Wood is Good

Green Machine for cousin Max in NY

2012-02-01T18:34:00.000-08:00

First foamy I've made in a few years. For long island beach breaks. I remember those days.

the Tony P 3, A 5'10" speed machine.

2012-01-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

This is Tony p's third board. He can make a hull. This one is super pinched out and wide. The rails are lean and stealth. This board is all curves. Nice and light. The tail is epic at 18 inches wide.

I need to ride that thing.

Vac bag

2012-01-25T22:02:00.000-08:00

A composite surfboard. All three pieces become one solid structure.
Sucks all the air out of the bag into one giant clamp to fit every curve.

Mowing foam

2012-01-20T21:43:00.000-08:00

foamy in progress

2012-01-04T17:01:00.000-08:00

for my cousin.

to be ridden in NY.

Needs hotcoat, polish, done.

Pinlines are fun and easy to do.

I like the green and black.

The Jet

2011-11-19T17:13:00.000-08:00

Next generation for me. 8'10, thin rails, 2 15/16 thick, and lots of drive. It weighs 23.5 lbs with wax on it. That's only 3 or so more lbs than an equal sized foamy with a longboard glass job. No foam here. It turns good and smooth, is comfortable in a juicy pocket, and goes fast down the line. Wood is amazing.

March on electric chlidren

2011-11-09T21:57:00.000-08:00

This wood surfboard is related to it's framework. It's also related to the shaping racks. The racks to the floor, the floor to the room, the room to the house, the house to the ground, the ground to the sky, the sky to the universe. This surfboard doesn't exist merely by itself. If it were floating in empty space it would have no form. It's form exists because everything around it exists. It is related to the whole universe, and when it moves, the universe moves.

Pieces of string.

2011-10-24T00:37:00.000-07:00

This is a pic of Andreini, Tony P, and me. Sacred craft, 2011. Camping in Mike's back yard. Andreini is my favorite shaper. His booth was real good. All hulls. That man charges ocean beach on 9-11 foot single fins. He schooled us on fin design.

Take these thoughts, put them in your basement.

2011-09-27T00:23:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco surf scene is the coolest one I have experienced to date. It's my favorite.

That's my good friend Brien. When he surf's he charges. He's been living in that house for a few years now. He's up in Pescadero, a really cool little place. He built that house himself, and tends to a few acres of veggies right next door.

It's important to get your hands dirty every little while.

Above is a beautiful unridden wave. The sets were head high and the lines were long. Up here I don't surf alone. I found several great looking waves with nobody out. There's lots of big sharks. It was fun when you finally found a place where somebody else was in the water.

BT Cruiser

On my way home the ocean was blown out. I was also tired from surfing my ass off for 5 days straight. I had no intensions on surfing but then I pulled up to this spot I haven't been to in years and years, on the central coast, and it was amazing. Really clear green water, stiff warm offshore winds, 3-4 people out, and the most beautiful 3 foot round and green spacious barrels imaginable. The offshore spray had rainbow in it. It was like being in a painting. A great way to end an amazing adventure.

Let it fall where it lands

2011-09-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

Took the first sandwich board I made, and changed a few things. The tail was too pinny so it had no drive. I cut it off and made it rounder with cedar. Then I routered out the fin box, and put a new one in 4 inches forward. A single fin with the trailing edge of the base of the fin a foot up from the tip of the tail, works the best for easy long driving turns without having to walk around too much. Routering out the old box felt destructive, it was fun.

Then loaded up the big rig with swim fins, a hand gun, a wetsuit a towel and some water and headed to my favorite beach to the north. Got deep into some dredging tunnel tubes that were only 3 feet tall. Nobody out. Good. Bicycles are my favorite tool of all.

i'm an old man.

2011-09-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

the last 8'0 was too thick and clunky. we'll see how this one goes. cedar fin. like to have the board ready for my trip up north, but if not, that's all right too.

Keep Projecting.

2011-08-23T21:34:00.000-07:00

When are you are finished growing, you're done. Keep creating. Keep growing. Keep living.
I made these clamps and they work really well. They clamp the same way a rocker table would. They are a bigger version of old woodworker clamps. I was going to build an actual rocker table for clamping, but it would have taken up too much space with the all thread sticking out. Unacceptable.

Below is Tony P's liddle inspired hull. 6'10. It's a beauty. A bit thicker than it's twin, and probably a bit better because of it. Sick.

fresh egg

2011-07-24T21:21:00.000-07:00

a little heavy and a bit of an experiment. I'm happy with the results. It's like a swiss army knife. Does a little bit of everything. My new go to.

hot water music

2011-06-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

It's hard to find your way through the darkness. It's hard to know what to believe. But if you live by your heart and value the love that you find, you'll have all you need.

