Takashi's new Simmons

 Great looking board by Japanese wooden board builder, Takashi Watanabe.
For more details check it out on his site :
wavexing.a.la9.jp/m_simmons.html

A happy man with his completed project

Hand foiled fins - nice

Everything starts with a plan and the best way to nut it out is to put it on paper

There are always lots of clamps

Material: Japanese Akita Cedar (rail: add to cork) and white color of nose block is Balsa.

Far away from computers, cubicals and boardrooms sits Grain Surfboard's  home base; located on a small working farm just minutes from the beach in Maine - a perfect place for companies to bring their employees to re-connect or to decompress.  Early this year California-based company Vans did just that.

Grain welcomed Van's team of art directors to get "hands-on" in the cold Maine winter for a different kind of team-building retreat.  "Our company's ethos is based in individuality, authenticity and creativity," states Tait Hawes, Van's Manager of Art Directors who organized the trip.  "Our history lies in skateboarding and independent thinking.  In other words, we don't do trust falls."  Tait was looking for an uncommon experience to share with his co-workers and found that and more at Grain.

Grain offers a truly unique experience for a group of professionals who are looking for that out-of-the-box way to build confidence and a sense of cohesiveness among co-workers. Organized into groups of two, each pair builds a board from start to finish during a 3-day board blitz. "Hands-on work results in a great sense of satisfaction that lends itself well to any company's team-building objectives"  says Mike LaVecchia, co-owner of Grain. "Our shop is well equipped with everything a group of professionals would need; wi-fi, full kitchen, plenty of coffee and tons of fresh, locally prepared food daily."

Hawes continues, "I wanted to bring my team of art directors together to get inspired and build cohesiveness in a place that was as far away from computers and cubicles as possible. Grain Surfboards provided exactly what I was looking for in the best way possible. Building wooden surfboards by hand, in two person teams, in 20 degree weather in Maine. Done. The folks at Grain embody a perfect combination of creativity, craftsmanship and friendliness. The added bonus were the farm fresh meals that we still talk about today. This place is no joke. Bring your boardrooms to boardbuilding. It's time."

Grain continues to "bring the boardroom to boardbuilding" by welcoming small groups of professionals to an inspiring rural setting and a workshop where cooperative creativity is built in.

Read more about Van's trip to Grain's headquarters, or click below to watch a short film on Van's trip to Grain.


ABOUT GRAIN SURFBOARDS
 Grain Surfboards is committed to promoting the benefits of building and surfing wooden surfboards and believes that wooden surfboards can have more impact on the surfing experience and less impact on the environment. All of the wood products used in Grain surfboards and kits are sourced from local mills and forestlands in Maine that practice sustainable harvesting. All wood waste from the production of Grain's boards and kits is actively reduced and creatively recycled. Grain ships surfboards and complete surfboard kits worldwide and hosts week-long classes in which anyone can learn to handcraft their own wood surfboard. Grain is co-owned and managed by Mike LaVecchia and Brad Anderson.

When the rot sets in

Nice story by the boys at Grain on what they have done to preserve a little bit of history and show some respect for someones hard work in the past. Check it out here.

The Maljam

Okanui’s and Toothpicks by today’s standards they barely resemble a surfboard.The toothpick is an Australian designed and built craft originally designed for surf life saving. It’s made of timber, is hollow and has no fin. To turn them surfers used to drop the toes of their back foot into the water using their foot as a rudder. The hollow Okanui surfed from the late 40’s – 50’s until balsa was available.
Both are still handmade today by skilled craftsmen. At Maljam it’s a demonstration event that is sure to please the crowd...

 The Maljam is a celebration of the evolution of the longboard and is proud to have events on the day that reflect the progress from the toothpick through the okanui, Malibu ,foam “log” and the modern high performance hot dogger. The current World Champ, Taylor Jensen, will be competing along with  current Aussie Champ Josh Constable. Former World number one Haley Ingelby will also contest the prize money that was provided by major sponsor, Tim Riley of the 4 Elements Sporting Academy.

A host of local and interstate competitors will be in the mix for rewards that the richest one day surfing Event Australia has to offer.  Attending also will be members of the Barry Bennett family who will mingle with the crowd and explain some of the finer points of the longboard evolution.

Looking forward to seeing you all at North Curl Curl on April the 28th to enjoy the work of the world’s best longboarders, trade displays, great food and the company of the some of the icons of our sport.

