Of Zeus, NPR, and New-Model Shredding

Zeus was a tricky, horny trickster. One time he appeared to Leda in the form of a swan, snuck into her bed, and did some stuff so that later she laid some eggs.
Interestingly, her husband was also in bed doing stuff that particular evening, so when the twin boys hatched from their eggs, they were considered part divine, part mortal.
Leda called them Castor and Pollux, which probably sounded better with a Greek accent. They were transformed into the constellation Gemini so they could always be together.
What does this have to do with surfing? Technically, nothing.
But late last night in my shop as the dust swirled and lines were drawn, I was thinking about the twin fundamentals of our sport--the Trim and the Glide. The Castor and Pollux of our sport. Inseparable, immortal, they shine down on us from a surfy heavens.
Hopefully, their bastard stepsister (Helen of Troy) will shine down as well: the Shred.

Damn!

It's not often we get an action image with my logo on it. Not because my clientele aren't continuously schralping hot curls--they are!--but because they tend to seek out the foggy, the remote, the mysto spookzones that tend to discourage photography. This ain't SoCal.
However, sometimes the skies clear and the swell lines up and local stokemeisters like Chris (pictured above and below) get an itch to sample a not-quite-Northcoast spot that sees the occasional telephoto on the beach.
Chris is shredding this week's featured board: the NPR.
The NPR is an offshoot of the Clover, which is a great head-highish and under shred machine. Last winter I shaped myself a more streamlined version for larger waves that featured a slightly different rocker profile, adjusted thickness flow, and a modified bottom contour. It was dubbed the Clover PR, for Pocket Rocket.
Not the best model name, for sure, but I didn't have time to come up with a better one. The surf was crackin!
It looked like this:

6'9

I dug it. A few folks tried it out, then ordered their own. A few tweaks later, and a few more folks ordered them until a bunch were ordering them and it deserved its own name. The NPR, or Northcoast Pocket Rocket, is a full-volumed aquatic fun machine designed for waves that are on the head high to well overhead range. They've been ridden with everything from one to five fins. I like mine as a quad, but that's just me.
When local shredder Chris ordered his, he went full Glasser's Choice on it, and we handed it off to Patrick at Northern Light, who did a bang-up job making it look right.

6'10

Brown opaque bottom wrap and a lovely robin's-egg-blue deck tint. Classic!

After the maiden session. Not heel dents on the deck, just a stoked-out wax job by someone who couldn't wait to get in the water and do this:

 Damn!

Of Warm Pancakes and Ghosts of the Heart

Joey's story is not unlike any of our stories, therefore Joey (shredder, artist, teacher, maker, good man) is all of us.
Joey saw something that pleased him, just as we all see things that please us.
Joey touched the thing that pleased him, as we all have touched things that please us.
Oh, only if there was some sort of big book to guide us through our temptation!
Perhaps Joey let his hands linger a bit too long on the thing. Perhaps, later, Joey's mind returned to the thing, warmed it over and over like a soft pancake.
The pancake then quietly, expeditiously, scooped a tiny, warm pancake cave into Joey's brain, where it tucked in, pulling the blanket of Joey's desire around itself.

Joey and not his own 6'4 Clover.
Full story HERE

At times, the pancake slept. Warmly. Peacefully. Almost invisibly, only the occasional pancake corner poking forth from the deep folds of the blanket, the occasional pleased sigh muffled by its own fluffy epidermis.
Other times, though, the pancake raged. The pancake seethed and the pancake coveted. The pancake wanted. Oh how the pancake wanted! The pancake felt no shame in this, this naked wanting, this perfect desire. For this is what the pancake did, this is what the pancake was.
When the pancake raged--and oh how the pancake raged!--it was untiring in its want, indefatigable in its trickery. It snuck out of its cave at night, quietly, hauntingly. It slunk from its quarters at day, oozing and slouching and slinking. It sprang forth morning and evening and at work or in the workshop or during lovely dinners with his lovely lady artist, and during quiet moments when there was just Joey and the pancake. It nibbled and gnashed, tickled and punched, and at these times there was no blanket, and there was no rest.
The pancake wailed and screeched and tore at him with talons. The pancake soothed and whispered and touched the places it touched with the lightest of touches. It hacked into the voicemail of Joey's soul and left a message on endless repeat: want, need. Need, want. Must must must!

Joey's 6'4 Clover

During these moments in our lives, there is only one path before us. The path of submission, spinning into the distance. The ocean of surrender.
Now Joey is sated. The pancake rests, its warm golden chest rising and falling imperceptibly, the tinest of watch-motor movements in its carbohydratic center.

Joey's 6'4 Clover with his original art

But the pancake's heart--the gluteny dry paste of it--beats. It beats slowly now, but one day, perhaps, it will beat faster. It will squirm out from under its blanket and its voice--strange at first, then familiar, oh so familiar!--will begin to whisper.

Still Life with 6'8x21

The Clover PR

6'6 Clover PR (Pocket Rocket) for Four-Fingered Sam on the Central Coast.

Question: Does Sam have only four fingers?
Answer: No, he has ten fingers, total.

Question: What criteria does a Clover have to meet to achieve a "PR" designation?
Answer: Absolutely none! Actually, this one's a bit pulled in. The Clover is no mushbuster.

My shop's a total freaking mess right now, as we just got back from Joshua Tree.
Question: Is Joshua Tree a good spot to reclaim the last dwindling tendrils of your youth?
Answer: No. No it's not. Much has changed since my last visit to the Mojave when I laughed with insouciance at steep, traditional climbs and wore shorts with 6" inseams. Fifteen years later I felt slower, more terrified,  and both hairier and less hairy at the same time. Don't think about that one for too long.