Pic 1 - 8 footer in 2 pieces.
Pic 2- hollow structure.
Pic 3- custom glue technique.

Build it.

2011-06-06T21:16:00.000-07:00

Use your hands.

Building things.

2011-05-09T23:11:00.000-07:00

Making things with your hands is fun and theraputic. I love being in the zone.
I made this simple bookshelf.

And finally made a surfboard rack.

And my friend Tony P. has been coming by to shape his first board. It's a 5'10 hull. It's a beauty. We laminated one side 1 with a "champagne" resin tint. Gotta make some fins and keep it going. It's gonna be a great board. Below he's cutting the laps.

Broken, Fix It.

2011-04-12T20:04:00.000-07:00

This planer has been with me for a while now. Still going strong, except I planed through the wire.

All things good come to those for whom the good is all things.

2011 is a year of change.

2011-04-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

Resawn wood for 3 boards.
Stylish sign.
Good fin.

fin making

2011-03-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

Just when I thought I had board building pretty much down, I started making my own fins. One came out decent, three I threw in the garbage, and now I have it down. The foil is everything. All the curves blended together, no flat spots. Any surfboard will ride, and a good surfer can ride any board. But a badly foiled fin vibrates and skips in the water, and cannot be tamed by the surfer. foil with symmetry and curves.

Elephant Seals

2011-02-21T19:26:00.000-08:00

I had a crazy surfing experience. Had to weave through the elephant seals to get into the water. It was me, the seals, and 3 people surfing a beach break. Not too much around. I could not believe the size of some of these seals, and how close I had to get to them to enter the water. It was intense. It was out of my hands.

Being feet away from a 2000 lb animal is something else.

Also have a board ready to be glued, shaped, and glassed.

vacuum pump out of retirement

2011-02-05T16:22:00.000-08:00

This thing is neat. An egg in the works. Cedar and redwood skins. Might be a bit heavy because it's standard PU foam from an old log, but it will ride.

It's fun to use wood in a different way.

barrels everywhere

2011-01-29T18:48:00.000-08:00

"I think that anyone that has gone out into the backyard shed and put ten boards under their belt is just as capable of coming up with the most exciting board they've ever ridden as anybody that has shaped 20,000 of them. Probably more so because now the pruduction shapers are finishing most of their boards with machines, and the boards have become sterilized. I think a lot of really good boards need some wacky component to work against: some straight spot or some weird little kink or bump that kind of lets you work against it." -Dave Parmenter

Pic 1 - spots are breaking that rarely break because the swell has been so good.
Pic 2 - building up the rails. Gotta finish this sucker.
Pic 3- Re shaped an old beater foamy from a few years ago. Glued on some wood rails with old wood I had, and am gonna vac bag some skins onto it. Old board given a new life. Might ride it a few times and ship it off to NY for when I visit.

Then I have two more boards scheduled to be made. Hollows.

Spend your life riding waves.

2011-01-17T19:09:00.000-08:00

Buy surfboards made in the usa, by the hands of a human.

" Shaping a board on a keyboard is a cop-out. It totally sterilizes the seedbed of any future design; no great leaps will ever come out of it. Great leaps come out of the backyard, from mistakes, from passion, from wanting to get out in the water the next day. It will never come from a sterile, dust-free environment----never. It will always be the backyarder". - Dave Parmenter, in his interview with Andrew Kidman in the new Surfer's Journal.

Pic 1- my beloved chickens. Laying 5 or so eggs a day.
Pic 2 - organic vegetables, grown by the girlfriend not too far from here.
Pic 3 - Camped 200 yards from this wave. Not a bad time.

been around

2011-01-06T19:59:00.000-08:00

Been making some curves for some extra light ribs. I am trying to make this board as light as possible.
I also dug out the hull from behind the shed. Gotta put it in the water to rinse the cobwebs off of it. Swell is pumping.

I was away in NY for a bit of time, and did some thinking about surfboards. I was thinking that big surfboards, 8 feet plus, are really awesome. If you take your standard modern log, pull in the nose two inches, it becomes the most well rounded surfboard out there for hte widest range of conditions. You can find speed and go fast in 2 foot point waves, and tube ride double over head puerto escondido. You can surf any waves well on a modernized long surfboard. Modernized means a flat bottom and an edge in the tail. Single fin too.

