Baby Damulag

Nature is fraught with paradox. Flightless birds. Flying fish. Dry lakes. Grape nuts. Snooki.

We, too, are plagued with an existential paradox: How we see ourselves vs. how others see us.

Rather than being at odds with paradox, Hawaiian born shredder, stoked California waveslayer, teen counselor, and new Sparkplug owner Baby Damulag embraces it. Take his name: a Damulag is a Filipino water buffalo. They’re strong like hell. They work like hell. And have you ever seen them around water? They love that shit. Much like BD himself.

But then why 'baby'? Because babies need their moms, and BD was one of those groms who talked trash about the older kids then ran behind his mom for protection. Scrappy! 

BD’s not afraid to charge some water-buffalo style waves, then come home and snuggle on the couch with his girlfriend and a soft blankie. That’s the kind of guy he is. No shame. Perfectly at ease with his existential paradox.

BD, at ease with his existential crisis, setting up for the next section on his new Sparkplug

His new sled, too, is marked with existential paradox. It’s a thruster. It’s a quad. Instead of going shorter according to current design fashion, BD added several inches to his standard board length. In other words, he’s doing his own thing and, baby or not, do you really want to mess with a damulag? 

Insane deck artwork/watercolor painting came all the way from Spain by talented artist Ruth Basagoitia, and celebrates the critical aspects of BD's existence.

Seeing Red

Guys Up North don't fool around. When horizontal freezing rain smashes directly into their blood-drained faces in the lineup they call it offshore. They regard plaid as a color. The only other colors in their chart are jeans, mud, and doghair.

Their automobiles are often missing seats and the word pilates has never, ever escaped through their unironically moustached upper lips. They think Miley Cyrus is a constellation, latte is how Italians say Goodbye, and a decaf is some kind of move from the summer Olympics that's done by dudes in tights.

What I'm saying is that there's a dialogue the rest of the nation is obsessed with that doesn't concern these folks in the slightest.

And they like stuff that's built to last.

9'6 triple stringer for Jonny from Up North. Full board tint with freehand comp bands--done during lamination by master glasser Tony Mikus at Almar Glass Works.

Built tough (heavy-but-not-too-heavy glass job, deck patch, fin patch, tailblock), so when the sleet turns onshore and the beach fire turns to smoke, Jonny doesn't have to worry as he tosses it with frozen fingers into the back of his van.

Right where the seats used to be.

Your Title Here

I shaped a clear winged keel for a customer last month. He rode it the day he picked it up, which was about twenty minutes after it was polished.

Did he give a shit about recommended curing times?
No, he did not give a shit about recommended curing times.

He was very excited about the board after he surfed it, which made me very excited about the board, so I shaped another one.

Why? Because I like the shape, and I couldn't sleep due to an afternoon cup of coffee. The coffee was a bad choice.

Also, there was this blank in my shop. Just staring at me. Daring me.

And now it's daring you!

You see, it's for sale.

5'8x 21x 2 5/8. Single wing. Cedar stringer. Gloss and polish. Foiled. Fun beachbreak board for someone between 48 and 300lbs who enjoys surfing.

Lokbox boxes and CI keels (not pictured) for maximum shreddage.

SImple Tastes

I like these

And this.

And this again.

Good for All Occasions

Egg.

7'6.

Performance foil.

Fins.

Scotch.

Why pair Old Pulteney with this fresh surfing board?
Thanks for asking.

The OP 12yr is a classic, no-nonsense, workingman's scotch with a surprising complexity: honey, peat and spice, and a saltwatery briney finish that grabs you by the heavy canvas pants and exclaims, "this goddamn scotch received its character from the ocean. So should you. Just like this goddamn 7'6 egg with a performance foil and a 2+1 fin setup. Good for all occasions."
That's why.

Triple Wood

Spring Daylight Savings asks for us to ditch the minutes between 2:01am and 2:59am once a year. Good riddance.

