surfboard – Kite*Surf*Bike*Rambling

Theatre Thursday: Twin Fin slide joy shred

Two days in Northern NSW with Asher Pacey and his self shaped twin fin.

even a non-surfer has to admire the glide and smoothness of this guy. Makes it looks so smooth and dare i say easy … from Magic Seaweed

Here we have Asher Pacey, the style-guru ripping on his self-shaped twin-fin. Surfing this kind of craft sets you apart from the crowd anyway but by combining a graceful, smooth approach with raw power in the right doses, Asher puts himself in a whole other category.

Another sweet kitesurf specific wave board

Traditional directional kiteboards are based on a surfboard design, not ideally suited to kite specific needs. 4 years in the making, the Mako Duke is a fresh take on a directional kiteboard and borrows heavily from our long history of successful board design.

The Duke’s deep Mako concave ensures this board rides smoothly over the chop, reducing nose chatter often associated with other directional boards. The concave also helps the Duke rip up wind and leads to a much more stable board with a massive sweet spot, good for transitional footwork and landing tricks.

The Duke’s concave also allowed us to move the fins further back, giving the board a loose, free feel when turning off the tail at slower speeds and allowing for hard carving turns at higher speed off the rail.

Up top, the full EVA deck and flatter tail rocker gives the rider a sense of entitlement to explore their options and practically begs you to jam and ride the board backward for a laugh.

The Duke: The world’s first, fully rethought, kiteboarding specific directional.

Spring Clean Time

The cupboard gets emptied and the things i am not using are going to go on sale …

First Up a twin fish retro surfboard shaped by Jay (who just won Scottish Master surfing champs) in Kill Bill inspired Agent Orange.

New toy arrives

but the shipper has destroyed it …..

Box munched by delivery giant so the board has been damaged – waiting to see what the shop / courier offer.

Edges and cracks to get epoxy resin on. I am fuming.

The board (if new) looks great though

Summer Toys

This is available – old stock cheap and sorely tempted to add another board to my set up.

The 2014 T-REX was developed for a new breed of riders focusing on aerial tricks and fun, poppy changes in direction. This unique, progressive shape is trending in the surf industry with the top pro riders. Patrick Rebstock prefers this next generation surf shape because it makes it easier to spin and flip tricks with less swing weight and has a tight precise feel to blast upwind.

Naish SKATER kitesurf board

this looks very sweet

Naish Skater 2015 Surfboard

The new Skater has been developed with a redesigned, modern shape for beginner to advanced kiters who want to take their directional or strapless riding to new levels in any surf conditions with the option of riding strapped.

Its unique and durable honeycomb construction provides outstanding impact resistance in unison with the full deck pad. Its outline and length have been finely tuned for optimal control and balance while letting the rider focus on aerial tricks and hitting critical sections with ease and confidence.

This travel-friendly, compact design provides the same snappy maneuverability as a larger surfboard. Less board equals more snap and tighter, faster turns when combined with its thruster fin setup and exclusive bottom shaping. Performing flip and spin tricks have never been easier! Complete with:

– Naish Tri Carbon Cross Fins
– Naish Deck Pad

good bye for a week

i am off to Cape Verde for a week of Kitesurfing …. hopefully a lot of this …

and some of this

(in my dreams)

We will soon see as i have my older GoPro 2 and a newer GoPro 3 Black edition with me …… some lighter winds but 4 days look good ..

5 reasons to support local shapers

San Diego’s Mark Slingerland, making quality boards the old fashioned way. Photo: Ellis

We all know that the era of mass-produced handmade surfboards has come and gone. The biggest board manufacturers in the world rely on design programs and CNC machines more than skilled hands and power planers. But hand shaping hasn’t vanished from the earth—it just changed its address. Instead of residing in big factories, it’s moved into backyards, garages, and tool sheds. And while today’s hand shapers may not be able to churn out the same volume of boards as the biggest brands in the industry, they have more than a few redeeming qualities. Here are five reasons to order your next board from your local backyard shaper.

Local Wave Knowledge
Surf spots are like snowflakes—each one is unique. Your local shaper knows the idiosyncrasies of your local waves because he surfs them too. Take advantage of this. If you share a home break with your shaper, they will probably know exactly what you need from your next surfboard, even if you don’t. “I always add an extra inch and a half of nose rocker to my boards for people surfing locally, because here on Hatteras Island, you need that,” says East Coast shaper Scooter Halladay of Bone Surfboards.