Riding big surfboards is very recreational. They let you ride the wave, and make the most out of any conditions. Watch the hawaiian greats Duane Desoto, Bonga Perkins, Lance Hokano, Dino Miranda. They surf 3 foot Waikiki and tube ride backdoor all on the same surfboard.

For me, I have better luck with the tube on a big board. Get in ealry, delay the bottom turn, crank it over at the last second and hope for the best. To find the righ line and commit, I need the extra setup time.

Longboarding is about sharing. Catch a wave, smile, and hoot the next person. Shortboarding, you wait a while, finally catch a wave with enough juice to cook, do a few turns, kick out, and battlte the current for 10 minuets back to the top of the point.

In the end though, it has more to do with the rider than the surfboard. We all have to do what feels good on the wave.

It is what it is.

2010-12-11T12:23:00.000-08:00

I just recently purchased these fins after losing a fin in some heavy beach break. These fins are nice and soft, and they are made in the USA. They also float, which is amazing. They are Viper fins. .

It's funny, these day with all the hype about China this and China that. We were at the top, then we conciously made the decision to ship our manufacturing over to China, and now they are going to be at the top. I mean, we actually made that decision in the name of cheap goods, in the name of our wallets. We shipped our status as the most prosperous nation on earth to a different country, and gave them the global reins. That is funny..

We were too rich and everything was too easy here, and we wanted more for less and less money, so we did one of the most unpatriotic things we could ever do. We invested in third world countires instead of investing in ourselves. Now it's going to bite us in the asshole.

A 9'5 has begun

2010-12-04T13:56:00.000-08:00

First pic is the skins in the chiropractor. No numbers or computers will ever outperform a good eye. I'm almost out of that cedar, which I have used for about 5 boards. Super knotty and twisted wood. I love it. I developed many techniques for working with it. Gotta glue it up straight.

Also just finished that stringer. 4 inches nose rocker, 3 inches tail. flat point throughout the center to match my center wide point.

Hand tools rule.

Fresh Wood and Chickens

2010-11-13T23:15:00.000-08:00

This is a updated 9'3 moonshiner. Resin tinted cedar fin. She's a beauty.

The chickens have been doing great ever since we killed Big Pun, the rooster, and ate his carcass.

That's Missy Elliot, Salt N Pepper, and Blacalicious up front keepin it real.

Long Island Fin and a gloss coat

2010-11-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

Gotta pull the tape at just the right time to avoid drips. I love laying down a nice hot gloss coat. The long island fin has just enough rake for drivey arcs on the wave, and just enough straightness for pivot.

"To hell with political campaign charades, I'd rather dig a hole in the earth,
than to listen to a coward from a tailored world, be hard pressed to carry their own worth.
Instead leave the death and the work to those who suffer for freedom and food.
Fighting for family and home at hand, and dying for nothing for you."

good things

2010-10-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

picture 1 is the fish in the car on it's way for a surf. also two rolls of fiberglass, and 1.5 gallons of epoxy in the milk crate.

Picture 2 - two hand guns ready to ride. I've been hand boarding more than surfing latley. I have also been spending a significant amount of time in the tube. These things are really cool. The other day I didn't have one on me so I used my sandal as my hand board, and it worked awesome. you can use anything. Wood is more beautiful and floats better, though. Just a little bit of planing surface lets you ride flat sections and get in early to set up for the barrell.Finished and sealed with natural Tung Oil.

components.

2010-10-09T17:00:00.000-07:00

Most of this process involves gluing. Mill the wood. Spend 10 hours cutting, truing, and gluing the rame. then glue, clamp, glue, clamp, glue clamp. And eventually, in time, you have a surfboard.

A wise carcass once said:

We begin to die when we decide to stop living.
Death catches the fixed. The sitter before the walker, and the walker before the runner.
Live thrives on movement.
Live thrives on activity.
Death is not a stalker, always looking for us. Death is a scorekeeper tallying up how much we love life and how much we are willing to work for it.

