East Coast Orca

“Tim here is a shot of the orca someone sent me.”Merrick.

Photo Mikal Boukhari

Nice one Merrick.

Florida POD

Shot from Merrick in Florida testing out his new Atlantic POD.

That water looks really inviting after the snow flurries today!

Of late…

I have been surfing more than shaping. There seems to have been a sudden drop in orders despite the Surfers Path advert… and this has coincided with the most prolonged run of epic surf i since I moved to North Devon, allowing me to really explore the coast and ride some hidden gems entirely alone.

I have been able to really explore my asymmetric shapes as the waves have been so good, almost like being overseas (the almost being the water temperature). I love them, and that LokBox TS Cutaway fish foil is part of the magic.

So i count my blessings and remember how lucky i am to be able to surf, to design and make the sleds that let me glide over the water, sometimes gracefully.

Give Me Shelter in the Maldives…

I love this shot of test pilot Maurizio – from the gouged tracks you can see just how square he got his 6’6” Give Me Shelter board to go off the bottom.

Sadly Maurizio broke his knee later this session, first day over there. Glad to say he is recovering and going to be hitting the Italian breaks again soon.

 

BONZER wins Smithy Invitational

It was double overhead plus at Welcombe. Ig Wilkinson had come through the first super heavy heat on a very retro 6 ft twin fin and was wondering what to ride for the finals.

Whilst the other 3 finalists chose old faithfuls Ig, with a little encouragement from literary master and photo journalist Lee Robertson (thanks for the pic Lee), thought “I know  I’ll try a bonzer, and why not that weird looking asymmetric Tim is always banging on about.”

He won with smooth powerful carves, big turns on even bigger faces. To me he looked immediately comfortable and was able to lay down turns comfortably across the powerful walls. He won the contest with ride of the day, a massive right that broke from way out back all the way to the inside, surfer and board always ahead, always in control.

Ig really impressed me with his surfing, but also with his open mindedness. Thanks, respect, and congrats.

Atlantic POD #1– Ireland again

Test pilot Richard Woodcock putting the very first Atlantic POD through its paces in some more Irish Juice.

“Hi Tim - the Atlantic POD is a truly amazing craft. Was riding it as 6 fin (just 2 FCS honeycomb glass ones that came with a Firewire that snapped!!)and the grip is incredible. Paddling for fast jacking, barrelling, sand bottomed waves, turning as I popped up and dropping at 45 degrees !!! Wow - its a machine. Its bonzers all the way for me now - Ill never go back to thrusters. Thanks.”

    

Atlantic POD #1

     

Richard Woodcock. Putting the very first Atlantic POD through it’s paces in Ireland.

Thinking about warmer times…

Unknown reef we stumbled across going off beautifully on a swell that was maching out all the usual suspects. Banyaks, Sumatra, 2004.

A little classic…

Mist of Bonzers from Mollusk Surf Shop on Vimeo.

Nilposte

Ok so nil posts for a while… my excuse is that you must all be bored with seeing the Rising Sun by now… so many processes! SO i decided to wait until it was finished to post the final set.
After the deconstruction i did some inkwork, including some brush pinlines. It then sat around for a while waiting for some gloss and then finally had its fins tickled with the buffing pad. The rest of the polishing will happen next week before it all gets packed up for the journey East.
For me it has been a real journey, working with resin in an artistic way I hadn’t tried before. It was time consuming but I have to say I love the effect, and I have the pleasure of knowing all the hours that went into it.
So rather than post another Rising Sun from another angle – here’s something from a way back… me surfing one somewhere in the Caribbean BACK IN 1997…
  

Slip slide glide

Just caught Lee’s blog post on the Joker… lovely to have a review by a well respected longboarder, and someone who has never ridden a bonzer before as it brings a totally new perspective to some of the traits I now take for granted. Thanks Lee.

What got me started…

Moi | Stevie J | Bruno | Mark | Tim E… and a little article in Surfer back in 1970 something!