Know what I'd be doing with that hour? Getting kicked in the junk by a sleeping three-year-old on one side of me, while trying not to wake the sleeping five-year-old on the other side of me--one numb arm pinned under each tender head so they won't wake up and start telling me about how many peanuts an elephant can eat in an hour, or why the letter C and the letter K can make the same sound, or how mint frozen yogurt makes their skin itch, or how they LOVE UMBRELLAS! Crucial morning discourse.

What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, surfboards. This triple stringer (balsa center with cedar offsets) is getting a crazy ass glass job and will not appear like this when finished. Although I'm not the biggest fan of shaping room shots, this will look like a totally different board when it comes back from the glasser, and there's something classic and about dark wood on crisp foam that needs to be celebrated.

Shaping triple stringers always guarantees my seat on the I'm Never Going to do This Again Train, as I spend more time tuning the sticks than I do with shaping some entire surfboards. Like, an obscene amount of time that I'm embarrassed to share with you. An exercise in precision and patience, sturm und drang (though listening to an audio of the excellent Jeffrey Eugenides novel The Marriage Plot took some of the sting out).

Cedar and balsa matching tailblock really tie the board together.

Then, immediately after the last (gentle!) pass of the sanding screen, all toils are forgotten.

Like that moment in the wee hours of the morning when you hear footsteps on the bedroom floor, then sense a 36" high body standing close to your prone form. Holding a pink blanket. Staring.

And even though the night before you were trapped on your back, fully awake, arms pinned to your sides, and you swore to your sleep-deprived self you'd never again let one of your kids into the bed with you, you feel a surge of joy.

And just as you welcome the warm, living body of your child under the covers, you welcome the moment when a customer says, "I was thinking about a triple stringer..." and the side of your brain responsible for schedules and timetables and dollars-per-hour and all that shit absolutely screams no!

Then the other part--the part that embraces your warm, semi-sleeping child under the covers with a smile and a nuzzle--says yes. It says, of course. And it says, I love this.

What single malt would I pair this with this surfboard? Obviously, Laphroaig Triple Wood. The distillation spends some time in standard American Oak, then moves onto a quarter cask (smaller casks make the whisky interact more with the wood), then, finally, oloroso sherry casks for some rich fruit flavors. The result? The brooding peaty bulldog of standard Laphroaig is kept in check by the spiked collar of blackcurrant and berries. Smoke tempered by sherry. Savory tempered by sweet. Sleep tempered by joy. Wood tempered by foam. The plot of marriages. I love this.

Obstacle and Opportunity

It's been a week of obstacle and opportunity.

Obstacle: a, um, dude I know ran out of deodorant.

Opportunity: there, on the kitchen sink, sat the deodorant of his Special Lady Friend. It smelled like cucumber and sea breeze. He wanted to smell like cucumber and sea breeze. Permissions were granted, the obstacle was overcome*, gentle vegetal effluvia calmed the gentleman in question as he attended to his vocation.

Obstacle: this lovely MiniSims, bound for the racks at a retail surf venue, received an aesthetic blemish at some point during the construction process, rendering it unbound for the retail surf venue.

Opportunity: It's for sale!

Stats: 5'6x 21.5x 2.75. Convex to concave bottom, marine ply keels, S-deck with some serious foil in the nose, rails, and tail. A shred-ready wave-catching gnar machine.

Feel free to make an offer, though I won't subtract dollars for the blemish--you lived with them in high school, you can certainly live with one on the deck of your surfboard.

Looks more avocadoey and less limey in the real world.

In the spirit of wine country pretention, I recommend pairing this new surfboard with a dram of Bruichladdich 10yr old single malt scotch.

Why? They're both classic expressions crafted in the old style. However, far from relics, they offer saucy surprise after saucy surprise. In the case of the MiniSims, it's blazing speed and maneuverability. For the Bruichladdich, it's caramel, toffee, and...who's that knocking at the back door?...our old friend Mr. A Hint of Fudge and Brine.

Both offer smooth salty goodness. Another opportunity!

*interestingly, even though used sparingly and just once, the proffered object made this guy's armpits itch for a full week.