Photo grade paper, watermark embossed, A2 posters, $35 plus postage.
G&S Highlight
I took this 6'0" G&S single fin triple fly channel bottom pin tail for a surf today. I love this board for a few reasons-
1) It was free. I found it in a council rubbish throw out.
2) Its width and thickness make it really easy to paddle and catch waves.
3) Its length and channel bottom make it really loose, fast and easy to turn.
4) Its big single fin and pin tail make for beautiful smooth turns with lots of speed and great hold with no side slipping.
5) It was shaped by the late Shark Island legend Greoff Solness.
If I ever shape my own boards, and I will, this will be the first board from my collection I'll try to reproduce.
The humble single fin pin tail is a sorely under rated surfboard design.
Greg Solness, shark Island photo by Darrel Jones.
There was a group of guys flying radio controlled gliders at the top of the cliff above the reef break I was surfing.
I couldn't help but compare the similarities between the two past times.
Surfing and gliding are both weather reliant and take you close to nature.
Every guy was trying out his own hand shaped glider design.
The paint jobs on the planes looked like surfboards sprays.
But mainly the trill is in the the turns, sweeping arcs and the joy of the ride.
New Zealuwatu
This blog is about innovation in surfing and one of the most influential innovations in surfing has been the use of satellite images and swell maps.
When leaving Auckland the other day I was given a realtime look at how a low in the Tasman generates swell for the west coast of NZ and the east coast of OZ at almost the same time.
The swell map was proved absolutely accurate by the photos.
3ft of swell on Sydney's south facing beaches.
8ft of swell hitting Manukau Heads on the outside of Auckland harbor.
I was amazed at this set up on the south side of the heads.
A huge, long, left hand set up that was breaking for miles, that I have named New Zealuwatu, in honor of Bali's long left to the north.
I have googled Manukau and cant find any images of people surfing there.
Either its highly protected (likely) or I've discovered a new classic left-hander (unlikely).
Deus Surf Market and Swap meet.- Confirmed!
Keith and I have been overwhelmed with responses to the Deus Surf Market on the 12th of December.
Confirmed stall holders include-
Andrew. Signed copies of Switch foot.
Phil Jarratt Back Beach Noosa. Paper surf collectibles and surf art.
Aaron- Spunk records. Alt surf tunes and DVD's from Aaron and Andrew Kidman, Last Hope, Glass Love, Litmus etc.
Brent- Sea Surfboards Byron Bay. Fanzines, surfboards, vintage inspired beachwear.
Geoff- Hawaiiana, homewares, collectibles, vintage surfboards, 50's beach umbrellas and towels.
Pup- Vintage Californian beach cruisers and parts.
Uncle Keith- Boards, vintage skateboards, vintage Surfer and Surfing mags, posters.
Scott- Surf collectibles & BMX.
Shorty- Collector extraordinaire. Boards, skate boards, collectibles, www.vintagesurfandskateemporium.com.
Wayne- The Mambo King. Posters, loud shirts, memorabilia.
South Coast Paddy- Vintage surf clothes, board shorts, tees etc.
Josh- Hookapu, Byron Bay. A grade vintage boards, prints, posters.
Campbell- Founder of Monster Children Magazine. Huge collection of original art. Thomas Campbell etc.
Pete- Driving the Woody down from Noosa Longboards. Long boards and a shipment of vintage Hawaiian shirts.
Seb- Soul Surf Connections. A huge trailer load of collectible vintage surfboards.
Mike- Sandy Feet. North coast collector
Scott- Vintage beach crusiers and parts.
Rod. Vintage boards and memoribilia
There are 2 stalls left.
Stalls are FREE.
The event will be advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald, Tracks, Waves, Pacific Longboarder, Aquabumps.
These pics by Mark are from a swap in LA recently. But they sure get me excited!
If you want to get in on the last spots call Keith on 0417 217 530 or Damion on 0409460178.
New Zealand 80's classic.
I had to go to beautiful Auckland for the day last week and following my own advice I tried to log on the ebay.co.nz before my trip to see what unique NZ surfcraft would be waiting for be there.
I was shocked to discover there is no such thing, instead they use a site called trademe.co.nz
Treademe claim to have 1 million members which is pretty impressive considering there is only 3 million people in New Zealand.