Customization
If you’re lucky, your local surf shop might have 50 different boards on the rack to choose from at any given time. But why settle for a board that was made with neither your surf style nor local waves in mind when your local shaper can offer unlimited wave riding options, all tailored to your surfing and your waves? “There’s always a better or different way to approach a design,” says San Diego shaper Mike Slingerland. “The options in surfboard design are infinite, so the progression will always continue.” Armed with little more than a six-pack and a sketchpad, you can show up at your local shaper’s workspace and draw planlines until your heart’s content. Hopefully your shaper will save you from your most ill conceived ideas and meet you in the middle with something both unique and functional.

Collaboration
Perhaps the only thing better than getting a custom hand shape is getting your own hands dirty in the process. “Handshapes do offer more of an experience for the money,” says East Coast shaper Gary Wilson. “Rapping with the shaper, discussing shapes they like and dislike, or even hitting a session with them are experiences that are unique to ordering from local shapers. I’ll even let the customer help shape his own board if he wants to, as long as he agrees not to sue me when he cuts his finger off.” Even if you do end up losing a pinky in the shaping bay, it might be well worth it if you end up getting barreled on a board that you helped create yourself.

Local Economy Stimulation
On the East Coast, for example, many beach towns overflow with deep-pocketed tourists in the summer months, allowing a lot of local businesses to make the majority of their annual income over a short, seasonal stretch. But as summer turns to fall and fall into winter, the river of tourist dollars dries up, and many towns go comatose. But there are still waves to be had, and if you need a new board for hurricane season, why not get something shaped locally and keep your hard-earned money circulating through your community? You’ll be surfing a quality boards designed for chasing hurricane barrels, and your shaper won’t need to take a second job in the offseason. Everyone wins.

Tradition
The world of surfboard production has changed drastically in the last 20 years. The production handshaper has become a thing of the past, and the number of knowledgeable craftsmen will decrease as it becomes a less viable career path. “Be prepared to sweat and struggle if you want handshape surfboards for a living,” says Steven Divita of Head High custom surfboards. “People want cheap boards, and that’s what the market will provide through new means of production. A lot of people don’t realize the amount of time it takes to build a custom board by hand, but in the end, you get what you pay for.” On top of getting a higher quality board from a local shaper, your business will allow them to continue crafting boards by hand, keeping surfing’s proudest tradition alive and well.

50 Surf Laws – by order of the il-surfernati

Screen Shot 2012-10-02 at 11.04.08 — another small day

Surfing is not about rules, it’s groovy and not for squares, it is a counter-culture after all. That’s all well and good but even counter-cultures need rules and regulations. Make sure you abide by these for a fulfilling and happy surfing life.

