:

Layed up god knows how many strands of 24oz roving lengthwise up the fin, horizontal ones are added in the base for strength and tab protection...

Wetted out both sides and then put together under about 50 lbs of weight to squeeze out the excess resin (did not use the vac bag this time, I didn't know how much resin would flow out of the mold in the process and didn't want to risk it yet).

Two hours later I pulled the fin from the mold and this is what where that leaves us before the finish work; its 90% there though...rad!

The fin with the excess cut off and some bubbles filled with resin and sanded flat.

Then the fin got some bondo to fill the rest of the PITA little holes, and some spray paint to cure boredom...yes, the fin is not perfect cosmetically, but I will claim that the flex feels absolutely amazing in hand.  

I will take a short video tomorrow of this fin vs. a volan fin and they way the they flex; in so many words I would describe it as twisty...around :34 and then some in this little clip shows the type of flex I'm going for...the muscles of a tuna fin run lengthwise up and down the fin vertically, so it only makes sense to copy it with fiberglass for a more similar flex pattern:

I'd say this fin flexes with a much more similar shape as compared to a volan or other flat weave fin in the way the the tip bends under and waves like a paddle...very excite!

This whole project was spurred by a mention of Greenough's fin building process with plywood molds; i decided to use fiberglass ones but it's the same idea, and he's a genius. 

Much more experimenting to do, but I'm really pleased with the first version :)

Best Friend

Good Wednesday Evening to you too, good sir!

Molding Again

I'm working today and tomorrow on a new set of molds so I can mold glasson and box fins out of unidirectional carbon fiber, kevlar, fiberglass, whatever i want really...and with whatever resin I want also (poly, epoxy, resin-x?)...pretty stoked!  

The template I've chosen to make the mold off of will allow me to make anything from spoon fins to hull fins anywhere between 7.5" and 10".

The molds are light; made from two layers of 6oz E glass and then three layers of 3/4oz mat for some girth; I should be pulling the first fin out of it in another day or so!

I've been wanting to do this for a year or so now and found the time to start yesterday between a few customs...As of now the molds are ready to use but I may do a little tweaking to make them a bit cleaner and less prone to damage when in the vacuum bag.

Cosmic or ?

I received two disturbingly similar, and totally random text messages...They were too good not to share...

First from Connor as I was running errands in ventura, he was watching over Ben M's new Gull...

And second, Beamer spotted the spoon that I sent down to Mollusk Venice and sent his approval!

I wonder what tomorrow has in store........

The Big One

Finning from Ryan Lovelace on Vimeo.

Some hobo foiling out a set of keels for Connor's wee (5') fish/hull/snowshoe in the PC dungeon...Dangerous.

Coopering

All-around super nice guy and incredible surfboard worker Gene Cooper just threw this little gem up on his youtube and I thought I would share it in case some of you guys aren't hep to his blog @ cooperfishcalendar.com

Trippin'

Couple shots of Portugal stuff for saturday...here's a 5'8 OG that had me wishing I could make myself a new one to add to the quiver...

and a Portuguese panoramic... 

need to go back soon....