More TK

A little TK in local waters for your Monday afternoon.  Notice the hand/arm drag that he pivots around. He sinks his arm up to his bicep. It's pretty impressive.

Little Black Wheels - Trailer

Here is the trailer for the surf film Little Black Wheels that is currently being worked on by Mick over at Little House Productions. I really liked his film Believe but I have to admit this one looks even better. He said he has been filming a bunch the last two weeks as the surf has been really good in AU. 

Here is some YouTube footage I found of Johnny Abegg, an Austrailian that is super smooth. In this segment he is riding for Sea Surfboards. Take a look at Sea's link. Oh my. Love the resin tents. This segment will be in the film. 

Here is some footage of Mick surfing. He is riding a widow maker made by Kidman. Mick is a humble guy. If you were to ask him he'd say he doesn't rip.  I wish I didn't rip like that. I guess when you hang with all the guys he films you feel a bit humbeled. 

Enjoy.

Needs a Good Home- 5'10" Blue Twin Keel

My friend Kipp Denslow dropped off this board for me to try. He has been shaping fish as a hobby and wants some feedback. When I got the board I was really blown away at how beautiful it is.  It's a 5'10" x 22" x 2 7/8 and it looks really fun.  He wanted me to wax it up and take it for a ride but I had to shoot it first. It was just too nice looking. He is ultimately selling the board on CraigsList to support his board building habit.  He is doing this for the love of it so he said it can go to a good home for $350. He just wants some feedback. If you need a new fish contact us or Kipp.  I have it with me and will take it out tomorrow if there are no buyers.

John Haffey at Cardiff

David shot a few of John Haffey the other day at Cardiff.  This guy is great. I've seen him in a few movies and always liked him.  Lots of soul and a good surfer. Enjoy.

Lost & Found - In David's Back Yard!

I'm sure you have all seen the lost dog signs up everywhere in Leucadia. The large bright pink ones along 101. For about 6 days a woman has been franticly trying to find this dog. As a dog owner myself, I was getting worried for the dog as the signs kept going up and nothing was happening.  Each day as I drove around I kept think, "Where can this dog be?" I was thinking I should do a post on this dog to see if anyone has see it. To my surprise David emailed me this story...

Ed, I was home today watching my son while he is off for his spring break. About 10:00AM I walked out front to talk to a guy who who was going to do some work in the front yard. We talked for a bit and I mentioned to him that I needed some work done in the backyard too. I said lets go back and take a look... my yard is gated off, so I had to reach over and undo the latch (which I set last night around 9:30pm) in order for us to check out the situation. We walk around and we are looking at the grass and out of the corner of my eye behind all my plants I see this big beautiful dog hiding! I'm thinking to myself how did this dog get into my backyard? I checked all my gates and everything was closed. The only thing I could think of was that it ran in there before I locked the gate last night. He seemed really frightened.... I thought to myself, my neighbor is a big dog lover and she will probably know who this dog belongs to.

I walked over to her house and she came right over. We get the dog to come out and can quickly see that this is no ordinary dog. It was just beautiful with a perfect disposition. It pretty much just said I love you every time it looked at you. You could also tell that it was very well taken care of. My neighbor thought she might know who it belonged to so she went on a walk with her and about 20 minutes came back with the dog and said nope... I was wrong. She called the humane society but they were closed. So, all the kids just pet this dog all day. Everyone who got a chance to hang out and pet it fell in love with it right away.

Later, I stopped by my moms house with my son and told this story to them. My step dad says I think that's the dog that all of Leucadia is looking for right now. He tells me that he noticed the signs all over the place when he checked the surf out at Grandview and Beacons. I say get in the car and lets go check out the signs. Sure enough it's the dog! I call the owner right away from the Beacons parking lot. She was so happy to get that call and I was super stoked to be the one lucky enough to call her.

She tells me she has been looking for her dog since last Wed when she was helping a friend move into their new place on Neptune (or close to) when someone dropped a surfboard and it freaked the dog out. I guess it was like 8:30pm and dark. They ran after it but it just kept
on running and they lost it in the night. Now, I have to add here that this dog is not a hyper active kind of dog that would run out the door every time it opened up! It is more like the sweetest dog ever that just got scared. From this point it was just gone. They put together a
group of people and looked for 6 days for this dog. That's right, it was on the run for 6 days and stayed alive and found it's way into my back yard about 1 mile away from the place she bolted from.

The owner came over and was so stoked to get her dog back! She was actually in tears.

Making of the Murphy Balsa Quad

         

I had a bunch of photos from the making of the Murphy Balsa Quad that won Best of Show. I threw them together and made a quickie slideshow. It gives you a good feel for how it was made. Enjoy.

AB3 Fish Fry Was A Success!

Dennis Murphy was just stoked to be there.  He had no idea at this point he was the winner but was feeling the energy of it all.

Hans Enyedi really deserved the best home built. His boards were really amazing and were commented on all day.

Here is the crew. It was a who's who of new and old school.

Hummm. Fish.

More of the crew. Shout out to Kipp Denslow with the chocolate, white and lime green fish held up in the back.  We did a post on him a while back and the board he brought was really cool.

Cool fish board and fish painting. From what I understand a husband and wife team.

One of my favorite fish shapers and bloggers Manny Caro on the right with young gun on the left.

Today was a great day. The AB3 Fish Fry went off great and two of my friends won. Dennis Murphy won Best of Show for his Balsa and Reclaimed Redwood 5'10" Quad Fish and an automatic spot in the shape off event at the next Sacred Craft show. His Balsa fish is amazing and it won despite the fact that it wasn't even finished!  He hot coated it last night so he could show it today.  He and his right hand man Dan Lewis were super stoked on the win. Great job guys. See the post we did on it earlier.