Question: What beverage pairs well with a Clover PR?
Answer: Awaken's Real Aloe Vera drink featuring wheatgrass and the 'ancient healing' properties of aloe vera pulp.

Just kidding! You're gonna wash this classic shred sled down with a classic single malt--the no frills, always delivers, smoky-sweet goodness of Highland Park 12. No bells and whistles on this traditional single malt scotch, just layers of liquid gold sliding down your gullet.

6'4 Clover: All Hallows' Edition

How did the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, a necessary practice for warding off ghosts and evil spirits, morph into modern day Halloween?
Beats me, but I do know this: my girls have been in an H-day fervor for the last week, blasting through so many princess-with-wings variations that my living room looks like the Disney Corporation mid orgy with an Oregon wiccan solstice festival. A whole new world!

Halloween, believe it or not, can also be a time for reflection as we wave goodbye to summer and hesitatingly hold the door open the door as winter, sad boots and all, trudges in.

This 6'4 Clover for local shred artist and rad dad Lucas has enough volume for summer, but enough rocker and fin snap to carry him into the more light-challenged months ahead.
True Story: I'd been shaping this model for over a year when Lucas ordered his. Deep in a creative fervor, I had coined the shape the 'widepoint-forward pulled-tail egg'. Lucas was cool with that, and only asked that a include his graphic with daughter's name, Clover, on the deck of the board.
It was referred to as the Clover Board at the glasser (Patrick at Northern Light, who did a bang-up job, as usual), and then again by board fondlers when they saw it in my shop. It stuck.

Here, local shredmaster and two-wheeler enthusiast Joey tries to get a little fresh with Lucas' new board. The golden light and his long shadow are clearly mid summer, the venue clearly the Toad in the Hole pub. Fresh new stick, long sun-drenched days, and a few pints of Lagunitas IPA (also handmade in Sonoma County!). Not a bad way to be.
ps--see that unbelievable two-tone '68 bus in the background? Mine's the '06 minivan parked to its left...

Clover XL

The government may be shut down, but damn if Boehner can stop the stoke!

Here's an XL Clover for Central Coast ripper Jonathan (the 'J' is pronounced like a 'Y,' as his origins are definitely Viking). He's a big dude, so he gets a big Clover. Hence the Custom in Custom Surfboards.

Every once in a while, Le 'Stache lets me carve one out in his shaping room. Sometimes he offers feedback, like, "yeah!" or, "fun one!" or, "how much longer is this going to take?" or, "you're going to have to put on some pants if you want to continue shaping here."

This Clover is 8'0 and nearly 23" wide. I can barely carry it, but Jonathan's arms are Paul Bunyan to my Woody Allen, and he'll be able to throw this thing around like he just caught it kissing his sister.
It's gonna have three fins.

The Clover

Signs we're at the front end of an economic recovery:
1. I no longer cry in the shower after checking my home value on Zillow.
2. My kids can now have peanut butter and jelly on their sandwiches.
3. The local beachbreak has been conspicuously devoid of big-ass trucks in the parking lot, pointing to the conclusion that construction is on the uptick.
4. The board-order queue is redlining right now, a whole new batch of sandwich cards are being distributed, and some stoked shredders will be receiving an Ike's in the near future.
Leading the aquatic charge right now is the Clover--a widepoint forward stubb-egg shred machine. This is the original Clover, 5'10, which got passed around up here more than a endless-refill penicillin prescription on a Motley Crue tour bus.

5'10x21 2+1 Clover

Since then, it's proven itself in all kinds of waves and conditions in all kinds sizes with all kinds of fin setups.
This light gray 7'0 didn't disappoint in Baja.

Hull entry+concaves+hard rails in the tail=crazy fun as either a 2+1 or single with a flexie fin.

I am going to go surfing now.

On the Road Again

The Baja leg of the annual HeadHighGlassy Family Summer Tour Palooza went off without a glitch. Waves were shredded with impunity, borders were crossed tactically, Tecates were consumed with abandon.
Perhaps more important than time spent with family and friends, or the thrill of intracontinental travel, or widening my childrens' worldviews to include cultures other than our own, is the true spirit of surf trips: subjecting new designs to a rigorous eight-step sciency feedback process.
As any considerate, rational, detail-oriented, kinda nitpicky, borderline pain-in-the-ass, OCD, self-absorbed, narcissistic shaper will testify, there is absolutely no replacing personal feedback in the water. Shapers should be their best team riders (team models, no. Have you seen my calves lately? Christ).

2013 HHG Family Baja Quiver

This year's quiver featured a wide swath of waveriding vehicles, including a couple perennial favorites and a new model (!) in two different lengths and fin setups for maximum geeking potential.

Bottoms up

The results?
Mrs. HHG is firmly attached to her 8' Broadsword, as per usual. She's also very pretty and nice.

The 5'6 MiniSimmons was my go-to board last year, and it was hard as hell to stay off it this year, but I had work to do: 6'3 and 7'0 Clovers (two middle boards in above pictures).
The Clover is a souped-up egg/hull mashup and features a hull entry to a kicked tail rocker with a hard edge and concaves through the fins. I rode the 6'3 as both a quad and a thruster in waist high to well overhead surf and was stoked out of my mind with both fin setups. I rarely say, 'stoked out of my mind,' just so you know.
The 7'0 was crazy fun as a 2+1 with a flexie center fin and really lit up in juicier surf. It's not a longboard alternative, and shreds with aplomb.
My arms were noodled out one afternoon, and the surf was still clean and pumping, so I put my hull fin in it and rode it as a single and it was as good as it gets.

Fins

I'll post the sleds up later when we're back from the (hot. Humid. Claustrophobic) East Coast leg of our Summer Tour.
Onward!