spped, power, flow

It's taken a while but I've put enough time in on this Gulfstream Speed egg to write a few thoughts.

I really don't like riding modern 3 fin longboards but once the waves get head high, a single fin log gets to be a handful. Obviously ive got plenty of short funky sleds to ride in these conditions but when the saunton line up is clogged with performance longboards, it's hard to get a wave on a shortboard, even if the wave is hella fun once you get one! The idea was to create something with enough length and glide to get in early and compete with the crowd but still be able to surf it like a shorter board without the redundant extra length a prog log gives you. People often confuse eggs with beginners mini-mals or magic carpet style "short longboards" but a true egg draws it's lineage from Skip Frye and his San diego crew through to Donald Takayamaand and Bob Mitsven and is a refined performance shape that will cope with a big range of wave types and sizes

This one's 7'10 x 21 something by 2.6 ish. Untypically vague I know, sorry! Although you'll see this on the GS website listed as one of their eggplant models, in reality its a full custom shape Jools came up with after a long chat on a rainy Friday. Based on the Wild West Shooters Jools made Russ Pierre mixed with the Takayama Howard egg that I own and a healthy dose of shortboard performance design. It's a rounded pin widepoint forward egg with 2+1 fin set up. I'm currently running a 7"greenough 4a with futures sidebites in there which feels about right so far.

It's flat rockered with just a little nose kick and pretty thinned out since I'm only lightweight ( Jools has since made a couple of others for bigger chaps with more foam hidden inside) The rails are a tucked under down rail for most of its length becoming hard around the fins and underneath it's almost a conventional shortboard concave bottom contour. Final noteworthy point is a tail narrower than most off the rack eggs. The takayama howard model is almost an inch and a half wider for example! It's glassed fairly light too.

As usual Jools has totally nailed it with this one. It has good paddle speed and gets in early. Once you're on your feet, it begs a low bodied, fully rail engaged bottom turn rewarding with good projection and then you're off to the races. That flat rocker, concave bottom and down rail yields rapid trim speed in the high line. It's particularly fun to take a narrow stance in the middle and pretend you're Derek Hynd at J bay! Its a board that just feels fast and smooth.

Its length means that you cant just chuck it around like a shorter egg and it definitely likes a small amount of footwork or stance shifting to engage or break the rail line for trim and turns. That said, on a larger wave you can just plant your feet over the fins and go. Once you're outrunning the section and aiming to redirect, with back foot over the fin cluster, its really loose off the tail and wraps nicely back into the whitewater so you can set up again.

Compared with the "classic" Californian eggs like the Takayama Howard, it pumps for speed more easily. Those Ca eggs tend to have a roll entry into panel vee on the bottom which keeps them smooth but tends to feel like their pushing water in slack waves and does nothing to help you race a beachbreak section like we have to do frequently.

Devon Howard has been consistently  preaching that a 2 +1 egg is the perfect one board quiver and I'm increasingly inclined to agree. You can catch and trim small waves and even cheater 5 but still have the ability to duckdive out back on a bigger day. On those bigger sets it will get you in early, cope with your speed through the bottom turn and hold a good line through a section or let you draw big arcs on a softer face. The natural length and glide takes you through flat spots and its short enough to redirect then pump to make the most of onshore conditions. Finally, going with a multi fin set up compliments that natural speed on sub par waves and gives hold in steeper conditions. Single fin eggs work too but single fins generally expect more speed from the wave itself and can lose speed through a turn ( flex in the fin combats this but still...)

The WSL judge contests looking for Speed, Power, Flow. A good egg is the very definition!

hey kook!

I had a couple of evenings home alone the other week so i indulged myself with a couple of glasses of a nice red and rewatching some old surf dvds. Notably two of my perennial faves, Thomas Campbells "Seedling" and Michael Halsbands "Surf Movie Reels 1-14". Both feature pretty heavy doses of Joel Tudor in the peak of his "ride everything" influence.

