South Winds

Trevor Gordon throwing the 6'7 into overdrive

v.Balls

One Track Mind

Mr.Chadd Konig | 6'4" winged roundpin | photos: Chris Burkard

Chrome Yellow | Lime Green | Brown | Dark Red

=

a pretty warm mustard yellow for my new 9'2 k&k

Decoy

One more for the weekend 'cause you guys are so nice...Connor Lyon / 8' v.Bowls with Clovis Donizetti scoping the young grasshopper's backside attack.

Frames

8' v.Bowls

Its a good week to be a Trevor Gordon...

5'3 t.Rev

It's been 3 weeks since I've been able to download anything from my camera, I have 8 gigs of surf footage/photo's to play with now that I've solved my little problem.

...Get ready for some shiz!

Play

working on some stuff for sacred craft in Del Mar :)

thanks to kyle lightner and morgan maassen for two of the 3 photos

Laser Beam

Mon/Two

Happy tuesday everyone!

I wanted to send out a thank you to everyone who commented, shared and cared about my mini-essay on hand shaping so far. I was a bit hesitant to share it because surfers tend to be a bit ehem, sensitive, but the response has made my heart all warm and fuzzy.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of shaping two boards for Gregg Tally, one of Santa Barbara's fewest and finest surfer/shapers. He's been letting me sneak around his shop and make a few boards between projects. When he asked me a few days ago to shape him a pair of boards as a trade for my time there, I was floored.

I spent the better part of yesterday shaping those two boards while Gregg watched on from the doorway, and I'm proud that step one on each board was penciling out a template and grabbing a hand saw. Foam dust flew for the next few hours and what came out are two boards that have a story, a feeling and a life, before even being glassed.

Yep, I got a case of the mondays :)

Tuesday Needs...

this video.

...Are you kidding me!?!?!?!?

Sticks

Travers Adler | CCC

A Brief and Honest Plea

It seems trivial to a lot of people, and to others it's a pretty hot topic; but either way, the term hand shaped is being bastardized pretty hard at the moment. The following isn't a rant, just a humble observation on some wordage and some pretty blatant lies being told.

The term hand shaped, for years, has referred to a board that was whittled down by a planer, sandpaper and whatever other hand-held tools the shaper liked; chunks of foam flying, tight lines and experienced eyes laying down the cuts that make up our favorite boards. Not a CNC shaped board, that was then 'hand finished'. Finished and shaped are two very, very different words.

There seems to be a rash of shapers marketing "Hand Shapes" that when you do a little looking into, are most definitely not hand shaped. I'm not sure what the thought process is behind calling a machine shaped board anything else, but taking some router bumps down with a sanding block doesn't warrant the use of the term hand shaped. I'm sorry, but customers are being lied to daily and thousands of people are walking around with CNC shaped boards sporting the term hand shaped.

Let me digress for a second.

Machine shaped boards are fine, they surf, and they look nice like any other surfboard, they get glassed and have pretty colors.

What it comes down to though, for me, is creating a belief around your product through marketing and the terms that are used, and then selling something else. Thats telling a lie, just like our mommy's told us not to. I don't frown upon machine shaped boards too heavily, just the lack of distinction and honesty behind them.

Heck. If I was making machine shaped boards, I'd market THAT; they are flawless, perfect copies of each other and you have a very very narrow margin for mistake, that's got some value. My feathers start to get ruffled though, when every few weeks I learn exactly whose boards are machine shaped and marketed as hand shaped. When you're being dishonest and toting a term thats not applicable, in order to make a product more 'classic' and warrant a higher price tag, the truth usually comes out.

I'm guessing that most people reading this at the moment are thinking shortboards, hp longboards, etc. as the products I'm speaking of. When what I'm talking about are full on 'retro' 'classic' or 'alternative' boards. The ones all over the blogs and websites that you're cruising through today, by big, popular shapers, by the most 'soulful' shapers. I know people who have sold their entire quivers once they figured out the truth about their "hand shaped" boards. Making one or two honest hand shapes per week (I'm giving you guys the benefit of the doubt on that one), and 20 machine shapes, doesn't deserve the term 'hand shaped' for all of your boards...It's a blatant lie and to me just shows lack of respect for your customers.

