..can't jerk

jay dog gets his mat....riding goes in stages,I think...first you just try to go in as much as possible, just blowing of work, family and girlfriends just to get in, then it turns into a local quest to surf the biggest waves you can find, after that its 'travel time'.... searching for something that scares the life out of you, which morphs into searching for perfection, and now after 15-20 years, it morphs again... lately its a search for feeling...for me right now its riding fat little boards or flat wood planks, for jason its looking for speed in the most minimalist form... Living in half moon bay , he's had his share of monster surf, and he's done plenty of traveling .... 'shoulder high' remote, obscure, overlooked point breaks is today's surf goal..

...and nothing flys on the wall like a half deflated air mat.... it worked well for him on a sabbatical in India, and he plans on capturing that feeling again...even if the damn thing looks like a beach towel is mom would lay on...



..takes guts to shed it down to a pool toy...he's stoked...(when I meet him he had a cc mini rhinochaser (shaking Head) .....as they said in the movie Kundon .. "things change Kundon"...) dale solomonson's neumatic : link http://neumaticsurfcraft.homestead.com/

...right about here I think he was thinking what the f did I spend so much money on...they ain't cheap...

...the dude rips on a surfboard, never wears a leash, had a monster quiver and is now down to like no boards, his coffee business is killing it, he's always rode out of the box, and now he rides on a balloon ...the dude's rad...just don't sit next to me with that thing in the line-up.....haha

work on new snowskates continues...

top deck sub deck

snowskate

today.... little work alittle play

florida powderskate, and the 4'6" "cooler lid"

...rode that damn little "cooler lid" for awhile...it works well enough to finish it's high aspect fins:

as it stands now the board likes to slide to bottom of the wave, it doesn't wanna stick to the wall or climb back up well? hoping its the fins...still its a ton of fun...when its all sorted out, I will ship it to anyone who wants to demo it...just let me know..(its the board under the powderskate in photo above)

Oh Snap

........ Florida Powderskate has arrived (still wrapped in plastic).... This is really the coolest thing... thank you Adam at fps for shipping it out so quick...it feels ridiculously light in your hands....and I imagine that it's quick as hell.

florida powderskates (sub decks) are designed to be ridden in deep untouched powder and groomers alike...without bindings.. booya ..the only decesion one has to make is what size and style top deck to mount? I have a nice topdeck in mind for this one..
(42").pics very soon..do they work ? check out there site...

http://www.fpskate.com/home.html

the new season is starting to come into focus..."..skate snow"

MAPLES WAX

..."nice hat"

....RECIEVED a great email the other day from Sean up in Ocean Bluff...

here's a clip of it (Really love this story)

..."Hey Kevin, I have a pretty cool story, so my buddy that I go to...........He made these bars of wax to wax up the bottom of your board, snowskate, skis. Anyway he just did it for fun,... Well make a long story short, he started selling these bars of wax out of his pocket in line for chairlifts and at ski resorts when we go to mountains. so he started making more, made a name for his "company", made a website, and just recently he actually got his wax on shelves at local shops including a surf shop, a ski shop, and he is still talking to another board shop and ski market. So now were actually trying to get this wax out there for fun, so I just wanted to say check out the site, or maybe put a link on your site, that would be super cool. The name of it is Maples Wax. Its actually really cool, I used it on my snowskate all last season.

Hope all is well, I am starting to count down the day til winter,

-Sean "

--thanks Sean

looking foward to testing some out

Here are some links:

http://mapleswax.weebly.com/ - website

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/maples-snowboard-wax/77274506957?v=wall&viewas=1368381816&ref=ts - facebook page -

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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