I came to a few conclusions as the bottle slowly drained. One, Tudor is a ridiculously talented surfer on pretty much anything you put under his feet. He is the master of making the difficult look easy and he is SO smooth. He's a pretty impressive skater too!

Two, lots of Tudor's single fin eggs actually have the wide point slightly back of centre instead of forward which is the more widely seen case with eggs. Tudor is quoted as saying he prefers the widepoint back for turning and doesn't like it forward unless he's getting barrelled!

Three, I haven't owned or ridden a single fin egg for ages!

Luckily, a couple of friends do have Tudor eggs and Thos very sportingly agreed to lend me his 6'6 Kookbox Archie's left (in the pics) in exchange for a few days on my Mandala.

Ideally i'd have had Saunton at head high doing its best pointbreak impression as a test track since I suspect that the board would truly light up under those conditions. That's what Thos says anyway. As it was I had to make do with a pretty mushy, onshore, chest high P-land and a clean but a bit too small dawn patrol at saunton.

I did get a good feel for how fun a board it is though! There's lots of foam in there at 21.65 wide and 2.75 thick, a little bit of nose rocker but otherwise flat as.  Widepoint I think just back of centre, flexy kookbox 8 inch fin. Small roll in the nose but quickly into a single concave that moves to a fairly deep double in the back third. Rails are soft for the first foot but then tucked under becoming a hard edge just in front of the fin. In short, it's definitely designed to turn and feel lively rather than cruisy.

It's got far less Hull influence than I expected from what I thought I knew of this model. As a result it's way less quirky to ride than a v bowls, which is ostensibly a wide point back egg too. It went backside well and in both directions had that snappy, pivoty turn that you would expect from a single fin.

I really like a flex fin in a single and you could definitely feel a nice spring from the fin as you exited a deep railed bottom turn.

What really impressed was its glide over the flat spots despite its shortish length. I think the lack of rocker and the plentiful concave in the bottom keeps it high and planing where others bog. In short its a cool little board, really easy to surf like eggs generally are, with a wide range of suitability for waves and the ability to be pushed if you want to.

Thos calls it his "guilty pleasure" and I can see why. 

Hopefully I'll manage to wangle BGA's Tudor Karma off him soon to compare.

vagabonding

I'm just back from a couple of weeks in Italy at Lake Garda. Its a lovely place despite the lack of waves! Awesome mountain biking though.

It was the first trip away with my new Millican backpack and I thought i'd post a few thoughts. If you haven't come across them before, Millican are a little company based in the Lake District. They make a selection of day bags and travel stuff using sustainable, low waste methods and with a focus on tough practical design for global travelling, on or off the beaten path.

My pack is their "Smith the rollpack 25l" and like most of their products is well thought out and fantastic in use. Its made from a kind of waxed canvas,  like a super heavy duty barbour wax jacket material. Its a good size with two bottle holders and a front pocket, a main compartment and a hidden small laptop/ tablet sleeve in the backpiece. Both main and interior pockets have various small organiser pockets for phones, note pads, pens etc. The main straps are really comfortable and it has easily removed, low profile sternum and waist straps. There are lots of neat little touches like the fold out reflector panel and bike light clip and hidden straps for carrying walking poles or a camera tripod.

In short it's just everything you want in a day bag and nothing you don't. Plus it looks pretty styley too in my opinion!

