It Doesn't Not Work: Outer Limits of Pure Surf Design

What an inspired idea.  I can't wait for this.  And I've got a submission!  I hope this brings some new folks out of the shadows...maybe YOU?

Stay Salty, in a good way

When you want to keep the digital stoke fired up and the waves aren't cooperating or you're chained to your desk monkey job, Liquid Salt can ease the pain. Kick him some scratch especially if you've taken a drink from the well. Glenn will thank you ;)

Rockaway Classic Surf Comp This Sat

Single fins, weekend swell on the way, good cause...hey what else do you need to know?

Here is your surf report for Thursday

Glassy with a chance of style.

Finless Fiesta and wooden surfboards.

Get your block planes and spoke shaves sharpened. Grain Surfboards is putting their boards building classes on the road and bringing Jon Wegener with them. From Feb 1st through 9th Grain will be holding class at the new Patagonia Bowery surf shop in NYC. 

Photo: Jon Wegener FB page.

Jon's Class will from Feb 1st to the 2nd. 

From Grain:

"For this unique workshop, we’re privileged to have Jon Wegener back from Southern California where he is a pioneer in the design and construction of traditional Hawaiian finless sticks. We’re also honored that this is the first class we’re offering with our friends at Patagonia Bowery in New York City.

Each student will have their choice of building either a paipo or an alaia using paulownia with Jon guiding you through the process.

Students will cut their outlines, and under Jons watchful eye, shape the delicate arcs that make magic of a simple plank. Oiled and ready for launching on day two, everyone will have time to hit the water for a surf. We’ll have a quiver of wood boards for students to try in the evenings or whenever glue is drying, so pray for surf."

Photo: Grain Surfboards FB page

Grain will also provide a 4 day board kit building class.

Grain's class will be from Feb Feb 6th to the 9th.

From Grain:

"Since the early days of Grain, we’ve admired, looked up to and in some ways emulated the values that the good people at Patagonia have taught us. We’ve read the books, listened to the words and tried to lead an examined life. We’ve also always dreamed of working with Patagonia in some way… and now it’s happening, and you can be a part of it.

We’re so proud and excited to bring our 4-day class to Patagonia’s newest surf store in the Bowery, NYC. Six students will be building their own wooden surfboard right in the basement of the store, which also happens to be the former CBGB’s. If only those walls could talk.

You can count on the same experience you’d get by coming here to Maine including two delicious meals a day, the full course of instruction, and each student leaves at the end with a board ready-to-glass. The tuition’s a bit more for our traveling classes to cover the cost of us getting there, but students living locally avoid the cost of traveling to Maine and cost of lodging."

Happy First Swell of 2014.

Tandem Mat Riding

I rode a surf mat up into my 8^th month, after which I stuck to swimming in calm water, day or night.  Little Kai Alana has arrived since I wrote this. Baby and Mama are doing great, and looking forward to the day when they can get into the waves again.  Here is what I wrote during my second trimester:

My mother told me that when she got pregnant, she noticed that she stopped running aground while sailing her boat.  Something in her had become more cautious, and she stopped putting herself in potentially sketchy situations until she noticed when we had grown up a bit that she had started running aground again.  While I wish I could be like Jericho Poppler and surf into my 8^th month, I’ve definitely become more nervous around hard surfcraft and their captains since the start of this gestation project.  My solution?  The surf mat! 

Thanks to fellow ape Justin Valdes for introducing me to this glorious wave vehicle at last year’s Mat Meet, I knew this magic wave carpet was just what I needed to provide my passenger Little Monkey and me a soft and safe ride in the salty brine, away from the fray of the peak.  The little girl inside me is pure aquatic ape, surfing up an amniotic stoke in my belly, while I immerse myself in the ocean, so similar to the blood whose expanded volumes are cruising around in my pregnant veins.  

My wetsuit stretches over my belly, cradling Little Monkey snugly.  The water provides sweet relief from gravity, the increasing enemy of my expanded girth.  A trimester of inactivity leaves me winded, and the new body requires negotiation, but I no longer have to walk the beach pining for the waves that all the board riders are gliding.  Thanks to my sweet partner ape Brian, for getting me this best birthday present early so I can enjoy the whole season until this bun in the oven is cooked.