Now this is a fish

Here is an 11 foot keel fish shaped by Rich Pavel for Steve Schirmacher

Fins by John Cherry

Steve's ride report ," Rode it at a little corner at Trestles today and this board is beyond words..."

Fish shapers night at The Gold Coast Surf World Mueum

A great facility that the Gold Coast should be very proud of.

Ryan Lovelace , Point Concept Surfboards from Santa Barbara .

Rich "Toby" Pavel from San Diego and the proud owner of "The Green Room"

Jordan Nobel , Note Surfboards from Victoria

A great night was held on Saturday night prior to the Fish Fry on Sunday. What a great facility and how relevant to be gathered there surounded with such an extensive collection of surfing history .Rich representing the older guard and Jordan and Ryan the new young guns taking us forward is so good. Young guys , hand shapers and passionate to the core. They all had a great message and some interesting questions were put to them.

Now this is a quiver ...

" Big " Steve Schirmacher just sent me this shot of his Rich Pavel quiver. Impressive by any standards.

" This is almost all of my Pavels minus two or three. The fourth board from the right is honestly, the best twin fin board i've ever ridden in my life. Rich spent a whole day making the template for it and this board was the result. I'm hoping the 7'5" will be just as good considering it was kind of a fluke that it ever came into existence. Rich is going to make me a 7'7" when he gets back. It will replicate the board (#5 from the right) only it will have a bonzer bottom like the (#2 board from the right) and he will also shape me a smaller version of the green fish Simmons tri. When he is out there, you definitely should have him shape one of the big fishies. They ride incredible! Actually, every board in this shot works insane!
So from R to L, 6'1" Keel hauler with Gephart fastback keels, 6'5" flexdialer with canard cutawy lok box, 6'9" Quad with a very neutral bottom (like a Keel) and Gephart quads, 7' magic long fish with Gephart straight back keels, 7'2" quad with Gephart fins and speed dialer bottom, 10'11" fish Simmons tri with john cherry fins, 11' big swallow tail single fin, and the original 10'11" fish Simmons quad with gephart fins."
Steve you are a lucky man.

Rich has been busy building more boards for Steve , big and small.

All hand shaped

I pick Rich up from the airport tomorrow morning and look forward to having him stay a while. He is keen to shape a few boards while he is here as well so if you are after a classic board like Steve , Rich is your man. There is no one here in Australia apart from Dick Van Straalen that shapes these sorts of boards on a regular basis as far as I know. And you certainly don't see them very often if they do. So a great opportunity to talk to Rich on the weekend and meet a very talented and interesting guy for sure.

Check out Steve's blog at : www.the-big-slide.blogspot.com

Rich Pavel

Rich Pavel has been a supporter of the Alley Fish Fry from the very beginning and each year he has traveled out here from San Diego. An interesting guy with a passion for shaping and passing on his knowledge to others. He is very supportive of young shapers and has mentored many of the young guns that are leading the way today.So it is great that he will be with us once again this year.He is keen to shape some boards while here , so if anyone is interested in one of his hand shapes let me know or contact him direct. Rich will also be a speaker on the Saturday night at the Surf World Museum. So this will be an opportunity to meet him along with many other shapers and to hear his background and take on the fish. He was one of the original San Diego fish shapers. An intriguing and generous man , that has an interesting story to be told.So come on the Saturday night before the Fish Fry the next day in the park to hear his story or ask him about the fish.