Swellseeker in surfing actions - Captured by GoPro 2

G'Day Folks,

     Apologies for not sharing these in time with you. It has not been ideal lately from a swells front. But as locals, I get what I can get. So here they are for your enjoyment. Just Click on the Link(s):

1. Episode 5 - Around the Bend - Last Days 2012

2. Episode 4 - Escape the City Rats Race

 

3. Episode 3 - Boomorang

4. I surf as Free Spirit

5. Episode 2 - The Big House

6. Episode 1 I Surf

Thats the way the cookie crumbles, Folks! Thanks for Reading and Watching.

MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR  to You and Family.

My first surf videos with Go-Pro

Hi All,

    I am very excited to have purchased a new Go-Pro 2 Surf Edition. It got into action last week with my McTavish Fireball.

    I can not tell you enough how happy I am with the video quality, and it is also so nice to be able to see your own surfing actions, improving styles. And most of all, it is so much fun.

    Sharing it with you:

 Surf with Go_Pro

And some pictures:

Oh Lala - The Yellow Sheila

I could not believe my luck that striked me over last weekend. I tumbled across the local Car Boot sales yesterday, and spotted this GEM lying next to a seller's truck.

Little that I thought this would be for sale. Indeed it was, with a ridiculously dirt cheap price. It is one of the very first longboards which was personally shaped by a local and famous shaper, SHANE.

It is a 9f1x23"x2 5/8, stringer-less, single fin, wide square tail, V bottom all the way through.

Judging the design, shape and condition, it would be at least over 40 years old. The man told me he had been displaying it in his home bar for 30 years. And surprisingly still in reasonably good shape, ride-able.

I could not wait to have a ride on it. Took it out before sunset, Sunday. It has no leash plug. So it was a real exercise for me to retrieve it several times, a few hundred meters to swim back to shore to collect it. Just like the old days....

It picks the waves so easy, but a little harder to turn than some of my modern longboards in my quiver. I think my head is over the hill with this one.

I have named it as "Oh La La - The Yellow Sheila"

Thanks for reading, Folks!

It's Tubing time. Yeeeeeeeew!

Down the swell, in my soul
carving deep as I turn
I dance about without a care
as I make the people stare
I hope one day to see them come
on a board and riding some
On my board they see me prance
It's longboarding, that is my dance

My new SingleFin: Yellow

Heh Folks,
    
It has been a while since I last blogged. Sorry guys, got very busy with my new global project that I lead.

    I thought I get back to give you some updates on my fin making hobby.

Have you watched a movie "Singlefin: Yellow"? Great longboard movie!

I am inspired by this great movie. So I wanted to make my own Yellow fin one day. That day has come. So here it is!

Well! It is not exactly the same Yellow fin like the movie. I wanted to make it longer tail and slimmer base. The intent is to generate more drives and make the turns sharper. Especially  to accommodate the swells conditions we have up here in the Coast.

Can hardly wait for the weekend to come!

Yeeeeeew!

Newly additions to my quiver

Picked up an unwanted Meyerhoffer 9f1 board. It was in pretty bad shape when it was handed over to me.

Thanks to Symo. He brought this bad boy back to life. For those whom do not know about the MeyerHoffer longboard. Here are a couple of links as reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-SS7XpYQ4s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeVOt8j0uVk

The red one is a 6f6 egg. SUPER fun. It has a really nice concave at nose to scoop on the waves real fast.

Can't wait for the weekend to come to test drive the libra pad look-alike. The Meyerhoffer board that is, in case you wonder...Yeeeew!

Fins and more fins

 In our monthly trip to Cabra to stock up Asian groceries, I tumbled across a fabric shop which has plenty of Hawain patterns.

So this is one of them that I am making a 9" pivot fin.

This is another on in the Old Skool style.

Cant wait for the weekend to come to sand them off and test drive these!

Yeeeewww.

Busy shaping up templates in plywood.

I do particularly like these wood as they bring out very unique patterns from the wood grain.

Next step is to glass and sand them to shape.

Testing out my own fin

Ok, finally I got to it. Testing out my own fin, it was really fun and rewarding.


 In the design, I mixed between D Fin and modern hatchet fin with a 25 degree angle at the tail. This gives the feel of old school and modern nose riding.

And it holds really well in a tight pocket.

I picked my mate Pete's board. And it really delivered. Yeeewww.

A tiny issue that I would fix for my next similar fin, is a bit of drags. Which seems to make this board goes slower than usual. Even paddling it, that I could feel.

So, the next fin, the back side will be right up at 90 degree angle, and the front will be 30 degree tilts towards to the tail. And it will be a tad thinner too.

Other than that, I had a BALL!!!!