Always have two blocks of wax in your car. One freshy for your stick and one sandy, pube-ridden, possibly dog-chewed, fragment for lending to the inevitable wax taxing pikey in the car park. It’s a win-win.
If you’re getting a lift with a mate for a wave make sure you pack a bin bag for your post-surf, piss-ridden, damp suit. The driver doesn’t want the acrid taint of your piss haunting their car once you’ve gone.
Never claim the surf by text message to your mates until it’s too late. When it’s near dusk and any chance of getting in has evaporated then by all means drop the OMG it was off its fricking chops today! Where were you? LOL! to rub it right in.
Never ever use LOL or OMG in a text message or online unless you are a teenage girl or pretending to be a teenage girl.
We don’t need to tell you this but just to be sure: DO NOT ever wear board shorts outside of your wetsuit. Unless you want every single right-minded person in the universe to think you are a tool of the highest order; and yes it is okay to point and laugh if you see someone doing it.
Ultra hairiness is not cool. Chicks do not dig it. Invest in some clippers. Keep that shit at ’number two’ max. You’ll be surprised at the benefits. One being not peeling your suit off and it appearing that its been borrowed by a mountain gorilla. The other being, err, some things look larger. That said a Connery style chest wig is acceptable as long as it ain’t too much of a thatch.
Always be as careful as a brain surgeon if you are bringing razor sharp mechanised clipper blades of doom anywhere near your meat and two veg. Trust us it smarts when it goes wrong and it’s a tricky area to apply a plaster.
You can never have too many of the following: fin keys, leash strings, leashes, fins. Keep spares squirrelled in your car, garage and girlfriend’s house.
If you are too deep for the wave of the day go anyway to give the crowd a show. Everyone loves a good swan dive into the flats and someone on the right spot can still enjoy the ride.
By all means hack down a tree and shape yourself an alaia board if you feel the need to be a hipster. Just don’t expect a spot in the line-up rotation. They don’t paddle, can’t turn and if you really want to be doing stand up 360s you can buy a bodyboard.
No matter how many fin keys you own, the length of time it takes to find one is in direct proportion to the quality of the waves. Where’s yours right now?
See. Told you. Get one on your key-ring.
Ladies, barbecues are a man thing. They may never cook normally (and sadly spag-bol ain’t cooking, that’s warming) but when it comes to fire-based, outdoor cooking the inner caveman takes over. No questions.
There’s no such thing as a veggie BBQ. Would you really want your Quorn burger burnt on the same grill as the hydraulically reclaimed meat and abattoir floor sweepings that pass for burgers? You may not win any friends with salad, but you will miss out on the E-coli food poisoning.
Never hang a wetsuit out to dry near a BBQ, unless you get off on the smell of burnt rubber and/or greasy meat debris on your precious.
Boffins have calculated it takes exactly four and a half minutes from when you buy a new board until you ding it on the nearest solid object with a sharp edge.
Riding a longboard is actually only legal from July 30 to August 30. The police told me so.
Cruising on a swell board is okay any time of year as they are super fun and are amazing for doing big floaters on, knee friendly and ding proof too, also you can run over tourists who will think you’re an inexperienced tourist too.
Surfing leashless maybe a freeing experience and great for your fitness but it’s lethal in busy waves. If you’re doing the 4:30 a.m. dawny then knock yourself out; anyone else in the line-up and you’ll be knocking someone else out.
Coffee maybe the poor man’s cocaine, but stained teeth and bad breath are preferable (and 10x cheaper) than paranoia, impotence and a heart attack in your thirties.
The first rule of Surf Club is: you don’t talk about Surf Club.
The second rule of Surf Club: no smoking.
The third rule: no sandy feet, we’ve just had the carpet valeted.
You don’t need to get every biggest and best set wave of the day. Sharing is caring and sometimes the smaller ones run better.
If you see some litter on the beach on your way back to the car pick it up. Might not be yours but it’ll do wonders for your karma.
Recycling doesn’t only apply to newspapers and bottles.
Give broken boards away to people less fortunate than yourself. Especially when in the Third World.
When you say, ‘This is my last wave!’ mean it, even if it’s a smoking deep keg. If you paddle back out for just one more you can guarantee you will either a) paddle around in a mirror calm ocean for half an hour and have to paddle in looking like a bona fide idiot or b) snap your pelvis on the next one.
Never drive away from good surf.
You will regret it, cos you can guarantee that by the time you get back from searching up and down the coast the tide will have changed and the bank will have turned to mush.
Never piss in your wetsuit in the car park.
And really, never piss in your suit in the car park then kick piss drips at your friends from the ankles. That’s just gross.
It goes without saying that dumping in your wetsuit is a no-no.
Unless you have dysentery. Or if the surf is the best it’s ever been and ever will be, although this is a movable goalpost. It has been known in Ireland on epic tow days.
Don’t attempt to dry your wetty using the hang it over the wing mirror whilst driving at speed technique. It will blow off into a cow field or become grill decor for the following HGV.
Cheap is not an option. Your wetty is not a style statement. It is a technical item. By the best one you can. Warmth and flexibility are worth paying for. A twenty quid from the garage job is not a good suit.
Chafing is an unavoidable hazard. No matter how good the suit if you surf a lot you will get neck rubs. Which look like obscene love bites. Doesn’t matter, let the rest of the world think you’re still having frenetic teenage style sex.
Never love bite a wetsuit rub, it’s sticky.
Surfing is done on the water not on the Interweb.
Winter is the surfing season. Summer is for tourists, surf schools, hobbyists and longboarders.
You should always tell at least one newbie that the wax goes on the bottom of the board to make it go faster, like a snowboard then watch the confusion.
Conversely always tell a beginner that the zip does indeed go on the back of the wetty, no one should be allowed to walk down a beach like that.
When travelling don’t haggle over two pence it makes you seem like a twat. Spread the wealth.
One drop in is an accident, two is rude, three is a twatable offence.
Living somewhere for a year does not make you a local.
Living somewhere for five years still does not make you local, it makes you a regular.
Being a true local is not a license to act like a twat.
Learn how to forecast waves the old school way using pressure maps alone.
Learn how to cook a roast. Nothing better than making your own Sunday spread.
Cutting off a full suit to make a shorty is never a good idea.

