East Coast Orca

“Tim here is a shot of the orca someone sent me.”Merrick.

Photo Mikal Boukhari

Nice one Merrick.

7’10 WTF

The other day i was nosing in the factory looking for a messed up blank for Seren’s board and i stumbled across a longboard blank that the APS3000 had “attacked” off centre, huge gouged first cut running along the bottom, nose to tail. Totally missed the deck but cut a little rail (again about 3/4”off centre)… so I said to Nige “what the f**k you gonna do with that!” and he said “you want it, you can have it…” Of course i jumped at the chance, there was something kind of familiar in its chopped off nose and the gouge looked like an interesting starting point for something… so Friday I had a few  minutes left after shaping Ant’s 2 Zen Dogs and decide to try some templates.

  Now in the modern shaping room templates are as much there for nostalgia and the odd adjustment, so there wasn’t exactly a load to choose from… but i found some curves that i liked and got started. Felt like it wanted a shovel nose and a twin pin tail… so that was my starting point.

I am still unsure where this board is going… its dimensions are pretty obscure already due to the machine’s influence… 7’10 x 23 x 2 1/2” – so at the end of the day once i have skinned the blank both sides this board wont be any thicker than 2 1/4” is my guess. I think things will become clearer once i know how much foam i actually have to work with.

Fins – not even sure it’s going to have any at this time…

Week off with my daughter now so no more updates until next week.

The Joker

A review by Jon Price of the Joker… which he liked so much he bought off me… no matter how hard i tried to get him to have a custom he wanted what he had ridden and enjoyed, so eventually i succumbed. Here is what he thinks.

“I am without doubt a surfboard monogamist. I truly believe that a surfer’s boards should evolve from one to the next, that the shape of a new ‘stick’ should be based around the characteristics that were liked and disliked on the last one, i.e. “I love the way this board paddles but I want it to turn harder”. Having evolved through a series of boards over a few years, I felt as though I had found exactly what I wanted and I’d stuck with it. However, that was seven years ago. I was married and happily so. Until Tim came along.

The Joker was Tim’s first longboard. With any shaper this would cause me concern. With Tim I needn’t have worried. I’ve only ever met one other shaper with the same obvious understanding of surfboard dynamics and believe me with nearly two decades experience in the surf industry, I’ve talked to a lot of well-known shapers. Unlike many who seem intent on surrounding their art with mysticism, Tim explains things in a way that is logical, straight forward and makes sense; the guy obviously knows his stuff. He is also a friend of mine and that meant I was open to persuasion, a lot of persuasion. Maybe it was time to try something new.

On one of those fun, clean, chest-high beach break days, I finally gave in; I started my affair. At first I didn’t like it. I was so used to my board that I got frustrated rather than patiently adapting my technique to suit a board that paddled differently, was more responsive and was just......... different. I gave up, claiming my old board back after a few waves. Glad to be back on the board I knew and trusted.

A week later, more ear-bending from Tim and I gave The Joker another try. This time something clicked. I dropped, bottom-turned and cross-stepped to the nose. I couldn’t believe how stable this board was for nose riding! Tim will tell you it’s to do with the way the nose flexes as you stand on it. I didn’t care. I just know I liked it, I liked it a lot. A slower section, I walked back to the tail, made a couple of turns to build up speed and ‘wack’, hit the lip on the close-out. Man, where did that come from? Tim didn’t say a word as I paddled back out, my smile was enough. This time it was a little harder for him to get his board back.

I have to say it has taken me a while to get used to The Joker, to feel as though I’m getting to know it in that ‘one’ way I have with my other board. And, unsurprisingly, at times I go back to my ‘wife’ of seven years. On occasion I find The Joker, with its continuous rocker, a little awkward to paddle and that’s something I’ll ask Tim to address on the next evolution; when I start my next affair. The thing about the Joker is, I’ve never spent so much time on the nose. This board nose rides so easily! What really gets me though is that it turns hard as well. I find it hard to comprehend that combination; a longboard that nose rides and turns well. How do you make a board like that? I guess you’d better ask Tim. I’m just glad he isn’t a marriage counsellor.

