le petit quiver

Nicely light leaked Diana film shot of my travelling quiver for our summer trip to france. Pretty much all conditions covered by these choices and they all got wet several times.

L-R 9'4 GS slimpig, 7'0 Greco surf performance soft top, 5'6 GS keel fish, 4th Gear flyer surf mat

I hadn't ridden the mat for a long time but I had so much fun in the high tide shore break on it, it ended up being one of the trip highlights. The soft top is fun too. It's really my daughters board but it surfs really well considering.

instant fun

Quiver summer 2016

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!!

sock it to 'em boy

MITCH ABSHERE PUNKS & POETS from Stance on Vimeo.

I've always liked Mitch Abshere, both his style in and out of the water, and for his honesty.  I've never spoken to him although i know he's friends with people i know.

A long time ago i read a interview with him in the long defuct Longboard Magazine. Mitch was just on the up after a pretty deep dive through partying too hard to a DUI and a stint in jail. While i'm not religious at all, it's clear that discovering a faith really helped Mitch get his life back on track. While i'm sure Mitch has been a jerk to some one cant help but respect someone who has put his life back together like he has.

Since then seems like he's in a good place and his captain fin co stuff is always interesting. Cool shops too, kinda like the original revolver but in California.

It might be a little middle aged to get excited about socks (least it's not slippers) but Stnce make some comfy, hard wearing pairs in a massive selection of quirky styles. Worth treating your feet to!

Mitch Abshere -What We Ride from Moose Huerta on Vimeo.

stripey socks

I have a kind of love hate relationship with board socks, especially when it comes to getting them onto a longboard. They are worth it when you cant park outside your house like me and a quiver approach means carrying a couple of boards a couple of hundred metres! I say carrying but given the weight of most of my logs it's more like the staggering of a semi drunk! A central village location has its perks and it's disadvantages!

The forecast isn't looking too special for the next few days, mostly short period windswell. Time to get back on the bike and dream of better days. It's a shame as i've just been watching two of my favorite vimeo clips (here and here) and getting all stoked on DP's style and surfing my if6was9 log thats similar to his board in the clips. (a slimmed down semi pig with not much foam and a big greenough flex fin!)

could it be magic?

Most people will be familiar with the concept of having a "magic board". It's a much used phrase in connection with the ASP world tour and most surfers will feel like they have owned one at some point over the course of their surfing life.

The board in the picture above is one of mine. I pulled it out of the shed the other day and paddled out on it for the first time in ages. Sure enough, once i'd dodged the crowd enough to slide into a head high reeler, my feet found the sweet spot and i started a session full of smooth carves and cutbacks that only a true twin keel will give. Although the design has moved from being "new" (again) into being almost a standard "summer shape" they really are versatile boards and will handle most things the UK can throw at you.

This one is a 5'8 classic keel shaped by Larry Mabile that i brought back from the US four or five years ago (back in the glory days of $2 to the pound!). It's got a more 70's influenced template and bottom contour than the heavily concave bottomed ones that the likes of gulfstream and christenson make.  Larry is not that well known world wide but incredibly well respected around san diego and is one of the best fish shapers you could go to having learnt his craft under Skip Frye at the G&S label many moons ago. He also makes a lovely version of skip's eagle gliders but i think even virgin would baulk at flying one of those back!

I can honestly say i've never had a bad surf on this board, ever! In fact from where i'm typing it is the first "magic board" i've owned. The Bar of soap could be the second, but i digress....... It got me thinking about how much of the magic is in the shape and how much is in the eyes of the beholder? I mean how much of my love for it is in the fact that it suits me, my surfing and the waves i surf beautifully, how much is in the foam? Would it be magic for anyone, everyone?

Proponents of moulded or computer shaped boards will rave about how the technology allows mass production of a perfect prototype with all the flaws ground out by testing but it isn't entirely true since either process only replicates to a certain level of accuracy and the hand finishing, whether by surfer or chinese labor is still influential. In fact, i've heard quite a few people voice the opinion that it's the imperfections in a hand shape/ finished shape that will make a board magic and another of seemingly identical shape a dog.

For the record my fish was a custom order of a "model" Larmo has made for years, i have no idea if a computer was involved!!

how much rubber?

Jake and Anna contemplate how many extra bits of neoprene they need to put on before paddling out over here.

dano

Dano Forte holding my board outside Pure Glass in Costa Mesa, hopefully he doesn't mind that the perspective on this makes his head look a slightly weird shape. He is a super nice guy and a great shaper.

I had heard that he could be slightly "relaxed" to deal with but my experience has been totally positive. Right from staying in contact while we were finalising the order, to getting the board done in a little over a month, to meeting me on a sunday so i could pick the board up and not miss a weekends surfing by being without a board.

He nailed it too. It's a beautifully shaped and glassed board that has been much "oohed and aahed" over by the "peanut gallery" at home.

Thank You!

self portrait

go lateral

Those of you who actually read my ramblings will have noticed a common thread to my choice of surf craft. Personally i believe style is all important in surfing, i don't care how radical your turns are, if you have an ugly style i'm not interested. Having been initially drawn to the style inherent in traditional longboarding, once i started to experiment with shorter boards i looked for shapes that would still allow a smooth flowing style, one that works with the wave, rather than trying to beat it into submission.

When i'm trying to explain it to others i often term it like this: Conventional shortboarding is all based on getting vertical, drawing very "up & down" lines on the wave. The surfing i'm into is based very much on drawing more flowing lateral lines on the wave, heavy single fin logs on small waves, two and four fin fish on bigger waves and lately, the ultimate lateral trim machine - the displacement hull.

Some of you will relate to that, some of you will think it's boring surfing. Thats cool, each to their own, the world would be a boring place if we all liked the same thing.

all a quiver.....

My much trailed ramble on the joys of owning a few too many boards is up now on drift. Nice comments only.........pleeese!

clicky clicky

Lovely photos and helpful quiver caddying from Jamie!

a fraction of fun

I'm in the process of writing a feature for drift on the joys of owning a quiver. This isn't all of them but more than enough for the snowmen to choose from!

a smorgesbord of forward trim.....

It's not often that you get to use the word smorgesbord on a sentence but i think it is a justified celebration having just been sent some pics by Tim Mason of my finished 6'10 Spence Hull. Just waiting on fins and i can take delivery and get her in the water.
I want to say thanks to Tim and Spence for such a pleasant custom order experience. I spent a long time with Tim discussing lengths and the widepoint position (which is crucial with hulls),finally made a decision only to have Spence chime in and confuse me further. To cut a long story short, Spence hashed out a custom design in his home in California, sent it over the internet to Tim to run off the shaping machine and tweak over here. Sometimes a little technology is a wonderful thing. Watch this space for updates on my virgin hull experiences!