We die when we stop living.

surfing pictures

2010-09-25T18:51:00.000-07:00

These were taken a while ago by our friend Vikki. She's a great photographer. The photos are taken at a great spot that nobody really goes to. It's B class and there are A class waves very close by. That makes it uncrowded and fun. I was riding a midlength board. It was cedar, but the rails were never right and it was a dog. I could ride it ok, but it was a dog. Brought it down to central america and it ended up getting destroyed on the plane. Traded it for some food at a restaurant and now it's hanging on their wall somewhere. It's ok because my boards ride much better now. Also attached is a pic of Shawn setting up her line. I think that wave may have closed out which is why she looks hesitantly graceful. She may have had to swim in from pretty far out to retrieve her board after that.

fresh fish

2010-09-18T18:49:00.000-07:00

6'5 for shawn. 18 lbs. Resin tinted handle for easier carrying. . It hasn't been wet yet but it's gonna happen soon. Redwood is amazing. It's awesome to have such easy access to so much redwood in this fine state.

glassing them on

2010-09-12T18:46:00.000-07:00

Glassed on two bamboo fins. Glassing on a fin is more work in my opinion, than installing a box. It's more difficult to get it straight and foiled perfectly. It's a little more difficult to be mathmatical with the positioning, but it works out in the end.

Glassing is a process, that's for sure. It would be a luxury to have somebody glass the boards for me, but that would cost probably twice as much money, and I like doing it from beginning to end. Maybe when I am an old man I will feel differently.

almost ready to ride

2010-09-04T09:46:00.000-07:00

The fish is in the clamper as we speak, with the deck being permanently attached.
Soon it's time to glass. Also check out the two bad ass lawn mowers to the right. Damn.

The surf has been pretty good the last week and a half. That's the best.

Here is a funny video posted on the coolest website I know.
the majestic plastic bag.

Fish Progress

2010-08-20T23:17:00.000-07:00

Surfing opens your heart.

Pismo and foamies

2010-08-15T11:40:00.000-07:00

A wood surfboard always makes a good photo. We went up to pismo because our friend camps there with his beer and his ATV. Hundreds of atv's on the beach and on the dunes. I was the only person in the water. Waves were decent. Crazy.

And above are the foamies in the family. Purple is the ultimate beater. It's a piece. Then a 6'10 liddle. Good board for waves around here.
Then a 9'2 red/yellow swirl. I rate that board a high B +. I have been trying to perfect that shape for a while now and I think the next one will be it.
Behind that, a 9'2 farberow. Old. I ride it once in a while, and we recently had it in central america and it went great. I might strip it down and vac bag some wood skins onto it one day. Maybe.

fresh fish skin.

2010-07-30T21:33:00.000-07:00

Making a 6'5. Kind of long by fish standards, but it will work for what we need. Width is great but I still like a touch of length. It's nice and curvy. It was a lot of fun to make the curves.

Freshy

2010-07-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

All wood.
29 LBS with a strong glass job. Always epoxy.
I love working with knots. Most hollow wood boards you see don't have any knots, they use clear wood. Where is the fun in that? Trees have branches which create knots that look beautiful. They are challening to work with but it's part of the process of working with wood.

This board is pretty light, and paddles like a boat. I love me a pointed nose. Round noses are the standard longboard nose, but a pointed nose works better for everything except surfing with all your toes wrapped around the snout. This board is fast.

Almost a Unit.

2010-07-11T20:01:00.000-07:00

Walk the path overgrown

Never to lay awake

And if so for goodness sake

Walk around enjoying silence.

Big Rig

2010-07-01T22:12:00.000-07:00

Rode her to the beach and back. 15 miles each way. The ride there was fun, and then I surfed too long, and didn't bring food. The ride back was brutal towards the end. I thought I wasn't going to make it. But I made it. Everything pictured, except for the bicycle, was made in my house/garage. Do it yourself.
"You going all the way to the beach with that thing?"
"Yea"

A 1 week wait

2010-06-12T18:38:00.000-07:00

1- top of rib fits into bottom of stringer.

2- Fin block for a fin box.

3-completed frame. It's being glued to the skin right now, with 3M 5200 as the adhesive of choice. Takes 7 days to cure.

Beginnings.

2010-06-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

Picture 1 - Two new tools added to the family. Router bit made in my home country, as it should be. Also picked up a really nice Japanese file. Japanese hand tools are one of a kind. Buy things made in countries that you respect.

Picture 2 - 10 foot by 3/8ths CDX plywood. I am a human CNC machine.

No Construction Secrets

2010-05-28T22:20:00.000-07:00

Building a surfboard with wood skins and wood rails, or a surfboard that is all wood, is a beautiful process. It takes a long time.
Pic 1- The rough pieces beginning to come together.
Pic 2- With the blank foiled and the foam dust on the way to the landfill, I can begin marking my rails. I spend a lot of time marking my rails so the shaping process is quick and accurate. I wish blanks came with decks that were flat instead of domed. I like putting my own curves into it and end up spending extra time flattening the deck before I shape so my rail measurements are exactly what I want them to be. Woodworking is more rewarding than foamworking.