Snowboard or surfboard: why choose when one will do

Love this video

” This month we find ourselves floating out an entirely new concept as we work with friends to build something totally unique for barrels and backcountry! So cutback on your workload for nine minutes and press play! Dropping into this episode will make your day!signalsnowboards.com“

Yesterday’s Kite Session on GoPro

Not the nicest day with overcast skies and rain – but a good chance to try out chest rig and board setup for the GoPro HD

The board mount is not the easiest and tried hard to tighten the camera enough but got knocked forwards by the waves a few times. Chest harness good but kind of gets obscured by the harness on jumps – I guess another reason to learn to do all jumps unhooked.

Nice to on the DCboardz quad fin surfboard again as well.

GoPro HD test

Just packed and heading down to the coast – mounted the surfboard mount yesterday onto board and did a quick test.

Filming later so hopefully footage a bit more exciting …..

Ben Wilson kiting big waves unstrapped

If you can forget for a moment this an ADVERT for Jeep – at least Ben Wilson gets some money for doing it. Kiting Cloudbreak one of the premier surfspots……..

LOCATION: CLOUDBREAK, NAMOTU ISLAND, FIJI
DATE: 20th May 2011

On May 20th 2011, kitesurfing pioneer, Ben Wilson, caught the world’s largest wave ever ridden strapless with a kite. What makes Ben an inspiration to all kiters is his passion for the sport. Ben’s driving force for his brand BWS is based on innovation, integrity and inspiration. Ultimately his undying desire to find the perfect wave and bring it to the public eye.

Surfing with a HandPlane

Read this

I can’t remember the last time I was on a surfboard. There have been waves, but none of my boards have left the corner in which they lean. Spiders have even taken to weaving a web that utilizes their dormant position.

My friends admitted that they are starting to worry about my absence from surfing. Because for some time now all I go to the beach with is a pair of swim fins and a piece of wood.

It all started when I tried a handplane,as they’re called, that belonged to a friend. I was always curious about them but never really gave it too much thought. I didn’t think it could be that different than the regular whopping of body surfing the shore break. Contrary to what I thought, I soon experienced a ride unique to anything I had experienced before. As vivid as my first ride was on a stand up surfboard, my first body surfing encounter with such a tool is equally ingrained. As the wave rose out of the ocean and across the sand bar, I managed to kick into it and glide across the face as one would on a board, in proper position the whole ride. Riding in the curl, the critical sections of the wave, never straying too far ahead.

Since that moment, I have dedicated myself to what I like to refer to as having intercourse with the ocean. There is a certain sensation that comes from skimming across the surface of the ocean with the water rushing across your body. The buffer of the surfboard as been removed. The ocean and your body are parallel to one another, becoming one during the act. There is a transfer of energy between the two, both feeding off one another. Through this developed energy, pleasure is received. The body’s sensory mechanisms are overloaded by what is happening in that brief and intense moment of the ride. Jolted, thrusted, and twisted into parts of the wave not seen or ridden by boards, it takes a special medium such as the body to get there.

The whole key to the gig is to have the eyes wide open during the whole ride. Even until the moment when the lip dumps upon you, the eyes must be open–alert to what is going on all around. It’s about the view. The lip is projected in the form of an aquatic cathedral with the curtain closing in, shimmering with light from the outside world. Droplets of water, though moving fast, appear to be in slow motion as time decelerates: an intimate moment with nature veiled under the cover of the lip. The ride climaxes with a tumble down to the ocean floor, bouncing up and gasping for air, wide-eyed and alive.

For now I’ve seem to have lost all desire to do a turn. Slashing and gashing the water seems like such rude thing to do to so a beautiful lady. Today I’d rather lie down and make love to her, face to face, touching one another in the glory of the moment.

Going to Buy this (well hopefully)

HAPPY TO SHARE

Anyone out there with an interest in ‘rambling’ (in the sense of kite,bike,tour,camera, surf) and who want to contribute then get in touch. I only started this blog as a ramble into the ether and now it turns out that people read it so – if you fancy writing about your tour on a surly big dummy, fell-running, bike maintenance or even reviews of things or places then I want to hear from you.