My first wooden fin(s) - Yeeeewwww

This is my very first wooden fin that I ever made.

It is fun to do. The sanding process is quite messy, but the grains appearance turned out to be pretty good.

It is not 100% completed yet.

Now I have to glass, then sand it.

 Cant wait for the weekend to come to complete and give it a go.

This is another wooden fin in the making.

It is a hatchet fin with an attitude.

I deliberately pulling the tip of the tail a bit longer (approx 50%) than the base. So when it sits in the fin box, the tail tip would be very close to the board tail, if not exceeding it.

The reason for this is to make the turn/draw a bit more radically easier, especially on a pig or traditional log.

Hang Ten, Dudes!

Longboard fins making - Part 2: My first handmade fin

At last, my very first handmade retro fin was introduced to the world, by me.

It has been a long process, especially I am not a pro, with no expansive tools in my workshop. But is is a very enjoyable process.

A special Thanks to my Mate, Peter Craig, for giving me some tips.

You wonder why I have chosen the FatBoy style. I chose it because this was one of my very first fin that I truly enjoyed the noseriding and still able to make some long turns at very tricky waves.

Cant wait to take it out for a test drive!

Here is the entire process:

 Designing and making my own fin templates out of plywood.

I chose to use plywood, instead of paper, as I believe that plywood templates would last much longer than papers. And they are easier to draw on resin than papers.

The fun part of this, is to choose the fabric pattern that has character, and speaks your personality.

Speaking about character, this is a Hawaiian retro pattern. David Nuuhiwa is my surfing idol. He has Asian heritage background, just like me. He is a surfing legend.

You can check this out:
 David Nuuhiwa - A surfing legend

I don't particularly like doing this process, cutting out the hardened resin, using the template as a guideline.

With no proper tools, I had to use the tile cutter/grinder. A lot of mess and mask needs to be used as white powder flies everywhere!!!

Once wrong cut, I'd screw up a few hours of efforts I put in earlier.

Funny thing I got out from here, is my 10 years old son, he looked at it, and asked me: Dad, What the heck is that????

My reply: A boomerang that is intended to kill the Sharks....

Longboard fins in the Making - Part 1

As a surfer, have you ever wondered what type of fin that suits your style and perform its best for you?

And as you continue to try out, over a period of times, you would ponder how may fins you have been collecting for years. And when you do a tally, you would nod that you have been spending an investments on FINs.

Well. I am not going to stop trying out different fins to suit my mood or surf condition. But I will stop spending on them, by making my own fins from now on.

I have started designing my own fin templates, by cutting out on papers for the design and combining the styles from multiple existing fins that I have, plus type of boards in my quiver.

I am now going through a process of cutting them out from plywood, then sand them out as proper templates. They are better patterns than normal papers.

Cant wait for this long weekend to make a mess from my garage, after resin and sanding.

Keep an eye on this space, Folks! More to come...

Fun and thats That!

Ok, This is not a longboard blog from me.

I stumbled across this when trying to step down from longboard. I was looking for something that paddles well like a longboard, duck-divable type of board and FUN.

This board has a character as Bear FAT ASS WOMBAT, but as a single fin instead.

It performs really well for waves between 1-4ft .

Love it!

BNP:

Bryan Newtown Performance board that is.

It surfs the waves as you actually skate on it. Fast, Loose, and cut-back and bottom turns with easy.

I have been searching for Bryan Newton's profile and history of this. But so far with no lucks.

Great for days that you feel up the challenge and still have plenty of fun as longboards.

I am very proud owner of this baby in my quiver.

My Baby Blue

First, Thanks to Pete for passing on the stokes to me.

This is another great board from Pete.

I took it out for a test drive at the Ruins this morning, Saturday. Thanks God for all the winds disappeared. But not much improvement (to my expectations!) on the swell sizes.

This board has very interesting character. It is as a log, with a medium square tail. But Pete shaped almost equally the same width (70%) along the board, and very nice concave at the bottom. I think that makes it very noticeably fast board.

I have not yet tried to get to the nose to see how it performs, as many waves were just closed out to day.

Another beautiful board added to my quiver.

I live the dream!

Funny about this.

I wanted to make sure that this board is known as a humanly shaped board with soul.

And that it it!

This is a keeper for me.

Hang ten, Dude!

When a song and a movie married in heaven

Have you ever listened to a song of 50 Favourites of All times?

Have you ever watched a movie that you know it would last a life time?

And when you combine these two together, it is like a match made in heaven.

Well, there is one. It is Morning of the earth. 

Check this out: Morning of the earth - Day comes

As a surfer, I love the peace and tranquillity of the sun rise, off shore winds and the waves are often at the best quality of the day.

