Vans Trash Art Submission by Rodney McCoubrey

Rodney sent me his entry for the monthly Vans trash art contest. The winner gets a pair of shoes.  Below is how he made it.  It blows me away at what he can make out of what people throw away.  My favorite shot is of the eye.  It is crazy how it really has a soul.  Great work Rodney.

For the kids out there that want to try this to win some shoes and save trash from the land fill, go here for entry and details.  Parents out there that would like there schools to do a similar art program, contact Rodney about setting up a day for him to do a work shop with the kids. 

Step 1: Collect the trash.

Step 2: Cut out the template.

Step 3: Base coat the wood and then paint.

Step 4: Add the trash to make the features.

Step 5: Add the Eye.

Step 6: Hang and add the bubbles.

Amazing Fins

David sent me these fins a while back from a random house visit of long time local and fin enthusiast John Peugh (Spl?). David was doing some work one day in his neighborhood and he got invited in to take a look. He was lucky enough to have his iPhone with him to grab some shots.  If anyone wants one of his fins contact David for details.

A Little Performance

I tend to gravitate to the soul surfing shots David sends in of the smaller days with the hand dragging and the back lit wave.  I like the guys who take their time getting down the line. I guess I see my own ability in them and naturally enjoy the mood of it.  With that said I can still appreciate a little performance surfing.  Here are some shots that David sent in of a few weeks back.  Only one I recognize is TK.  All are killing it.

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.