Bamboo for You

Marlin Bacon of 101 Fin Company makes beautiful things from one of the fastest growing woody-stemmed grasses on Earth. Unlike timber harvesting, bamboo is a renewable resource and can be harvested without killing the plant itself. With bamboo, you can eat the shoots, build scaffolding a mile high, and hand-foil super strong fins with an insane flex characteristic.

Check out more of Marlin's fins at 101fins.com >>>







5'5" double-wing quad fish
20" x 2-3/8"
Spirulina Resin Tint + Polish
Bamboo Canard Quad Cutaways
For Kerry >>>

Galaxsea Crawler

I have a friend who's a general contractor/green builder who's built like a lumberjack, eats whole loaves of bread for breakfast, and can roll a cigarette riding a motorcycle no hands at 90 mph. He wanted another board to put some deep pressure dings in, so I shaped him a round pin 2+1. Our mutual friend Nat Russell came by the shop with his bag of tricks and unleashed the Galaxsea Crawler.

"Holy fuckin' flanging shitballs of radness!" - Eric P.

"Omigod, that's so rad!" - Rat Dolphin

"Whoa." - Honey Bear


Click on that yo...

Round Pin 2+1's

Here's a 5'11" round pinner shaped for the Mollusk Surf Shop in New York. It has the same bottom contour as my stub, with a single concave blending into a double-concave through vee. It's going to have some 3" side bites and a volan flex fin ala True Ames. Instead of a stubby nose, I opted to shape out the ears and use a nose template not unlike those found on my fish:

5'11" RP 2+1
16" nose
20.5"
15" tail
2-3/8"





yeeeeeeeooowwww!

Stubby Love

A few months ago I got a custom 5'9" stub from Marc Andreini and I haven't really surfed anything else since. The board goes like magic and I'm able to do most everything I'm capable of doing on a wave on this board.

I talked with Marc Andreini about the design and he gave me a few tips on how to integrate the single/double/concave vee through the rocker specific to this design. He also gave me the nod to shape them and continue to bring stoke into the world. I've shaped four of them already and I'm making another four more for Mollusk in SF and NYC. Andreini was pretty stoked that I was into the design, which he says, "It's something we used to ride when the waves got good." I can only imagine what those guys were up to in the 60's and 70's in Santa Barbara on these boards at the points.

Here's some photos of a 5'11" stub I shaped, plus some photos of the 5'9" Andreini.








The magic Andreini 5'9" stub...





A closer look at the small side fins and the volan flex fin.

A Visit to Ol' Blighty

Here's a few photos from my recent trip out to the UK for the Fish Fry in Woolacombe Bay. I have about 600 more photos in all, but here's a few favorites:

The view from my private jet.

The proud Cornish flag at the Black & White Factory.

Pete invited us over for a nice dinner with friends at his 800 year-old haunted house in Hayle. Pete used to be Princess Diana's personal bodyguard.

Got some fun little waves right out front of our rental house in Putsborough. The 12' tide swings really gave the spot a few different faces during the day.

Woolacombe Bay.

A lot of people drive turbo diesel vans in the UK which get about 40-50 mpg. Even Ford makes one out there called a Transport, which gets about 45 mpg.

A lad and his Morris Woody.

These folks like fish.

Skelly and "The German."

Phil the Silverback sorting out the new lam configuration. Phil is a large man at 6'4"/300#, and I shaped him an 7'11" bonzer so he wouldn't eat my lunch.

Ian and I would walk miles after shaping to various pubs in the middle of nowhere. We'd see one on a hilltop a few miles away and start walking in the general direction.

9 p.m. and still plenty of light out...time for a pint!

Best warm beer I ever had...

Slaving away at the Black & White Factory.

Some bat-tail quads for the Surfed Out shop in Barnstaple.

Pirates lived here.

Land's End.

Friendly neighborhood basking sharks.

Richie and crew coming up the trail from another Cornish secret spot.

Some new friends I was fortunate enough to meet in Sennen.

BioFoam Quad Fish

I got my hands on a few BioFoam fish blanks this week, and they're turning out to be pretty nice to shape. Here's a few for Chuck and Candace Menzel's new Wetsand Surf Shop...

Marine-ply Canard Quad Fish for Jonathan...

Here's a board that I just picked up from Moonlight...came out pretty sweet.

5'9" double-wing quad fish
20.25" x 2-3/8"
MP CQC
tapered basswood stringer - blue glue
coke-bottle blue resin tint
gloss + polish

Fins by John Cherry
Glasswork by Moonlight

Shared photos...

Here's some photos that people have been sending me over the past few months...