HERE COMES A TOWERING SIX-FOOTER

HERE COMES A TOWERING SIX-FOOTER, AND FOUR OF THE BOYS HAVE CAUGHT IT
A moment of suspense, a whirl of the mounts, and they are off for a joyous ride.
The surfmen rise to their feet the instant the boards have slid down the advancing slope, clear of the foaming break which is about to curl over them.
A blunder now means a ducking in the blinding spray.
Two paddlers in the left background are waiting for the next wave.
Photograph and caption : Tom Blake, National Geographic Magazine May 1935, page 598.

A Change of Mindset

I ran across this picture in the latest Surfers Journal while reading the "Summercloud Dreaming" article (page 111). It was right after the big swell we had here on the West Coast in early December. I surfed that day on a 6'10" round pin. Sure it was nice to have the length to get into waves, but once in, as usual, I was wishing I was on a shortboard. It seems to me, Unless your surfing Blacks, most waves move reasonably slow around San Diego when it's bigger (at least after you make the drop). So, getting back to my original thought. The board in the picture measures 6'4" and I normally ride a 5'7 or 5'8 Fish. I think the board in the picture just might make a good board for waves in the double overhead (and then some) range. Seems like it would have as much volume as the 6'10 or 7'0 that I normally ride, but be alot more manueverble once I got in. Hell MR won 4 World Titles on Twinny's and I remember the footage of him surfing Sunset and looking oh so smooth. Just a thought.
















These Brom Gunfish Images Submitted by Coque, thanks.

Good Times in the Early 90's

Don't know how many times I saw them live. More than any other thats for sure. I just looked this one up, hit play, and the memories started flowing. Only band sticker I ever put on a car in my life. Probably the most fun live of any others that I experienced. Those were the days. Those were the days.

Zamora HP Fish

Here's the shaped blank. Ian surprized me with a tapered stringer, which, I think with Resin-X is going to add a nice zing. I'm super stoked on the shape. This is what I'll probably be riding when the surf has some juice, but isn't quite big enough to step up. It's 5'10 x 19 1/4" x 2 1/4". Color, well, I think I might have to copy that beautiful Midori Green that EHO posted on BREAKS SELECTION, but airbrushed instead of resin tint. Trying to keep this board as light and performance oriented as possible. I'm still debating on Lokbox vs. Glass-on Bamboo, but if I can swing the cost, I think I'll go with the glass-ons. Will be using the LB1/LB4 template. You can contact Ian @ ZamoraSurfboards@gmail.com

Looking 4 a Planer

Will be buying a new one at the end of the week if I'm unable to locate a used one. Either a Clark Foam Hitachi or a Skil 100(highly doubtful). Please send me an e-mail at garymurphy@cox.net if you've got something I might be interested in. Thanks.

A Boat Story

While trying to fall asleep last night my 5 y/o son drew this nice picture story. The boat is initially roped to the dock. Sailing out to sea. Then he's in a storm with really big waves. The last pic shows the boat riding out the big waves. At least this is how he explained it to me. There were about 6 other pics in between, but I think these pretty much sum up the story best.

Free Yourself

During that same era, if the Hoodoo Gurus weren't in my cassette player, then this one was.

I Didn't Want To, But I Had to Laugh

I was just getting ready to call it a night when I did a last minute check on the ERBB. I found this picture by Kolohe. It's not just the photoshop job, besides Jack-in-the-Box, Geico has probably had some of the funniest commercials in the last 10 years.

Bittersweet

Those of you who ate, drank, and slept surfing in the Mid to Late 80's should know it all too well. This was my favorite song of that era.

Yes, I'm a Closet Pro-Ho

Congratulations to Dane Reynolds qualifying for the CT. Hopefully he can lead the charge to bring the Championship back to the West Coast.

My Current Top 3-5

It's going around, so here is my entry:

Web Places to Check Every Day
1) Blogs to the left
2) Torrey Pines Outer Buoy
3) My E-mail

Surf tools
1) 5'7 Pavel Superbank
2) 5'8 Hynson Black Knight Quad
3) 5'8 Ambrose EPS Quad Fish
4) My August Project
etc.

Places I wish were my local shop
1) Not needed, everything I could ever want is down the street at Moonlight.

Things to watch on-line right now
1) ASP Contests
2) Trolls
3) Epic Swamis with 5 people on every wave.

Surf films I can't Wait to see
1) Musica Surfica
2) Hydrodynamica
3) Under the Sun

People I would love have shape me a board
1) Skip Frye
2) Daniel Hess
3) Tom Wegener
4) Zamora, DJ, Ambrose, GH, Marlin, CC, Josh Hall, OK I'll stop

People of inspiration
1) Tom Curren
2) Skip Frye
3) My Kids

RT Can Surf

Here is a very nice sequence of Warbles Blogger RT. I found it on the Nine Lights Surfboard website. It's nice to see fellow bloggers not only in action, but surfing quite well.