5 summer stories

I did a little blog for Gulfstream again, five boards to ride this summer.............

https://www.gulfstreamsurfboards.co.uk/2017/07/07/5-boards-ride-summer/

a craftsmans hands

via Instagram The man, the myth, the legend......... Jools Matthews of @gulfstreamsurfboards who are probably making the nicest surfboards in the uk at the moment! diana and crossprocessed #film pic that's a couple years old now

#filmisnotdead #filmphotography #ishootfilm #toycamera #shaper #nofilter #handmade #craftsmen #lomography #portrait #120 #dianafplus #surfboard #shaper #madeinbritain

Pre-surf stokage

via Instagram

BGA and @if6was9surfboards pre-surf stoke at the gate. About 20 mins in @if6was9surfboards found a coverup from somewhere to hoots from the peanut gallery. #impressed. Lomo LCa x Fuji film

 #film #nofilter #outsideisfree #outside #ishootfilm #filmisnotdead #analog #lomography #lca #surf #surfcheck #surfer #logging #35mm #35mmfilmphotography #sprockets #coldwatersurf #chasingwaves

January 05, 2017 at 11:02AM

via Instagram Flat again today so here's a holga picture of a French fisherman post dawn patrol at #lasauzaie I always find it interesting how you rarely see anyone surfing the kind of boards I enjoy along this stretch of coast. It's mostly white thrusters, progressive longboards and SUP's. The surf shops are the same. It's like "sprout" never happened. :-) My Slimpig and the superchunk drew a fair bit of interest in the water. #film #ishootfilm #lomography #sprockets #35mm #holga #analog #analogphotography #surfcheck #fish #twinnie #vendee #surfer #nofilter #outsideisfree

January 02, 2017 at 04:33PM

via Instagram Pretty splendid dog walking weather. #sunset #nofilter #doodle #dogsofinstagram #labradoodle #beach #coastal #coastalliving #outsideisfree

December 30, 2016 at 04:40PM

via Instagram There's a slumbering winter point break round the corner #nofilter #outsideisfree #sunset #chasingwaves

December 27, 2016 at 07:36PM

via Instagram Hanging out at the ancestral home in the midlands today. This shot has to be a decade old. A tiny Saturday morning at Saunton riding a @joeltudorsurfboards Nuuhiwa that I eventually sold to @finshack 9'6 of moving sidewalk. #nofilter #surf #longboard #dropknee #outsideisfree #singlefin #log #nuuhiwa #devon

Safe flying tonight Santa!

via Instagram Safe flying tonight Santa! God Jul to all 🌲#nofilter #sunset #outsideisfree #beautifulsky #merrychristmas

Well groomed French beachie

via Instagram Well groomed French beachie #summer #outsideisfree #lesdunes #35mm #35mmfilmphotography #sprockets #film #nofilter #ishootfilm #holga #lomography #beachlife #corduroy

lunchtime

Whenever I travel to surf, it always strikes me how much easier it is to be a surfer in some other places - California and Hawaii are great examples. There's almost always a wave somewhere and generally there's going to be somewhere the wind is reasonably favourable or the bottomshape is strong enough to keep the wave quality ok. I honestly think people in these places wouldn't bother to get in the water in half the stuff we regularly paddle out in. Surfing is just "there" to take or leave as life allows. You don't need to be quite as obsessive as UK surfers often "need" to be

The
point I'm making is how "on it" you need to be to get any good at surfing here. Almost everyone I know tries to keep their schedule as flexible as possible, constantly keeping an eye on the tide and forecast hoping to create a slot of freetime at the right time.

I'm lucky, I work 5 minutes from the beach and whilst I cant always pick the perfect time to get there, I can find a slot most days there are waves. Then its just a case of having a quiver of the right boards in the mobile garage that my van constitutes and hoping the summer traffic isn't too bad.

Lomo LCa picture from just after a springtime liquid lunch

stretch

I really should warm up more...........

So the keen amongst you might have noticed me posting a picture of Miles Hunt's new Wonder Stuff diaries book a few weeks ago. I've finally had the chance to work my way through it and it is , as i suspected it would be, ace!

Growing up near Stourbridge in the late 80's and early 90's, the Stuffies, PWEI and Neds were pretty much local bands (along with the much underated Fretblanket ) and collecting as much as possible of their vinyl output and t shirts consumed much of my teenage years. Although i'm aware of much of their story through my obsessive reading of the music press at the time, Mile's Diaries present an amazing insight into the early years of the band from the inside. It's joyous, sad, self -critical and riveting at times, told in a conversational style that makes you feel like you're listening to stories in one of Hunt's beloved shropshire real ale pubs.