Jon Price, Big Blue

Reverse lap tint

    

Florida POD

Shot from Merrick in Florida testing out his new Atlantic POD.

That water looks really inviting after the snow flurries today!

Asymmetrical 5’8” single fin

      

Look at each half as an individual… you know it makes sense.

5’8” x 20 1/2” x 2 3/8” with double concave spiral V and hull nose.

Will be an Indigo reverse lap single fin + “drifta” style out-riggers.

Atlantic POD big-up

Merrick from Florida finally got his Atlantic POD wet the other day and sent through his great email. Thanks Merrick.

“Hey Tim, I am real angry over this Atlantic POD.  We had some of the best waves around here in a long time, lined up, pure glass and I rode the POD. It rode so AWESOME that now I think this is my favourite board and not the asymmetric Orca anymore HA HA HA HA HA.

The pod fired up, i was taking nice drops, fading my turns , the waves lined up making it scream down the line. I got so tubed and came flying out one wave. Another wave i was s-turning down the line, the face opened up and went round and i was able to do a sharp cut back on the tail, pull it back around and get tubed. This board is going to Indo for sure. I surfed almost 6 hours today. it was waist to head high, over cast light offshore winds and i was able to grab some of the big sets before anyone else , i always do that LOL. Some of the guys paddling out were hooting as I came screaming down the set of the day - going so fast I love it.   One guy asked me do you surf Indo, I laughed and said “no i had never been there but i will be going”, he said the way you draw your lines and make your drops. i told him I am a kid who grew up surfing in the 70’s so I learned to draw my lines on single fins and I am all about style and speed.

Ok I am rambling now. The board is so much fun, fast loose and just great. Every board I have from you is very special in their own way.

Talk to you later, Merrick”

  

Classic

Who was to know what impact this shot would have on my life at the time it came out in Surfer Mag in the 70s.

Of late…

I have been surfing more than shaping. There seems to have been a sudden drop in orders despite the Surfers Path advert… and this has coincided with the most prolonged run of epic surf i since I moved to North Devon, allowing me to really explore the coast and ride some hidden gems entirely alone.

I have been able to really explore my asymmetric shapes as the waves have been so good, almost like being overseas (the almost being the water temperature). I love them, and that LokBox TS Cutaway fish foil is part of the magic.

So i count my blessings and remember how lucky i am to be able to surf, to design and make the sleds that let me glide over the water, sometimes gracefully.

Asymmetric happiness

Rode the asymmetric today in nicely overhead point surf, backside – still loving it!

North Atlantic Right Board

This is my new Long(ish)board… it finally graced the waves last weekend and what a baptism. I LOVE this board, everything from the shape and tint to the accidental resin bleeds on the nose concave panel.

I was surfing a right hand reef at about head-high. This is probably the easiest wave catcher i have ever had and the board was so manoeuvrable and drivey i really did wonder whether I would ever bother with a shortboard again (which i did later this week but that’s another review).

It delivered in  every area. Even roundhouse cutbacks, which on an 8’10 for a shortboarder is saying something. I even had a few cover-ups as the board rode so beautifully high and tight in the pocket. I guess it further reinforces my belief that asymmetrics really are the best way to go.          

East Coast EVOs

Atlantic POD and Orca sent over to Florida just before Christmas. With export packing by yours truly I am pleased to say they arrived without a scratch. Looking forward to more 2013 reviews from Merrick soon.

   Merrick had a couple of Freakfish off me a while ago, the Hendrix ink work was fun to do.

Wood is good

My friend, wood craftsman and collaborator on several wooden bonzers, Mark from Glass Tiger sent me some pics of Carlos Burle on one of his board at Sunset - he is so stoked. What a shot!

Give Me Shelter in the Maldives…

I love this shot of test pilot Maurizio – from the gouged tracks you can see just how square he got his 6’6” Give Me Shelter board to go off the bottom.

Sadly Maurizio broke his knee later this session, first day over there. Glad to say he is recovering and going to be hitting the Italian breaks again soon.