Banyak boat trip. Bonzers only (and 2 McCoy Nugget singlefins)…

My first ever bonzer wave on Stevie J’s 6’4” Gary Hanel 5 fin performance swallow… couldn’t believe how fast the thing was! Shame the pic is so blurred but you get the idea.

My kind of contest...

Nice vibe at home this weekend... my friend Lee of Hickory Nines did a great job of capturing the vibe. Fun and friends in a laid back stylie...

The Old Smithy Invitational 2011 from Lee Robertson on Vimeo.

I was judging (due to more injuries) so sadly no bonzers ridden.

just bonzers digit-ill

Fresh digit-ills from the Borderlands…

To go with left hand finger dislocation (still healing) I add two from the right hand – one fractured the other bruised ligaments/tendons – following a bumpy trip on a sketchy, hightide Sunday, when everyone else had got out because it was too shallow and close to the rocks!

Was a great session on the woody Cleanline though… and not a scratch on it – that board is SO tough.

Dawny at Frosties

6’ Porpoise EVO4 with CRV rears

A-frames and blackberries….

A week ago last Monday I had some of my best waves of the year. It was dawn, i was the only one out in head high clean A frames shrouded in mist, accessed by a long walk and cliff scramble.

I finned up the Riddler which I hadn’t ridden since Indo. I love this board but I often overlook it and even I think – “you are too weird to work”…

On this occasion I am so glad i took it out. Now I am not a rad surfer, more a kind of cruise-and-carve, odd power-turn-and-gouge kind of guy… but on this occasion… AIR! Fully up and cleanly landed…

  

The wave started as a nice A frame, most had been sliding left but this one just seemed to peak up a little differently, taller and stretching further. The paddle in and take off were so easy (thinking that is the boat hull nose doing its job) that I found my self riding so early that I had time to think about the whole wave (a rarity for me in beach break surf)… I gained speed with every turn and picked every apex going more vert with every one, the board flowing smoothly from point to point with effortless ease (the REVO fin set up and super wide rounded tail mean the board just draws any arc you choose… amazing).

At the end of the wave I had so much speed I knew I was going airborne, like it or not, so I decided to boost up off the lip and make the most of it… I have no idea how much air, but considerable and the board stayed under me all the time as if stuck to my feet and then landed smoothly on the lip as the wave closed out…

I proned in, climbed up the cliffs and ate blackberries all the way back to the van.

Russ Winter borrowed this board in Indo and went off on it; it wasn’t what he expected it to be and said it was “truly high performance”… more of that when I eventually work out how to edit the video I shot!

Anyways, off for dawny with Jon tomorrow in the G Wagen… Porpoise and Riddler locked and loaded…

Post modernism from the mainstream…

For those who only accept shapes from the mainstream – proof that single fins AREN’T old school by Rusty…

They’ll make you a better surfer too…

BoardJam 24th July

Come along and try out some boards if you are in the area.

Tropical bonzer

Tim/Ant – Mentawais March 2011, 6’5 Freak Fish EVO6 bonzer, 6’4” Cleanline EVO5 bonzer, 14’6” & 10’4” finless Dugouts.

Pic Tony Plant - photography and art

Gaffa tape, Roundtrees, and the Supaglide.

OK my apologies – the longboard bonzer is not fully glassed… queues in the glassing room meant i just wasn’t able to get to it… so i went for a surf instead. “Roundtrees” claimed the Supaglide on session 1… i was enjoying sunset all on my tod at a local point, nice shoulder high one rolls through, i wove my way through the boils, loving it, and then thought I'd cutback… sucked dry, i rode over the reef and Supaglide became Supading. Surfed till the sun went down… then the long paddle back. A beautiful session.

 

I’ve got a great splint from the hand therapists and that and a bit of gaffa tape kept the finger fully protected.

PS: Definitely glassing tomorrow!