Wow, scary wave... so much water... water looks cold...
(image via website)
BTW, this is from yesterday!!! Do you guys know where this photo was taken???
Well, the same photo was on today's news paper...
(image by Mariluz)
Yes, it's in Euskadi (Basque Country), Spain. It was the place called "la Playa Gris (The Grey Beach)." Extreme surfers and huge waves like this in Spain??? There are crazy surfers everywhere in the world...
Please let me know if you wanna ride this wave with Ibon (the guy on the wave), I will let him know! Mundaka, La Playa Gris, Zarautz, Biarritz... there is a good surf, good people, unique surf culture and PARTY in this Basque region: French Basque (France) and Basque Country (Spain). It's a nice place to visit!
This song really do exists...by a band from Indiana.
The sea has become profoundly red as wine The skies they bleed with fleeting passion tonight
Come sweet euphoria Your light is blinding to thee You feel as comforting as a mother's warm embrace But still you're just as lonely as the sea
We gaze out upon the crashing waves From this hillside graveyard masquerade
Sweet terrible angel Embrace my soul with light There's an honesty inside my lungs and its dying to get out But still I'm helpless as an orphaned child
Can you cure this loneliness in my heart In my heart Can you cure this loneliness in my heart In my heart
To explore is an important concept in this movie, and I hope that some people have already explored something new by trying different boards. I find/realize something new every time when I ride a different board, surf with different people, surf at a different time of the day, surf different waves, etc. even at my homebreak where I usually surf; something always gives me a new perspective!
Well, let's talk about surfboards because they are the co-protagonists of the film.
Like surf spots, the history of surfboard is all about exploration. Surfers and shapers have always tried to explore something new: bonzer and twin fin in the 70s, sensational thruster surfboards in the 80s, new materials such as epoxy and carbon fiber in the last decade, etc. Our imagination, craftsmanship and technology have always helped us to experiment, explore and step forward.
However, we cannot forget the fact that we have gone back and forth between "innovation" and "renovation" in this process, especially in the last few years. It seems like, while some keep "improving" surfboards by exploring and employing advanced technologies, others started looking back the history... It is "innovating something through the renovation of the old stuff". This is a major form to explore today: Alaia may be a good example.
I know I know, there are numbers of books, magazine articles (there are even academic studies on surfboards), etc. about this written by people with more critical perspectives. If you are interested in, please read their articles!
Folks, I wanted to share with you a short video clip from Spain which provides a critical perspective on the relationship between innovation and renovation of surfboards. Nowadays, many may feel that Cali and Australia are the main surf capitals where "new" things are born. Remember that there are surfers all over the world even in countries such as Germany and Switzerland where there is not any beach, and "new" things are not necessarily born in these specific locations (needless to say where...) or, at least, we should remember that there are people in other countries who are exploring/trying to explore the tomorrow's surfboards or our surf culture!
An idea of experimenting and exploring (shaping and riding different and unique surfboards) at the individual level may be a modern way to enjoy surfing, it is an IDEA that we have recently explored... So, today, you can ride anything without being discriminated against; unlike a decade ago, someone in the line up is perhaps interested in your 70's retro single fin. Did anyone really enjoy riding a twin-fin fish in the late 80s while everyone else was riding a thruster? Probably not...OK, let's enjoy riding different and unique boards and EX4ing (this can be a word!) NOW before we see a new trend that our surf culture shifts back to be more conservative. What do you guys think???
BTW, Pukas is the biggest surf company in Spain. Please stop by Pukas shops in Donostia/San Sebastian or Zarautz and say hi to their friendly staff if you get the chance to go to Euskadi (Basque Country)!
Looks like we had some waves today. Was checking Swami's via Webcam, and the line up looked like this. Many people, but there were nicely breaking double overhead sets coming in!!! (Image captured by Todd from webcam)
Now, speaking of big wave, here's the one of the biggest waves ever surfed. You may have seen this clip already, but, I'm sure it's been a while since last time you watched this. So, let's check again and remind ourselves how big a wave can get and how human can surf on it..
Amazing, huh?
Here, size is much smaller, but I have found this one almost as equally amazing...what do you think?
For those of you who is not really in to big waves, love long ride, but don't like paddling much, below is our recommendation.
Today, we enjoyed the beginning part of this west swell! Water is still warm enough to avoid fullsuits as long as it's sunny and not windy! Unfortunately, stormy condition is expected for the next couple of days, but this weekend seems to be full of promise (we will see...)!!!
Please come and join us! We will be filiming Sat and Sun all day (but maybe after fishing in the early morning). Mackerel BBQ at Cardiff??? Not a bad idea, right?
So, one of the exciting moment of EX4 is that when a rider experienced new feeling of surfing and get totally stoked. Our beautiful friend Sue has tried TED(me)'s longboard and she was totally stoked!!!
