Water Bros 4th Annual Surf Fest In Newport RI.

I took the family to the Water Bros 4th Annual Surf Fest over the weekend. Good times were had by all. It was cool to see so many classic boards and chat with other surfers. I recently moved to South County Rhode Island and will be posting on events and happenings from a New England perspective. Justin and Freaky Born Wings will hold it down on all things NYC. Enjoy the pics!

Providence's own Spirare Surfboards. Kevin has a full lineup of EPS core wood boards along with PU boards. I was checking out the quad pictured on the table above.

Vintage skateboards anyone?!

Stoked to run into an Aquatic Apes favorite, Mike from Grain Surfboards. They made the trip down from Main to show off some new goodies. The keel fish had my attention along with their new Pig model. Mike also informs me that they recently developed a killer noserider. Be on the lookout for that!

If you're in New England than you need to know about Vec Surfboards. I spent quite a bit of time talking with Shaw about his finless design and longboards. At some point in the near future I'm going to demo that finless board! 

Hanging out with Matthew and Joanna of East Surf Co. was a total bright spot at the event. I originally met them at the first Brooklyn Surf Flea then out in the lineup at Rockaway. I have come to be a real fan of their wax and use it exclusively whenever I can. At the surf fest they were featuring their new Wax Tool hand cut out of American Walnut. Yeah they are sweet functional objects so I showed some love and pick one up. 

Piapos!?

I saw a few short and fat old vee bottoms that look like they would be a blast to surf. See them got the gears turning on a future custom form a yet to be determined shaper.

New York surf history with this Rick Rasmussen stick!

When the Foot Hits The Fin

   With storm season swells on the horizon here in the North Atlantic, it's worth taking note of what's in the old board bag when it comes to first aid. During a recent surf this past spring in north Jersey the waves were macking, and fellow ape Brian paddled into a steep one, nearly making the drop, but in the froth he took a swift fin ding to his foot. It was just shy of needing stitches. Thankfully, from growing up in a medical household in Florida, having no car for the last 10 years, and hunting for big days at Rockaway and Long Beach I've learned to carry some first-aid essentials. 

   After the thrashing, Brian calmly paddled over saying he thought he took a hit, and spun around to show us his foot. Upon first glance, I thought it was a much bigger flapper than it was. I instantly ran down the list in my head of all the items I had back at his car...definitely antiseptic of some sort, and a few old-but-sterile gauze pads for anything "gnarly" (but which probably wouldn't do much in the event of a serious wound). I was pretty confident it was enough to patch him up so I told him specifically where to find it as he reluctantly made the call to end his session.  As Justin and I pondered what to do in the maxing long-period swell, we decided we should check on Brian.  

   Once we all regrouped back on dry land, we made due with what supplies we had, doused it with fresh water and fashioned an ace bandage out of a plastic shopping bag. Afterward he carefully drove us to a nearby grocery store where we stocked up on the essentials and properly treated the gash. With his foot since healed, he is back in the water, but we had all taken home the valuable lesson of traveling with some type of first aid gear. Even if you're not surfing mysto reefs alone down some steep, no-beach cliffs, you can still get hit by your board on a fluke wipe-out, or hell, by someone else's wipeout. There are basic things that might come in handy should anyone suffer an injury. Below is a list of handy items that may save your skin...and maybe even the stuff underneath. 

- Antiseptic like hydrogen-peroxide for your rock, reef, metal, glass or creature injuries
- New Skin Liquid Bandage w/ antiseptic spray is good on medium to large abrasions 

- Sterile gauze pads

- Medical tape

- An ACE bandage

- Adhesive bandages and regular Band-Aids for small cuts and abrasions 

- Aloe or hydrocortisone lotion for gnarly sunburn, skin rashes or jellyfish stings  

- Tweezers for urchins spines or pieces of reef embedded in your skin
- Scissors or a cutting device of some sort
- Ibuprofen (2-4) for pain relief and anti-inflammation (if you can't do ice compressions)

- Sterile gloves for protecting the injured and the "medic" from infections
- Duct tape can't hurt either because you never know

   Keeping some of these items on you when you go to the beach could mean the difference between calling it a day and getting back out in the lineup, or even going to hospital versus going home.

- As a bonus, watch this medic demonstrate how to administer CPR here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPEFskCrdhQ

Also:

Outside Magazine's Guide to First Aid: Rescuing a Drowning Victim

Outside Magazine's Guide to First Aid - First Aid Kit
(*But don't take 12 ibuprofen like they suggest. As seen here, 200-600mg in 12 hours is a safe bet. And always use on a full stomach. Too much Ibuprofen is known to cause stomach ulcers, but it is far safer for your liver than its widely-used counterpart, acetaminophen, aka Tylenol.)

photos by Albert Shelton and Brian Wengrofsky

What has two thumbs and is having the most fun?

This Guy:

SOFT TOP REVOLUTION from Jack Coleman.

Almost Cut My Hair

I woke up this morning with a surprise waiting for me in my inbox. Looks like Ryan Lovelace is putting together a groovy surf film. Check the trailer and his thoughts on the film below.



