the old man and the sea

thats funny - but not fun! I see a lot of wasted wave face on the crowded days too, know what you mean. can be frustrating at times!

spotted on internet - the proctor is over 3" thick and looks like it has a step-rail, the other, by description, is a high volume board along the lines of my Swan Song series, but with a little different design motivation. eventually, if i get the energy, i may try to organize my thoughts a little better, and post up over on general discussion to see if i can generate a little more conversation on this thread subject.

...but the main thing is just looking at volume a bit differently than the mainstream. Its encouraging to me when I see others doing the same, in spite of a prevailing prejudice against these boards. I know I'm not the first, and I took my inspiration from those that I saw going in this direction before I did. But I've had enough positive experiences from the boards I've made in this series to keep me committed to this agenda. And the list of serious shapers doing stuff in this vein is pretty impressive, guys like stretch, joe blair, todd proctor, rusty preisendorf, tom mahady, chronic surfboards, lost surfboards, and john matthews, ha! BTW that camel board is crazy, wish I had a bigger screen than this little phone to view it on, but I think that qualifies as an S-deck! ------- Did u ever pick your board up from Steve? Does he have the stubby now? I've been out of touch, dealing with all the family stuff since my mom passed.

looking at the camel now on a bigger screen, amazing! MP was so far ahead of the pack, using volume as a metric way back then. The camel looks like a caricature of one of my favorite boards, the golden standard. All the same features, but everything exaggerated. It has a wide thin front, narrow but thicker tail, pinched rails, bit of belly, down rails in the very back with a pulled in pin or rounded pin, single fin. Wonder how it would compare in riding! Hey Matty yeah I don't care what the "crowd" is doing so much, but only in the sense I like to see what everyone is doing. Its all interesting to me, and it does surprise me sometimes that so many surfers want to label themselves as "progressive" or "modern", you know, not like the "old guys that cannot surf radical" and have to ride "retro" boards. And they never figure out that they're impressing nobody but themselves, in the bigger picture none of that really matters, all we need to do is have a little fun during our short stay here, and if we can spread a little aloha too, so much the better. the other thing a lot of people have a hard time understanding is that it often isn't a matter of surfing "radical" vs. surfing "retro", as you age it eventually becomes a matter or surfing at all, vs not surfing anymore. There are a lot of guys who were really radical in their day, but they don't surf anymore. That was cool at the time, but now, to me it seems more cool to keep surfing, and radical doesn't even figure into the equation, its radical for me just to paddle out on some days, with all the health issues I deal with at my age. Until you get here, you have no idea. So I keep plugging away at this, having a bit of a setback right now with my mom's passing, and dealing with the house and all her stuff, keeping me from surfing much or shaping much. But eventually I'll get back in the groove, hopefully, and see how far my swan song boards will take me! BTW that was my daughter with the rash, we thought it might be chicken pox, which was scary because then she couldn't have flown home. No public transportation if you have chicken pox. But thankfully it was OK, still made for a stressful visit tho! ----------- here's a video link showing what I consider the best way to ride a midlength. Not trying to rip and hack, more trim and flow, walking the board a little but not a lot, mainly its about enjoying the wave without having to shred the wave. Like I say, just my opinion...

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