Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

I remembered seeing this website one year and thought it was fun. You can make your own pumpkin here .

I Want To Be Dean When I Grow Up

If you've surfed Grandview in the last 30 years you've seen Dean Rich in the water. Dean is one of those locals who has figured life out and can clock no less then 300 plus sessions a year. Most likely a lot more. He is one of those guys who knows what the swell is doing, what spots are breaking and disappears for weeks returning with just a smile on his face from an adventure like the above.  All while starting and managing businesses along the way. 

Dean's latest business venture has impacted my life for sure. I am not rich from it but my feet are happy. A couple of years ago he started importing these Souls Australian made flip flops that have these little acupressure bumps on them that massage your feet.  He hooked me up with a pair and I have had a hard time going back to my old flops ever since. Thanks Dean for keeping my feet happy and inspiring me and others with the way you figured out life! 

I'm not sure who took the surf shots but thanks for letting me use them!

Local Artist Micaiah Hardison

When I first moved to Leucadia in 96' my friend lived on Neptune across the street from an 18 year old kid that was an amazing artist. His name was Micaiah Hardison and he grew up on the bluff and in the water of Leucadia. He surfed and body boarded and was good at it all. He was also a completely self taught artist. I was always impressed by him. I bought my first painting from him in 99'. Since then acquired a few more. My favorite two are the images above. Pipe from the water (3.25' x 4.25') and an image of Grandview from Seabluff (4' x 8'). He is still painting today. Check lout his site www.micaiah.net

Way To Go David

David doesn't like to toot his own horn. In fact he's very low key about his shots. He mostly does it just to bring a smile to his friend's faces.  Me on the other hand, I'm stoked for him when he gets his shots into the mainstream so I don't mind telling everyone.  

So if you happen to see Surfline's feature on the west coast double swell you will see the shot above. During that swell he spent a few hours posted up on the bluff shooting his friends for fun. One of them just happen to get a great shot so he sent it off to Surfline not expecting much. To his surprise he got a call letting him know he made it in. Congrats David and Jon! Great shot and surfing.

Inspired

16 year old John Cappetta sent in this picture he drew of Erik. He saw this photo on the site, got inspired and sent this in. Way to go, John. Keep up the drawing!

Were You Out This Day?

Dec 26, 2001, were you out that day? I have had these pictures on my various computers for 8 years now. They were taken by my friend's boy friend Mark. I borrowed her camera one day and downloaded these by mistake. I just came across them and was stoked I still had them. I remember that swell well. These were shot on the roof of their Neptune house. There is some serious size for out front and more surprisingly it was ridable. Most huge swells close out.

Grain Update - Hot Coat and Sanding

After having to take a break for a week to due to sick kids, we were back at it with the Grain. This time the hot coat was on our list of items to tackle.

Once again, Kipp did his thing and guided us through this process.

Kipp leveled.

I taped.

I poured.

Kipp heated the resin so that the bubbles would come out.

A trick that all should know. I got the rookie tip that hot coat resin was just laminate resin with a surfacing agent added.  You can buy it premixed (more expensive) or you can buy the additive and add it to your left over laminating resin (less expensive). Thanks to the guys at Encinitas Surfboards for hooking me up with that piece of knowledge.

The board was prepped and ready to go.

We didn't have a shooter so again, the hot coat was committed to memory. It was VERY quick. I let Kipp do the deck to watch how it was done. The resin kicked REALLY fast. It was a good choice.

Came out great. No problems.

Next up was pulling the tape.

A lot of the glassing processes is redundant. You do a lot of the same processes over again.

The bottom went smother yet and was done in no time. I set out to do the bottom myself but Kipp ended up diving in at the end as the resin yet again set really quick. We need to work on refining our catalyst ratio.

More tape pulling.

Done!

She is a beaut or what?

Now it's time to sand.

Sort of made me nervous to take a power sander to her.

I got the hang of it pretty quick.

Lots of dust. You sand and then you hunt for "Shinnies" as Kipp puts it. Anything shinny hasn't met the sander yet. 

It took a bit to get it done.

After the deck was sanded we cleaned her up to see how she looked.

Then we started on the rails. You have to scrape the bead that is left from the bottom and top hot coats overlapping.

A razor works really good for this.

It took some work to do but it was fun and really worth it.  More to do but looking forward to it.

Before this project I took myself for a "Likes to surf surfboards" guy over a "Likes to build surfboards" guy but I have to admit after taking a week off I really started to miss it. I'm going to have to find another project to do when I'm done. I'm thinking some fins. That would be cool.

Thanks to Kipp for taking some really great photos as well as telling me what to do!