Wood shop is open

2010-05-20T21:27:00.000-07:00

Picture 1 - Skins ready for glue
Pic 2 - Saw dust after I finished re-sawing enough wood for two boards. Donated it to the compost.
Pic 3 - anti sneeze mask.

5 sessions

2010-05-09T21:15:00.000-07:00

I love this surfboard. It feels stiff and strong like a hollow wood, but light and airy like a foamy, because it is.

compsand ready for glass

2010-04-30T22:06:00.000-07:00

Picture 1 - My RobinAir pulling 15 HG through the night.
Picture 2- A vac bag clamping in a way that no clamp ever could.
Picture 3 - Ready for glass

Compsand coming together.

2010-04-19T17:37:00.000-07:00

Rough shaped. Ready for skinns. That Bosch planer has been with me for a few years now, and although not as meditative as planing wood unplugged, it's a great tool for all the rough shaping I do. I wanted to hook it up with a photo to give it some props.

Gluing wood to foam.

2010-04-15T17:16:00.000-07:00

Blurry pic. This process is a lot of fun.

Pink Seeder

2010-04-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

A Seeder model, updated. Some improvements to the rails. Hard to tell exactly what color a resin tint is going to be once you poor it on, sometimes. This is my first foamy in a while. Im happy with the board, but my color work could use some improvement.

re-sawn

2010-03-13T13:38:00.000-08:00

Used the saw on some cedar yesterday and have it glued for some skins. I have a pretty good supply of cedar right now. And a bit of Dougy F for the weird parts.
1/4 inch strips ready to go.

Off to Central America for two weeks.

See ya.

Blue Glider

2010-03-06T16:50:00.001-08:00

Board was hot coated with a blue tint on the bottom. I did this because the glass I used on the bottom didn't turn out good. It was glass that was over a year old, half opened in a piece of paper collecting saw dust. It looked fine when I rolled it out. Looked totally clean and perfect. I laminated with the glass and the glass wouldn't disappear. It looked like one giant dry spot almost. So I was pissed. Almost cut the board into 3 pieces and burned it in the fire pit. Then Mike gave me the idea to tint over the lamination and try to salvage the glass job. I did it, and it looks decent. Glad I didn't saw this one up. Also threw a poly gloss on it.

New skins

2010-03-04T22:07:00.001-08:00

Fresh skins. Not sure if I'm going to use them or not.

1/8 inch thick.
24 wide.
10 feet long.
Flexible.
Bookmatched.
It's a re-sawn tree.

9'1 hollow glider guts.

2010-02-07T13:08:00.001-08:00

Finished hand trays.

2009-12-10T19:14:00.001-08:00

Each one is different, as is each tree.
I love wood, and I love natural oil finishes.

A few things.

2009-11-06T19:40:00.001-08:00

Been working on a hand plane design. Body surfing is king.

Findings of a 165 lb 5'11 male:

1-Boards from 5 to 6 and a half feet don't really paddle well at all, no matter what shape they are. I know people think their 5-10 fish "paddles like a longboard", but it doesn't. Impossible. Take your 5'10 out to the top of the point on a head high winter swell with a 5-10 knot north west wind and catch a wave on it, and spend the next 20 min paddling back up to the top. Only the best can do it.

2-Boards from 6'6 up to around 7'6 feet paddle pretty well, and can cover serious flat sections if they are full volume with a nose of at least 16 inches wide.

3- Mid sevens is when a surfboard really starts to float you.

4- An 8 foot surfboard floats your whole body, head to toe, and lets you paddle totally out of the water without dragging your feet, but lacks paddling momentum.

5- Boards 9 foot plus paddle like you aren't on them. You can get one up to speed and stop paddling and glide forward anouther 6 or 7 feet due to your momentum.

That's my summary.

7'6 Rain Drop

2009-09-30T08:06:00.000-07:00

This one is 7'6, and came to me slowly over a few years time.
It's a glider, and an efficient wave riding machine.
I wanted something that sat low in the water and connected to the wave, but something that was a bit more stable than a true greg liddle hull. I wanted something similar to a skip frye eagle but not quite as long and a little less related to the longboard. This surfboard was built with somewhere in between those two surfboards in mind. I wanted the glide of a hull, but wanted the board to be a bit less sensitive, and much more rigid because thin glass jobs on foam don't last long.

The board had to be good in 2-4 foot waves, since I live in socal, and it had to have enough volume for me to drop into a 3 or 4 footer and go straight, and then bottom turn at the last second and end up in the pocket.

