Friday, February 26, 2010

winter quiver / west side Oahu


As per the previous post, tully sends a photo...not a board shot but great pic of him in very sizeable point surf at makaha. there's a lot of salt mist in the foreground so it's difficult to make him out but if you enlarge it...whoa...heavy.

the quiver tie-in is that he's on an 8'10" i shaped him back in the fall of 2006....chris christenson was in town and shaped a couple of fishes in my factory, i glassed them, etc. i wondered that since he was shaping brad gerlach's guns at that time, could he help me draw out an decent 8'10"?? he was more than gracious to share and used some of my outdated willis bros. and brewer templates to piece together what turned out be be a really nice gun...he even gave up bottom contours, rocker, fins...like i said, gracious and turning it into a fun project.

still have the template taken off that finished board in the stack in my shaping room...now,if i can just get tully to shoot a pic before the board snaps...

Monday, February 22, 2010

winter quiver / N. Fla. style



a friend of mine who lives at makaha called me around christmas to touch base and catch up on current goings-on, how's the wife, etc... john tully, who lived in jax beach all his life, married a lovely woman (nicki) a few years back and relocated to oahu's west side. he'd always spend part of every winter on the north shore anyway so it was just a natural progression. we're talking and he says "so what are you riding these days?" (that's always good for at least 15 minutes of good give and take) ...i tell him i'll go out in the garage and grab the two boards i've been riding the most lately, photograph them and send off an email so he can see 'em.

i describe them over the phone...both are stringerless eps/epoxy twin fins, but at opposite ends of what constitutes the twin fin spectrum....a 6'2" MR style performance twin fin modeled on the state of the art twins of '79 - '80.. a very valid choice of equipment for an older (40-55 yr.) guy who can and still wants to push through and link those turns with speed and flow. the other board is basically a 5'2" that feels like a bar of soap slinging around the bath tub...it's a "mini-simmons", which to those "in the know" is a concept that's been done and dusted a couple of years or so ago. (check surfer's journal vol 17, # 6, check richard kenvin's "hydrodynamica" blog archives to view the progression)...regardless...they are ridiculously fun in the kind of surf we get in north florida.

tully was amused and said he'd forward some photos to me, also......

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

hull planshapes


someone asked what the outline of the hull in the title box looked like...here's the 6'10" and 6'6"...both stringerless EPS.

the 6'10" was shaped out of 2 # EPS and finished out around 5 1/2 lbs ...the 6'6" came out of 2.5# and ended up just under 6 lbs.

sold the 6'10" but the 6'6" is a KEEPER.

these were both single fins with the boxes WAY up as true hulls should be, but i've done a few with an optional quad set-up lately that have worked well in our beach breaky, short period waves.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

shoulder rehab/recovery



what does this picture have to do with a complete rotator cuff tear?.........

.the surgeon who repaired my right shoulder 2 weeks ago lifted my SKIL 100 during an office visit and said i wouldn't be using THAT anymore, too heavy for the amount of damage i had (bummer)...so i'm in the process of tuning/tweaking/lightening these hitachis (green planers) in the months off i'm having to take.

i'm REALLY going to miss using what has become an extension of my right arm ....anyone out there have some advice for lightening a SKIL 100?