Happy Fins by Bereket, 5 1/2 and Genet, 3 1/2

Bereket, 5 1/2

Genet, 3 1/2

Here are a couple of fins sent in by proud father and back yard shaper Kipp Denslow.  I met Kipp's wife at a meditation class. After the class we started talking surf and she mentioned that her husband shapes fish boards.  Naturally I was intrigued so I urged her to have Kipp send in some shots.  Turns out he makes some amazing boards.  My favorite is the 50/50 blue and brown board.  Love the color scheme.

The fins are great. They put a smile on my face when I opened my email.  Enjoy.

New Form Of Wax Art

Erik came over today to show me his wax art. He rides for Sticky Bumps and gets all the R&D wax from the factory.  This time he got a bunch of colored wax so he waxed up his fish with these checkers. When he showed me I couldn't help but take a picture.

Hummm Back Yard Fish

My friend Hans Enyedi from Newport Beach sent in these photos. He has been busy shaping again and this time made a 6' fish. He shaped and glassed the board in his backyard. I really like the resin tint. Check out the bottom. It looks like there is a jelly fish in it. If all goes well I get to ride her next week along with the Casper he shaped.

Board Cam

Here are some classic shots.  David got his son a Go Pro board cam for Christmas.  He just hooked it up the other day and his son took it for a spin. The first shot is classic, I love how the water is caught in the air and the colors going off around him. 

A Few From Our Friends In Australia

Andrew Kidman, Photo By Mick Waters

Neil Purchase Jr. Photo By Mick Waters

Mick Waters Photo By Andrew Kidman

In September of last year I bought the movie Believe and was so stoked on the film I emailed Mick Waters, the Australian filmmaker, to congratulate him on a job well done.  Mick, who wrote back stoked as ever to connect with his audience, has over the months become a friend.  He has also become a daily follower of the site, and even submitted some Fin Art that he and his two kids made.

The other day I got an email from Mick and to my surprise received these photos.  They are of course of Andrew Kidman, Neil Purchase Jr. and Mick.  Seriously, these guys are 3 out of my 4 all time favorite Australian surfers/artists.  (All I needed was a shot of Rasta to complete the set.) You can imagine how stoked I was to get these. I'm not sure where these are taken other then AU but maybe Mick can comment and let us know. 

Over the coming months I will be featuring more of Mick's work.  He and his crew in AU have been producing some amazing work that continues to inspire me. He has a new film coming out that I will do a post on called "Little Black Wheels".  It is of a surf trip he took around AU with his pregnant wife, 2 year old daughter and dog in a little white van. The trailer is great and there are a few segments already floating around YouTube that will make your mouth water.

When Mick's new movie comes out he is currently planning a trip to the US to show it off. Cross your fingers, he is a true independent filmmaker so he has to fund this whole project himself.  He will stay here in Leucadia when he comes and we will help him do a La Paloma premier. There is even talk about filming his journey and making a movie out of it. 

Anyway everyone meet Mick.  Mick meet everyone. We are looking forward to your trip here so you can get to know everyone in person. In the meantime keep sending us shots!

That Ol' Pan Speed Dialer Fins By Kirk

Here are some fins Kirk sent in. He worked on it on and off for weeks and then sat on the final product. Anne like a good wife took up the lead and shot the photos.

The front fin is particle wood, left over resin from a dig repair and abalone from a trip to Nor Cal.  The back fin is particle board and beer bottle caps from his favorite beers. Both fins are mounted to an old recycled tin.

Really cool fins Kirk, thanks for sending them in!

1976 Encinitas 7'10" Single Fin

I ran into Steve Reilly today at Grandview. We got to talking and he started telling me about a 7'10" single fin he had shaped by John Kies in 1976 that he still owns. I told him to snap a shot and send it over. Here is what he sent alone with the story. Enjoy.

I had it made in 1976 by the recently opened Encinitas Surfboard shop. I was living primarily on the central coast at that time, in Los Osos attending Cal Poly SLO, working on a master's degree, but was down here for the summer. I was introduced to John Kies, co-owner and (then sole) shaper by a
friend of mine from UCSB days, Kenny Bernard, who had gone to San Diguito HS with Kies.

