If you've been in the habit of stopping by this blog for a while now, you may have noticed I haven't been blogging as much as usual over the last few months. Firstly it seems to get busy in the board building game leading up to Christmas and secondly I've been finding it hard to jump in the front of the computer after long days at work and have creative energy left to say something interesting or valid . Blogging can feel like another job. But I've decided I'm going to be a little more consistent again.
The above collage illustrates the mess I make of the factory and my clothing. On most days there's foam dust, resin, glass fibres, tints, pigments and paints being flung around. Resin drips build up on my pants. This winter my glassing jeans got so much resin on them, the resin would crack and break around my knees when I sat down to eat my lunch. As you can see from the pics above your shoes get hammered as well. These shoes are in their last stages of life - the laces are resined in so I slip them on like slippers, every couple of days I have to pull off the resin and dust build up on the soles, it feels like you're walking over stones. Picking off the resin continually weakens the sole of the shoes which have begun to pull away from the body so now I have been taping them on with masking tape.
In all the choas of dust, foam and mess it's amazing that surfboards emerge at all.
Chris dropped by the factory a little while ago to pick up his new 6'8" Verve quad (see montage below). For the previous 12 months he's been having a ball on his 6'10" twin keel Vibe (pictured above - the blue fish) but had decided he'd like to try something a little more high performance.
Rob turned up at the Factory a while back with his battered old Skipp single fin and explained how much he still enjoys riding it. So he left it with me for reference so I could replicate it.
A few pics I snapped towards the end of November of the factory and boards in various stage of production during that time.
Joe sent these pics through of him riding his 9'2" x 23" x 2 7/8" Longboard. How blue does that water look in the fish eye sequence... Makes me feel like going surfing.
The past few weeks in Hawaii have been pretty average. A couple of days of mysto spots pumping but overall pretty slow. I have been training for next year's WQS by practicing some of the more progressive and innovative maneuveres like the hang 5. Cheers to Morgan Maassen for the shots.
Heath having fun on a small day at Pupukea on an Akila Aipa Twin.
Paul in the same surf testing his new longboard he made for the the trip.
If you've been in the habit of stopping by this blog for a while now, you may have noticed I haven't been blogging as much as usual over the last few months. Firstly it seems to get busy in the board building game leading up to Christmas and secondly I've been finding it hard to jump in the front of the computer after long days at work and have creative energy left to say something interesting or valid . Blogging can feel like another job. But I've decided I'm going to be a little more consistent again.
This is Dan Walters on his 6'0" Traditional style alaia getting a smoker on a clean day at Bells Beach. I really like the enlarged shot - the simplicity and speed of the alaia trim. Understated beauty.
