on the racks...

Perhaps i'm biased but i don't think anyone is making surfboards in the UK that are any better shaped or finished than Gulfstream. Maybe there are a couple of people that are comparable, but sadly i don't think there ar man people even trying to match the care and craftsmanship that most US logging labels strive for.

That said, i  have an order in with Squire, the label run by John Isaac and made by Seabase. Given John's eye for detail i'm sure it will live up to expectation.

on the rocks....

Local foul weather "go to" spot. Sadly a case of looking better from the shore than the line up. Maybe it's a symptom of my addiction but it still felt better to paddle out and prove the wind was too strong than leave without surfing and later convince myself (erroneously) i drove away from an epic little session!

swan lake...

a couple of randoms...

A couple more shots from the scenic cycle route to our local beach. I'm sure it's pretty obvious that i'm heavily influenced by all things californian and i love everything i've seen of the coast there so far.  One thing they don't have in abundance is lush green rolling countryside, far from busy roads, hiding small coves and rocky bays, some with great waves. I'm really hoping our Californian friends make it over next year so we can show the place off. I think they will love it, narrow lanes, tractor caused traffic jams and all!

 

tools of the trade

behind the wire

a dagger of sorts....

  

but only of sorts.....................................

  I've rewritten this post several times, trying to be concise, accurate and honest so here goes.

I ordered a 9'4 gato heroi death dagger off Robbie Kegel, through the squire who had organised for him to come and shape some boards in newquay. I've previously spent a lot of time looking at these shapes from afar and felt pretty sure i knew what i was getting. What i actually got, despite the laminate, is different from any death dagger that i have seen for sale in US or Japan, different from the board an accquaintance in Oregon owns, different even from the death daggers posted for sale recently on the Gato blog. Among other things, it's only 9'3 and the nose width is at least an inch and a quarter less than anything i've seen them make for this model before. Needless to say, i am slightly gutted. Brendan at Gato agrees it's not the stock shape, Robbie himself seems less than helpful. Unfortunately they're a whole ocean away anyway. Sadly the board doesn't sit in my quiver where it was supposed to and as a result i'm not sure how much it will make it out of the bag. I had been warned to be careful with ordering but had thought this was a fairly safe way of doing it. It's not the squires fault either in my eyes, i hasten to add. Interestingly i know RK didn't want to put gato laminates on the boards he shaped here, perhaps thats because he didn't want the evidence of having let his customers down. I know i'm not the only person out of the episode who didn't get exactly what they asked for.

I must be clear that i'm not saying it's a badly made surfboard. In fact it's beautiful to look at with abstract glass and volan flex fin. It's heavily foiled and SO narrow, it's almost like some kind of shortboard gun under arm, all sleek and pointy. It doesn't paddle well despite it's exceedingly flat rocker, perhaps due to the subtle roll through the bottom but more likely due to lack of foam. Once you've taken off it is fast in trim though and feels lovely to jam hard rail buried cutbacks or deep crouched grab rail bottom turns. It's more akin to a midlength egg off the tail, smooth but quietly radical. So far so good.....

Sadly it's up front that things are not as they should be. It will noseride, just, in the pocket of a steep wave but the nose is so narrow that there isn't enough room to fit ten toes over and that narrowness means it is difficult hang five in anything other than a cheater position. Obviously, it's not supposed to be a nose rider and i didn't order it as such but if you watch footage of knost or others riding this shape. In fact if you watch segments of Gato's own DVD showing the model off, you will see that it should pocket noseride better. Of course you will also notice that the nose width on the death daggers  they are riding is close to 16 inches or more, not 14 1/4 like my board!

I'm left feeling frustrated. I like it but can't help feeling i'd like it more with a 15 1/2 or more nose width like i thought i'd ordered. Left feeling that the waves it will suit best as it is, are waves i'd probably be riding a shortboard in.