[Kenny would be another good story tangent for the Leucadia Project, but I think he's still living in Australia. He is one of the most talented surfers I've known. He grew up around north county, surfed for the Hansen team in the 1960s, started with his brothers the Swamis surf club. His mom was even the "den mother" of the club. His older brother had a surf shop on the coast highway in downtown Encinitas for a number of years. For a while in the '70s his mom owned a house on the bluff just south of Beacon's. The house had a separate cottage slightly down the bluff (since fallen and gone), a great place to check the then-uncrowded Leucadia surf conditions. I lost touch with Kenny in the 1980s at some point, after he'd sailed his boat to Australia, hooked up with Simon Anderson who had recently invented the thruster, and was spending lots of time surfing the western Pacific with him. Came by my house in Cardiff around 1982 or so and gave me an incredible slide show of the then-unknown spots they'd been surfing from his sail boat, and the incredible things that could be done with the "new" 3 fin
design...John K. knows Kenny's whereabouts, I'm pretty sure].

But I digress. I told John about the macking reef breaks I was surfing along the central coast and he designed & made this board for me. At the time the general style was called a "California Semi-Gun". It was designed for waves from about head-high to as big as you've got the cojones to surf. Its about 7'10", very thick as boards were then, down rails, stable and fast. Has the de rigueur wings near the tail to loosen it up a bit, but man can this thing fly on a long open face. Color is balsa tint on the bottom and rails, clear deck with red pin strip. Simple and clean design, I've always admired it. Still have the original single fin. The board never had a leash plug (weren't yet invented in '76) but I did add a fin screw with an eyelet in about '77. Mostly surfed it leashless, even on the reefs. Used it down here as a winter swell board for a while, but it ended up on the rafters about 25 yrs ago, and its aging nicely.

Let me know if you're interested in taking some better shots and I'll bring it by your place.

Steve

p.s. really like what you've been doing with the Leucadia Project web site. Very nice.

p.p.s. I've also got a circa 1963 Con longboard hanging in the garage. 9'0" rounded pin. Picked it up in 1981 when I moved back to Cardiff before the modern longboard era began. Placed an add in the Pennysaver and got it for $35 from a guy a couple blocks away whose son had left it in his garage since about '65. Shape's not as pristine but an interesting, fun board nonetheless.

Photo by Steve Reilly

Pinwheel Fins by Lukas - 5 and Ajia- 2

More fins were sent in by proud father and Avo lover, Jason Werbelow. Apparently the two loved coloring the fins so much that when finished they insisted that he put them up in their bedroom. Pretty cool.

Thanks Jason for sending them in!

New Show in Town - Cheryl Sorg - Text • Context - Enc. Library

Our own Cheryl Sorg's work is being displayed at the Encinitas Library. Her work went up last Friday and will be there until March 31st.  The show is of past, present and current works she has been producing, which is quite a treat. If you've ever visited her website and read her bio you would see that her work has been displayed at some renowned museums and galleries. Pretty cool that we get the chance to see her work in our own back yard. 

We featured her on the site a while back where she dismantled surf mags to create some amazing pieces. This time around she is dismantling entire novels and reassembling them into huge forms that can be read from start to finish.

I have been lucky enough to live next door to Cheryl for the past 4 years and have been able to witness the hard work she puts into these pieces. She once told me that a finished piece can take a 1000 hours or more to complete! She cuts an entire book up line by line, word by word or letter by letter to create her masterpiece. Pretty amazing seeing that she has two young kids as well!

She is having an artist reception March 14th from 1 - 3 pm 

For more photos of the exhibit go to her Facebook gallery.

Also below is a bit from her artist statement. It gives you an idea why she does what she does.

Enjoy.

"Literature, and its ability to transfix and transport, has served as the inspiration for my work for a number of years. A humble but passionate translator, I use books to create large and elaborate constructions, forms in which a viewer can get lost, as in a well-told tale.

I began by making small-scale pieces for the purpose of photographing them, the photo being the final ‘product’. Quickly I set aside the camera, however, and focused entirely on the making of the sculptures and installations themselves, wanting to see how they would morph - expand - without the resulting photo in mind. Along with this new focus came a new set of parameters designed to alleviate my guilt over ‘destroying’ books, objects I consider sacred .... that the books must remain in their entirety, and readable, in the final pieces.

