Snow away

Went wave hunting today since the wind was raging and side shore. After hours of hiking through snow and over icy rocks I found a few potential spots for different swell/wind combos. Getting back to my car is was quickly informed by a plow truck that this few mile stretch of peninsula is private and no access is allowed by car or foot. This area has become quite frustrating the few waves are so fickle and crowded but soon as you look elsewhere everything is private no access even in the middle of Winter when no one is around.

Salt water does freeze and it sucks. If you think not putting fresh wax on makes for a slippery board wait till you get a coat of ice on it with a big dark heaving closeout at your back as you try to stand up.

Tail Feather

Finally a little post about the interchangeable tails. Did it work? Yes. Would I make more? Up for debate it was a lot of work to make one offs. I did take the board out in some good waves from Blacks in CA to Scarborough in ME with no breaks which even surprised me. Pretty much I got to try out three different boards before choosing what I really liked. Had a super squash with no tail I would ride with a quad or as a twin, a normal squash with double channel I rode mostly as a quad and a pin tail I rode as a quad also.

This is the layup of a tail I glued left over cut offs of EPS and use a mahogany stringer. This was then shaped down to the tail I wanted. Think of it as a large fin, I used a white oak tenon piece to slot into the board and secured it with two set screws. The board had an adjustable length of 5'3" - 5'6" and 5'9".

After two months of use I have decided to glass the squash tail on permanently this will reduce a bit of weight and limit the chance of breaking. This is really what shaping is all about for me the abilty to try out new ideas that you can't go get from a store. 

Back

Got super busy shaping up boards with deadlines then off to California to surf until it felt like I broke all my ribs. Back now and with Fall approaching expect lots of new things.

Surf More

Clean

As Spring is approaching I am working on the new shop space so updates are coming slow. Here are some old pics that are getting cleaned out of the folders. Fun mellow days taken after I got out.