Dextra Paipo

So i have been looking for a Paipo for a while now.  Well, a few months back I finally bumped into one at the Long Beach Flea Market.  I had to grab it up.  Its a Dextra and measures just shy of 3'10".  It has a few dings around the nose and tail but besides that is in pretty good shapre with the original fin.  Pretty stoked on it and have started the repairs already on it and have a spot on my sons wall all ready for it, although all he wants to do is ride it.

Wonka Bar

There is something very cool about a fish.  Not sure what it is.  Could be the fact that they look so damn fast or could be that they work so incredibly well and are so fun to ride.  The last fish i had was back in college and was 6'0" and there is no way i can ride that anymore.  Thought i would make one a bit more appropriate for me.  This board that I affectionately call the Wonka Bar is 6'6" with twin bamboo keel fins that made from plyboo stock that I have.  The thing was fun to shape but is even better to ride.  Good break from my longboards, and i don't catch as much grief from my shortboard friends. Pardon the shots, i hadn't cleaned up the board yet.......

Republic Hull

So I have had a fascination with Liddle Hulls for a while now, just as many Californians have had over the years.  My wife and her brother went to school with Greg's son and from the second she told me that I started my research.  They are truly amazing boards, and seriously crazy rides. I thought I would try one.  Unlike Liddle I thought I would step up the graphics on it a bit.  I asked my dear friend John Culqui to do up some graphics on the board.  As always he did not let me down.  I asked him to do something with the California flag or California in general, my other fascination.  Well he did an amazing painting of the Bear Republic Flag, the original California flag.  Still in amazement every time I see one of his paintings.  The board is based off of one of Liddle's Stubbies and measured 7'0" with a single flex fin and knife rails and a sand finish, had to stay true to those features.  Thanks John for the most amazing graphic to date.

Look at me, two posts in one day.

So i finished the 6'-0" mini-simmons that i started back in my first blog. Turned out pretty good. I have though come to the realization that I suck at glassing. A few hundred more boards and i should be all set. The board is way fun though. Definitely has taken some time to get use to. Did have a bit of a setback a bit ago when I took one of the rails to my cheekbone and thought I crushed it. I still have a dent there and a nice annoying click from time to time. Serves me right using so many damn layers of epoxy.

The Endless Summer

Ok, so it's been a little while, and I use that term is the loosest way possible, since I put anything up on my blog, so once again it's time. I thought a great way to get back into it is with something that really made me smile. So back in 1966, my Uncle Terry had the privilege of being part of an event that any surfer of my era that has any respect for the history of the sport of surfing wishes they could have been witness too, that is of course the original screenings of The Endless Summer. If I remember correctly, my Uncle saw the movie at one of the South Bay High School's auditorium. Bruce was there narrating in person with the whole gang. Pretty damn incredible if you ask me. I have always felt that I was born in the wrong decade and in fact should have been born during the glory days of surfing, this just proves it. So a few years back my Uncle gave me the original program that was given out to all that attended. It is a 8-1/2" x 11" magazine with the background of the movie and of Robert, Mike, and Bruce with some really cool adds from the likes of O'Neill and Clark Foam. When I got it I just about fell over, I put the booklet into a frame and hung it on the wall, where it has lived. The last couple years that I have attended the Sacred Craft show i have missed the opportunity to have Robert or Mike sign it. Well this last Sacred Craft in Ventura was finally my opportunity. Robert was in attendance at the show and was gracious enough to take the time to sign it and talk a bit about the movie. It was truly a highlight for me, i couldn't stop smiling. Robert's son was there taking pictures of the program and Robert told me that he has only one of the programs, it was a copy that his Mom put away in a trunk when the movie came out. For me it was very cool and a highlight of the year.

A Great Start........

So it's the New Year, or at least a few days or actually weeks off and I have been trying to start this blog for a while now. While normally my philosophy is "why procrastinate today, when you can do it tomorrow", I decided I needed to get off my ass and actually do it. So here it is. Not exactly sure what form it will take but over the weekend my son Michael, who is 5, and I started to shape a new board so I thought this would be a great point of departure. I would call myself a true longboarder. For the past 15 years I have been exclusively riding noting under 9-0, with the exception of a fish thrown in there for fun every once in a while. I had an 8-0 shaped a few years back; it is a Harbour Spherical Revolver. I didn’t take to it too well at first. I don’t think I was in the state of mind to truly appreciate it. Lately I have been pulling it out and shaking off the dust to give it a chance again. I absolutely love it now. I never thought I would ride a “shortboard” again but here I am. So when I picked up a couple of old beat up Clark blanks from the shaper that is in the next building to me I decided to try and shape something other than a traditional longboard. I have been surfing now for almost 27 years and have always wanted to give the world of shaping a try. I shaped a fairly traditional 9-8 noserider a few months back and now I am venturing out to a new realm. The board that Michael and I started to shape over the weekend is a 6-0 Simmons Hull. Big departure from the normal day to day ride. We started with the template, then cutting out the blank, and then starting mowing some foam. Michael was gung ho the whole way even though he couldn’t see past the mask that took up over half his face.

It is one of the most fun things in the world to shape, but doing it with your 5 year old is pure joy, especially when he tells family friends at school that “we shaped a board and shaved it. You know, I’m really young to be shaping a board!!!” Just the best thing I have heard ever. We got through most of the rough shaping, rails and most of the rocker. Something tells me that when we get this board finished I’m not going to be able to ride it very often, which is just fine with me………