I achieve this in most of the pieces by cutting the book (two copies of the book, actually, in order to get both sides of each page, and therefore the text in its entirety) apart line by line - sometimes even word by word, letter by letter - and assembling the text with clear tape into a variety of configurations. The content of the texts is integral to the the work, the stories within their pages informing and inspiring the shape each piece ultimately takes.

Many of the books I use in my work tell stories of obsession, or the obsessive pursuit - Moby Dick, The Odyssey and Lolita are prime examples. As I strive to keep the work within the strict parameters I’ve set for myself, and as the pieces become larger, more complex and time- and labor-intensive, obsession serves not only as the leitmotif, but as my own (for better or worse!) personal methodology as well. Should literature follow in the footsteps of music and film, with books going to the wayside like so many LP’s and VHS tapes, I make my contribution to their preservation with my archive of re-configured books. In my own obsessive fashion, I am building a unique ‘library’ comprised of classics and personal favorites - a large, idiosyncratic, readable-only-in-theory, and most unwieldy library to be sure!"

Photos by Cheryl Sorg

Dugan's Family Needs Our Help

After Dugan passed his family was burdened with their rental unit on their ranch being left in disrepair after their tenant moved out. With Dugan, who would have dealt with  the mess, not there to help, the family is in need of our support.  In a community effort Dugan's friends and family have banned together to help out and put together a crew to help rebuild the house so that their life blood is not lost.   

Dugan's longtime friend, contractor Brad Hall is donating his time to manage the construction efforts. With Brad at the helm the family still needs our help to be his crew as well as help with donations for materials.

If you know your way around a construction site please give Chuck 760- 207-2315 or Brad 760-525-0210 a ring.

They need help March 7th., Sat & Sun March 21 & 22  Sat & Sun April 4 & 5

Project materials are estimated at $7,500. Labor is contributed by our community of Grandview Locals and other Dugan friends. So far, $1,500 has been graciously raised from the community.

If you would like to make a contribution you can do so by...

1] Online via credit card or PayPal by clicking here

2] By check, payable to Roger Bodemer. Mail it to him at 2605 Unicornio St Carlsbad, CA 92009.

3] Grandview surfers can pass on their contribution to Rocky, Roger, or Tom.

I just dig the free gift of it all

David sent me these photos and this note.  I thought it was cool. Enjoy.

"You know, In a lot of ways these two shots sum up surfing for me. These shots really are about nothing and at the same time are about something. For me the commercialization of surfing does nothing for me... neither does the contest thing or the surfer cool thing. I haven't even been surfing lately and I still get the same joy out of shooting these shots as I did when I surfed or even back when I was a kid hangin' at the beach with my mom. Surfing is a wonderful thing and way too awesome to try and fit in to the three categories I mentioned before. I just dig the free gift of it all and I do my best to shoot that.

David"

More Wax Art- Wave

Ok I'm hooked. I can't stop making dirty surf wax art.  The feel of wax on my fingers and the smell of feet and coconut.  What's not to love?  This little wave took about an hour to make. It was out of a ball of wax I had sitting in my garage for about 6 months.  I have had so much fun with this and liked the end result so much I have started to keep them on my mantel. People are stoked to see them as they come through the house.  In about six months when my wax is ready to be changed I'll make a new one. That is unless people send me some of their own wax!

If you want to do your own and save a ball of wax from the dump, make them up and send me some photos. Ed Lewis

Photos by Ed

Surf Art by Ethan age 5

My sister emailed me these drawings by my 5 year old nephew, Ethan. These are great, I love them. We Skype all the time and my daughter and I do art projects with him, his brother and sister who live in Japan. This was the result of one of our drawing sessions.  My sister and her family live inland in Japan so they aren't around surfing at all. He gets his surf influence from me and The Leucadia Project. Classic.

Chris Del Moro

David was shooting one day and kept seeing this guy killing it. Wave after wave with big sprays and barrels. After the session he realized that it was local artist and free surfer, Chris Del Moro. Chris, who had met David before was stoked to see the shots, which ended up on Surfline. According to David, Chris is about a nice a guy as you can get. Not only does he rip, he is just really humble -- the kind of guy you want to see succeed at whatever he does.