Resin X / Marlin Quad

Marlin was nice enough to let me wax this thing up today and take it out on its maiden voyage. Surf wasn't that great for a shortboard, plus battling with longboards (to be fair, I had just gotten done riding my longboard) made it even more difficult. One wave was pretty much all I needed. I LIKE THIS BOARD. It has life. POP if you will. I wish it was a decent day to ride it, cause I'm pretty positive that the thing is gonna be great. My next board will definately be getting RESIN-X. Hopefully more review in the future, when Marlin is willing to part with it for a couple days. Thanks Marlin and MATT. More cool Resin-X stuff over at SURFY SURFY.

Displacement Trailer

I'm still trying to get a handle on the whole Hull deal. Like I said in the post about "One California Day," I wasn't impressed with Jimmy and his Hull segment. Now I'm getting a little confused. I chanced onto the "Displacement" trailer and am again pretty inthralled. Granted most of the footage is sped up quite significantly, but it's lookin kinda fun. People in the trailer are actually engaging a rail and completing turns. Kinda cool. Getting another board probably wouldn't be as much of a problem as importing a nice peeling point break. Maybe we need to call up Rabbit and his savvy team of dredgers to form a nice little bank around our parts.

SUP Gathering - Right or Wrong?

At the end of November C4/Boardworks had a little SUP gathering at an already overcrowded SUP break in North San Diego. My personal opinion is twofold. I have surfed this break pretty regualarly over the past 6 years. 90 percent of the time I surf, it is at this break. I know most of the regulars and most of them know our family and have watched our kids grow up on this beach. I'll probably never be a true local, but I'm pretty sure my kids will be calling off Josh and Joel's kids in a few years. So, back to the SUP gathering. I'm not against SUP. I'm against the lack of etiquite. I've known the 5 or 6 good guys that have SUP'd at this break for the last 5 years. I respect them all. They are good surfers and are pretty impressive on an SUB. The problem lies with the rest. The new breed if you will. People that don't surf well are becoming dangerous. Especially at crowded breaks. This is also compounded by the fact that they truly are crutches to catching waves. I have adopted a new motto. Any wave that an SUP would NOT have caught on a normal longboard is fair game. In the other aspect, about a year and a half ago, I did it twice and thought it was amazing exercise. I even designed a board on APS3000 about a year ago. I was pretty stoked on the whole deal. I still want to get a board one day. Not really to surf, mainly to paddle for exercise. I see nothing wrong with pulling up to the reef and paddling the reef stretch to the north and back. Catching little forgotten peaks, that no one is surfing, in the process. I'd rather do that for exercise than run. I am not a big believer in SUP boards in the line-up. It was OK when it was just the good guys, but not so much now. So, back to the real reason for the post. Is it Right or Wrong to have this gathering at an already crowded break? I had alot of fun last year at the "Anything But 3" event and look forward to it this year. So is it hypocritical to say you guys aren't welcome, but me and my Fish/Bonzer/ETC buddies are?

Tom Wegener

I used to surf around Tom back before he moved to Australia. Always a nice guy that had a smile to share. I found this video while perusing You-Tube for shaping videos. Even though he's now living half way around the world, he's still sharing that smile.

Lumpy Wednesday

The burliest part of Cardiff today was making it out. The drift and inside close-out was pretty hectic. Way too much west in the swell. I paddled out in the rivermouth and didn't make it out the back until I had drifted to between Chart House and Charlies. Once outside it was about Double Overhead with the occasional bigger set. Lots of water moving around and pretty lumpy. Some decent waves were had between the closeouts and mush. Lots of nice drops that turned into mushballs after. Caught 4 waves in about 45 minutes, then was swept down to Chart House trying to get back out. Thought about walking back and paddling back out, but, after working overnight the last two nights, just didn't have it in me. Once back on the beach I was surprised to learn that a few well respected veterens tried twice and never made it out. That made me feel kinda good. Sleep made me feel even better.





Photos Courtesy of Surfshot

Zamora HP Fish is coming

These pictures put me over the top. I've been communicating with Ian over the last year or so about having him shape me one of these, but i've had some other things going on. I've always seemed to need the cash for something else. Well, I saw these and figured it was time. Will probably have my wife do some art on the thing and Marlin glass on some Bamboo LB1/LB4's. This will probably be my last board from someone else for a while. Hopefully from here on out I'll be able to rely on the boards I have and the boards I shape for myself. We'll see how that pans out.
