Machine shaped boards have a place in the industry and honestly are likely the only way to keep board prices under $1,000 in the coming future. The demand for boards is just too large and honestly not everyone wants to spend more money on a hand shaped board. There are people out there though, doing justice to the term and being supported by people who care. I'd just like the lines to stop being blurred, and for everyone to be proud of what their product honestly is, even if it's machined...Just own it.

There's a laundry list of guys who fall under the pointed comments above, and your heart would likely break if I named them and you cared much for the debate.

I'm not trying to out anyone in particular. I haven't written this directly at one person or another, these are thoughts and bits of conversations I've been having for the past couple of years.

I'm pleading for some honesty from my fellow shapers that are, in their quest for their place in an honorable craft, dishonoring one of the last real traditions within it.

Pass this on if you feel like it, I hope the message is clear and not misread.

Thumbs

nugget :)

Log F/S

Leo Basica is selling a his 9'4 log here in Santa Barbara, used super lightly and he's asking $600 for it.

Check out the post with more pics from when he pick'd it up!

http://pcprogress.blogspot.com/2010/04/leo-logs.html

email me (ryan kent lovelace |at| gmail . com) or Leo at:

leo @ basicwebworks.com

Seeing Stars

I'm slowly dialing in my winter quiver...one of these is in the mix for sure, right around 8'8 or 8'10 I think. My interests in longboarding have shifted a bit to more perfect trim and flowing lines, less nose riding and pivoting; this kind of shape (for me) nails it for cross stepping and carving turns in a longer-board-shape.

Untitled

t.Adler

Travers Adler captured styling his life away on a 7'9 v.Bowls (overloaded yet? ...me either), by darkroom pitboss Will Adler.

ps - See you kids @ tha' Duct Tape Invitational today, YEW!

Hips and Dips

A little VeloSim action from my adventure, shaped for Magic Quiver surf shop in Portugal:

Nice and hippy, with thin foils and flowin' triplane/concave bottom work...yes please.

I'll be hangin' out at the Duct Tape Invitational down in Malibu on saturday...hope to see some friendly faces around!

Mid-Pacific Overdose

Beamer Wilkins, this'd be the guy responsible for turning me on to the work of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno...and subsequently naming the Evening Star.

I thought this was a cool snap of him and his wee 4'11 velosim in

Hawaii, shot by Mollie McDowell.

South Sw3ll

mr.Nick Cook enjoying the fruits of my labor during that pesky little south last week as shot by b.Lieberman.

Lookin' for Love

I had a few issues abroad with my camera so the photo-flow has been oh-so-slow, but I finally got the ones I really wanted...A bit of detail on the board that Clovis Donizetti shreds in the video I posted two days ago. It's a mix of my two favorite versions from home, a little front end more rocker than my original, still a thin foil but almost 3" thick in the middle. Lots of hard edge and a top secret ultra mellow bottom mixture of belly flats and panels...Mmmm.

The ultravibe-deck jobber was something I've been thinking about for a few weeks now, I did a four color abstract over my favorite cloth inlay and bingo bango; It looks ridiculous and I will most definitely be doing more of them...

I'm a proud papa!

Still a Favorite

I. Love. This video.

just wait 'till next month though...YEEEEEEEHEHEHEHEHAW!!!!!!!!

Donizetting on v.Bowls

Frenchman Clovis Donizetti killing it softly on my 8' v.Bowls in Bairritz.

Clovis took really quickly to the board and to me his style matched what I intended it for perfectly so we filmed on a sunday afternoon with really average waves. Here is my edit from the quick session; the first moving imagery of the design that's stolen my heart:

and just for reference, here is a pretty detailed blog post about the v.Bowls

that I did just after shaping the first version:

A Clearly Winding Path