Custom Artwork by Searcy
Never realized how much nose concave resembles an almond.
Bamboo-zled
Eggs are fun to shape.
They're fun to ride, too--maximum glide and ripability!
This above seven footer is for a top secret client.
The below six-and-a-halfer is from my Private Reserve. I call the lovely resin tint by Fatty 'blood,' which sounds a lot more badass than, 'merlot.'
What's that, you ask? Are those new 101 Fin Co. bamboo quad fins?
Hell yes!
ps--Happy New Year
They're fun to ride, too--maximum glide and ripability!
This above seven footer is for a top secret client.
The below six-and-a-halfer is from my Private Reserve. I call the lovely resin tint by Fatty 'blood,' which sounds a lot more badass than, 'merlot.'
What's that, you ask? Are those new 101 Fin Co. bamboo quad fins?
Hell yes!
ps--Happy New Year
Afternoon Delight
T. AL and Gully sent me an email this afternoon. The subject of the email was "Dave Missed Out..." It was a bunch of pictures of them surfing this afternoon. Needless to say I was squirming in my chair with frustration that I had missed a beautiful afternoon of surfing. At least they had the common courtesy of rubbing it my face...
Thanks dudes.
Thanks dudes.
Taylor, getting all Archy Delorme on us...
Tender Ten
Gully, Mr. Fin Foil Himself.
Taylor taking a dip.
Splitting the peak
Being a regular foot and a goofy foot, one of the first things my boys had to figure out was how to split a peak.
Progress Report
Here are a few peaks...
The first Almond "alaia" beginning to take form
New kookumber waiting to be polished.
Fishzilla
Jack and Rocky are two classic cats from the San Francisco area and are big fans of "foam is our friend." These versatile fishzillas can be set up as either a quad or tri fin. Built in my Styrolite (epoxy) construction, the boards have heaps of float and are very responsive.
Fishzilla action shot.
Surfboard design history: The FP 12 footer
The history of the FP design was that we were building balsa boards in Gisborne back in 1997, when I saw a magazine article on a foam 12 footer made by Paul Joske. I phoned him up and asked what he thought of it. Any way Paul said that he got the dimensions from Skip Frye but that he felt that the board was under rockered with 5.5 inches overall , that it was a hopeless boardas soon as the wave started to throw, but nice in dribbly wavesSo, I realised that we could solve that problem by either getting rid of the icecream stick planshape and puting some curve in the planshape, or by dosing up the rocker. Just adding rocker with a parallel planshape makes a dog of a board IMO so I decided to do both, just give the board some curves.At that moment I flashed that foil shapes are optimised for moving through virually any medium. . . liquid gas or even solid, and that a foil cross section would thus move equally well through water or air. That's how it came about that we started using foil cross sections for our planshapes. So the FP 12 footer was the first of our boards to use the extreme pintailed foil section as a planshape.We ordered the balsa for the first 12 footer and built the planshape and rocker jig. Just as we had finished that stage the 'landlord' ( a well known Gisborne miser known as 'Dollars Simpson ' decided to put the rent up on the industrial building we were using by 50%. . . . so we had to leave.Next stop was the Gisborne backpackers run at the time by Gisborne surfer John Gisby, in a beautiful old historic mansion. We settled in out the back in the bus and took over a small unused shed for boardbuilding. John and I had to knock a wall out of the middle of the shed to make it big enough for the 12 foot length of the project. So the first FP 12 was born at Harris st Gisborne, a few days after our daughter Kirsten entered the world. John said that the board would be good for Waimea Bay. . . I hadn't thought of that at the time, as I was building it for the waves in NZ.No sooner had the board been built than John Gisby did personality change and kicked us out. John was sponsored by Councillor Larry Foster's 'New Wave' surfboards, and according to John, Larry told him to get us out of town or he'd pull his sponsorship. . . he didn't want any more board builders in town, even though we had built him and shaper Ray Dalton a balsa blank each a month or so previously.We took off to Pouawa beach free camping ground armed with three new boards for testing. . . the new 12 footer, a 7'9" 'Island Rocket' and the 8-4 'Phantom'. The first few waves were ridden without wax until I scrounged some from a camper, but the big board felt great immediately, as did the other two.That was 1997, so the machine is not a recent untested 'experiment' as some are claiming.Here's the board after a year of constant surfing, back in Mount Maunganui in a 5000 square foot hangar which was the next Power surfboards workshop.
