Inspiration 2.0

Pilgrim Film: Manuel Caro from Pilgrim Surf + Supply on Vimeo.

As far as I'm concerned, California is pretty much ground zero as far as surfboards are concerned. There are two or three shops that always have a huge selection of mouth-wateringly beautiful resin tinted logs, eggs, fish etc. Icons of surf in San Clemente is always good to drop into with friendly staff and a board room that would make your Visa card sweat!

Further south is Mitches North which has a similar but different selection, usually with a couple of Manny Caro's Mandalas tucked in amongst the rack. Manny cut his shaping chops up in San Francisco with help from Rich Pavel and was initially known for a superb version of Pavel's speedialler, double bump quad fish ( believe me they are SO good!). Since then Manny has moved to Leucadia and found his own path, mixing elements of hulls and Simmons but putting his own twist to create something that's a little different than many of the mini Simmons influenced designs out there. Similar to Jeff McCallum, many of Manny's shapes are just that little bit quirky but they all work great. He's a really nice guy too if you ever get the chance to meet him.

I've been a little bit obsessed watching the clip above. Classic playful, glassy Californian waves and the smooth fast lines of a Mandala ASQ quad ( for most of the video, the last two waves are an arc tail quad which is closer to a normal mini sim) It looks like a real fun board, generating speed like a mini sim but carving more like a quad fish. Whether you believe the "variable rocker" flex in the tail or not, it looks like a fun board and one I'd really like to try!