The saddest thing i think is this. I am a fervent believer we should support hand shaping, custom ordered surfboards, made by craftsmen not factories and yet the argument for doing that is to get a board you actually want. Instead i must settle for something that isn't exactly what i ordered with no prospect of resolving the problem without sending yet more money in a direction that i'm not entirely sure is deserved.

compare this:

 9'3 dagger in Ca........

with this:

my 9'3 "dagger"

Obviously it's a little difficult to show in pictures but hopefully most will agree the nose template is different!

the lookout..

Overlooking a certain righthand point, this might be the coolest place to live round here, also the coldest right now, probably lucky the current resident is off in warmer climes

the waiting...

I think this was the last time we had a proper fun little swell up here, feels like months ago.

troenen

A slightly unusual beach hut? 

Really it's one of the many abandoned German bunkers that littler the beaches of France. Thankfully us Brits are assured a warmer welcome now than we were 70 years ago!

I got a copy of the new Captain fin movie, "Rip shred tear" last week. Pretty short but some really high quality logging from the usual suspects on show. Highly reccomended!

boats@concarneau

lost in translation..

Retro French busker in the citadel in Concarneau. Sure his songs & instruments were all very vintage correct and i'm normally a fan of culture, but man he sounded terrible!

R.

She'll hate that i posted this but i think it's a cool portrait.
Happy 6th Birthday to my beautiful daughter today too. You fill our lives with so much happiness!


Corduroy lines has it's first ever paper issue out now. It's been a labour of love for Simon and each issue has gone from strength to strength. It's a real treat to be able to hold a copy rather than read it online.  Check here and order yourself a copy!

they are waves jim....

 but not as we know it....... The Gardner contemplates another wasted lie in!

suits you sir

The last couple of months i've been testing this Nineplus stylist wetsuit and so far i'm very impressed. The latest generation of suits seem a real step up in quality from the last nineplus suit i had a couple of years ago. Mostly single lined 3mm Yamamoto neoprene, it's soft, fits like a glove and is supple and flexible too. Seams are glued blindstitched and spot taped on stress points. The "shorts" area in particular feels very flexible, you aren't aware of the seams in this area at all.

Closure is with a back zip and a generously sized "batwing" collar underneath to keep it watertight. It's a warm suit and i'm looking forward to getting my full leg version soon which i'm sure will be even warmer!

The big problem with the Nineplus suits i've owned in the past has been durability but so far it doesn't look like an issue thats going to affect this suit. All in all, stylish, warm, flexible and good value for money.

retail therapy

Being the assiduous student of surf culture that i am, and secretly enjoying shopping more than most blokes, we visited plenty of shops on our trip. Probably the raddest was "the captains helm" in Oceanside. Owned by Mitch Abshere of captain fin fame, it's best described as newquays revolver on a US scale with motorbikes instead of tattoos!

A little further north in Laguna is Thalia Street Surf shop, somewhere i was keen to visit having ordered boxes of t shirts on a couple of occasions in the past. It's a cool little shop with a friendly owner, Nick and stocked to the gills with todays cool brands of clothes & boards. In pride of place on the counter was Dan Crocketts "the kook" surf newspaper. Really cool to see something thats pretty english in it's inception and style being loved by the so cal locals

a little bit of sam's magic

9'4 Anderson Breakwater model with C street in the background. I rented this board from mollusc in venice for the first three days of the trip. It's a classic paralell template noserider 19 x 23 x 16 x 3 ish with a nice foil, plenty of foam but not too big and blocky, pretty flat with nose concave and a decent kick in the tail. Really pretty similar to my favorite gulfstream and a board i really enjoyed surfing.

Interestingly (to me at least) was that it came with a 9.75 inch greenough 4a fin. Not the template i would instinctively put in at home on a noserider, but one that worked really well, held on the tail but loosened the board up nicely especially in the slightly faster point style waves.

Really i shouldn't have been so suprised, after all, greenough is a genius and the 4a is pretty much the template he encouraged Nat Young to use in the famous magic sam, the board he used to take the 66 world title and usher in the whole involvement school of surfing that led to the shortboard revolution etc.

christiaan

Christiaan Bailey, curator of the surf screen and one of the select club of people to have produced and sold a british surf film, perfectly dressed for a day at the beach in July.

toontown

woodie