Pink Lady

This was the last board to come through my West End shop. Fitting that it was for Jay, who's earned more than a few sandwiches over the years.

7'0 Lady model, a beachbreak-specific midlength that borrows equally from school of displacement and the school of planing.
Jay's super arty, so he painted her up, faded-red-t-shirt style. Here she is waiting in line for her hard candy shell:

 Stoked pickup stoke!

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Flexie Fin.
Flexie Fin who?
Schraaaaaaaaaaalp!
Huh?
Snaaaaaaaaaap!
What?
Schplaaaaaaaaaack!

Also, this is how my dog sits--back half like a roast chicken.

The Mini Beard

The Flying Beard is my beachbreak-tuned longboard model.
This Mini Beard its smaller, skinnier, scrappier little brother.

Can I use the word 'skinny' to describe a 6'0 that's 21" wide? You're damn right I can--I made it, so I can use whatever words I want. Here are some more: shred, rip, stab, punch, Claritin, zinfandel, Adventure Time, sriracha.
In a few more words, this is not at all a mushbusting mini-longboard cruiser for fat, high-tide dribblers--it's light and thin and designed for steeper waves with some push.

The Engine Room: the 2+1 with flexie fin provides a center pivot point for a really locked-in, flow-y style, while the quad setup is fast, free, and full of bucking-bronco punch.
I like both.

Black-and-white photos because art.
Also, Easter+two little girls=the inside of my house looking like the inside of a rainbow's bathroom after two-dollar burrito night, so my eyes could use the rest.
If you have to buy stuff, go local.

Showerbeers Bronson

Last year I had a kid in class named Norbert. It was difficult for me to imagine an exhausted, overjoyed couple gazing down at the just-born, tiny naked ball of energy of their new baby boy and whispering Norbert...Norbert...Norbert...into his crackly pink ears.
We called him Bert, but still.

Same thing with new Sandwich Clubber Showerbeers Bonaparte. Whatever possessed the Bonapartes, flush with the excitement and stupor of childbirth, to gaze into their tiny boy's dark eyes and say Showerbeers, is not up to us to decide. Naming is every parent's right, but, unfortunately, they don't have to live a lifetime in the shoes of Norbert. Or Showerbeers. Or anyone named Richard that they insist on calling Dick.

Fortunately, Showerbeers has overcome this particular linguistic handicap, and has made those who know him proud. He finished law school without too much drama, has a healthy fan relationship with 80s cinematic masterpiece Cocktail, and is the proud new owner of a sweet new 8'6, rounded-pinnie Bronson.

Two-plus-one fin setup with a shreddy flexie in the middle, two-tone color lamination by the boys at Almar Glassworks, too-legit-to-quit Bronson radness.
If you note Showerbeers ripping his new sled in the greater Los Angeles area waters, or note this Bronson strapped to the roof of a diesel Bendzo in hot pursuit of a speeding ambulance, throw him a shaka!

Of Curtis, the Lady, the Flu

Good Lord, the flu sucks. We’ve been passing it around my house these last few weeks like a skinny J on prom night.

Or maybe like musical chairs, only instead of prize for winning ‘it,’ you get diarrhea.

Guess how many kids shat the bed in my house during the last three weeks?

Answer: none. That could have been a parenting dealbreaker.

But waves continue to tickle our delicate shores, and humans continue wanting to ride on them, so surfboards must be made!

Here’s the first one I got to carve our after a week in bed. It’s a 7’4 Lady for Curtis, who called and left the following message:

“I need a midlength for _ _ _ _ _ I _ _   _ _ _.”

That was pretty much it. Curtis isn’t one for conversation, so I took a stab at 7’4.

The Lady is a trim machine: round on the bottom, round on the top, round on the corners.

Single with a flex fin, or 2+1 with a flex fin. Slingshots off the bottom!

I'm going back to bed now.

The Green Lady

The Green Lady for SoCo wave shredder, family man, teacher, and open-minded weird board enthusiast Paul.
8'ish with a full coke-bottle tint.

The Lady series, spawned by The Painted Lady, are northcoast-specific trim machines. They borrow heavily from Greg Liddle's hulls in concept, though only moderately in form. I'm aware that Lady is a terrible name for a surfboard model, but sometimes these things are out of my hands.

More rocker than a traditional hull and more meat in the rails for our long paddles, thick wetsuits and shelfy sandbars.

 Less convex on the bottom of the board, and pulled in noses and tails to fit in steeper pockets.

These things work best with some added length—think mid seven foot to mid eight foot range. This gives them a long rail line for drive and hold. A flexie fin rounds out the package with the result of a fast, maneuverable, drivey pocket rocket that finds the power spot on the wave and holds tight. Think: greased pelican getting shot out of a black-bored 28” Browning Citori barrel.

Actually, don’t think that. It’s kind of gross. I’ll let you come up with your own parallel—you’re an adult and I trust you.

If you’re an East Coaster dealing with the aftermath of Sandy, our thoughts are with you.

The Painted Lady

Art.
Abstract acrylic on foam by Jay dL—local charger, Puerto barrel enthusiast, inspired artist, informed horticulturist, slayer-of-all-boards, and rocker of pearl-snap full-yolked Western shirts. He can also fix your computer, lead pumpy trad climbs on steep granite, and brew a mean yerba mate. Clearly, a Renaissance man.
The board’s a tweaked-out, Northcoast-speficic 8ft. hull-inspired trim machine. 'Lighter Than Ice' blue tint and thinnest-of-thin white resin pinline by Leslie Anderson at Fatty Fiberglass, a hell of an artist in her own right.

K.I.S.S. (Keep It Single, Santa)

I get bored looking at shaping room pictures. Everything looks great in a shaping room picture. Something about the side lighting, the foam dust settling onto your lungs, the a.m. radio crackling out classic Merle Haggard tunes...
A few weeks ago, I tried to sell an old couch on craigslist. Granted, it was not a pretty couch. It was not not a new couch. It was not a couch free of dog hair.
No takers.
An idea struck: I'll prop that couch up on my shaping racks, as everything looks great in a shaping room picture.
I posted the new pics, then sat back and waited.
The couch was picked up less than thirty minutes later by a stoked Sonoma State student who not only gave me the asking price in cash, but threw in a forty of MGD. Now that's business!
Since then, I've taken to propping up all sorts of things on the shaping room racks in order to enhance their aesthetics, if only for a moment. Taking my new discovery to its logical extensions, I began to photograph some elements in my life that need a bit of sprucing up, via the shaping room. Here are a few examples with their results:
1. My mom. She looked great, though a little dandruffy after a few minutes. Christmas card quality.
2. The interior of my wife's minivan. This made us both feel better. The sidelights obscured the Cheerio army camped under the baby seat, and brought a pleasing glow to the Diet Pepsi can pile.
3. My abs. Things haven't been going well for my abs lately. Propped up on the shaping racks, though, everything looked different. Recommended.
Soon, however, boredom set in, so here are some shots from the kitchen. If all goes well, I might shoot some new board pictures in other rooms. Perhaps I could feature boards in various states of repose on furniture, preparing a delicious meal, or even a few tasteful boudoir shots...
In the meantime, here's a 6'6 single fin for my buddy Tripp. Sleek as a tuna, fully modernized bottom contours, tuned-in rails and rocker, a single wing pulling in to a pin tail--this Flying Saucer has Clean Ocean Beach written all over it.

The Rusty Flex fin is the icing on this Christmassy cake. It heads up to the Fattyshack next week for a full spa treatment--all-over board tint, racing stripe, and gloss-and-polish finish.
Happy Holidays.