 - Phil Nicol – President Curl Curl Longboarders

www.curlymaljampro.com

Simon Cox from Curl Curl Longboarders says: ‘We recognised that the modern day Single Fin Log riders were due the same recognition and rewards that the ‘performance’ guys get. The Maljam idea brings together the different longboarding styles, attitudes and riders for some serious fun at North Curly.” In 2011, Curly Maljam Pro was the first Australian event to support the ‘Single Fin Logger’ concept by awarding big prize money, which this year has paved the way for many other competitions to follow. All good for Longboarding.

Wood is good , but these guys are unreal

The 8ft simmons from Flama

It is great to have someone share their experience of riding a new wooden board and this is Aitor's ...

 "Some days ago I bought the first Flama Simmons surfboard, and Sergi from Flama  brought me home the surfboard (thanks Sergi), he stayed some days in Bilbao and we did some photos and some video recording."

" It's a perfect mix, an incredible vintage design and a new building system, old with new , the surfboard it is awesome, a lot of flow, ton of floating , so fast and easy to surf, and everything  made of wood with the perfect flama finish. "

" I send you some surprising pics of my first day with the surfboard, made with my gopro.

And a  a simple video of a foam wave of that day, just 40 seconds."

Aitor

www.flamasurf.com

The boys need your help

Mark Cruickshank of Crooked Blanks, Shawn Vecchione of Vec Surfboards, and Keith Natti of TwinLights Glassing have combined their efforts to make what they believe to be the most sustainable surfboard in the market.  But we need your help.  We want to get our surfboards out in front of people.  We want to show surf shop owners these surfboards.  We want to bring them to surf shows and let surfers touch and feel them.  And most importantly, we want to get surfers surfing them. So if you would like to assist the guys with their project check them out HERE

High performance wood from Timberline

 Great to see some high performance boards made of wood being surfed at the highest level and doing so well. Congratulations to Raphael Wolfe of Timber line surfboards in Santa Barbra,  California.

Nice quiver built by Timberline Surfboards and Jeff Hull of Resist Surfboards

 Vincent Duvignac ( European Champion) charging at the Biarritz Maider Arosteguy 2012 surf contest last weekend.

 He finished second surfing a Resist/Timberline 6′ rounded pin.

Vincent Duvignac

www.timberlinesurf.com

Joe Larkins night

Joe was the first surfboard shaper on the Gold Coast and had a thriving business in Miles Street Kirra in the early 60's

Joe surfing Noosa National Park  1963

Joe was the go to man for boards for a long time and had great team working with him.

 Johnny Charlton who grew up in Coolangatta was the MC on the night and kept things rolling. Joe is a character to say the least and there were many stories to be told and yarns to surface on the night.

 Phil Jarratt well known author / writer and surf mag editor had a few tales to share and probing questions to put to Joe. There were many well known faces there and Joe's life has certainly touched a lot of people. I am not great on surf history myself. But it is great to be in a room filled with people who were part of these great stories and hear them first hand.

Joe is a great guy who has had a very full and interesting life .

Joe is well known for his wooden boards of which he is a great craftsman .

PT was on hand to give Joe a fair ribbing and tell some tales on his good mate. PT worked for him in his younger days and Joe was his first sponsor , they go back a long way.

Joe was an avid photographer and film maker who shot the first footage of guys surfing large waves on the northern beaches of Sydney in the late 50's. These and others were picked up and used by the ABC on news reels in the early days. He later sold all his camera gear to Jack Evans for 300 pounds when he moved to the Gold Coast in the early 60's. Jack went on to be one of the great early surf photographers in Australia.

Joe Larkin this Wednesday night

Surf World Gold Coast is hosting a ‘Roast’ night on the 4th April to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of legendary surf pioneer and board manufacturer Joe Larkin’s move to the Gold Coast. 
 Already a well known surfer/shaper in Sydney Joe opened his factory at Miles Street, Kirra in early 1962 and in doing so became the first commercial manufacturer of surf boards on the coast. Noted for his craftsmanship his factory quickly became the hang-out for budding surfers and later in the 60s’ a think tank in the short board revolution.


Always one for a good time some of Joe’s exploits are the stuff of legends and with the event hosted (toasted) by long time friend John JC Charlton it is expected that the roasting will be severe. This event promises to be one of the highlights of Surf World’s calendar

The skinny on hand planes from Danny Hess

   

The Flama Surf Simmons

Here is a great email I have just in from Sergi Galano that I would like to share with you.

  "Remember last time I told you I was into making a wooden Simmons? Well, it's been a tough work, but we did it!
I'm not sure if I told you we joined forces with Montjuich Surfboards (specialized in surfboard replicas from the 1960-1972 period). We moved into a bigger workshop and now we're sharing facilities, which brings us the possibility to face some interesting projects as the one I'm presenting you. It all started with a single question thrown at Dídac (Montjuich's shaper): "would have you ever used foam, resin and volan to make your surfboards if Bob Simmons had known paulownia back in 1948?".

