Surfer Joe: Favourite Board Ever

Surfer Joe: Favourite Board Ever: As I've said in the past this blog's not intended to be all about my own surfing, but about everyday regular surfers, or surfer joes. But as...

Lucky Lars

Lars is from Germany and he happened to pop into the Valla factory on his way up the East Coast to check out some boards in our showroom. He was lucky enough to time a great run of swell and favourable sand banks, and ended up living out of his camper van in the car park at the beach for quite a few weeks. It was the best surf we've had in quite a while. After some deliberation and after measuring up the length of his van he decided to order this 7'4" Mini-Log. The idea was to create a board which rode like a log but could fit in the back of his car.

I hope you're getting plenty of great rides and your luck is staying with you Lars!

Vice for Carl

A collage of pics of Carl Taylor's new 9'6" Vice being made and then picked up. This was a challenging board to work on with a four colour resin laminate including a stylised aboriginal flag on the tail; and then a triple pinline on the bottom of the board.

Really happy with the end result though and I'm wishing Carl many happy waves on his new log.

Bump Wing Shorty

I snapped a couple of quick pics of Brett's new shorty before it left the factory. It's 5'10" x 19 3/4" x 2 1/2" with relaxed rocker and bump wing in the tail. Should be good for the coming Summer days.

Christian's New Shooter

Recently made Christian a new 6'6" x 18 3/4" x 2 1/2" shortboard. Hope you've been getting some nice waves on it bro.

Vice slide.

Japan Order for Mr Shimpei

Made up four fishes recently for my friend Mr Shimpei who has a surf store called Tabi Surf in Japan. The stripey one was particularly a lot of work but I was really happy how they came out. I hope the customers like them.

Hey Ho, Lets Go Surfing

Sweet little clip by the good guys at TCSS from a recent trip to Byron. Tom Woods took the footage and Nathan Oldfield put it all together.

Hey Ho Let's Go Surfing from Nathan Oldfield on Vimeo.

Tribute to Simon

I was fortunate enough to head down the South Coast earlier this year with Andrew Kidman and Simon Anderson and meet up with locals Mick Mackie and Garth Dickenson. This board was based off one of Simon's earliest Thrusters - the board he won the Coke contest on. It was really cool to go surfing with Simon and I was really impressed with his surfing. I was a little nervous when he was checking out my board but he was very gracious with his words and gave me a few tips to boot.

Sunny's New Shorty

Sunny's been living in the deep south - working and chasing desert barrels. He dropped in recently to pick up his new shorty just before the long drive home.

Factory Daze

Jack Fisher's a young photographer from Scotts Head who dropped into the factory recently and took a few shots while Kade and I were working. Kade was finishing off a repair and I was shaping a double flyer Volta.


To see more of Jack's work you can check out his Online Portfolio, Facebook Page and his Blog

Summer North Winds

Photo..STSurfimages

Byron Bay Surf Festival

Did a run up the coast the weekend before last to attend the Byron Bay Surf Festival. It was great to get out of the factory and set up the boards on Sunday on the beach at Wategoes for display. Was really pleasant to watch the little runners trickling through and talk surfboards to the passer-bys.


Fish Eye pics by Mani Barber.

Volta- Double Flyer...

Adrian's New Vice

I made this Vice Log for Adrian a couple of months ago now. It was time intensive but interesting doing the resin work. It's also double glassed so it should be around for quite some time. It's been nice to see Adrian sliding into a few fun ones when I get out of the factory and down to the beach.