Mattson Family Benefit Show - A Success - Thank you

View Photos Here

The Mattson Two/ Ray Barbee benefit concert was a huge success. Everyone who was there was blown away.  More then one of my friends who are musicians themselves said it was the best concert they had every seen. Friends and friends of friends showed up to give their support. The concert raised over $11,000 for the cause.  The family is going through a lot right now but are extremely grateful and humbled that our community showed up to support their cause. Good job everyone.

Photos provided by Janell Cannon 

Road Trip - DMJ's

David sent me these photos a few days ago.  These are shots of his friend Chad, who absolutely kills it. David and Chad went up to DMJ's a while ago and got it good. I've surfed up there a few times and it was amazing. The environment is an interesting contrast. 

Single Fin - Binki

A while back I posted on an asymmetrical fin experiment I have been trying. (See Fin Swap Anyone) I have been using two very different fins on my fish. One was a LokBox Turbo fin and the other was a standard LokBox 7.25" keel fin.  The set up surprisingly worked really well. It had a bit more speed due to the cant (angle) of the turbo fin as it opened up the space between the fins. This experiment has opened my mind to thinking outside the box when it comes to fins. It was amazing that an asymmetrical set up worked so well.

Yesterday though I expanded my fin experiment.  This time, however, not by choice.  You see on my first wave my turbo fin snapped off.  I noticed a few days ago that it had a stress crack but never thought it would snap. On that first wave I was going left and that fin was the fin in the face so I spun out.  I was a bit upset at the idea of loosing my favorite fin but I decided to stay out and belly the board around as I had just gotten out.  

I bellied on my first wave and then on my second wave, by instinct, I just stood up. Surprisingly I was able to ride it all the way in. That wave was a spark of inspiration and so I took wave after wave riding with one fin.  After a few test waves I figured out that going right with a good fin in the face was about 75% capacity of how the board rode normally. Who would have thought? You couldn't do a big carve but you could do little slide out snaps, drive down the line and feel pretty confident. Going left was another story. Although I made my first wave I proceeded to spin out more often then not.

Although I'm bummed that I lost my favorite fin, that session was a gift.  It opened my mind to the possibilities in something I had thought to be impossible.  A good lesson in general and memorable session.

Bob Nanninga Tribute Monday 6 to 8pm at E St. Cafe

For those of you who don't know about this it should be quite the event. You can sign up to speak at the event or hang back and enjoy the stories. 

Surf Wax Art.

I am well known for my wax job. I will go six months or more with the same wax build up. Kirk is the same way.  Erik goes crazy over this.  He rides for Sticky Bumps so he gets tons of wax and is always trying out new wax formulas.  One day he was so disgusted that he even offered to rewax my board for me. I politly declined. Besides, it took me six months to get that wax job!

This type of wax job has it's advantages and disadvantages. On the upside it works great. A couple of seasons of wax makes a pretty good blend. You can't buy this stuff. This current wax job was originated sometime in summer so it has a good base of warm wax and is now mixed in with the cold formula. The down side to the caked on wax job is that it looks really bad and it gets really heavy.  It must add a pound at least to the board.

Today I finally couldn't take it any more and decided to rewax my board. Since I have six months of wax I tend to have a decent size ball at the end of the stripping. This time was no different.

I hate to throw out old wax as it isn't the best thing for the environment. I have a few balls floating around my garage just sitting collecting dust.

Today I dicided to do something different with the wax. I decided to put my years of art school to use and make my sculpture professor proud. After looking at this ball of wax I started seeing a face in it. So with a little work I was able to bring my ball of wax to life.

After seeing the results I was pretty stoked. I even put it up on my mantel.  Who knew that your old dirty surf wax would be a pretty good medium to make sculptures out of it? Besides that wax was with me on some amazing waves. It seems fitting that I show it some respect and give it a life after my board.

So the next time you rewax your board, do the environment a favor and make that dirty ball into something cool. When your done, take a snap shot and send it our way and we'll post it.

Cardiff Sunshine

While David was combing through his archives he came across a set from summer that I have always liked.  Here are a few from a small summer Cardiff day.  To me these are amazing. I love the color and the playfulness of a small day. They remind me of why I like to surf, the feeling I get from a warm summer sunset and those moments when I think about life as I paddle back out.