Sitting among the sets, watching the sun coming up from the horizon, only surfers know the feelings.

Even if you are not a surfer, I would recommend that you should watch this movie to see and hear it for yourself.


Hope to see you out there some days.

Turbo Tunnel fin

 This strange looking little guy does work for me. I notice a huge difference in stability and speed every time I use this fin, compare to the other longboard fins in my collection.

Some surfers swear by it. Some others are skeptical about it. It works reasonably well on my Fireball, but not on the Beau Young, Bear tufflite longboard.

The point is, dont be afraid of trying out different things, and figure out what works best for you.

How does it work? Check it out

You should also check out the comments that other surfers use it too:

Comments from other surfers about the Turbo Tunnel fin

Hang Ten, Dudes!

SwellSeeker's Fireball

Waves were pretty ordinary this morning.

But that did not stop my 9f1 Fireball longboard to produce some fun for me. I am glad I own this wave magnet. Just a few paddles, then off it goes. My mates often tell me to slow down as I take most waves at all sizes.

This is one of a few longboards in the market that you would have confidence that it performs well in all surf conditions. A great All Rounder to have in your quiver.

I absolutely love it to the teeth.

Check out Bob McTavish, the Legend, his video on this board:

Bob McTavish talks about his Fireball

Hang ten, Dudes.

Doing burnouts on the Green Mean Machine

I had an opportunity of one hour window this morning to have a go 2nd time round with my Green Mean machine.

Absolutely love it!

It loves the fat section of waves and I could get onto the nose whilst it still screamed fast down the line. What more to ask for.

Very tempted to do it tough again tomorrow morning, weekend.

And Why not?

Being lucky or previledged?

While a typical pre-winter May Southerly swells have not yet created any lasting impacts at Terrigal beach, but that certainly does not stop some local surfers to have a bit of fun, like this dude.

He actually beat me today to manage getting out there at the crack of dawn. And fun he had with his SUP.

I have been thinking for a while whether I should try out SUP surfing. It seems taking a big trend at Central Coast here, particularly for small days. I still prefer the traditional ways, as paddling out with arms and do the usual hang ten. To me, it is more fun and challenging.

These SUP guys certainly know how to have fun. But for some, if not knowing what they are doing and have little respects for fellow surfers, they could be lethal weapons. Some sneak behind you and drop-in.

My point is, surfing is a fun sport. It is even more fun if you know how to share the waves, and respect those already are on it. It is a sport that you compete your own self and not to all others, if you are not in any surf competition.

And while the length, size of SUP boards make it easy for you to get on a wave, remember a rule that give other a fair go. That is what surfing is all about.

Hang Ten!

Thanks for reading, Folks!

Vulgar, Stupid and Cruel Act

A deliberately act of Cruelty

I am totally outraged by reading this out local papers,  How could such person(s) do such a terrible thing to a very harmless and critically endangered grey nurse shark.

Across the entire Eastern coast of Australia, there are only somewhere between 500-1500 of this animal being listed as highly critically endangered. This is a vulgar and stupid act.

I could not help to think that we, human being, with a minority has illustrated again is one of the most dangerous species in this earth planet. Killing for fun or to generate some pathetic public stunts, is the most mentally acts that one can ever come across.

I am sadden to hear of this news. The person(s) did this, obviously knew what they were doing and the consequences. And every time, they look at the jaw trophy on the wall, I hope they know soon or later they will be caught. Your days of freedom are numbers...


Thanks for reading, Folks!

At the crack of the dawn

Grabbing a small window of time, I had one hour and 20 minutes in between business conference calls early this morning.

I could not help, with great temptation to grab the board and got out there after spotting the rush like this. The water is surprisingly warm for this time, May 2012, on our Eastern coast of Australia. Absolutely divine!

Every time I get to do this, it reminds how lucky I am, You are, to be able to enjoy the life and environment that this nation has to offer. So please look after it for you and other generations to follow.

Thats how a cookie crumbles. Thanks Folks!

My own footprints

Ever wonder what would be like leaving your own trails all behind? And when will the next persons follow and replace your steps at exactly on the same spot?

Some of us might choose to march forwards and never look back. Some others might decide to look back to re-access what has been done before making new steps forwards. Isn't it what we call "People from all Walks-Of-Life"?

I experimented it by leaving my own foot prints on sands. Then stopped to see whom else would follow my trails. A brave call with high expectation, isn't it?

Guess what happened next then? Waves came in and washed all out, only to leave a freshly new sand path, as nothing ever happened.

My point is, life is about moving on. If you are too worried what you left behind, you would never step forwards. And once you decide to stall yourself, other elements would attempt to wipe your feet off the ground. Get my drift?

That's how a cookie crumbles. Thanks for reading, Folks!