Transparentsea Voyage- California 2011

The Transparentsea Voyage is going on now. Follow the progress of Dave Rostovich and crew as they sail down the coast of Southern California in the same path as the Grey Wales, stop to do performances and educate people about what and why they are doing what they are. 

See a map here of where they stop and hold events. They are expected to be in San Diego Oct. 22nd (ish). Track them if you want to be a part f it. 

Vote for Rasta!

Our good friend Mick Waters has done a collaboration with Dave Rastovich for a short they entered to the new Taylor Steele Innersection video. It is up now. If you are a fan of Dave's or Mick go to the site and vote for them. I love the short becuase it is the only one that I saw that has bodysurfing and classic fluid soul surfing. A huge and needed contrast to all the airs. 

Watch it, enjoy and if you dig it vote for them!

http://innersection.tv/video/394

Good moments come in the form of emails from friends

I just posted this shot and back ground story of Rasta up on the Enjoy Blog and had to take a moment here to verbalize how cool this is. As a guy who grew up with surf posters on my wall and lived his life as a consumer of surf products it has been a surreal and wonderful shift to be on the other side of the counter. When one is a creator and makes things they come from a place of putting ones' self out into the world. For good or for bad we take a piece of ourselves and put them into our work for others to see, judge and hopefully enjoy. When I received this shot from Mick Waters I was so stoked because it was a moment in time when I saw something that I had co-created with Kipp in the world and in the hands of an individual who I admire. To see the joy in his face as he looked at  the work we did makes me very happy and excited to do more. Thank you Mick for sending this. It made Kipp's and my day.

Win a Grain 5'4" Waka Fish for $10

Here is a really cool chance to win the same board we are building but as a 5'4". See bellow for details. It is for a really good cause. Mick Waters, Dave Rastovich and Johnny Abegg got involved as well and they filmed Dave and Johnny riding it and Dave signed the board.

Take a moment to read about why this board is being raffled. (See story here) It is very touching and very amazing how all this came together.

The guys at Grain, Mick, Dave, Johnny, even myself have put some serious energy into this project. The crew at Corduroy Surf Boutique is holding the event on Nov 11 and there is a huge list of folks that all have been instrumental in putting this on.

A fundraising partnership has formed between Grain Surfboards, Corduroy Boutique & Gallery, Stoked Mentoring and the family of  Jordan Kelly to raise funds benefitting at-risk youth.  On the other side of the planet, surfers Dave Rastovich and Johnny Abegg teamed up in Australia with filmmaker Mick Waters to lend their support to the effort.

Most recently, Grain Surfboards donated a 5’4” Lis-style wood fish made from cedar and burled walnut to be raffled for the Jordan Kelly Surf School Fund at Stoked. Rasta and Abegg surfed the board “down under” where they were filmed by Waters for the upcoming film “Little Black Wheels” to be released this winter.  The board is personally signed by Rasta himself.

The surfboard, valued at $2,000, will be awarded during a come-one, come-all event to be held at Corduroy Surf Boutique in Portland, Maine on November 11.  Raffle tickets are $10 at www.grainsurfboards.com/raffle  .   (Winner is responsible for shipping the board, but we'll pack it!)

Shortly after his 21st birthday last year, Jordan Kelly died in a car accident on Thanksgiving night after a day of surfing, family and friends. He had a love of skating, surfing and woodworking and was drawn to the rootsy, DIY ethos of the wood surfboard builders at Grain Surfboards. Stoked Mentoring is a non profit action sports organization for at-risk youth with the mission of developing successful teens with opportunity, knowledge, experience, and determination through the use of action sports, mentoring and coaching. In Jordan’s memory, Grain, Jordan’s family and Stoked are planning surfboard-building classes for kids served by Stoked Mentoring. Special thanks to Corduroy Boutique & Gallery who, as a “combined lifestyle boutique and social scene”, tied everyone together and made it possible to establish the fund.



Linkage
Tix: www.grainsurfboards.com
Drawing info: www.surfskateartlove.blogspot.com
Jordan Kelly pages:
www.facebook.com
 www.grainsurfboards.com/board-stories/jordan-kelly-1987-2008
 www.grainsurfboards.com/board-stories/jordan-kellys-widening-circle
Partners:
www.grainsurfboards.com
 http://www.stoked.org
www.CorduroyBoutique.com 

Sacred Craft Day 2 Highlights

Shawd from Rainbow Fins has been making some amazing one off fins. I went back a few times to the booth to drool over them.

More Grain. Did I tell you that my board is almost done?

Our buddy Mick Waters is now collaborating with Grain. His first assignment was to film a board coming to Rasta for him to test out. The board is a Waka 5'4" for a charity called Stoked Mentoring. They are raffling it off for $10 online. More on that later. 

Bruce Jones was there throwing boards on the ground all day long. It was hard to watch at first. You get so used to your board being so fragile.

Gary Hanel and his team rider Miss Anne. 

Erik spent some time in the Moonlight booth chatting about boards. Petter made a finless Thumb Board that Erik will get to ride.

Love the Sticky Bumps wax art. Erik has been playing with the colored wax for months now. It was really cool to see the  kids get so into it.

Anne bought this beanie. It says Surfing Sucks. Don't try it, you'll hate it.

Jamie, Tak, Anne and Kirk. Prom Photo.

Cyrus Sutton, was in the booth showing off how to make one of his hand plains. I met him the day before. He's a super cool and humble guy.

Karl Eckstrom's model. I got to chat with him for a while. Just a really down to earth guy who is just as stoked now as he was when he was a kid.

MR was such a nice guy. He signed posters and took photos the whole weekend. I had him sign it to the Leucadia Project.

Brewer judging the boards. The judging took a bit and had to be hard. You had 5 of some of the best shapers in the world. They had to measure everything and fight to find flaws.

Dennis watching as the judging was going on.

Dennis had every one sign the template. John Peck took notice and checked it out.

Dennis was funny. Every time I tried to get a photo of him he gave me a new face. This was his serious one.

And the winner is.... Pat Rawson. 

I wondered if Dennis was disappointed. I asked him how he felt and he said he was just really honored to be there. All the boards were amazing, besides, how often do you get to hang out with Dick Brewer!

Rasta Stills

My  friend Mick has been at it again shooting for his new film Little Black Wheels.  He knows I have been jonesing to see it so he sent me some recent stills from the Rasta section. Oh my, I thought  this would hold me over but I want to see the video even more now. Enjoy.