Well either way, Morg won the Follow the Light Foundation's big-ass grand prize grant for being super badass...big ups and I couldn't be more proud, I heard he also won the people's choice award too, SNAP!
Word on the street is he won because he put a picture of Herbie in his portfolio...it's highly likely.
I cruised over to his house only to find that he hasn't even cashed in his big check yet, its just sitting on his mantle.....
I took a short vacation up to Santa Cruz for the first half of the week with Stephanie, we got some time to go visit Scott up in his mountain abode and he showed us some of his friend's finds...here is one that caught my attention:
The owner wasn't present but Scott said it was an old Pleskunas.
There was at least one layer of carbon/kevlar hybrid in there:
Cool board! TONS of flex, I haven't gone that floppy with one yet but I'm always curious to try something new...
Inspiration coms from many different places around my shop..........I saved this cup for months in the hopes of using the scheme on a board sometime. Eric C's velosim got the treatment I've been waiting for!
Here's the clip I promised with the flex pattern of the molded unidirectional fin I made last week; note the twist along the trailing edge from the tip to the middle or so of the fin...this is what I'm most excited about; go flex your normal flex fin and you'll see a totally different flex pattern that doesn't 'twist' like this one:
Sam shot me an email a few weeks ago looking to come up and take some photos, as always I said yes and he showed up a couple days later. We ended up hanging out for the whole day and talking about life and attitudes and relationships...The conversation at times took a turn and focused more of flatulence and related topics, but that only cemented the fact that he's a really rad guy and that working with him was gonna be productive and above all, fun.
Over the years there has been a thread that links all of my friends and people that come through my shop; it goes along the lines of personality and personal taste. We're all completely different people with different interests and experiences. But it feels like everyone who is even remotely interested in alternative surf craft or even just looking into the possibilities within it are bonded by some kind of similar lifestyle or personal belief, maybe its a typecast of people; but what it has taught me is that everyone has something to bring to the table. What they wear doesn't matter, how they paint or what kind of cool trendy instrument they play or what's on their iPod doesn't make a difference; how they got to riding the boards that they do doesn't even matter. If you can get over yourself and that can all be put aside and the similarities be focused on, an incredible conversation is always there and good friends are everywhere.
We are all on our own path but I think we would all be surprised at how often our paths are running parallel.
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:
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 :)