If you had any interest in the stuffies prior to Size of a cow and Dizzy it's a must read! Roll on the next installment.

swing thing

I moved house a few months ago, not far, just an extra five or ten minutes to the beach, but far enough. It's a testament to the beauty of devon that a few miles makes such a difference to your feeling of space. As i drive home i feel lucky to see the stars shine, uninhibited by light pollution, to wake up to this view every morning and hear only sheep and the occasional tractor. Country soul indeed...................





Please note, this doesnt mean i've gone all "good life" and started rearing chickens, there are limits!

fin.

So i was killing time on the internet the other day during the inevitable downtime at work and i came across a thread on magic seaweed's forum asking about noseriding fins. It got me thinking a little bit.

There's a lot of time and marketing BS put into the idea of making a board noseride easily, fins, tail shapes, nose widths, concaves or no concaves, square noses, pointy noses etc etc. In reality everything really comes down to rider skill and wave positioning. A good longboarder can make pretty much any longboard noseride and most people who are on a quest for things to make it easier in reality just need more time in the right waves or a better idea of the mechanics behind it. Thats probablynot what you want to hear but it is true in my opinion!

A few years ago i would have probably told you that your fin was really important but these days i'm less sure. I think you're fin choice has far more influence on the way and feel of your board in turns than it does on noseriding. The classic position is that you need a big fin to noseride, the bigger the better - reference the dewey webber hatchet fin for example. But the truth is that as long as you have good soft rails and some tail kick, you dont need a big fin like that to hold the tail in or lift the nose. Likewise with nosewidth, it's less important thatn the rail and tail shape.

Case in point: I've spent a lot of time on logs with some kind of pivot fin. They have seemed to suit the stop/go nature of my tradtional style surfing but.....
I've done almost all my noseriding over the last year on the If6was9 log i've posted photos of before. It's foiled out, the nose is only 17 3/4 wide and the fin is a greenough 4a, which has a wide base but a narrow tip and some flex. It turns beautifully with more flow than a pivot and loosens the board up nicely, especially in faster waves. The board noserides really well and i've never had the tail skip out while hanging up front, even on a wave as fast as croyde! If there is a disadvantage it is just that the board is perhaps a little more sensitive and a little less stable - thats the trade off better turning that a smaller fin area gives, but that doesn't compromise it's noseriding, perhaps just demands a little more skill.

My feelings are in line with a global move away from big fins on logs, led by tudor and his duct tape crew. Cruise the net and they are all pretty much riding greenough derived templates. I'll leave you musing with jack lynch. The 4a isnt holding him back!



+THE SEA OF POSSIBILITY+ JACK LYNCH from Nicholas Damen on Vimeo.

memoir.....

Seems a lifetime ago in some ways but it's only 6 or 7 years since I made a surf film with my mate Ross. Things have changed a lot since then and I think the internet has made the business model we used a little obsolete while the advent of go-pro HD cameras and cheaper more powerful editing software has raised the bar significantly.


I'm still quietly proud of it though.....

travelling light

 

Anyone that knows my family will know that my girls dont really travel light. Although they love camping it's definately the making camp for a while and getting it comfortable type rather than the fast and light feral missions we are all supposed to lust after as surfers. Of course i'm all for sleeping in a tree and drinking rainwater - actually i'm not, i like being comfy too! Hence the embarassingly large tent for three people! 

Actually we got it online half price and we didnt really realise quite how big it was when we ordered it! 36 guy ropes, it's the opposite of feral!