The final answer to that question is this amazing board. Flama designed and build a custom 8' blank so Dídac could shape his own interpretation of a Simmons surfboard. The final result is a board 8' x 23" x 3" that weights 9'8 kg, wich is almost half the weight of Simmons' lightest boards. And, rather than taking off and go straight to the soulder (as we predicted), this board is cappable of drawing clean lines in nice sized faces, and in small crappy surf it's the funniest board ever! "

Simmons Project: Montjuich Vs Flama from Flama Surf on Vimeo.


Flama Surf      and      montjuichboards.com

The Vans design team and Grain

A FLY ON THE WALL from Joe Carter on Vimeo.

Kun_tiqi Balsa boards in action

If you think Balsa Wood Surfboards are for old, classic surfers ? They are slow, mellow, hard to turn and only surfable in ankle high waves ? Check the "Old Men Show" staring team riders Xabi Lafitte and Olivier Eudes in Guethary and La Fitenia.

 For more info check out : www.kuntiqi.com

Gerard's pintail

This is the 7’ 3” pintail to be auctioned at the annual Hunter Business Boardriders Surfest Breakfast with the proceeds to go to Surfaid International.

Gerard Hatton is a graduate of the Paul Jensen board building class held here on the Gold Coast prior to the first wooden board day. Since then the lawyer from the New Castle area has built many fine boards which he surfs regularly. And this is a very generous offer from Gerard for a very worthy cause.

Wooden board building classes in Victoria

This type of Workshop was first pioneered by Rich Blundell of the Tree 2 Sea fame and his philosophy is simple, share the knowledge.

Rich came to Australia in March 2011 and we ran the first Workshop in Mount Eliza Victoria. Since then we have developed the techniques further and made a few changes to Rich`s build method to keep the overall construction costs down and keep it within the reach of more people. This means that the boards you will build do not need to be fibreglassed when finished, as traditionally most board do. This is a saving of about one third of the overall build cost. 

There are no high tech machines or advanced skills required to build your own Wooden Surfboard at one our Workshops. These courses are designed at a grass roots level to enable anybody who has the desire to build their own board achieve just that!

At the completion of the 3 Day Workshop you will have learned the basic skills required to build future boards at home with minimal tools. All materials,tools and equipment are supplied, however if you prefer to use your own tools, you are welcome to bring them along.

If your interested in completing one of our Wooden Surfboard Workshops, email us on: hwsurfboards@gmail.com

First Workshop to be held on 16,17 & 18 of APRIL 2012
(depending on participant numbers, other workshop dates to follow)

Contact: Robert Ivers   0409 211 751  
or  Gary Miller   0423 804 975

Wooden board building classes in London

 Paul Reisberg is planning to do another hollow wooden surfboard workshop in the UK, before he heads off to France and Spain.

The Date will be 30th of March 2012   to 1st of April 2012

The location will be the Bridge Boathouse in Richmond near London where he had a nice board building session in January : http://www.richmondbridgeboathouses.co.uk

In the workshop he will guide the participants through the process of constructing a hollow wooden surfboard with the Rich Blundell Strip-and-  Feather-Method.

He calculates the price as £250+£35 / foot and that includes tuition and all the material you need to construct the shape of your choice (Plywood stringer + Frames, Paulownia, Cedar, Glues, Epoxy). After the three days of workshop you'll have a board that only needs final sanding and laminating.

Have a look here for well tested shapes: http://treetosea.org/richs-template-shop/

Or here for pictures from past workshops: http://arbosurfboards.blogspot.com

For questions or to sign up get in touch.

Paul and Sarah

http://arbosurfboards.blogspot.com

The legend Joe Larkin honoured

Surf World Gold Coast is hosting a ‘Roast’ night on the 4th April to acknowledge the 50th anniversary of legendary surf pioneer and board manufacturer Joe Larkin’s move to the Gold Coast. Already a well known surfer/shaper in Sydney Joe opened his factory at Miles Street, Kirra in early 1962 and in doing so became the first commercial manufacturer of surf boards on the coast. Noted for his craftsmanship his factory quickly became the hang-out for budding surfers and later in the 60s’ a think tank in the short board revolution.

Always one for a good time some of Joe’s exploits are the stuff of legends and with the event hosted (toasted) by long time friend John JC Charlton it is expected that the roasting will be severe. This event promises to be one of the highlights of Surf World’s calendar

Hanging the Bush Pig

 Mike Connor's 9ft hollow wooden Bush Pig is now complete and hanging in the new Lennox Heads surf museum.

http://michealconnorwoodwork.com.au