this photo..

makes me want to go surfing!

alex knost via mark choiniere

brown microwave television

surplus to requirements

it may be my somewhat narrow mind, but i'd say some of the surfing in this clip, knost in the final especially, renders progressive longboarding as a concept somewhat superfluous. He effortlessly marries full rail cutbacks with lightning quick footwork, turning as hard as many of the three fin longboard pro's aspire too, yet still with the grace inherent in the traditional aesthetic.

Just my two cents but id watch that every day of the week instead of arm waving, butt wiggling and forcing airs on a board of a length more suited to something else....

anticipation!

A few of you might know that Robbie Kegel of Gato Heroi made a flying visit to our shores a couple of weeks ago. Hosted by the Squire himself, it was a week of merriment, mayhem and manufacture in equal measure by all accounts. Luckily John locked Robbie in the factory long enough to shape these boards and burn through 60kg of resin! They are all spoken for already as far as i know and to quote John are the bladiest things you ever saw! Personally i've found RK's approach to longboard design really interesting when spied from afar and i jumped at the chance to get hold of a board from this trip.

Mines third from the left, just waiting on fins to make it across the pond then she's good to go. Full ride report to follow soon-ish!

told you so....

just to prove tudor still has it, and to celebrate the fact that some good quality single fin action got some serious exposure with not a rubbish progressive longboard aerial in sight!

Sadly the clip misses knosts board pinballing through the pilings and a couple of harrison roaches good waves.

Although it's all "traditional" longboarding, there's an interesting contrast in styles, here's what Thos had to say:

 Knost's attractive style is like a meta-language, beautifully stitched onto his surfing technique. Cool, show-offy, contemporary, cultural. Tudor's flowing style is more like nature: as if he's somehow made himself as a surfer into a new species. Tudor reminds me of seeing dolphins and seals playing in the waves.

It's almost as if they have inverse psychological desires from surfing: Knost to develop his ego and communicate with people; Tudor to dissolve his ego and become part of nature.

I think he maybe has something. I've long felt that your style comes from within and says somthing about you and your personality, one reason that good style is difficult to force, i think you naturally have it or you don't.

Sorry about the gratuitous stealing of videos, back to homegrown pics for the next few!




p.s. meant to blog a link to this before and forgot. Sure it will relate to more than a few of you!

you scratched my anchor

You Scratched My Anchor - Trailer from RVCA on Vimeo.

from the peeps that brought you "tales from the black van" and pretty much guaranteed to be sick....coming soon.

In their own words, (thanks Mitch!)

After the lingering nip in the air from our frosty winter in southern california, who wants to be warm and snugly, go to the beach and get emotional about south swells? Lets all whip up a cold pitcher of fresh squeezed lemonade, drag the boobtube onto the back porch and gather the kiddies around. Here comes Alex Knost, Kassia Meador, Ratboy, Jared Mell, Tyler Warren, Mitch Abshere, Scotty Stopnik, James Reed, and Jai Lee!

Quite!

fresh fruit for rotten vegetables...

I just got hold of a copy of Steve Cleveland's new movie (the guy that made Another State of Mind). It's called Fresh Fruit For Rotten Vegetables and is available from Xtreme distribution. First impressions are pretty darn good. It doesn't try too hard to be an arty film, more of a classic surf vid with an upbeat soundtrack, a fair split of progressive and traditional longboarding, some shortboard, fishes and hulls thrown in and waves from Cali, Oz and some cranking barrels in Indo.
Highlight for me was Chad Marshall's fin first hang heels (truly mental). There is some stellar logging from Jai Lee, Knost, Pickle, The Marshalls and CJ Nelson. If prog is your bag, Bonga gets big barrels (great sentance no?) Harley Ingleby rips and Taylor Jensen pulls a couple of christ/rocket style airs on a 9 footer. Nice to see some new footage of Tudor too.
Well worth the price of admission!