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