My friend Hans Enyedi won Best Home Board for his 6'1" Casper.  See the post we did on it a few weeks ago. Beautiful board and some amazing work for being shaped and glassed in a shed in the back yard. Hans was definitely one of the most stoked guys there. He has been shaping his own boards for 30 years now and got the chance to talk shop today with legends. A day he certainly won't forget.

Thanks to all who put on the event and Ice9 for the foam! Keep an eye on Maggie's Sea Layer blog for photos, the AB3 site for official updates and the Surfy Surfy site for, well, entertainment and boards to drool over.  

AB3 Fish Fry Sunday!

Alia and I have been getting ready for the 2009 AB3 Fish Fry at O'side Harbor.  She waxed my board and even made some new fin templates to show the guys at 101 fins. She has been working on a more efficient fin foil as well but that is something she will have to explain in person. The hydrodynamics are just to complicated to show on paper.

We hope to see everyone there. Look for the Grain board at the event with Murphy.

Ian Will Surf Again - Benefit - Sat March 28th

I got this flyer from Grandview local Shawn Horn. I was moved when I read the story. It is regarding a fundraiser for a young boy, 5 years old, who suffered a severe head injury in a car accident and lost both of his parents.  Ian is now 6 years old, and is at home with his 2 siblings Lauren and Luke who are now 2 and 3 years old.  Their Aunt Melissa is their legal guardian.  Ian has a 100% potential to walk again with intense therapy, but he needs our help.  Please read the attached flyer and anything to help would be appreciated!

The Simple Things

Here is a shot that I took that I really like.  It represents the simple things that we as surfers do that make up the whole experience.  This shot was taken of Erik as he waxed up the retro single fin that he fixed up. He had no idea I was taking the shot and he just took his time waxing her up and getting her ready.  Earlier that day he road her for the first time in really clean conditions and killed it.  This was his second session of the day and this time around the surf was really bad.  He didn't care though and took the same time waxing away and got in the groove. It just shows the time we spend around surfing and the things that make up the entire experience, not just the act of riding waves. 

A Picture of a Picture

Erik gave me this photo on a drive of a bunch of images he had. It stood out and I thought it was cool.  This shot came from taking a picture of his computer screen with this image on it. The original image was taken by Erik's girlfriend and local artist Lauren. I had seen the original and had always liked it but this one came out extra cool. Enjoy.

The Bird

Here is a shot sent in by David. He actually sent it to me as a joke. But I liked it so much I had to post it. He was shooting one day at Cardiff and this bird came right at him. He swears he was looking to bomb him. He shot off a few and this is what he got.  It's really a cool picture. You can see Seaside in the background. If you click on it to enlarge it the detail is cool too. I've never seen a bird in flight shot like that. Look at the wings too, it's got that vee like a swallow tail.

More Grain - The Rails Are Done

I got more pictures of the progress on the Grain today from Dennis.  This time they have finished the rails and have the planks glued up and ready for the deck to be glued on. Once that is complete the Grain blank can be shaped. 

Dennis was set to glue the deck this week but we agreed to leave it off so he can take it to the AB3 Fish Fry this weekend. It will be cool for people to see up close what the inside of these boards look like and how much goes into making them.  If you want to get a closer look at the innards of a Grain, stop by the event and look for Murphy.

Encinitas Surf Artist - Juan Flores

Beacons

Cardiff Night

Late Go Out (Swamis)

This is one of my favorite parts about this site. I got an email out of the blue from local artist and surfer Juan Flores. He stumbled onto the site and sent me these images of his work. I was really impressed.  They are fun and of course I always love art of Leucadia and Encinitas.  I really love the lineup point of view as well.  I think a lot about how beautiful our bluff line is as I wait for sets. I've always wanted to take a picture of the bluff on a good day but a) it's a good day and I'm surfing. b) You need a good long distance camera to get a good shot. These paintings are cool because it gives you that detail and color from a higher point of view which lets you see the surf and the bluff.  I dig it. Great work. You can check out more work of his at www.jfloresw.com.

Enjoy.

More Progress On The Grain and New Balsa Fish

View More Photos Here

Photos by Dan Lewis and Dennis Murphy

Since the last time I was up at the Murphy Ranch and did a post on the Grain board the weather up there became too cold to work on the board. The next phase was to build the rails, which consists of a process of stacking 1/4 inch long strips of wood one on top of each other to make the curve of the rail.  The process is borrowed from wood boat building and is referred to as the bead and cove method. Meaning that each strip has a concave bottom and rounded top.  The bead fits in the cove and lets the wood lock into place with the help of the glue.

The barn it is being built in wasn't heated and the cold temperatures made the risk too high for cracking the bead and cove strips.  So it sat for a few weeks until recently when the weather warmed up and they could get going again.

I haven't seen the progress yet in person but was fortunate enough to hook up with Dennis and chat about its progress and get these photos.

While Dennis and Dan were waiting for the weather to warm up for the Grain, they started a little side project to keep themselves busy. To my shock they surprised me with some photos of their next project, a scrap Balsa and 100 year old reclaimed redwood 5'10" Quad Fish. The board is chambered out and is set to weigh in at 10 pounds glassed. That is most likely the weight of a glossed and polished 6' fish. The redwood used is from a recycled water tower on his property. The wood is surprisingly light on it's own because of the age but once chambered it is exceptionally light.

Here are a couple photos of the project. Keep an eye on the Murphy Blog for more details and it's progress.

Glued and rough shaped. The swallow has yet to be cut.

Murphy In the Ranch Shaping Room

Fresh Spring Grass, Redwood and Balsa

View More Photos Here

Photos by Dan Lewis and Dennis Murphy