A true midlength ready for action.

Ready for Glass

2009-09-17T20:59:00.000-07:00

A lot of times, technological advances aren’t advances, they are technological differences.

Sometimes new technology doesn’t make our lives better, but more complicated.

There is a differences between progress and change, and what’s new is different, but it’s not always progress on a human scale.

My power planer broke, because it's got a lot of plastic on it and too many parts, just like most modern hand tools.

I shaped the whole board with the #5, a tool with hundreds of years of history, and a tool with ancestors that date back to the dawn of humankind. Unplugged. Sweating.

And then a cell phone saved me at the beach because I locked the keys in the car.

Some Shit.

2009-09-04T20:03:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, these days, I think people follow numbers, computer screens, and robot technology more than their hearts. Sometimes.
The local surf reports surely said the waves were 1-2 foot and junk.
I rode my bike to the waves, rode them!
And I washed off all the hot weeks stinky grime.
The waves were 3 feet, soft and sectiony, and beautiful!
Glassy and smooth, but still a bit disorganized from the happenings and rumblings of the day. Something that happens to all of us on certain days.

It was me, the ocean, the 80s pink California sun going to China for their morning, and so many bait-fish around that they would jump with almost every stroke of my arm.
It was me, and two pelicans diving.
Riding one of my favorite faces of a special wave.
That none of the California folk see fit.
You gotta trust your feelings, and let them roam.
And you need to stay on the ground.
and to not listen to almost anybody else.
Common sense is common for a reason.
You need to live your heart.

Ready for Glue

2009-08-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Frame on the rocker table, gonna glue it as the sun comes up so I get a long work time before the glue dries. Top picture is a few of the pieces of the board coming together. A lot more pieces in the garage.

Fresh Outline

2009-08-21T23:10:00.001-07:00

A wise person once said that a surfer should begin and end his or her life on a longboard, and ride everything else in between.

I'm not being born, and don't plan on dying for a while, so this 7'6er in the works should do me right.

check out that tail. wide point 4 inches forward. 16 inch nose.

Engines take things places.

2009-07-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

Above is the test pilot for the latest woody, relaxin.
Below is all wood.

Back.

2009-07-20T22:07:00.000-07:00

Trip was good. Board rode good. It was lo0ser than other boards I have made with a D fin. It is the first time I've ever used a D fin on a pintail.
Nothing like sleeping the car in a new town and waking up next to the ocean.

9'2 Seeder

2009-07-18T21:00:00.001-07:00

For my resident farmer, in exchange for unlimited organic vegetables.
The template was taken from her favorite board, but I flattened the rocker some, and beefed up the rails just a bit. Probably re gloss it again in another 5-10 years, as that's pretty much all the maintenance a wood surfboard ever really needs, unless you lose it really good to the rocks. It's good knowing she will have a surfboard to glide in the curl with that will last her the rest of her life, as the foam boards are starting to get a little beat around here and they aren't even that old.

Change is good

2009-06-16T11:03:00.001-07:00

Above is Mike on his 8 foot wood surfboard getting dropped in on by a dolphin. The picture was taken last week and is down in San Diego.

The insides of the woody about to get cleaned up, glued, and finish shaped and glassed.

home-made

2009-05-22T16:20:00.001-07:00

Logging today is nothing like it was during the 1800’s, and in most of Northern California there are as many redwood trees today as there were there originally before the industrial revolution. Forest management practices have sustainability in mind these days, especially in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which boasts some of the strictest forest management policies in the state, and even the country, and there is still enough wood to go around, it just costs a bit more, which is great.

In the Santa Cruz mountains, the rules go by a term called “selective logging”. This means that loggers have to abide by a strict set of rules that make it so the ecosystem can keep on living even after the tree harvest.

The laws were as follows 10 years ago in the SC mountains--loggers were only allowed to log 60% of the trees with a diameter greater than 18 inches, and 50% of the trees between 12 and 18 inches, and may only harvest an area every 10 years. From a woodworking perspective, and from a perspective of a person who cares tremendously about nature, I feel this is fair.

Truth is, a lot of the forests up in Northern California are second or third growth forests, which goes for just about all of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Most of the land clear-cut in the 1800’s is replanted today and is healthy forest. It is said that unless you knew what you were looking for, and were pretty cognizant about tree size and age, a person could walk through a forest being “selectively logged” and not notice that any operations are taking place. That’s pretty good. This goes to show that it’s totally possible to preserve our natural resources while we make use of them at the same time. It just takes some consideration.

