YOU GOTTA BE McKEAN AS..... James McKean

A couple of pics of a young guy James McKean who I made a tow board for recently.  you gotta be keen as – just have to look at his rubber let alone that evil fricken wave. Well done Jimmy – rather you than me!  Muzz

MY FIRST RUSSIAN

I had my first Russian and I liked it. !!!

This all unfolded recently when I was in Bali on a work stint, and I mean work, because after experiencing the place in the early seventies the magic in the waves has dried up for me- unwilling and unable to compete with masses of roaming hordes looking for their own nirvana.

Every few years there is another nationality having a love affair with Bali and its unique culture. The last few years it has been the Russians…yes they are not only coming they are bloody well here. There are already 4 Russian surf schools working the beaches of Kuta up to Padmar.

If you would have to compare life in Russia with life on the beaches of Bali; its a chalk and cheese! Nevertheless there is a growing band of Russian crew that have decided to live and work here because they do not ever want to suffer another Siberian winter ever again! Jesus how could you ever go back after you had a taste of this climate.

And this is where I met up with Penza who is a young Russian Lawyer who now lives and works in Kuta at one of the surf schools as a coach. He has only been surfing for about 5 years and is one of the hottest of the Ruskies.

He lives the life of Riley quite often pulling gigs up the Mentawai or Gland or elsewhere around the archipelago. When he makes some coin he is off to explore and basically lives for the day. Penza is not really his name, it is actually the name of the town he comes from back home but it seems everyone just calls him Penza anyway, and so he has adopted it.

Growing up in a landlocked environment in central Russia Penza did not even know surfing existed until his old man spotted some windsurfers in the Mediterranean when holidaying after the wall came down. He told his son about this pastime but made sure he finished his legal studies before allowing him to travel and discover it himself. I think he spent some time in the UK getting his law degree but did not even know there were waves in France. I spent some time listening to his journey over some bintangs, so I cannot completely remember why and how he ended up here in Bali.

So here he is- a 30 year old lawyer who loves just being a modern day Indo beach bum. And so he has been my FIRST RUSSIAN…..guy at least. In fact I have made a few boards for some Russian women of late who have completely embraced the lifestyle as well. Penza’s Russian girlfriend has a business in Moscow and St Petersburg and she flies out periodically to enjoy the lifestyle and go surfing with her boyfriend. It’s amazing to spend time with this young generation from Russia and besides their accent they do not live up to our stereotype Russian, but are all fully switched on.

Most that I met spoke really good English and certainly were on a mission to enjoy life in Bali. Just before I flew out I knocked Penza up a 6.3 pintail for G land which he has just told me went sick but unfortunately he got fully clipped by one of those bunny killer Gland lips and did his neck in, but he will live to surf another day and may be partly responsible in the future for spawning hordes of Russian surfers wandering the globe looking for “our” pot of gold. But if they all behave like Penza I do not think we have anything to worry about.

Muzz

http://www.bourtonshapes.com/

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

What many punters do not realize in this day and age that surfboard manufacturing never ever got to the level of the corporates  – I of all people can be testament to that !

Yet some people think as a consumer (probably been brainwashed by current affair programs on how to diddle your retailer) they are in the position of power and Jo Blow surfboard company is going to bend over backwards for every customers whim. I am a big believer in customer service having spent 35 years on the floor but there are at times when expectations are over the top. Whoever put this clip together was probably pushed to the edge..........

 
I believe the future in surfboards is, and should be heading back toward manufacturer direct to customer where the margins are more realistic. This in turn creates a mutual respect between both parties. The customer can actually get his point across to the actual shaper-not a third person, and the shaper is compensated more generously being freed from the middle man!

Muzz ..

ZALIDA. What real glassing houses should be !

Zalida is the new Glass House Darren Handley has put together post Base. The name for those who are curious contains the initials of his 3 children.   

During the second half of the last decade Asian imports have put pressure on our local glassing houses so much so many skills are drying up. In Western Australia over 60% of the glassing workforce threw in the towel and went to the mines .It is common knowledge that fibreglass tradesman are never going to retire with a bundle and this cheap labour threat has perhaps permanently cemented this dismal outlook.

Thankfully in the surfing industry, but in particular the surfboard industry, there is an undeniable passion that exists for the product they produce. I am sure that the little women, who are industriously stitching away in their Chinese sweatshops, are not admiring and hugging the garments on completion.

One does not deal with fumes and dust for the long term if he is not passionate about what he does.  Well in the Zalida glassing house we have more than a few.

There are many glassing shops around that are doing big numbers for some of the top labels, but with numbers; comes a lower price. They are less than interested in doing anything different or more labour intensive because, literally- “time is money”.

This year I have put more emphasis on the glass integrity of my models. I have witnessed the dumbing down of the glassing process the last 10 years mainly due to the ever increasing cost of labour and also the margins retailers are gouging. I would have to say that I would be far stretched to find another factory that for one could do what I need and if so- wouldnt even bother.

