SUNDAY DRIVE

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One of those moments where daddy proves he doesn't always know best: Pays to enter the state beach, proceeds to drive up on to the bike/walking path, and then decides it's a fine day for taking the family for a drive out on the beach.
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Mommy and daughter wait alone while dad is pulled off to the side and tries to explain himself outa this one to a cop.
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One of the patrolling lifeguards said this was the 4th person to do this in '08.
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GROW & BOTTLE

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October, 1999— After scoring a week of perfection in Tavarua while filming for my first, little known, surf film, SCRATCH MISCELLANEOUS, I arrived in Manly, Australia for a 10 day flat spell. No car and lots of doing nothing. Time moving really slow. One particularly long, solo lunch under mid-day heat took me through a couple bottles of Pellegrino. In the age old act of boredom, the condensation bathed labels were peeled from the bottles. Some time was then passed gluing them into the pages of my travel journal.
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RUNNING FREE!

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Rolled by this van during a lunch break surf check today...
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RUNNING FREE?

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...Then, a little later in the surf check, this dude rolled by me.
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It was made all the more humorous to me with all the recent talk of the Camel Toe Tail / Banana Split / Plumber's Crack / Coin Slot / Moose Knuckles / Mud Flaps, etc. still fresh in my mind.
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Needless to say, the guy was letting it all hang out in a wake laughter and a couple of heckling hoots and whistles from people in the parking lot.
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FINS FOR THE CAMEL TOE

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I sacrificed a dawn patrol opportunity this morning to go draw up a fin template for the Camel Toe with the Dove.
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For this board I want long based twin fins, but at the same time I don't want all that base glassed on the tail to retard its flex. The solution we went with was to notch out the rear of the fin to reduce the amount of base tied to the board... form must follow function. Plus, though I've never ridden notched fins, they supposedly have a bit of good "twang" to them as seen in a Rastovich interview that Pranaglider/23 Breaths posted a while back.
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THE CAMEL TOE, A.K.A. THE...

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Though I've only shaped a few boards here and there, I've been doing a lot thinking over the last year or so about how to design flex into boards... usually to then collaborate on the ideas with Copper Dove when he shapes me a Nine Lights board.
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One of the most exciting things I've seen on my quest for flex was the photo of Michael Mackie's Demetri Milovich/Winterstick inspired flex tail fish in Andrew Kidman's book, ETHER, that I got a copy of last January. Below is a pic of one such Mackie fish (ripped from Young Man Grand).
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Going off of Mackie inspiration, I recently had the thought: Rather than elongating the swallow tail pins for flex, why not totally cut out the stringer from the normal tail portion of the board? Thus creating two separate, independently flexing halves that can be stood on by the rear foot simultaneously. When I drew it out in front of a few friends, the term "Camel Toe" couldn't help but to be mentioned— was a good laugh.
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One can come up with plenty of reasons why this might not work. The first I thought of is, if too much water channels up through and gets "caught" in the tail cleft it might cause drag. But I'm hoping that at speed the water will be sheeting off and past the cleft's bottom edge more than it will be collecting in the cleft. Obviously, structural strength, or lack there off might prove to be an issue too. The worst that can happen is it ends up riding like crap! Or I snap it at the tail.
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Over the last week I've had a chance to borrow the Dove's shaping bay and decided to take a crack at shaping the "Camel Toe" board myself out of an EPS blank that's been sitting in my garage for a year. I decided to incorporate the C.T. into a shape influenced by the fishes and displacement hulls I've been riding, plus a magic session I had on a 4'11" Casper related board called the "White Pony" that Richard Kenvin brought down to the last Cardiff AB3. Pic of the White Pony below, cropped and enlarged from a photo by Maggie Marsek.
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Note: With much respect to R.K., though this board was not an attempt to "copy" the White Pony, I'm sure I would have shaped certain elements of it differently if I hadn't been lucky enough to experience the W.P.— If anyone reading this likes the idea of doing cutbacks on a board that makes you feel like you're riding on a fast moving cloud that turns on a dime, then I highly suggest you contact the Swift Movement. 619/696-0677.
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The blend of influences resulted in a bit of a mutant: 5'0" tall, pulled in nose with extreme belly, wide mid section and tail (though not as wide as the W.P.), bladed rails in the nose section that blend into full, tucked rails in the mid section, and the C.T. tail that will get glass on single foil twin fins.
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To keep my toes from getting injured in the cleft, I'll probably cover the length of the deck side of the cleft with a thin, cut out strip of traction pad. If the C.T. tail proves to work, then I'll figure out something more aesthetically pleasing, 'til then... little strip of trac-pad it is.
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Amongst other minor irregularities, I pulled a few chunks of foam out of the rail foil of the nose... blading out EPS takes a certain finesse I was lacking today. Oh well... Fuck It, Glass it, Ride It!
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The C.T. tail is Also Known As the... Cleft Tail, Tweezer Tail, Deer Hoof, Banana Split, Parallel-O-Tail, Pincher Bug, Plumber's Crack (via Lawless), Tulip Tail (via Twinfin), Swedish Coin Slot (via Parallel Universe), Mud Flaps (if it ends up it's too flexy and bogs), and Double Trouble (If it doesn't work at all)... I'll post feedback after I ride it.
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Note: I'm sure other people have probably made tails like this too. If anyone has any feedback on something like this tail, and you are willing to share, please do.
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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

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While driving I'll often pass by something photo worthy and shine turning around to get the shot. But today, when I sped by this parade of kids, I couldn't help but to flip a u-ey.
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THE NOSE KNOWS

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Nothin' like exhaust that smells like home cookin'.
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SCRIBBLES OF ERECTUS

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Simple yet effective charcoal (from nearby fire pit) drawing by unknown homo erectus.
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RECLAIMED REDWOOD

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Inspired, most notably, by Tom Wegener's knack for reminding us all of surfing's roots, Copper Dove has been waiting a while now for a chance to shape an Alaia for himself. Some time ago he acquired just enough reclaimed redwood to shape one in the range of 6'2" tall x 15" wide x 1/2" thick. He finally found the window to shape it last Friday, showed up at the beach to ride it first thing Saturday morning, and has been giving it a go everyday since.
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Session 1, Saturday, April 5th: Maiden trimming voyage.
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Session 2, Sunday, April 6th: Flushed.
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Session 3, Monday, April 7th: Back in the saddle.
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Session 1 & 3 photos by Christina Beck, Session 2 photos by Charlie Grahamson.
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EL TOPO DE LA PLAYA

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Yesterday, I saw this old critter rise and sit up from a deep sleep in the sand and it had me thinking about the Alejandro Jodorowsky film, EL TOPO (1970):
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Two more excerpts from earlier in the film's plot:
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BACK IN THE WATER

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Scotty Stopnik, today, zippin' up the suit for a session to rehab both his ankles that are still stiff as hell after getting broken up in a recent, bad, motorcycle crash in street traffic that's had him out of the water for months.
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Glad to see you alive and wet, Scotty.
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