Sacred Craft Day One

The guys I went to see, Grain crew Mike, Brad and Allen, were there to answer questions and share the stoke of wood board building. Here's a shot of forever stoked Kevin, a two time kit builder from LA with a third in his sights.

The booth was busy all day as people came in to see first hand what these boards are all about.  I have to admit I was a booth rat. They couldn't get ride of me as I kept asking questions and looking over their boards.

This is the board that I think is going to be amazing. It's copy of a 60's relic that somehow made it to their shop. It's called the Leaf. It's 4.6 and guys have been surfing these things. They hinted that I might get to demo one! Erik, you down to try her out?

Man of the weekend, Dick Brewer, was on hand to judge the shape off and take part in the festivities. I got a chance to say a few words to him and he was a really cool humble guy.

Dennis Murphy was up first in the shape off. He did really good. It was so much fun to watch.

Brewer came in and complemented Dennis on his shape. Dennis was blown away to meet him. He said later "That was soo cool. As a kid everyone wanted to be Dick Brewer. "

Erik was there to represent Sticky Bumps. He has a cool wax art project at the booth for kids.

Moonlight and Surfy Surfy were there. Good news for us Leucadians. We will soon have a new place to hang out. The old Longboard Grotto space will be the new site of the Surfy Surfy board shop!

Surf Heritage museum was there was some amazing boards.

Lots of great craftsmanship. This was a cool hand burned sign.

Lot's and lots of Brewer boards, old and new.

The old ads were posted up and were really cool. My favorite was John Peck.

Karl Eckstrom was there with his amazing asymmetrical boards.  I really wanted to ride this fish.

Eli Marandon was on hand to show off his work. He is one of David's favorite guys to shoot at Blacks. He is a well rounded guy, with skills in the shaping bay and in the water.

Eli has a new set of fins out based on his unique tall twin fins. These are shorter and wider with the same hatchet style template. I am hoping to demo a pair. They look like they will work good.

Murphy Brewer shaped and ready for judging.

This is what I like to see. I love how it looks like a guy in the '50s bought it for a $100 and was his daily ride to the beach. 

MR was there. What can I say. I grew up with him as a hero.

Back today.  Hope to see you there.

Scared Craft Saturday and Sunday and the Del Mar Fair Grounds.

This weekend is Sacred Craft. Dennis Murphy won a spot on the shape off with his Balsa fish. Tomorrow he is in the booth at 11am showing off his talent. 

The guys from Grain will also be in town and displaying. I was hoping to get my board done but I had a few set backs in schedule. 

Moonlight Glass will also be there. Stop by and say hi to J.P. and the crew. I will be there this weekend as well. 

Stop by and have fun. See you there.

www.surfboardshow.com

More surf photos

Grain Update - Cheater Coat Applied

As I get ready to pour resin all over a board that has taken me 2 years to finally get shaped I take a deep breath and hope for the best.

It's wet and it's time to move. 

Kipp was great. He would call out what was happening and direct me on what to do. As we start out we are calm and take our time.

 After a bit the resin started to kick off so we had to hurry.

It was huge to have Kipp there. He's done a dozen or so home glass jobs so he at least had an idea of what he was doing.

The wood grain is soooo amazing. It darkened to a deep amber.

On the board I wrote a message to Alia. It said... 

{Alia, I hope your children's children ride this board. Love Dad.} 

With all the time I put into this project I can't help but think how amazing it is that having it made out of wood means that it will last for decades. I spent a lot of time and my friends spent a lot of time on this board. As it all comes together it feels so good knowing it was all worth it. 

When we flipped the board to do the bottom the experience I had with the top made it much easier. 

I still can't get over how amazing the wood grain looks.

Tomorrow we glass the deck.

Local Surf Artist Steve Burrows' Art Show Is On Now

Leucadia local, Steve Burrows, is having an art show at the Pannikin in Del Mar/ Flower Hill Mall. It goes from Oct. 5th to November 5th. You might remember him from his Fin Art Submission. Steve has some great work so stop in and check his stuff out. You can checkout his work online at  www.burritoart.com. 

Cheryl Sorg In the Tribune

Our very own Cheryl Sorg got interviewed by the Union Tribune's Robert Pincus last week. The article came out in yesterday's Sunday paper. You can read the article here. Congratulations Cheryl!!!!

Not sure who took the pics but thanks!

Encinitas Environmental Day Flowers On Display

Rodney spear headed a community art project at this years Encinitas Environmental Day that got kids and parents alike to reuse bottle tops to make some really cool flowers.  They have been installed on the north side of the Encinitas Library and will be on view through March, 2010. Stop by and check them out. 

Thanks to everyone who helped make that happen. Special thanks to Kirk for manning the booth and putting in a lot of his own artistic efforts to make them turn out so good. Good job everyone. Less bottle caps on our beaches!

Not sure who took the photos, but thanks!

Friday night post

Grain Update - Fin Boxes are Glued In

Kipp has a really cool setup in his garage. A nice little shaping/glassing bay and work bench. Here's a shot of his bench with a home made D Fin project he has been working on.

The Grain all ready for work.

Since this was the first fin boxes I've ever routed I made a mistake and went a bit too deep on one side. We fixed that by adding some glass to left the box.

Kipp was key to this whole process. I did what he said and followed his lead. Here he is putting in some glass.

Since the holes were hand cut there was some work to do getting the edges shaved so that they weren't too tight. Here I am razor blading the hole just a bit more to open it up.

First fin is in and setting. We used a set of shorter based fins to set the box and check the kant.

A little plug for LokBox. These box systems are pretty cool. Once we got the hang of it we were able to do the other side much quicker.

Kipp pulling the tape on the final box.

So far so good. We checked everything with an angle and it was all good.

Kipps respirator. We had great ventilation and little resin so it wasn't at all needed. I liked it though  because of all the resin tent on it. 

I love the way glass folds when it is laid down.

Kipp is quite the innovator. He had some drop down lights that he installed for us.

 

After we got the boxes glued in we sanded everything and got her ready for the glass.

Today was quite the lesson for me in do it yourself fin box installation. Since Kipp and I both had our daughters with us it made for a fun day of daddy daycare. The girls were great. They would come in when the resin work was done, ask questions and the run off and go about their play time. In fact that was what made it that much more special. It's one thing to have a project and another to have your daughters watch, ask questions and be a part of the process.  Who knows, maybe someday they will build their own boards? 

Latest Bit of Fun - Bamboo Single Fin Tee

I was playing around again with my fin tees and came up with this one. I little bamboo ghost job.  It is definitely one of my favorites. Enjoy.

Welcome to the World Sunny Waters

Our friend Mick Waters emailed us last week to let us know that his wife Sue gave birth to their son Sunny two weeks early, after only 20 minutes of labor and in their BATHTUB at 4:28 am. The birth was a surprise and completely unassisted. Mick, Sue and Sunny shared their moment while his two young daughters listen from the bedroom. As a dad I am so happy for Mick that he has his son. As a dad who had a whole hospital behind him when his daughter was born, I am blown away at what the two of them went through in that bathroom.

As Mick put it "I don't know if it is  something I would particularly want to do again. Like swimming with Great Whites. You survive, but if you had to do it again by choice, most probably not. It is amazing though what we can do us humans if needed."

As for Sue, she is a champ. Amazing woman she is. Congratulations the five of you. You guys are amazing and lucky to have each other.