This special longboard were shaped by a Leucadia Local Shaper/surfer Caleb Wilborn. I liked his surfing and his character so much, and I was honored to get a board shaped by him. We had long discussion of what kind of board I want, and he was adding his expertise to my board idea to make the board work. I watched him shaping this board, and later, this inspired me to shape my own board.
Not just he shaped, but he glassed the board as well. I was there, and helped laminate the board. the bottom Swirl was actually done by us together.
Caleb had tough time during shaping this board... Clark foam has shut down, etc... I end up waiting about 2years to get shaped, but it was worth it. Here it is, one and only board shaped for me, by my hero.
One of the crazy idea of this board was fin set up. When I ordered this board, twin fin was coming back, then when we were glassing this board, quad was coming back... so, we went ahead and created five fin set up for this model. Actually, the small center trailer fin was made by myself.
The fine set up worked good. Actually I was able to noseride with this fin. It was very stable. However, I didn't like the way it turn, so I chopped off the trailer fins and made it twin fin once, and currently I added small center trailer fin. In the future I am thinking to change it to single fin... my adventure on this board continues. But I really like the rocker and glide on this board. This is one of the smallest longboard I have, but still catches lots of waves.
Deck design was very aggressive. Something we don't see this kind of design so often.
So, here, I passed this great board to Sue, and I think she has experienced the great feeling I had with this board.
If you are interested to order a board from Caleb Wilborn, please let me know. I am sure he will make you a very unique board that you can't get from the lack of surf shop.
You've seen Tom Wegener shaped piece of wood and cruise the long regular Noosa breaks without any fin! The surfboard made by piece of wood was called Alaia, and, it was a sensation in surfing world; now, every good surfer have one including Rob Machado, Cyrus Sutton, Joel Tudor, and so on... And Dave Rastovich, Dan Malloy are charging Waimea Bay with it. That was only few years ago.
Now, Alaia has its reputation and became one of the standard surfing style. So, more people want to try one... OR, even just start with it as a first surfing board, just like old legend surfers started sufing with their self made wooden paipo board back then.
Here's a kid at the local beach charging inside 2ft wave with his father shaped Alaia model.
Maybe sometime soon, we will see him on the board ripping from the peak of overhead waves and glide across in front of our face.
He already has the attitude and style as a grown up man...
Welcome to the surfing world, kid. Just remember, we started surfing first; please don't get too good too soon. :p
残念ながら本日波の状態がよろしくなく、撮影延期となりました。。。せっかく天気も良く、水も澄んでいて(水がきれいすぎてインサイドまで乗ってくとサンド・シャークが良く見えました。。。) 絶好の撮影日和だったんですが波が小さすぎでした。明日も波は小さそうなので、古賀さん引率で釣りです。と言う事で明日のブログは釣り情報を up します。┌(ﾟロﾟ)┐
Riding Ty's soft board gave me a new insight into surfing, just making me realize that there are different ways to have a good time in the water. Kenta and me tried to ride a wave together... considering our surfing skills, this would be a bit difficult without getting dings on our boards. In a sense, a soft board is wonderful to enjoy surfing in this way, trying to experiment and to explore more ways to enjoy surfing!
Malibu style at San-O... cruising a wave together! OK, now try to jump onto Kenta's board! Yeah, tandem surfing, lift me up, Kenta!
Oops, 何でやねん? There was something going wrong... or, as Kenta said, I was not good enough... Hostia, let's try it again, we will make it work next time! Now I wanna buy a soft top board; it's not a bad idea to own it!
There are not many words needed to describe him; we all know one of our dearest friends, Ted. In this project, he tried (or he was forced to ride???) one of my logs (no, not officially mine but technically mine!), Skip Frye 9'6" fish tail single-fin glider.
He is the one who calls any log under 10ft. as a fun board or transition board... for him, the longer and more volume the better, and the flotation is critical! He rides very long and heavy boards which I cannot even carry around :) OK, let's destroy his stereotypical belief that longer and heavier boards are better for HIM or he needs that big boards. As I imagined, he complained about the length and the volume of the Frye when I handed it to him... but at least he tried something new!!! Now let's see how he rides it!
Mmmmm, he turns like Frye and glides like a pelican! WTF, he rides it so well and came back in with a big smile!!! Yes, Ted, you did it so well! I envy you!
Well, is it a type of board that you want to add to your surfboard museum??? I know it is almost impossible to buy it. Let's make one for us!
So...do you notice that there are many Square nose board lately? I know G&S did it 60's, and Herbie Fletcher shaped and rode for a while in 70's, then, it extinguished in 80's and 90's, but, all the sudden, Tyler Hatzikian came out with his famous Riddler, and now G&S is reviving it, Bing is came out with new shape, so as Chris Christenson. Now, I just found new Square nose model from Otis surfboards, probably widest Square nose available on the market, and it has detachable nose as an option.