It’s ok to cut down some trees if some are left alone, and the rest are replanted.

On average, it takes 10 thousand board feet to build a home. The amount of wood it takes to build a surfboard is pretty insignificant compared to that.

the lines of the shaper

2009-05-20T11:27:00.000-07:00

The wood shop has been in full effect.
I went to sacred craft the other day, and it was awesome.
There was a lot of really beautiful surfboards there, some good wood.
The foil of a surfboard is unique to the shaper. It's like a painting or anything else with a human element. Certain shapers have wonderful trademarks, and my favorite surfboards are the ones who contemplate function first, then fashion. The best surfboards come from shapers who surf often and well, and put a lot of research and development into their surfboards. Dennis Ryder, Mike Vasco, Gene Cooper, Michael Junod, tried and true. Free thinkers. Idols. Their research is better than other forms of research, because instead of using labs and machines and scientists, there is no better way to explore the workings of surfcraft than to ride the board in some good waves. There will never be a surfboard tester that provides scientific results as to the fastest surfboard, or the one that has the most glide, because waves are too complex. It's all about the builder.

wood surfboard party

2009-05-07T21:32:00.000-07:00

Went to San Diego to show my friend the board I just finished, to meet his family, and to surf.
These are the boards we messed around on. All his except for my moonshiner 9'8.

9'8 Moonshiner

2009-04-08T10:02:00.000-07:00

A new tree

2009-03-20T21:44:00.000-07:00

I'm gonna try to sprout a couple trees for every surfboard I make. I wish I owned some land to plant them on, so in 15-20 years I could cut them down and make surfboard out of them, and plant more trees.

This tree is 1.5 months old.
This is also my new logo.

Ready for glass

2009-03-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

On top of that surfboard lies one item on the list of "if i could only own 3 things". Lie-Nielsen, made in Maine.

2009-03-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

together at last

2009-03-02T20:53:00.000-08:00

Clampin.

2009-02-27T15:46:00.001-08:00

bulletproof rails

2009-02-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

wood is so good

2009-02-12T23:53:00.001-08:00

Pic 1- I don't feel right when my blades aren't sharp. They need to be sharp at all times.
Pic 2-redwood/cedar plane curl. Perfect joints make two different pieces of wood into once piece.

Four things I love about hand tools:
1- No loud noises. I have sensitive ears.
2- No dust mask needed, no dust up my snout.
3- For the most part, except with regards to resawing, they are just as efficient.
4- Most importantly--When using hand tools, you really feel the wood. You feel knots, and the hardness and softness of the wood. The tree from which this wood came from that I'm using to make this surfboard is around 50 years old. That's too amazing to tear apart with loud electric spinning blades. The wood deserves better. That's the truth.

It's a combination of incense cedar and heart redwood. The redwood is a bit heavier, but a bit softer. I can feel the different densities through the blades of my tools when I work with the skins.

true colors

2009-02-09T11:11:00.001-08:00

I love cleaning up dirty rough wood with glue marks. It's so good.

California Bear

2009-01-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

A foamy, glassed by my friend.
I laminated the bear on after, and glossed it.
I rode the board briefly once and it floats great.
It rode pretty good, and felt like the plank we all wanted it to be.

It has some obvious imperfections.
Do it right the first time.

Foam is good, wood is better. Shaping trees is more fun than shaping coffee cups.

Tails

2009-01-12T22:52:00.001-08:00

Tail shapes are important, but not the most important. They make good surfboards better, though.

It takes a while to feel a tail doing it's thing. It takes lots of sessions on a single board in all kinds of waves, but especially on perfect waves. Tail shapes aren't as drastic as rail shape or length or thickness, but they do have their effects.

It's fair to say that square tails have more drive than pin tails, and this is because square tails have more surface area at the back of the surfboard, which translates to more board pushing more water around turns, which gives a square tail more drive.

Pintails often produce less drive because there is less wood (or foam) pushing water during a turn.
Shortboards for average waves should have square tails, but traditional longboards are best shaped with a pintail.

Pintails fit into the curl better, period. They nestle way up into the curl perfectly, helping the board sit right where the power is, right where the nose riding is, right where perfect trimming and smooth cover ups happen. All variables constant, if you were to stand perfectly still in front of a perfect wave, like rincon, a longboard with a pintail would ride slightly closer to the curl than a squaretail. It fits there more naturally simply because there is less board at the tail, compared to a square tail which has more board. A square tail has the corners that stick out into the wave curl as it is going up, and this drives the board out in front more than it does a pintail.

