a tin shed

 Totally papped through the railings at the edge of the whole city block that makes up the patagonia headquarters in ventura. This is the original tin shed where, legend has it, yvon chouinard started making pitons for climbing and started the giant that is patagonia clothing and what became black diamond mountain equipment too. Call me sad but i was excited to spot it!

coastal cruising no.2

Happy New Year one and all, yes i know it's slightly premature but reading blogs will doubtless be low on all your list of post celebration things to do tomorrow morning so i'm getting in early!

The last couple of years i've listed my top three "funnest"  boards of the year at this point but 2011 has been a year of transition in my quiver with a bit of a clearout followed by some new acquisitions so i thought i'd list them all as they stand right now, when i'm happy with all of them and not bored of anything enough to sell right now!


So here goes:


5'2 Tyler Warren for Hobie Bar of Soap.
5'6 Gulfstream twin keel fish.
5'6 Jeff McCallum Mford
5'8 Larry Mabile classic keel fish
6'10 Spence by Tim Mason displacement hull
9'4 Bing NR-2
9'4 Gulfstream CP model diamond tail saunton foil or "old faithful!"
9'4 Squire Dirk of doom (gato death dagger inspired pointy log!)
9'5 Dano Old Pleasure
9'6 Classic Malibu Jai Lee 1 model

If i'm honest, it's the bar of soap and the mford that i'm most excited about surfing at the moment, both different branches of the simmons inspired tree, both blazing fast and loose, both great on our frequent average days as well as the good ones. Of course ask me in a couple of months and i'll probably give you a different answer!

Incidentally, the photo is topanga in case you were wondering!

coastal cruising no.1

 

carp 

 

hobie split

There are a lot of beautifully maintained hot rods and busses around california, a lot of occasions when i wasn't quick enough with a camera as they drove past. This beautiful splitty resides outside the main hobie store in Dana Point most of the time though so it's an easy target.

This weeks essential reading is "uncle Skello's what's hot and what's not" published every thursday on the Gulfstream blog. Everything you need to know to chart your way through the sartorial and cultural minefield that is staying cool,

Remember, support your local otter..... shaper, sorry!

ruby's

So Ruby's is a chain of classic american style diners that are scattered along the coast. They are based on the stereotype we all have.... red vinyl boothes, waitresses with 50's make up red gingham dresses and white pumps, malt shakes etc. This one in laguna has some period correct cars out front too. Sounds kinda cheesy doesn't it? But you know what, it's fun and they make superb burgers!

doho

Both trips to California, i've spent a fair amount of time surfing at Doheny, mostly because it's convenient for a quick session before family duties.  It's a measure of how many quality waves there are on this stretch of coast that a spot like this is relegated to also ran status. Yeah for sure it's not killer Dana and it is a bit mushy, the preserve of longboarders and the butt of surfer magazine jokes. The truth is that with some sunshine, a little south swell and a log it's a really fun wave with a mellow friendly local crew who are happy to share a few sets with a traveller.

If you own the extras disc for one california day, it's the wave where tyler warren is surfing his 11 footer., take a look and you'll see what i mean. I'd trade our average local conditions for consistent waves like that!

life is just swell.....

Dave Allee, owner of Almond does his best catalogue pose

fare thee well friend

Nearly time for Rob Lion of Royal surfboards to wave goodbye to our windswept shores and resume life on the other side of the pond. Opinionated, experimental but a thinker with a passionate surfing heart, although our pathes have crossed only occasionally in a physical sense, each time has been a pleasure and Rob's company is something i always look forward to. Sadly i didn't make it down to the fish fry last weekend, sounds like i missed a great day as well as the chance to say farewell in person!

Good bye and good luck Rob, hope all goes well for you. Make sure you stay in touch!

almond

I spent a little bit of time hanging out with the almond boys Dave, Jake and Taylor at their shop on the edge of newport/costa mesa. It's about a mile inland from Blackies and is a really cool little space, a mix of lovely boards, bamboo, vintage shelving, kind of a little bit tiki without the chintz. They have been there for two years now, quietly producing 100% handmade surfboards, logs, fishes and single fins, some japanese wetsuits, carving their own little niche in a busy marketplace. The whole venture has a friendly low key organic feel made for friends by friends vibe, without seeming exclusive or over concerned with it's own importance.

Their boards work too, designed by owner Dave and production shaper griffin, most have handmade wood fins as standard. Cyrus Sutton is riding one in his stoked and broke film and their "collective of enthusiasts" also includes ex womens world champ Schuyler Mc ferren so there's some respected feet on their craft. At the moment there are a few available in Europe but none in the UK though if there was some interest i'm sure it would be possible to get some over here.

Theirs is the sort of young grass roots outfit that deserves support


I'll leave the last word to Dave

"Weʼre in the business of keeping people stoked, because stoked people keep us in business."

leadbetter

A few hundred yards from the great sushi shack on santa barbara harbor. Very mellow righthander breaks off the point in the distance but lack of swell and no lack of SUP's prevented a first hand assessment of it's quality!

sano samba

just one of the many beautifully looked after busses cruising round So Cal.

While you read this i'm hopefully sat in some french summer sunshine, eating good cheese with a baguette and red wine while glassy waves peel offshore...........or something like that!

going right

rolling in SB

Beach cruisers on the boardwalk are a classic californian stereotype in the world at large but the reality is that they are ridden by huge numbers of locals completely without irony. As i've blogged before, cruisers are fun to ride (on the flat) and a sunny beach side path is just about the best place to ride one.