The first board was 12 by 23 wide, and 2.25 inches thick, a solid muti directional balsa layup of 4 panels, each of equal thickness , glassed with a single layer of four ounce using WEST system, and graphite coated rails. I still have the original 12 inch by 7 inch spitfire fin, marine ply glassed with kevlar and graphite/epoxy.To be continued
The first board was 12 by 23 wide, and 2.25 inches thick, a solid muti directional balsa layup of 4 panels, each of equal thickness , glassed with a single layer of four ounce using WEST system, and graphite coated rails. I still have the original 12 inch by 7 inch spitfire fin, marine ply glassed with kevlar and graphite/epoxy.To be continued
Ho Ho Ho!
Meet Lt Jason Mansour, aka "Mongoose." Being a NOAA pilot, Jason is able to get a bird's eye view of a lot of coastline. In this case he got a little distracted while flying over Santa's workshop. 
Here's his story: "These photos were taken in Dutch Harbor Unalaska, Alaska in the middle of a blizzard. All I had with me was my 4/3 O'Neill Psycho wetsuit and my crewmember and I became the first surfers ever to surf Dutch Harbor." It's a good thing the elves didn't catch on because no work would have been done that day. 
" You make excellent products and I want to personally thank you for remaining in the hand-shaping business. Although you may not hear it as often as you should - there are people out there who sincerely appreciate the dedication and energy that you spend on your craft day in and day out."Thanks Jason. Great customers like you and the rest of our wave gliding tribe are what keeps the stoke going. Thanks for the ride. Ward
White Christmas
Here are a few pictures of a fresh new longboard, fresh from pureglass. It's slightly more progressive than most the boards we've done thus far. It's got a more natural rocker and narrower tail, for one of our more progressive enthusiasts. But it sure looks nice.
Be sure to check out the beautiful craftsmanship, by our little amigo Gully, on that epic fin!
Zee Avi via Brushfire Records
This girl is new to the Brushfire label, making an appearance on their Christmas album. Her voice is insanely good. Take a look... Merry Christmas
Step Right Up
Take time to contemplate the possibilities. Toes, heels or just nice clean trim? The stoke of a new longboard broadens one's horizons.
Santa brought my present early this year....
~ Welcome to the world Rachel Allston Prause 12-20-08 ~
What Would Velzy Do?
A few weeks ago BroDerek called about his new board, the twin-finned Pit Boss.
"When's that board going to be ready?" he asked.
"Picked it up last week," I said. "I'm looking at it right now."
"Well, there's no rush on it," he said. "You can tell Leslie to take her time."
"It's ready."
"Slide that baby right down to the bottom rack," he said. "Have her glass up some more urgent orders."
"I'm holding it," I said. "It's glassed, cured, and ready to ride."
"I'm a patient man," he continued. "In fact, my Christmas gift to you is my patience and selflessness. Glass up a whole batch without worrying about mine!"
I knew something was up. Turns out BroDerek was heading to Brazil for a few weeks. He also mentioned Fiji. Then something about British Columbia. And Bali.
"Mind holding onto the Boss for a little while?" he asked. "Definitely until June. Early fall at the latest."
Board storage isn't a problem at my house.
Curiosity is, however, and there's only so long a man can look at a surfboard without giving into temptation.