The board swings around quickly, like a pendulum, so you can keep it simple and to the point.
If pivot turns and curl riding and smooth fluid jazzy surfing are what you have in mind when you think of longboarding, a pintail brings it all together a little better.

Sitting low in the water.

2009-01-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

Surfboard making has the ability of being very creative, because there are a lot of different ways to accomplish the same goal when making a surfboard.

For example, you can make a big surfboard looser by pulling in the tail a bit, or you could leave the tail nice and fat and bring the wide point back and do the same thing in a different way.

You can also make a board not bounce and be cheap by making it heavy. You can make a modern railed surfboard heavy and it won't bounce. But it still won't ride the curl right, and the rails will catch when you pivot. You can make the board lighter, and let the rails do the work. The rails let it sit low and engage in the water in a natural way.

For me, the most important component in a longboard is it's ability to sit firm in the water, and to sit low. A little bit of "drag" makes it just right. Pure planing doesn't suit watercraft. Dealing with the elements--the ocean the wind and the waves, requires more.

There is a 9'0 high pro longboard in the family, that I ride sometimes. You can tell that whoever shaped it knows what a longboard is supposed to do, because it noserides good, but because of it's pancake flat bottom all the way around, and it's edge in the tail, it bounces a lot. It's hard to get a clean noseride when the waves are bigger than 4 feet because it skips and jumps at all the ripples, even on glassy days. It also always outruns the curl because of it's planing bottom.

A longboard, meant to be what it is, needs to sit low so it doesn't bounce, so it holds its line, so it can ride the most critical, the most powerful part of the wave, naturally. It needs to lock in the curl, because that's where wave riding is at it's best.

Flat bottoms and edgy rails are good for shortboards, which do whatever they want whenever they want, in any waves. But when you have 9+ feet of surfboard, apply the same designs and the costs outweigh the benefits. It turns something with beauty and grace in it's length, to a half assed version of a shortboard, and a half assed version of a longboard. It doesn't longboard right, and doesn't shortboard right. They had it right in 1967, and thanks to the traditional longboarding movement around today, it's getting even better.

moonshiner internal frame

2008-12-20T16:52:00.000-08:00

Edward Abbey

2008-11-20T16:53:00.000-08:00

"Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am-- a reluctant enthusiast...a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So go out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains, and bag the peaks.... and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over your enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box... I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards."

- Edward Abbey

wrenches

2008-10-11T15:07:00.000-07:00

I have this red wrench that I use for almost everything. It was my dads, and I think I stole it from him when I moved out west. When I was a little kid, I used to fix my bicycle with this wrench and strip all of the nuts, and never put it back in it's place, and I would get yelled at. The tool reminds me of being a little kid and looking up to my father. I still look up to him.

Tools--especially hand tools--are such a great thing to pass on through generations, because the good ones, the planes and chisels, haven't changed since the year 79 ad, which was when the first plane was discovered. I have a picture of a roman plane from a hundred or two years after that, it's transitional, with wood and iron, but it too is exactly the same! They still make them exactly the same. My #5 jack plane is one of the most effecient tools that I own (next to a band saw), so much so that I hardly ever use my power planer anymore unless I'm shaping a foamy. No electricity and it's a powerhouse and it will last until the world ends. Just gotta sharpen the blade every couple weeks. I just inherited a bunch of my grandfathers tools, honed them up, and I can almost feel his hands on them when I use them. Just holding them is cool. It would be neat to pass on surfboards the same way. I don't care how heavily you glass a foam board, it aint gonna last. Making something that isn't built to last is most of the time pretty pointless.

speed

2008-10-10T21:03:00.000-07:00

Been thinking a lot lately about speed. I remember when I first started riding big surfboards, my favorite part was the speed. I wasn't sure which went faster, a long or short surfboard, but knew that the speed was much more noticeable on a bigger surfboard because you could feel it speeding up and slowing down. On a shorty, it's sinking or skimming.

Last time I surfed, this though was revisited. On a big surfboard, you get to play with speed. On a shortboard, you always want more speed, unless you are surfing 6 foot perfect tubes, in which case you stall.

But longboarding deep water head high waves lets you speeeeeeeeeeeed. You can take off going fast, stall the tail and almost make the surfboard stop moving, then run up to the nose and the board takes off again and goes really really fast, then the section ends and you walk back and turn, which slows you down because of your water sucking rails, and then it reforms and you can go fast again.

It makes for a very interesting surf. Things like that make it never get boring.

i'm a surf bum.

2008-08-06T20:59:00.000-07:00

And that's the truth.