Head of the creative team is  Guillaume a passionate Frenchman who will take on anything that I come up with. He is currently laminating all my carbon reinforcements, diagonal glass jobs and Epoxy Scarpers that any normal tradesman would run a mile from. He also does some fibre flexes when requested. And he is up for more! He knows the day will come that I will be coming up with something impossible and asking for it to be made possible, and he is ready for it. His back up Dan and Anthony are less than keen for the creative but are the spine of the standard.

In the aesthetics department we have another ace. For all the theory and marketing around the surfboard, the fact is, if it does not look good it will not get the chance to get wet. Todd the builder (not Bob) is a guy that has done the lot in the building industry but has developed a passion for making surfboards look really good. Gone are the mural artists who have been replaced with the printed inlay, and in retrospect, were probably overqualified for this sort of product anyway. I have always maintained that there is a curvaceous beauty to a shaped blank which can easily be destroyed by an overzealous artist trying to make a name for himself. Todd knows this and shows respect for the shape, and in turn enhances the lines I draw which magnify the beauty. I guess I am a little old fashioned, but I would almost cry when one of my team riders returned from a lean boat trip having filled his time letting loose with a boska on his surfboard. That shit is for the inside of a dunny door would be my response!

Perhaps the most pressure in the process is put to the sanders who are in essence- the finishers. The days of the sprayed on protec finish are long gone, so one mistake by a sander is his last; the poor buggers have to be spot on- and 99.9% of the time they are. Jigger, who previously had his own glassing company, is one of these guys and also has a passion for the finish coat and full mirror polish which adds a retro arm to the Zalida outfit. I have reintroduced the Pipedream label as a limited edition product and Jigger is my man. We all know how skilled the Balinese are with their hands and Gidday is no exception. He is married to an ozzie lass and lives and works permanently here on the Gold Coast, and I might add- with a work ethic second to none.
Simon Massy an ex competitive surfer, also knows how long to run a tucked edge, and he makes up the third sander in this department of specialists. There is fine line to a sanded finish; the board needs to be grip able in the water but silky enough to be sexy enough on the floor.

These boys have got it down. I gotta warn you board huggers out there,  wear a professionally made jock strap when you run your hands over these well rubbed curves.

Muzz

Looking Down The Line

    Found some pics from a while back. Sure beats the Snapper crowds.

The Humble VEE Packing a New Sting
If you asked any 25 year old surfer about a vee bottom he would not know what you were talking about. The dominance of the concave bottom re-popularized by Greg Webber and Shane Herring in the late eighties and early nineties is showing no sign of waning any time soon.
It is still the most functional bottom shape for the high performance thrusters ridden by the elite – who tend to direct the fashion in the market place. Perhaps the new renaissance in alternative board design of late, embraced by those who are not so swayed by the immortals, will open minds to more acceptance of alternative bottom shapes.
For one, the fish revolution meant wider and shorter boards, most still saddled with deep concaves that lifted and ran, but were extremely stubborn in the tilt department.  Most designers of these new hybrid fishes needed to incorporate deeper longer vees to get these little tanks on rail quicker and easier.
Traditionally vees were used through the last third of the board but Maurice Cole turned this upside down when he stumbled upon the reverse vee which essentially was a vee through the centre and flat at either end. These things for a while smashed the dominance of the concave particularly in bigger waves but died out when Curren went underground. Currently many shapers in Hawaii and Australia are incorporating both the vee and concave together.

Placing the concave through the centre and running it into a vee through the last third; speed is created under the front foot and control under the back foot. Also where the vee is, the rail lines are straighter, and where concaves are, rail lines are curvier; resulting in a more forgiving rail under the front foot and a more driving rail in the tail.

This concept is now creeping into more modern short boards of late, where a deep concave runs into a short vee that exits out the last 6 inches of the tail. This feature helps reduce the water pressure in a tail that may be a little too wide in the pod and where there is too much lifting and sliding going on. I saw a few extremes of this on a couple of Danes boards at Belles a year or two ago and the idea is proliferating of late – because it makes sense.

There is no doubt with the finely tuned narrow competitive boards ridden by the world’s best there is no need for the use of vees – these guys are soooo talented and can master a board with even ridiculously deep concaves, just like a formula one driver can drive those weapons of speed where a layman would end up in a coffin at the very first hairpin. At the other end of the scale however, the concave is not generally an easy bottom shape to master, indeed in the old days we dodged elm like the plague.

A vee was easy to turn and the straighter rockered and front heavy boards of that era needed all the help they could get. Today the vee is certainly making a comeback and is creeping back into modern board design and complimenting performance for many who still do not know or understand their mechanism.

Certainly most of my models in the past few years have a vee of some sort designed into them and the feedback has been very positive. It is a lot easier these days with the new shaping software to vary the bottom shape from nose to tail. So next time you have thoughts about a shorter wider board, or indeed a longer step up don’t be afraid to suggest a vee out the tail.

Muzz