The Pit Boss resided upstairs, out of sight, for over a month. Then last week the buoys showed a crisp shoulder high swell with light offshores in the morning. A little sandbar peak has been throwing out fun ones lately, which got me thinking about how a hi-pro twin fin might behave...
In my own defense, I engaged in a heated internal debate. It's just not right to take the first wave on another surfer's new stick. My credibility as a shaper would be in question, my business ethic. Plus, BroDerek's not small, and could definitely kick my ass.
But the swell. And the offshores. And the fun sandbar peak. It was the first day of Chanukkah and I've been pretty good this year...
(note incriminating wax humps on 'unridden' surfboard)
Rode like a champ. The glide is tremendous--feels finless, then the twins engage on the bottom turn, and it's off to the races. Stoked, I went straight to my shop, tweaked the template a bit, then carved one out for myself.
This one has a little more meat than I'm used to at 6'10 and 2.75 thick (I've had a, um, few glasses of Sonoma County's finest Zinfandel this holiday season--drink local!)Red cedar stringer for snap and style.
A Campbell Bros. style five-fin design with quadruple concaves that's built to handle some NorCal winter juice!
As for the twinnie, my curiosity is sated and it's back in storage, to reappear this spring when the weather is just perfect for scraping wax off a board, running a buffer over it, and presenting it to its rightful owner. Brand spankin' new!
Happy Holidays.
"When's that board going to be ready?" he asked.
"Picked it up last week," I said. "I'm looking at it right now."
"Well, there's no rush on it," he said. "You can tell Leslie to take her time."
"It's ready."
"Slide that baby right down to the bottom rack," he said. "Have her glass up some more urgent orders."
"I'm holding it," I said. "It's glassed, cured, and ready to ride."
"I'm a patient man," he continued. "In fact, my Christmas gift to you is my patience and selflessness. Glass up a whole batch without worrying about mine!"
I knew something was up. Turns out BroDerek was heading to Brazil for a few weeks. He also mentioned Fiji. Then something about British Columbia. And Bali.
"Mind holding onto the Boss for a little while?" he asked. "Definitely until June. Early fall at the latest."
Board storage isn't a problem at my house.
Curiosity is, however, and there's only so long a man can look at a surfboard without giving into temptation.
The Pit Boss resided upstairs, out of sight, for over a month. Then last week the buoys showed a crisp shoulder high swell with light offshores in the morning. A little sandbar peak has been throwing out fun ones lately, which got me thinking about how a hi-pro twin fin might behave...
In my own defense, I engaged in a heated internal debate. It's just not right to take the first wave on another surfer's new stick. My credibility as a shaper would be in question, my business ethic. Plus, BroDerek's not small, and could definitely kick my ass.
But the swell. And the offshores. And the fun sandbar peak. It was the first day of Chanukkah and I've been pretty good this year...
(note incriminating wax humps on 'unridden' surfboard)
Rode like a champ. The glide is tremendous--feels finless, then the twins engage on the bottom turn, and it's off to the races. Stoked, I went straight to my shop, tweaked the template a bit, then carved one out for myself.
This one has a little more meat than I'm used to at 6'10 and 2.75 thick (I've had a, um, few glasses of Sonoma County's finest Zinfandel this holiday season--drink local!)Red cedar stringer for snap and style.
A Campbell Bros. style five-fin design with quadruple concaves that's built to handle some NorCal winter juice!
As for the twinnie, my curiosity is sated and it's back in storage, to reappear this spring when the weather is just perfect for scraping wax off a board, running a buffer over it, and presenting it to its rightful owner. Brand spankin' new!
Happy Holidays.
Rasta builds wooden board while layed up on the North Shore
Dave Rastovich while surfing on the North Shore got injured and needed something to fill in time and decided to build a wooden surfboard. Dave built himself a Grain Surfboard from one of their kits. www.grainsurfboards.com or available at www.capeboatworks.com.au here in Australia. Good one Dave , eco warrior , hollow wooden surfboard builder.
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