For info on Ian Zamoras boards, you can e-mail him at ZamoraSurfboards@gmail.com or click on The Degree of Slide Link to the left.

The Options are Endless

Photo courtesy of Griffin

Under The Bridge

With all the super high tides we've had, and the predominantly lackluster swell, a hobby of late has been trying to make it under the bridge. I think more people that have surfed Cardiff on a regular basis over the last 5 years, have made it under the bridge in the last few weeks, than any other time I can remember. I can't recall how many times I've heard, "Man, I just made it all the way through the bridge for the first time." Often coming from people who've surfed Cardiff greater than 20 years.

Chuck Elliot trying to set up for a shot.














I think I can, I think I can, I think I can














Not this time














This kid made it














And so did this one

My Black Beauty

You could say it's a pretty special board. I've gotten some great waves on it and it's usually my go to board when the waves have a little spunk. It still surfs great after 4 1/2 years. Andres Grillet painted a great picture of my 1st son on it when he was 1. He's getting close to 6 now and I can hardly even remember that pudgy little kid. Man time flies.

One California Day - The BrownFish Review

I wasn't able to see it at the Movie Theater due to family obligations. I had heard it was a little long, but have been waiting for this movie to finally come out on DVD. You see, in my opinion, thier really hasn't been any good Surf DVD's since Broke Down Melody, Shelter, and Sprout. I tend to like movie's that mix it up a bit and have a nice mellow soundtrack. Something you can play as background music while getting stuff done around the house or rolling around the carpet with your kids. I thought this movie would fit the bill well. The lowlights were: except Alex's longboarding, the rest of the longboarding in the movie was subpar. I've seen both Tyler and Jimmy surf way better than that. Jimmy's segment riding a Hull was plain boring. Rather ride a Fish, And don't tell me a Hull is faster, cause I just won't believe it. They coulda left that out. So now the good parts. The highlight of the movie was watching Joel take apart a certain local well known Barrel spot on a Keel Fish. That is a heavy wave and he just made it look too easy, especially on a Fish. My second favorite part was watching Alex Knosts longboarding. You may think or say anything you want about that kid, but his longboarding is pure genious. Tylers art is good. Best overall segment was by Far Joe Currens. His segment had great footage, great waves, and great surfing. The "Don't Miss" part of the DVD set is the 2nd DVD. Scenes not included in the movie. They are just as good if not better than what was in the movie. Overall I would give it a B+, definately something I will watch over and over.

The Brownfish Experiment

OK. I had so much fun working on, "My August Project," I figured it was time to do it again. This time with a real blank instead of an old beat up, delaminated longboard. This added some new experiences so far. I spent alot of time researching blanks, but in the end, just headed down to Mitch's and took the easy route. I ended up with a US Blanks 6'2A Fish blank. I'm pretty much going for something very similar to the M.A.P. 5'8" Quad Fish. I would like to improve on a few things. First being the nose rocker. I was somewhat limited last time by the shape of the prior board. I'm a pretty big believer in having some rocker in Fish, especially up by the nose. I think the speed that you lose, is made up for by the manueverability of the board. Plus, it doesn't hurt during those late drops. I'm also shooting for about 1/4" narrower and will probably pull the last 4-5" of the tail in a touch. I used the same template from my Orange Pavel Superbank (pictured in a different post below). I'm still new at this, so once again, I set the template a 1/2" too wide on both sides. This will let me work on getting my outline right, then re-templating and doing it again. This way I get to practice an outline twice on each blank. I think many new or first time shapers make thier biggest mistakes on not making perfect templates, and also not taking the time to make the outline perfect. So my first day, I templated the board, cut it out, worked on my first outline, then was done. My first outline wasn't as perfect as I wanted as my time was cut a little short. I didn't skin the blank on the first day. I didn't take pics on my second day (cause I was working while my daughter took a nap). That session I was able to skin the blank with a small rotary sander with 40 grit (still haven't used a planer, next time), thinned the blank down a bit, retemplated, and worked it down to my desired outline. So far so good. Pictures below are only from my first days work. More to come later.

MMM TURKEY

Happy Thanksgiving!

What did you do for your Glasser today?

They are the hardest working people in the surf industry and get the least amount of appreciation. Actually, in most cases they get complaints. Why did my board break when a Semi ran over it on the freeway, etc? So it's time to appreciate the hard work that they put into making our lives better by carrying out the business end of surfboard manufacturing. Luckily, my wife likes to bake and make deserts. Today Moonlight will be getting a nice Pumpkin Cheesecake to bring in the Thanksgiving Holiday. Better get to work early JP.

