Sunday at the Pier

Jacky on her 8'10 Naish today at the CB pier. It was so windy off shore today, I didn't think we'd be able to catch anything, but it turned out to be pretty easy surfing.

Wave of the day and too deep. Darn!

Desperate Quad Test

No waves, but it was still fun trying. They felt good.

Q-1 FCS same as Controller/PSH Trailer??

This one looks close to me.

New PSH Fins

Very cool to see PSH likes pivot trailers too. Those Futures Controllers, all us Sub Vector guys fell in love with had pivot trailers. Maybe the Sub Vector posse was onto something.

The Naish 9'3 Quad is Ready to Rip

I just hope the rider can match the boards performance

9'3 Naish Bagged

Here it is Curtis. Breather cloth and bag removed. You are looking at wet peal ply. Tomorrow the peal ply will get ripped off. The red is a pigmented cab-o-sil and epoxy mix. It was needed this time because my boxes were not the exact cant angle I needed for this board. So I tilted the boxes and added filler. With painted boards, you can add pigment, which makes working with epoxy a lot easier. I learned the pigment trick from the Nelson factory.

Why FCS Fusion Boxes

I was asked why I used FCS Fusion fin boxes.

 

http://www.surffcs.com/truth/

 

Click “Testing” tab, then “Impact Testing”

 

Watch the videos

EPS Quality

Can you spot the differences? Each sample is from a different supplier.

A) From Cobra in Thailand. The best fused EPS I've ever seen. Waterproof. Amazing quality.
B) From China. Close to sample A. Quality fusion of beads. Also looks waterproof
C) USA foam from Carpenter. Construction grade EPS. Not waterproof.

9'3 Naish Quad

Setting the toe below

Waves only a SUPer could love

Igor and Jacky

Sweet Wood Lam Shortboards

Here are the sweet vacuum bagged shortboards by Dennis. Dennis helped me with my first vacuum bagged raceboard. Look for Dennis at WB on this new stick

Sunrise Test

The quads work. It seemed to paddle fast. Waves too small to telling anything. Igor was out this morning too. He had fun yesterday on his Mana. He's stoked.

Naish Wood Lamination

Here is a tiny sample of the laminated wood layer covering the entire bottom of my Naish Mana. This piece of wood was removed when I routed out the quad fin boxes. It looks very much like what's inside a snowboard or ski. It sure makes for one tough as hell bottom skin. You won't find dimples or shell cuts in this boards bottom. I pealed away the inner layer of glass to expose the wood. The wood is sandwiched between layers of glass forming a tough as nails outer skin. I'm stoked by how tough this non divinycell (PVC) style of construction is. I can understand Blane's stoke on wood laminates.

Almost all Naish boards have wood laminations. Some Starboards, and now the semi-custom PSHs. Lots of windsurf boards have it too.

Dennis, if you read this, send me photos of your wood lam shortboard project.

The Quad 9'5 Naish Mana is Here

and it's all mine

More Yellow in the House

This bad boy is 9'3 and 18 lbs

Warmer Weather and Downwind Fun

The summer wind returns. It was wonderful today.

8'4 Naish

Look at this 209 lb guy on the 8'4 Naish.

Jacky and I Share the 8'10 Today

Dwight, Jacky, then Brian Autry below

Bagging the Patches

Quad 9'5 Naish Mana

Today's project was to quad my Mana. I can, so why not. It's fun and gives me more things to play with. First up is the layout. I tape over the existing front fins and recreate the shapers dots. Once I have the front fin marks, I can layout the rear fins off those. I choose to use Stretch's quad placement for the rears. Stretch moves his rear fins in 3/4" farther than his fronts (off the rail). This gives a quad more drive. The last photo shows the fins set in epoxy tinted with red pigment. Tomorrow the boxes get glass over patches.

I learned some interesting stuff about the Naish construction routing the holes. I could see 1mm thick wood vacuum bagged to the entire bottom. You can see the stripes of the wood grain if you look closely at the photos. There appears to be no gel coat, just primer and paint. That is great news. We all know gel coat chips and falls off in huge junks on the rails of some SUPs from 2 years ago. Gel coat is that thick tan colored crap used when placing a board in a mold. It fills the gaps. Yuk! I'm very impressed with the Naish construction. With a wood bottom it shouldn't get the bottom dimples you get with PVC foam bottoms.

Fun Surf this Morning

Waterman's Challenge combined with Intra Coastal SUP Cup

A new race course. Higher entry fees. I can't complain though, Coastal Urge runs an impressive event and it's worth every penny. We're lucky to have such a first class event in our own backyard.

The race is open to everyone
http://www.intracoastalsupcup.com/race.htm

EJ and Brandi will be doing the paddle clinic.

http://www.intracoastalsupcup.com/clinics.htm

The new PRO's only Waterman Challenge, following the SUP race on the same day. (I wish I could do the windsurf and kitesurfing legs)

http://www.intracoastalsupcup.com/waterman.htm

Coastal Urge’s 1st Annual Waterman’s Challenge is a race incorporating kiteboarding, standup paddleboarding, windsurfing, and OC-1. This is an invite-only race with the top board, paddle, kite, and sail manufacturers in the world competing against each other.  They will be utilizing their best waterman or woman to test their skills in all four disciplines.

The Waterman’s Challenge will be held on the afternoon of May 15th 2010 at Wrightsville Beach, NC. The exact location is beach access #33 in front of the Blockade Runner Beach Resort on the Atlantic Ocean. Proceeds benefit SUP Cleanup.

Invited: Airush, Bark, Bic, Best, C4 Waterman, Cabrinha, F-1, Flexifoil, Hobie, Jimmy Lewis, Kialoa, Liquid Force, Mistral, Naish, North Kiteboarding, North Sails, Ohana, Oxbow, Paddle Surf Hawaii, Quick Blade , RRD, Rusty, Sandwich Island Composites, Slingshot, Starboard, Surftech, Wainman Hawaii, Werner.

Weekend Project

Guess what's getting quadded this weekend? Check back tomorrow for progress photos. The FCS Fusion plugs with jig.

Oh Crap! this is the hotel I stay at when in Pakistan

Pakistan police parade six Taliban terrorists - and 26 hand grenades, suicide vest and detonators to be used for attack on luxury hotel, Pearl Continental

Daily Mail: Last updated at 12:52 AM on 09th February 2010

Pakistan police claim to have foiled a bomb attack on five-star hotel, Pearl Continental as they paraded six suspected Taliban militants along with an arsenal of suicide vests, hand grenades and detonators.

The militants arrested on the outskirts of Lahore included a 14-year-old boy and a prayer leader from Pakistan's Khyber tribal area near the Afghan border, said police official Zulfikar Hameed.

Police seized an explosive-laden suicide vest, 26 hand grenades and five detonators from the suspects, who were travelling by car and motorcycle, said Mr Hameed.

The prayer leader was wearing the suicide vest. They told police they were targeting Americans at the Pearl Continental hotel in Lahore, the country's cultural capital, he said.

Despite their intentions, the men did not know for certain whether any Americans were staying at the hotel, Mr Hameed said.

OMG the new 8'4 Naish

Could Jacky surf this one? Hummmmm   8'4 x 27 1/2 x 4 3/8

Sunday Fun

There were some bombs out there today. It blew hard NE early, then died and left the ocean big and messy. These were the conditions that entered my mind when I demoed that 9'5 Mana. I was thinking wow, this board is so stable it would be like cheating on days like this.