Sure enough I found this little beauty up for auction, made in Auckland and in fantastic condition, ending on the day of my arrival.
Sadly a heavy night of drinking and dancing on the bar in a Cowboy bar led to completely disabling hangover that left me unable to summon the energy to find 'New Market' and barley able to make it back to the airport, so the board was left behind in its natural habitat.
Fluky camera phone.
I surfed one of my twin fins at this point today and on the way home I stopped to check it from the top of the hill. I held my iPhone up to my binoculars and clicked the button and was stoked to see I fluked a shot of a guy taking off and his buddy paddling out!
Aeriel shot by Tony Reid
Bondi is nice, but......
Bondi can be beautiful but after 20 years of living and surfing at Australia's most crowded beach I recently moved out of town to get myself a shed and some uncrowded waves.
So far, go good.
.jpg)
photos taken this week by coastalwatch.com and Eugene Tan @ aquabumps.com
Larry Bertlemann- 'Anything is possible'
My new Facebook friend, Larry Bertlemann, has just released a beautiful new range of reproductions of his famous collection.
Theres an order form at the end.
Print it.
Do it.
The McCoy brothers and their Hawaiian cousin.
Tim from Pure Life Surfboards Hawaii wrote-
Aloha Damion,
I've been enjoying your latest blogs with the McCoy boards. Thought I'd shoot you over a few pics of my McCoys & accompanying fins. I dig the Lazor Zap shape, mine is 5'10"x20"x3 1/16" full "texture deck" top.
Hope all's well with you over there "down undah"...!
I was on the Far North Coast and because the surf was tiny I decided to drop in at the Mc Coy factory to see what they have been up to and I was stoked to see Geoff doing modern replicas of this historic design.
Puberty Blues- Australia's most influential surf movie
Puberty Blues is an Australian movie based on Kathy Lette's novel about growing up the the surf side suburb of Cronulla in the late 70's. The story climaxes when the two heroines overcome their hardships and prejudices and buy their own board and just go surfing. The movie made a huge impact on me as a kid growing up in love with surfing. But it wasn't till I watched Bombora - The Story of Australian Surfing that I realized just how influential the movie really was. A number professional surfers in the documentary site the movie as one of their main inspirations to get involved in surfing. World champ Mark Occhilupo actually scored a extras part in the movie as a 10 year old grom!
The highlight of the movie for me is seeing the board they buy. A square tail single fin with an unbelievable spray of a leaping tiger on the bottom. To me it is one of the most collectible surfboards in Australian surf culture history. I have been doing my research on who shaped it and where they bought it. Apparently there were two surf shops in in Cronulla in 1981 when the film was made. With help from my friend Sam who worked in one of the shops at the time (and rumor has it played the part of the shop assistant who severs the girls the chicko rolls) we have worked out is was a locally made G&S or Emerald and probably came from Steve Core's Surf shop.
This board needs to go to the Museum of Australia and hung on the wall next to Ned Kelly's helmet and Phar Lap's heart.
Regrets, I have a few.......
I found this Mc Coy single fin on a surf trip up the north coast a few years ago. It was a nice board, it had a great spray. I tried to surf it a few times but it was too small for me, so I sold it.
I didn't pay any attention to the 'Mc Coy for PAM' in the stringer, nor did i think much about the size or who it could have been shaped for.
Till my friend gave me on old copy of World Champion surfer Pam Burridge's biography. I flicked through the photos and my heart sank. The provenance of the board was clear. The board was right through the book, Pam rode it right through her career. It was probably one of the most historically important boards I had ever come across and I let it slip through my fingers.
C'est la vie.
You win some, you lose some......
You win some and you lose some and I lost this one.
A 6'2" Hot Buttered single fly, rounded pin, tail single fin.
Don't know where, don't know when...........
Huge reward offered for its safe return.
(joe dirt, this means you)
OP Pro 1985- Competitors tent.
Tom Curren feeling the pressure before the final of the OP Pro at Huntington Pier in 1985. Tom lost to Mark Occhilupo thus sending Mark into a 10 year party frenzy. That all ended happily, as we know, but what I would like to know is who do those boards belong to, who shaped them, and where are they now?
We can see Occy's Rusty Preisendorfer and Tom's Al Merrick.
but who was riding the red jet fins?
also competing in the finals that day were.....