Look her smile, she must had really fun with her square nose.
By the way, it was 2-3' wave on that day. So, be careful out there. Anything could happen at the ocean, even waves are small...
Of course, he was no stranger to riding waves, but I was quite impressed that Satoshi had even catched the first wave of the recent "baby boom" among our friends in San Diego!
Like all other surfer dudes had babies, he had a great excuse to order a new board when Leo, his just turned 1-year-old son, was born last October. That's how he got this fish.
5'10'' Retro Fish with glassed on twin keel fin
Shaped by Gary Hanel
Yeah! CLARK FORM, baby!
He usually surfs at Scripps early in the morning. If you spot a very tall Japanese guy with big laugh, that's him!
Have you ever really stand up on the board and just let the board go across the face of the wave? When Akezo noticed a pin-tail single fin log in Tak's van, she couldn't wait to try it out. Akezo's longboard quiver has been always 2+1 fin set up, which help her turn the board around, especially with her light weight. However, she always wondered what's so great about heavy single fin log, which doesn't seem turn quick, and hard to carry around.
Yup, so, on this day, she took out Tak's single fin log. It's 9'9" Chris Christenson Glider. Wouldn't it be little too big, and too heavy for Akezo?!
No worries. She can figure that out by herself... Look the glide, the wave is not broken, yet!!!
Want to see beautiful woman glide beautiful waves? You can see it when "EX4" come out... : p
Satoshi is a shortboarder and used to ride thruster set up Al Merrick. Recently, he has switched to a twin keel fin retro-fish and he has been diggin' it. Then, Kinoppy show up and let Satoshi try his 6'2" KG Twinzer, to see how Satoshi will ride it...
So, Satoshi paddled out, and...
HE WAS GOING FAAAAAASSST!!!!!
Below smile speaks thousand words. Can you tell how much he liked the board?
You want to see how fast he was going? You will find Satoshi flying across the wave in "EX4". :)
You may or may not know all of our cast, human and non-human (I mean surfboards).
This project is a great opportunity for you not only to try different surfboards but also to get to know new people. Lots of nice guys, pretty gals, weirdos!? with their own surfboards will be introduced.
Add your comments, questions on them. By the time we all gather for the movie premiere, we should feel like we've known each other for long time!
Our first pic is "Kinoppy" and his 6'6'' Kane Garden Fish
He has been trying to conquer this KG Fish for a while.
Did riding a longer board change his perspective on surfing?
By the way, he likes to wear pink and white, he had a rumor with another guy in the past, and he has this smile...
So, many shortboarder doesn't like riding longboard much. Here's another guy who does not even want to try a longboard. Yes, that's Kinoppy.
So, we made him try Akezo's 8'6" Joel Tudor High Performance Nose Rider. Even though it is a very functional longboard for Akezo (considering her petite body size), it's not officially a longboard since it's below 9'0". (No, you can not compete official longboard contest with this board length)
So, can you handle it, Kinoppy? Here's Kinoppy on 8'6" Tudor HPNR, going for a critical section. (Wow, is he nose-riding???)
Hope the board gave Kinoppy a new board riding experience, and had a fun.
As you can see below, we believe it did...
Do you want to know how did he think about the Long(er) board? You will see when "EX4" movie completed... : )
Today, Tak got to ride Junko's 9'2" IN THE PINK shaped by Donald Takayama. Tak usually ride single fin. His recent main quiver is heavy 9'9" single fin glider. But this time, he got to try 2+1 fin set up high-performance light-weight noserider shaped by the legend.
How did he ride it? Like this...
Want to see more Tak's riding in motion? Wait for the movie"EX4" to come out. : p
We have started shooting "EX4"!!! We have long lists of folks we would like to participate on this project and exchange boards, explore new surfing potentials, try it as a new experiment, and get experienced.
Just to give you some ideas, below is the link to sneak preview of "EX4" film.
Please note that this is not the "Trailer" of the film. This was edited privately, by me, TEDJAM, with the available footage from September 27th, 2009 San Onofre session. I will be part of the editing team of this film, but final version will be totally re-edited by Shin, the executive producer. So, please join us, and be part of the film!!!
Our project title "EX4" implies four English words: exchange, explore, experiment and experience. We chose them as we would like you all to participate in this project to EXCHANGEboards, toEXPLORE (and extend??) new surfing potentials, to try it as an EXPERIMENT and to get EXPERIENCED! As always, we also want to show the beauty of our friendship and communities we have developed through surfing!
We would like to thank you all for your generous support in advance! Without your support, this project will not be possible! If you have any question, suggestion, critique, etc., please feel free to let us know!
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