9.5 Minutes Well Spent

This is the loop that John Smart recently showed at Tyler Warren's opening at Surf Indian. I must confess I slept on it until today. The Tyler Warren Experiments looks like it's going to be a great movie with some great surfing, some great music, some great art and some great surfboards. There's even a White Pony in the trailer. Great!

Pass the Pedialyte

'Cuz this kid is totally SICK!

Seriously... Dude's got way better skillz than his old man at 18 months old. Note his ability to get super low and the positioning of his hands, not to mention how he's looking down the line at the next section he's going to shellack.

All I have to say is, "Nico, surf!" and he does this, board or no board. Well trained.

Almost Famous

Somebody just let me know that I'm on the Mandala website, riding my 2+1. I went over and sure enough, there I was, amongst such surf luminaries as Alex Knost, Joe Curren, Tyler Warren, Dan Malloy, and the Man(i) himself. The anonymous commenter who informed me that my 15-minutes was ticking also pointed out that I need to toe-in my back foot. I'm definitely rocking the duck-foot stance there... Which reminds me that I should send Manny a picture riding the RPQ where I have ever-so-slightly better style.

I'm not worthy. Seriously. But it's pretty cool.

My Space

Here's my situation:
I sit here in this room all day long
with my brand new surfboard
mocking my inability to ride it.

I hear it laughing at me, man.

The mountain range has been too snowy
for early-morning surf missions.
And I took a bunch of writing gigs
to compensate for some upcoming vacations.

I guess things could be worse...
By all accounts I'm not missing epic surf.
And I'm spending this weekend at the beach.
And I do have a few trips to Mexico planned...

White on White

My new board just made an appearance on The Swallowtail Society yesterday. As with anything Manuel Caro makes, it looks like pure magic. I shudder to think of the ledges this will inspire me to throw myself over.

6'7" Mandala Round Pin Quad
20" x 2.5"
Lokbox AK4 fins
Tapered red cedar stringer
Moonlight Glassing
Clear, wet-sanded gloss (So CORE!)

Thanks to all who contributed to last year's birthday board fund, and to Manny, who's a great guy and an amazing shaper.

MGMT - Time to Pretend

He Walks on Water

I surfed with one of my heroes this weekend. Gerry Lopez, aka Mr. Pipeline, aka The Goofyfoot Guru, was out at PC on Saturday and Sunday on his stand-up board. Can I actually say "surfed with" if he was 300 yards outside of the line-up, paddling into bombs and making stand-up surfing look appealing? That's right. Gerry is the first stand-up surfer I've ever seen use etiquette on one of those things, grabbing big outside waves that only he could catch, then plowing down the faces of the overhead bombs and connecting them to the inside, kicking out just before the big close-out at Gas Chambers.

After the session Saturday, as the sun went down, I was taking a hot shower behind the Pelican and Gerry walked by. He gave me a nod and I said casually, "Hey." After he passed, I looked down at my hand which--completely on its own--was shaking a cheeky little shaka at the legendary surfer. It was like some weird subconscious reflex. I felt like a total kook.

Anyway, that evening over a glass of wine I lamented about not having a camera. I usually take pictures on all my overnight trips to the beach. The next morning when we woke up at the beach house and checked the cams, the shot of Pacific City captured a figure who appeared to be walking on water. It had to be Gerry again. When we got to the beach, he was still out there, stroking into the mysto peaks that crumbled on the outside bar.

It also was really cool to surf with Gaz today, who was riding his Mandala as well. He informed me that his son's health is improving, which made a sunny day even brighter. And shout out to Morgan, who lent me sunblock and told me he reads Sissyfish!

Roni Size - Heroes

How to Disguise a Bad Ding Repair

Here's the first ding on my Mandala. It occurred when I dropped into a "bomba" at Panga Drops, realized that the wave was going close out, kicked out the back, and underestimated just how much speed I'd gotten off my bottom turn. When I looked down with my feet still on the deck, I discovered that I was about five feet up in the air over the back of the wave. By that time my legs were fully extended and I had no way of softening my landing by bending them again. First my heel hit the middle of my board with karate-like precision and force, then my ass hit it. At first I couldn't find the ding and I thought I could keep surfing. Then, to my dismay, I saw the 3-inch impression running down the stringer, cracking the glass deeply along the wood.

When I got back to Playa Gigante, where we had rented a boat, I was informed that there was a ding repair guy in town who was capable of handling the job. As a matter of fact, he'd just patched up a resin-tinted Hobie that had suffered exactly the same injury, and the job looked fine to me! Unfortunately, when I got my board back it looked like someone had spilled a cup of coffee in the middle of the glass job. Oh well. It's under the wax anyway...

In other news, I got a great surf in today. The Mandala still works like a charm. Waist to shoulder-high peelers--perfect glass the whole time. Weird thing was there was a massive school of fish under the water that was so thick, you could actually smell them. The seagulls and pelicans were having a bit of a bacchanal.

Nazareth - Love Hurts

I Heart Mollusk NY

Hard to believe that around this time yesterday I was stumbling around Williamsburg, Brooklyn looking for the new Mollusk Surf Shop. But I was. And I found it perched on a corner loading dock near the Hudson River, covered in bright graffiti. I have to say that visiting the little shop was one of my favorite parts of my New York trip. Tyler and John from Mollusk SF were there helping Mike open the East Coast version of their legendary store. We ate shaved ice from a street vendor and talked surf (or lack of surf) shooting the breeze about boards and surf blogging. I was really happy to find out that some New Yorkers read my blog. Then I bought a t-shirt and a copy of Glass Love and headed around the corner to joint called Surf Bar (that actually has sand on the ground) where Gee and I grabbed Red Stripes in the sun. A perfect way to transition from the city back to the surf here in Oregon.

