a short GLUE commercial

...this past winter ...after much research, we found a waterproof glue that would laminate our decks as hard as a rock and watertight ...we tested it in the snow, the rain and the slush, whatever conditions we could find... it worked great...this summer we tested it in the highly corrosive saltwater ocean and it held up with flying colors...I used this glue for all the experimental Alaias built, some were treated with linseed oil, and one (the "one") was even left bare (no sealer).....with no issues...

...lately there's been some broken alaia pictures posted ... if you look real close, you will noticed the wood (cedar) cracked on the grain and not on the glue seem...proving glue (laminating) adds strength... here's a quick clip of the broken alaia being surfed less then 12 hours after the glue up repair... its a testament to this stuff.....(the video itself is a testament to poor surfing and terrible point and shoot photography, my apologize's)

board : 6'0 swallow 19.5x.75 100% cedar (no fins, no foam)

the ONE ( nose kick and slight tail kick)

....THIS CRUDE THiNg hAS BEEN SHAPED, then SHRUNK, HoGGED OUT AND RESHAPED, SLOWLY TRYING TO be THE "ONE " BOARD TO RIDE ON THREE MEDIUMS...

IT HAS ROLLED ON THE CEMENT .

AND been SURFED STANDING UP

last winter i got interested in Alaias

They appeal to that whole slidely feeling, that bindingless, finless feeling

whittled down one of my early attempts at alaia and gave it a cokebottle shape a la "winterstick"...

..its a work in progress, but should be finished after it has been tested on snow...






I believed that "one" board would be so cool, just slip it into a boardsox and take it everywhere you travelled ..

skate it when its flat,

surf it when the waves come up,

and carve a powder hillside...I still love that idea





however after much R&D with all types of planks this summer, I have mixed feeling....who wants just one board.....i've had so much fun belly whomping on cedar paipos and fiberglass boogies, that i would hate to be stuck with just one ride now..





and even though I don't know these guys personally I'd like to thank wolle nyvelt, adam at floridapowderskates, mark at chillerdecks, and jordan at snowskaters.net, for their insight and willingness to think outside the box. they have inspired many to try a different approach to riding snow, and their hard work is greatly appreciated

Topsheet/core combo...

Will be scooped out with concaves and laminated to a paper thin wood core... Should prove to have flex and memory...once the ptex is glued on and the whole shooting match is sandwiched and pressed... Will become a December powdersingleskate... Fingers are crossed

Raw uncut ptex (wicked fast stuff)

6ish am the start of a weekend swell

Begin forwarded message:
From: September 18, 2009 6:43:30 AM EDTTo: Kevin <

No sanbar here but u can see swell coming in...

A quick glimpse of the day SOCK ( bi-deck snowskate pictured)

Stormy Overcast 8 am today

...tis the season

the old fingerboard gets a second job...

a belated birthday gift for a serious angler, who gave me my first wetsuit and loaned me his burton performer 140 way back in the eighties (back when snowboards had metal skegs) (i just seriously dated myself..yikes)...
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lure is made from three layers of rock hard maple pressed by hand and skinnned with a ptex bottom...i hope the fish can appreciate a sintered base ...catch fish

purple fins for the foam boogie

very rare for maddie to show her curveball grip.....

the 4'5" foam bodyboard as a quad, soon to be a twin,

...quickly glassed some foam skegs

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a pair of mini keels with "canard" like trailers..tested them out monday night, the wave wasn't cooperating, but got the feel of them, not in love with the ride, so I knocked them off and in the process of shaping and glassing foam 'high aspect' fins, gonna keep it a twin...

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lots and lots of surf, and some "demo"ing too

thanks Tim..... for these shots from friday night when the winds lighten.

..the board is a 5'7" hydrodynamica "casper" mini-simmons....

Jason sent this pic in early friday morning, pretty sure this little swell rolled in under the radar in the dead of summer...love that.

Demo News:

...last week a group of friends and I rented a trailer and camped out on the beach for four days and three nights...

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during that time we got a round of golf in, and tons of surf..

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...on opening day of the trip we were greeted to a burly three foot overhead swell

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the swell cleaned up late that first evening and for two more days it came in with offshore winds....what a gift..

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one afternoon dead in front of the campsite, a super clean, crystal clear chest high wave started to break, everyone loaded up their arms with surf stuff and headed down...

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the afternoon turned into a makeshift December Surf demo day...

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We had handplanes, homemade alaias, alaia belly boards, the rockaway paipo, pendos, an airmat, and some surfboards (every length and fin set-up imagineable)... it was funny tho, at the site there must have been 8 boogieboards and none of them made it down to the water....I guess wood is the new plastic...there was tons of laughs and miles of smiles... ( I didn't bring my phone so waiting on some pics from my friend) (the airmat stole the show)

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on the boogieboard front, I demo'd my foam and glass bodyboard in awesome beachbreak saturday morning, just crumply chest high peaks that got thicker and thicker the further you rode them.. awesome... perfect day to test the new board...the results? went real well, better then expected, even stood up on a few, finless, and it held fairly well.... I'm in the process of glassing on a little quad cluster right now, and hopefully get it in the water shortly..

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nice art studio..old potato barns are the way to go for a work space... uncle steve

uncle steve's alaia, with "bowhunter" logo he drew by hand