Tom Carroll on his Byrne.
Mike Parsons.......?
Micheal Ho..........?
'Ces' Wilson on his Rex Marsel?
The McCoy brothers
Erik from San Diego wrote- I've been wanting to do an "Innovation Period" inspired shape and thought I'd pick your brain on some of the dimensions on those shapes. I'm particularly interested in some of the shorter/wider/fuller tailed shapes like some of the McCoy's I've seen pictures of. Do you think something like 14.5" nose x 19.5" wide point x 16" tail is in sort of the rough ball park for that type of shape in the 5'7" to 5'9" length range? Thanks for any insight you can share.
There is nothing shorter, wider and fuller than the Geoff McCoy designed 'Lazer Zap' and to a lesser extent 'Tri Zap'.
I got out the ruler and set square and did wide point measurements every 5" up from the tail.
I can't get over the uniqueness of these boards. Their in shape, style and sprays. To me they still look futuristic 26 years on.
Geoff describes how he developed the design on his web site
"After returning from Hawaii in 1971 I started the twin fin revolution. Short wide and thick in the beginning and then later I re-designed a longer, narrower thinner version similar to the twin fins in use today. I was continually experimenting with varying rails, plan shapes, thickness and rockers. I moved on to the wide tail single fin design known as the 'Lazor Zap'. These designs were short, wide and thick. I took most of the area out of the nose and added more width to the tail area. The 'Lazor Zap' is the forerunner to the modern short board."
Ben Lexan and Cheyne Horan.
photo: Waves Magazine No:12 1985.
M.R.U.S.A
James Arroyo sent me these pics of his lovely 6'3" U.S made Mark Richard's twin fin.
The entire board is pigmented white with the geo spray on the deck.
I believe MR licensed his design to Gordon and Smith in the states but I don't know who did the shaping. And didn't they do a damm good job on this one!.
This looks like it was made with the cursed Star Fin system that has become so hard to find these days.
In Australia the twin fin design was licensed by Mad Dog in Byron and was shaped by Mark Platter, Bob Margettes and Tony Cerff.
I visited the show room late one night recently and left drool all over the glass as I was left pinning for one of the new twin fins on the racks.
Ad from 'Surfer' November 1979.
Echo Beach pt. 2
In the 1980's Newport Beach spawned a new era of high performance surfing and entrepreneurship, establishing Orange County as the focal point of the surf industry and a worldwide influencer of youth culture.
This group of surfers came from different backgrounds and interests, bonded in their surfing and exploded on the scene, creating a unique look and revolutionary style that paralleled changes in music, culture and the innovation of young surf companies such as Quiksilver, Stüssy, Schroff, Rip Curl, McCoy and Wave Tools.
Flashy wetsuits, colorful surfboards, and a new wave attitude created a surfing Mecca that was to impact the surfing community around the world and give rise to a global industry.
Photographers, surfers, surfboard shapers, magazines and clothing companies all came together to create this movement, which was focused on a one hundred yard stretch of sand between 52nd and 56th Street known as ECHO BEACH all of which is captured in the new film called ECHO BEACH.
Growing up on the northern beaches of Sydney wearing polka dot board shorts with a hot pink muscle top and flouro braces (yes, braces with board shorts) all I could do was draw Schroff style graphics on my board with marker pen and pretend I knew what was going on.
Once again Mark has supplied the pics from Cali from the launch party of the film. Lucky I wasn't there cause I don't think those boards would have survived the night.
Ace Cool.
When ever anyone asks me what name I would give my son my answer is immediate.
I would give him the name that I would have liked to be introduced as in the play ground on my first day at a new school.
'Ace Cool'
Ace Cool, also as known as Alec Cooke, was credited with riding the biggest wave ever when I was growing up in the early 80's.
A time before 'tow in' and when big hairy water men were few and far between.
Not universally respected, Ace holds place close to my heart as I remember reading stories if him being spotted drying off after solo 50ft sessions at Kenaea Point and being pulled by helicopter from closing out Wieama Bay.
Imagine my stoke when my good mate Mark sent me these pics of an original 'Ace Cool' custom board at a swap meet in California.
He didn't buy it, but I'm just glad to know quirky classics like that are still floating round out there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