Mollusk New York is located on the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and River Street in Brooklyn. Stop by for their opening party July 7. Thanks to downtownfb for the hot tip...

The National - Mistaken for Strangers

New Board New Spot

Wednesday's session was started out pretty bleak:

1. Drove to the beach and hiked down the trail, waxed up the new board, only to find that the screw to attach my fin was missing.

2. Looked for a longboarder to borrow a screw from. No dice.

3. Waves seemed to be improving.

4. Turned around and found out that two crows had eaten half my sandwich.

5. Realizing I was literally screwed, hiked 20 minutes back up the trail, and burned rubber back to Cannon Beach before the surf shop closed.

6. As I'm screwing in the fin at the surfshop, the owner looks at my finbox and says, "I don't like the way your shaper did this. The fin won't slide all the way back in the box because of the knot from the leash being in there - it's going to create some kind of vortex, being that far forward." Manny warned me that people would look at the board funny, though.

7. Jumped back in the car and headed south.

And this is where I have to edit the story to protect the spot where I surfed (I'm no pimp). It was a new place. Let's leave it at that. I did want to review my new Manny 2+1, which I'm very happy to pimp.

The first thing I noticed about the board is that it got into waves really easy. The thing is greased lightening. I think the entry speed is as good as my quad. It was slightly harder to duckdive because it's 3 inches longer than the quad, but that's to be expected. I could still get it through some big whitewater. Finally, the board turned in a completely different way than the quad. It really did seem to "swivel" more off the back foot - which is exactly what I expected it to do. On the bottom turns, it seemed to be more stable, with more smooth flow. So that's really about it. I caught maybe 10 or so waves and was really impressed. I didn't notice anything weird about the fins dragging or interfering with water flow, but I'm no George Greenough either...

I'm really looking forward to riding it again tomorrow.

Daniel Johnston - True Love Will Find You in the End
(If you haven't seen the Devil in Daniel Johnston, rent it now! Anyone with any sort of creative compulsion will relate).

A Blue Diamond Is Forever

A person I know who used to spend a lot of time with Yvonne Chouinard told me they were together once when he received a custom surfboard he'd ordered. As Yvonne opened the box with the biggest Cheshire grin his face, he said: "Every man should know the feeling of having a new surfboard on the way."

Without further ado: my winged diamond tail 2+1, shaped by Manuel Caro of Mandala. It has fluted wings, glass-on bamboo side fins from 101 Fin Company, and a semi-opaque blue resin tint from the Moonlight Glassing crew. Dimensions: 5'11 x 20.5 x 2.625 (or somthing). Skip Frye Flex Fin finds the path of least resistance through the water, allowing for speed and snap.

You'll get a better report once I ride the thing. Manny is putting it in the mail tomorrow.

The Mountain Goats - This Year

It's Coming...

"Hi there, remember me?"

Just got word from Manny that he picked up my board and is getting ready to ship it. Hopefully it will get here before the south swell rolls on by... Oh, it's already almost gone!

Mark Kozelek - Have You Forgotten?
(It's going to be this pretty.)

It's ALIVE!

Yesterday I got a phone call from Manny Caro, who informed me that he was going to start shaping my board. I marveled at the coincidence, having just posted about it a few days ago. After discussng a few more details about the board: Did I want bamboo side fins from 101 Fin Company? Yes. Definitely magenta for color? Um, no... I imagined myself doing a long cobblestone walk with a board the color of a doggie dick... Maybe something that I can ride at ALL of Oregon's breaks without drawing too much attention to myself? Blue then. Cool.

Then, last night, I received an email with photos of my 2+1 winged diamond tail. Dims: 5'11" x 20.5" x 2 3/8". Damn. It looks beautiful.

Check out the subtle fluted wings, which are supposed to add bite on turns. The board is made for steep down-the-line walls (I can think of a certain hike-in mysto spot that provides these kinds of hollow waves). I'll probably ride it in most conditions though. Now all I have to do is wait 2 more months for Moonlight to glass it!

A few more pics:







Low - California

Pick a Color, Any Color

I finally got around to sending Mandala a color chip for my new board. Manny told me that I could pretty much pick any color from the paint store and the fine folks at Moonlight Glassing would match it perfectly. I wanted something a little different, so I went with magenta. You might call it hot pink, but whatevs. As a painter, I've never feared color. As a matter of fact, I'm most drawn to complimentary colors that "vibrate" when placed next to eachother. We surf in turqouise water, mostly, so magenta seemed like a shade that would pop nicely. It also kind of reminds me of the images LeRoy Grannis and Jeff Divine took in the '60s and '70s with the super-saturated Kodachrome film. The resin tints looked like hard candy.

[Ammendment: I went with my second choice of blue (see above) instead of pink. Call me a Sissy, but I want to be able to use this board in the kinds of waves that it is made for - which unfortunately do not always welcome flashy colors. I'll save magenta for my long board.]

I sent Manny an email to ask if he received the chip and a few more questions about the board. His replies are in blue:

1. Did you receive my color chip?
Got the color chip...killer.

2. Do you know anything about these environmentally friendlier blanks from Homeblown?
Waiting on soy foam from Homeblown...sweet.

3. When you start shaping my board, can you send a pic or two for my blog? (No prob if that's a big hassle.)
Pics...always.

I also found a really good interview on nysurf.com with Manny Caro where he talks in detail about his whole approach and the history of Mandala. A good read, if anyone is interested. It definitley re-stoked me on my order (now a diamond tail), which I placed ages ago.

Alex Smoke - Jah Future