the TOY FISH

occasionally I get emails asking if powdersnowskates really work, or whats the deal with them....

they really need two things to get going...about 8" of powder or better, and a real steep face...if you can't find a steep face, you have to ride straight until there's enough speed to start to turn....back in december we had about 28" of fresh powder in one storm, the next day the powdersticks rode excellent, can't explain the flow and pure thrill of it, since then I have made a few, I even made alittle toy for the local groms, its short, narrow and light. It has no metal edges or ptex on it. just a painted wooden bottom, and its not made for an adult, that being said, its fun to ride, I tend to bring it along because its so light, the other day Rich had a flip cam. and decided to film me riding the toy...nothing special, the hill is to flat, maybe it just needs to be skinned with ptex, maybe the ptex would have prevented me from getting run over by the camera man.

..definitely making more...this is all just for fun, glorified sledding,

should you have one in your quiver? definitely!!!especially if you surf...alaia on the snow...should you buy one? you don't have to....make it out of anything (old skimboard)

thanks for checking it out..sorry if its to corny......

video

if anyone can guess what surf video, I borrowed that tune from, they will win that keychain fingerboard, posted a couple of days back, including shipping..

..not so rad

...very intrigued by the whole alaia surfing these days.

for any snowskaters who checks this blog (and doesn't know) alaia is one of the original boards surfed by ancient Hawaiian's. Basicly its a thin, sub-ten foot plank with no fins, and a slight roll to it (see pic).... Tom Wegener has brought this shape back into the limelight, and his brother Jon is making them stateside... (very grateful for all their research and hard work)......to make a very long story short, I figured I could make one out of a scrap of plywood, (which I blogged about earlier)....It was heavy and narrow, about 16" wide by 7 and half feet long...used it twice and couldn't get it to go..., so figured it was a wall hanger ( for a barn) ...but the other day it came to me...screw trucks into it, and skate it .....simple..

... then my idea morphed into a video: skate it on a hill by the beach, do a "one take" shot walk over the dune, remove trucks and surf it....dual purpose board.... but the sand bar sucked at the hilly spot, .however two mornings later the surf was right so I paddle out on the alaia ...miraculously I caught one wave pretty quickly and then I went "cold
"...(not very shocking), but it was a classic morning with only three friends out and its was a blast to paddle around ... Unfortunately, I was able to catch my one wave in front of my little digital camera on the beach which was pointed out to sea... The zoom is terrible and the footage is horrible, but the song is pretty catchy, and I could finish the video... a few ideas have spawned from this test run, could there be a one board for three endeavors? SURFBOARD/SKATEBOARD/SNOWSKATE... man I hope so. So if your interested watch the clip, and I apologize for the lousy footage... if you make it to the secret video, you will ironically will see my friend catch a left on lance and Son surf board actually shaped by Jon wegener... also if you have more interest check out the hydrodynamic link, they have some beautiful footage of alaia surfing... thanks to all

Positives:

I felt like a shipwrecked pirate clinging to a piece of flotsam..its pretty cool