Anyway, this pic kinda harks back to posts i've made in the past, namely that a "workable travel quiver" for me is definately a fish and a log. In this case it's a 9'4 if6was9 and a 5'8 larry mabile fish but there are a few variations on the theme. Of course the only thing you can't pack - (the kitchen sink will fit if you pack well ;-) is waves and as this trip proved, it doesnt matter what boads you've got if it goes flat afer 3 days!!

micromute

 

 So, back from a cold but very snowy Geilo in Norway and a few thoughts on the new Lib i rode as promised.

 I've ridden a lot of snowboards over the years and seen some massive  changes in the technology and thinking behind board design over that time. When i started, the cheap stuff really was pretty rubbish but now things are at a point where there arent really any truly bad boards at any price point. In fact i stoppped reading catalogs a while ago since if you believe what you read, every board anyone sells is perfect for everything! Lib have always stood out to me for their slightly counter culture stance and their willingness to do something different.

Just to recap, it's a 153 Lib Tech attack banana 2014 model sporting classic Mike Parillo Lib graphics. Its got what Lib call their EC2 banana tech which,if you strip off the marketing BS, means there's rocker between your bindings then camber from binding to tip with the apex of the camber moved towards the binding a little to mellow it. Lots of companies produce some kind of variation of this now and it is supposed to offer a mix of the forgiveness and "butterability" of rocker with a bit more of the edge hold and torsional stiffness to cope with speed that traditional camber board gives you. The board has Lib's "magnatraction" serrated edge which i definately feel gives better edge hold on icy piste from my experience.

Bottom line (first!) i really liked this board.

 It's a twin shape thats a little narrower and more freeride oriented than the 156 skate banana that i had before.  Despite being shorter and having less nose width it still floated plenty well enough in the pow although it definately needed to maintain a little more speed to keep the nose up compared to the skate banana. That said, it's only a 53 and at a comfortable off-piste pace it was happy to float and slash without inducing undue back leg burn. the slightly narrower width definately helped to change direction more quickly and it was easier to thread through the trees than my old board as a result.

On piste whether corduroy or crud, it held a really good edge at speed with plenty of pop. This is the camber working for you as well as the greater stiffness in the flex. An oft quoted criticism of the rocker only boards is their floppiness at speed or with big landings and that has been my main gripe with the skate banana. Lib seem to have got the flex just right with the ec2 banana, stiff enough to hold and inspire confidence blasting along the piste but flexy enough to butter around and enjoy popping off stuff at the piste edges. It certainly got me hitting some bigger jumps than i've done for a while.

 It's a good compromise for the type of resort riding most of us do most often, alittle bit of everthing. Lib's more freeride oriented boards like the dark series are stiffer and feel amazing at full speed but need quite a bit of pace to wake them up, more pace than you might want to have if you are learning things or cruising with family. The skate banana is real fun in the park but shows it's limitations at speed and off piste. The attack banana sits in the middle, good enough at everthing to put a smile on your face and progress!

Super big thanks again to Stentiford Snowboarding for sorting it out and to Phil for the shamelessly self promoting pics of "dad awesomeness" ;-)

 

keepers...

There was a thread on the Magic seaweed forum a while ago about keepers, those boards you will never sell. Thinking about it i'm pretty fickle, there are a few boards that i was sure i'd never get rid of which went to make way for supposedly bigger and better things. That said, there are a few in my quiver that have survived the periodic culls and that i'm still really fond of.

Ask me again this time next year and who knows but currently...

5'2 Gulfstream SeaPea by me!!

5'2 Tyler Warren bar of soap
5'6 Jeff mcCallum mford

Both rare, both beautiful, both fly! The McCallum has the best laminate ever, a signed, defaced Dollar Bill.

9'4 if6was9 mod log by Neil Randall, my current beau for logging and the board in the pic above. Based on Dane Petersons logs with a greenough fin. Super fun off the tail and super good on the nose in steeper waves. It's pretty much where current "cutting edge" longboard design is right now.

9'6 classic Malibu jai lee noserider by Peter White, such a good noserider it's almost cheating!