This is a schwinn that i rented in Santa Barbara, a company that have been making these bikes for a long time. Not quite as nice to ride as my electra but a couple of hours cruising the coast path  in SB on this one was one of my favourite parts of the trip.

trim kings....

One really cool thing about surfing in california is the amount of natural life in evidence all around you. Perhaps thats more true of the slightly less urban beaches but there are seals and dolphins swimming through the line up, kelp fronds grabbing your fin and smoothing out chop, lizards scurrying past you feet as you walk down the beach paths and of course the pelicans.

There's something really pleasing about watching a group of pelicans glide past, in formation like WW2 bombers on a mission. The way they glide with wingtips mere millimetres above the water surface, never touching, harnessing the updrafts along a walling wave before climbing high, folding their wings and dropping like an arrow into the water to bob up seconds later, nonchalent and still.

They make our honking seagulls seem yobbish and louche and i never once spotted one attacking a beachgoer for his sandwich!

get clean

with a bar of soap..........in this case 5'2 stringerless, shaped by Tyler Warren with Daniel Partsch wood keels......

Kind of an impulse purchase. As previously noted, i've been loving my point concept velo sim over the last year. It's resulted in a few raves on here but at 5'8 it's always felt like i could have gone smaller. Tyler Warren's bar of soap version of a simmons had caught my eye and i knew there were small numbers available through Thalia and Surfy surfy. I thought about ordering one before our trip out to california and JP from surfy surfy did get me the chance of a board but for a variety of reasons i didn't commit.

Imagine my delight then, when i wandered into the Hobie store in Dana Point to see this advocado tinted beauty tucked in behind the SUP's. With the good fortune to have sold a couple of boards before we left, the temptation was too much to resist and i caved in with little resistance!

It took a while for the stars to align and for me to get a chance to ride it. No matter how much you like the look or idea of a board, it's not until you catch the first few waves on it that you know if your enthusiasm has been well placed.

At 5'2 , 22 wide and 2.5 thick, there's still a reassuring amount of foam. Very little rocker and a distinct foil out to the rails so they are less chunky than my velo sim. Bottom wise it's belly to single concave to a fairly deep double concave through the fins which are a little closer to fish keels than the half moon classic sim shape.

It paddles well, great for it's size and no more difficult than a 5'8 fish would. Like wise it's into waves easily, getting in early or late if necessary, the short length really helping despite the flat rocker.

First wave was a chest high mushy righthander and the board flew, in fact it flies in everything i've had it out in so far. There's less belly and more concave than my velo sim and this manifests as a much more "alive" feeling once you are up and riding with a real big squirt out of the bottom turn. It's so short that it's easy to get on rail and wrap around a cutback and the short rail line makes it feel much more dynamic and connected to your feet backside, despite the tail width.

Whereas the velo sim feels like a hull with a fish's ability to cutback, this feels like my favorite larry mabile) fish with a rocket attached! Needless to say, i'm amping and i don't think it's just new board euphoria. Further reports to come as testing continues!

ten piggies over..

On the way to Doheny one morning i rather randomly bumped into my friend Jake, who works for Almond and is a really talented surfer and one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet. He was on his way south with Alex who runs the tenpiggiesover blog and John Wesley who does some shaping for Gato as well as his own boards.

Like everyone i've met in Ca, they were really friendly and stoked to hear about our little corner of the world. I've checked Alex's blog for some time so it was cool to meet him in person. John's car, an old vw type 3 like the one i posted a photo of recently, deserves a mention too. Very cool indeed!

Doheny was tiny and those guys headed on south to san o. I paddled out anyway and got a couple of fun ones eventually, alone with just a few pelicans for company. The photos make it look better than it actually was if i'm honest!

back to earth..

So back to Blighty after nearly three weeks away, to be greeted by rain, onshore winds and rubbish swell. Business as usual then!!

We had such a good trip to California, even better than last year. Good weather, fun waves and nice people. There's a few tales to tell and plenty of film to scan but in the meantime heres a little iphone shot of one of the cottages in crystal cove near Laguna, one of my girl's favorite sun worshipping spots!


I want to say a thanks to the people that contributed to such good times. The Threadgills again for their hospitality and kindness. You guys are great and we so enjoyed spending time with you again. Christine and Austin in Carp too. Also Jake and Dave at Almond and Alex at ten piggies, JP at surfysurfy and Smukes, meeting you guys made me smile!

No doubt we will be back!

fun to come......

It's holiday time hereabouts and as you read this i'm twiddling my thumbs at heathrow waiting for a shiny jetplane to whisk me and my girls to California for a couple of weeks. Hopefully the bing noserider is tucked up safely in the hold and hasn't recieved too much of a kicking from the baggage handlers already.

So just over a week around Santa Barbara then a week in Dana and no doubt a few waves at doheny and san o. If you see a pasty bearded skinny guy in a nineplus fullsuit riding a tan bing with a chocolate brown nose patch paddle up and say hi, i'd love to meet you!

missing dora

 the wall@malibu sadly missing the required graffiti!

swamis

Sadly doing a good impression of a bad beachbreak on the day we passed through