Almost Cut My Hair from Ryan Lovelace on Vimeo.

"You knew it would happen eventually.

Almost Cut My Hair is a zero budget surf film containing approximately 96% pure surfing coupled with a sound track worth listening to...the only catch being everyone involved is riding a surfboard that I built. If you can get past that last bit, I think you'll get a pretty killer show.

Over the past few years of meeting and working with countless creative individuals, I've made them boards and they've in turn shared their talents with me; I've piled it all together in what is my ultimate surf movie. ACMH is essentially the past few years of my work, set to some serious jams.

It makes me very happy and I hope it does you the same to you in the Spring of this year.

Containing the musical and/or surfical talents of:
Travers Adler, Trevor Gordon, Landon Smith, Will Adler, Morgan Maassen, Troy Mothershead, Ryan Lovelace, Johnny McCann, Michael Kew, Phil Browne, Joseph Horswell, Washmen and the Fisher, Simon Murdoch, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, Connor Lyon and piles more..."

WAX Magazine issue #2

The wait is over. WAX issue #2 is here!

WAX Magazine — Issue #2 Trailer from Wax Magazine on Vimeo.

Featuring Lawrence Luhring, Will Adler, Michael Marcelle, Kris Chatterson, Mercedes Maidana, Curtis Mann, John Luke, Mark Mahaney, and a free friction moment with Derek Hynd.

I'm super stoked to be apart of WAX issue #2. To be in the pages among so many great people is a great and humbling feeling. A big thanks to the WAX crew! There is really no other publication out there like this with such a mix of culture, all liked to surfing in some way. It's nice to have a publication that probes the minds of people who surf and live in NYC.

For more info on WAX and to purchase Issue #1 and #2 head to the READ WAX Store.

Surfing and Making Art

One of the most genuine people that you will ever meet.


Chris Gentile from The Scout on Vimeo.

via The Inertia

Paipopolis Fever

Get ready.

Paipopolis will come to the Metropolis to rock your acropolis

Stay tuned... but for now watch the most stoked plywood dude. Film by Matthew McGregor-Mento:

Mark Cunningham at Pilgrim

Mark Cunningham, body surfer and waterman extraordinaire, was the guest of honor at a jam packed screening of "Come Hell Or High Water" last night at Pilgrim Surf & Supply in Brooklyn. Cyrus Sutton (Korduroytv, "Stoked and Broke"), who contributed some footage to the movie, was also in the house along with an admiring crowd of New York surfers including Aquatic Apes Kris Chatterson and Albert Shelton. When the Teahupoo sequence came up, I asked Mark what that experience was like.

"Scary," was his response. "Your body can't move as fast as a surfboard, so you have to be very selective in what waves you take."

If Mark (who is in his mid-50's) was scared during filming, it sure isn't obvious in the movie, which shows ride after ride of this white haired superman tearing down the face and plowing through big, churning Tahitian barrels with nothing but a swimsuit and set of fins.

When he took the stage to thunderous applause, you could feel the aloha filling the room from this warm, unfailingly modest man. He talked about his personal fin collection now adorning the wall of Pilgrim (he likes Da Fins), why he prefers his hands to hand planes (he likes the feeling better, and hand planes can hit the wearer or throw a shoulder out), and why he doesn't ride a board ("I was a gangly teenager, and too uncoordinated for that!"), though he actually does own a few surfboards including a pair of quad fish (a 5'10 and 6'2).

Before wrapping up, this career Hawaiian lifeguard made sure to point out the hazards of bodysurfing. "There are plenty of people in wheelchairs or worse from bodysurfing heavy shore break," he warned. "Always try to keep your hands in front of you so you hurt an arm or shoulder instead of your head. And have fun out there, on whatever floats your boat."

Packed house at Pilgrim

Cunningham showing off his main piece of equipment.

Clearly, he has a thing or two to learn about being a spoiled movie star.

Mat Meet NY 2012 Video

It rained, it shined and we done had a good time...

All the Fish!

The 2012 Fish Fry(e) was a roaring success with delicious waves, tasty winds, and more Fish than you could shake a spear at.

Kris putting pedal to metal.  You know he's serious when his hand never leaves the yogurt.

Chris Gentile of Pilgrim Surf & Supply, giving the Chicken Petter a shaka hood ornament.

Piles of keel fish, one of the original Mini Simmons, hand planes, even a Lightning Bolt.  Didn't get a picture of it but there was a fiberglass handplane that was one big deep concave and looked sick.

Petro of Faktion Surfboards, petting the Chicken.

 Todd of the Endless Bummer blog.  Love this brother.  He's like a stoke amplifier.

This Sunset stinger single fin ruled.  Gave me one of my favorite rides of the day. 

Enough geekery, time to get the Chicken Petter wet!  It did great in the 4' waves.  I felt like I was riding an antigravity skateboard.  Floaty, caught waves easy, rode loose, and just wanted to dance like James Brown.

Huge thanks to Tyler Breuer, Chris Gentile and SMASH Surf for organizing this event and all the other things they do to make surfing in NY more fun!