Thursday, December 30, 2010

Fish Times

Chris dropped by the factory a little while ago to pick up his new 6'8" Verve quad (see montage below). For the previous 12 months he's been having a ball on his 6'10" twin keel Vibe (pictured above - the blue fish) but had decided he'd like to try something a little more high performance.

When Chris dropped by the factory we were both keen for a surf so we chased down some fun beachies up the coast. Happy Days.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Boxing Day fun.

Sage, Yoshi and Kade pre surf car park chats.

All aboard

Yesterday Sage,Yoshi and I packed up the car and headed up the coast to find some fun little logging waves. We surfed this epic little river mouth tucked away behind a northern corner. We surfed all day swapping boards, laughing and just enjoying the Summer sun.

Single Fin Replica

Rob turned up at the Factory a while back with his battered old Skipp single fin and explained how much he still enjoys riding it. So he left it with me for reference so I could replicate it.

The first step was templating the outline. Then the board had to be measured - thicknesses, widths, rocker, bottom contours and rails. It took me 2 days to shape... which I was a little nervous about. We did the same spray as the original and I re-used the original fin after I cleaned it up a bit.

The above shots show the original and the replica. I was really happy with the result.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Happiness Is A New Surfboard



Mr Jim Mitchell, with his new custom log shaped by Sage Joske, looking pretty pleased with himself for good reason.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Getting fruity in Merickville.

Last week when Sage and I were in west Sydney it seemed impossible to find some fresh healthy places to eat. I found it funny that every cafe or fruit shop that we ate at seemed to have either a porn shop or some sort of adult shop right next to it...

Friday, December 17, 2010

Valla Tee's

Last weekend Sage and I packed up 10 boxes of blank tee's and headed off to old Sydney town to get the Valla tee's printed for summer 2010. It took two automatic printers to break down, a lot of sweat and tears and two very long days finishing well in two the pm but we got it done. The Valla range is now on display at the factory show room so get down there and check it out.

On the press.
630 items all by hand.
Team Valla still hard at it at 9pm

A bit of fun at the TCSS head quarters with some boccie.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Some Random Pics of the Factory and Showroom


A few pics I snapped towards the end of November of the factory and boards in various stage of production during that time.

Joe with some Sweet Rides


Joe sent these pics through of him riding his 9'2" x 23" x 2 7/8" Longboard. How blue does that water look in the fish eye sequence... Makes me feel like going surfing.

All pics: http://www.jasonmichaelsmith.com

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Mini Hawaii




The past few weeks in Hawaii have been pretty average. A couple of days of mysto spots pumping but overall pretty slow. I have been training for next year's WQS by practicing some of the more progressive and innovative maneuveres like the hang 5. Cheers to Morgan Maassen for the shots.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Paul and Heath in Hawaii

Paul just got home from hawaii a day ago where he was mostly filming Heath to get more footage for the Waves - Black Knight competition. Mum (Jenny was also over with them). Here are a couple of shots from a small day. Looks fun

Heath having fun on a small day at Pupukea on an Akila Aipa Twin.

Paul in the same surf testing his new longboard he made for the the trip.

All pics: Brian Monro from www.sport-in-digital.com.au

Thursday, December 9, 2010

These Boots are for Working

If you've been in the habit of stopping by this blog for a while now, you may have noticed I haven't been blogging as much as usual over the last few months. Firstly it seems to get busy in the board building game leading up to Christmas and secondly I've been finding it hard to jump in the front of the computer after long days at work and have creative energy left to say something interesting or valid . Blogging can feel like another job. But I've decided I'm going to be a little more consistent again.

The above collage illustrates the mess I make of the factory and my clothing. On most days there's foam dust, resin, glass fibres, tints, pigments and paints being flung around. Resin drips build up on my pants. This winter my glassing jeans got so much resin on them, the resin would crack and break around my knees when I sat down to eat my lunch. As you can see from the pics above your shoes get hammered as well. These shoes are in their last stages of life - the laces are resined in so I slip them on like slippers, every couple of days I have to pull off the resin and dust build up on the soles, it feels like you're walking over stones. Picking off the resin continually weakens the sole of the shoes which have begun to pull away from the body so now I have been taping them on with masking tape.

In all the choas of dust, foam and mess it's amazing that surfboards emerge at all.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Alaia Trim

This is Dan Walters on his 6'0" Traditional style alaia getting a smoker on a clean day at Bells Beach. I really like the enlarged shot - the simplicity and speed of the alaia trim. Understated beauty.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

PJ on Holidays


Dad turned 6o last month and we headed up to the Gold Coast for the weekend. Dad's above standing next to his new 9'0" longboard with split stringers that he'd just made himself. The other two boards are Vice logs and belong to my brother in law Matt and myself. It was nice to head up the coast and get a few fun peelers.

Currently dad's in Hawaii filming my brother Heath (see last 2 posts). Dad took his green longboard above and also made himself a 9'0" single fin gun which I'll post some photos of when I he gets home. I bet they're having a ball.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Heath.

Heathy boy getting his shred on in Hawaii this season.