A Tribute to Bob

Bob used to be around alot more. He's got a new job and doesn't seem to be perusing as much. I've probably laughed more times about comments he has made than anyone else around this funky place we seem to waste our time on. So here is my tribute to Bob. Hopefully something great will happen to him, he won't have to work as much, and can entertain us more.

I Suck At Blogging

Why? I can't seem to find my camera cord to download pictures. I have a decent amount that I could post, but can't download them. Cord was last seen packing to evacuate for the fires. Truth be told, I've been living off stuff I already had or that I could steal from someone else. I spent 50 bucks on God knows what at Home Depot today, but can't seem to make it to the electronics store to pick up a new cord. I guess I'm cheap, cause I think it's gonna turn up, I just don't know when. So, Here is another pic I stole. I figure since JP brought this board up in my Bonzer post, I might as well steal one of his pictures and post it. I've caught some great waves on this board and for some reason it truly agrees with me. I haven't been riding it much lately, cause it's one of those, "Gonna keep it for the rest of my life boards," and I don't want to wear it out too much. Gotta knock on wood about that statement, cause the last time I said that, it was about my Brown Fish. That one got stolen out of my camper a few years ago. I still miss it.

Small Wave Wonder

This is my Ambrose Fish that I acquired about 6 months ago. A fellow internet addict found it on Craigslist and got it for a good deal. He mainly wanted the Speeddialer Fins. We worked out a nice trade and met in the OC, both with 6 month old baby's in tow. I used to get boards from Shawn Ambrose in the 90's, before seriously getting wrapped up into the whole Longboard scene (thats another story all together). Shawn shaped me some pretty great shortboards back then. When I jumped on the Fish bandwagon, I had always wanted to get another board from him. He's a pretty incredible shaper and a nice guy to boot. If your afraid of INK, he's probably not your guy, but, thats one of the things that makes him unique. He's a real person, not trying to sit up on a pedestal like many other shapers I know. So I finally acquired one of Shawns EPS Perimeter Stringer Fish, and it goes. Pulled up to the lot today and 3 separate people told me, "It's not that great," and "It looks better than it is." I pulled out the Ambrose and had a great time in waist to chest high Semi-Mushy waves. Well worth the time. So thanks Mr. Pepper and also Mr. Ambrose. Today I'm a happy guy.

DON'T TOUCH THAT BONZER!!!

This is what I heard as I was about to fondle a nice 5'11" Roundtail Bonzer 5 that will soon be sitting on the showroom floor as a stock board at Moonlight. It seems that I'm allowed to peruse the place if it were my own home, but I'm no longer allowed to touch the Bonzers. They usually tell me to make myself at home when I enter, which is a pretty nice feeling. I usually stop by at least a couple times a week due to my kids going to school very near by. So, back to the Bonzers. Well I've had a couple very nice ones. Everything about both of them I truly loved. Except, I couldn't ever get them to work for me. Yea, I could surf em, but not to the potential people seem to rave about. I was always tweaking this or switching that to try and get them to work as well as my Fish. I never felt that "5th Gear," that everybody raves about. Well I think I've felt it, just not on a Bonzer. So I always thought that maybe a standard shortboard shape with a Bonzer set-up might be a good call for me someday. A kind of "Barrel Board," if you will. This is what I was about to fondle until I heard those words, followed by, "You know that board has a center fin, what are you thinking." I guess you really can't feel at home until you get harrassed. Here are a couple pictures of the beautiful Bonzers I had in the past.

Is That Geoprene You're Wearing?

The debate continues. While browsing various blogs and the ERBB, there has been quite abit of debate regarding some of the newer wetsuit companies out and thier use of Yamamoto Rubber. The rubber is made with limestone instead of petroleum, which is better for the environment, and one of the reasons they are touted to be better. The others include durability, weight, stretch, and lack of water absorption compared to neoprene. The cost is higher and initially I was one of the first to say, "NO WAY, I ain't paying it." After doing my research over a few months, I finally broke down and bought the Matuse Hoplite 2mm Short Sleeve Fullsuit. I've used it every surf for the last 8 weeks and I am now a believer. It's light, flexible, warm, and looks pretty cool too. The other day I thought the water dropped a little and decided to put on my Rip Curl F-Bomb that was last years suit, but only worn twice. Now, I know I was comparing a 2mm SS Full to a 3/2 Full, but man that thing was heavy. I took it off after surfing and was just amazed at the weight. Wore my Matuse today and was back in the game. Hopefully I'll be able to get the money together soon for a Matuse 4/3/2. Go to www.matuse.com or click on the title above to check out thier line-up.