In the Air

These three Paulownia boards were shipped earlier today to Hawaii for "Da Hui/Hawaii State Bodysurfing Association Shorebreak Slam at Waimea Bay." I was contacted a few weeks ago by a guy named Craig. He's been a pretty good source of info on bodysurfing. He asked if he could buy some boards for the upcoming contest to use as prizes. I'm pretty sure he's not running the contest, just trying to do his part. I've personally run a few bigger surf contests in my life and I know how it is trying to obtain sponsors and such. Funny thing is, he didn't even ask me to donate them, he wanted to buy em. His own hard earned money, spent on prizes for others. Thats a pretty stand up guy if you ask me. Well, I won't have any of that. This is all about Goodness right? Hopefully they will go to guys and girls as nice as Craig is, and also ones that appreciate what he was willing to do.

AMAZING GRAIN

It still blows me away that you can buy a 12 foot long piece of wood, get 7 blanks out of it, and they will all have a unique grain pattern. This is one of my favorites to date. Don't ask me to try and match it, cause you never know how it's gonna come out until you are done.

Great Bodysurfing Blog

Just got a message from Guillaume Verspieren regarding his bodysurfing site.  I was really impressed with both the footage and material.  Its written in French, but the link above should be intrepretted to English.  Here is a sample of some of the goodness provided.  Check it out.

Bodysurfing GV

Photo Credit for above: Greg Rice  http://www.gregrimagery.com/

Call for Action Shots

Sure I like to post up pictures of beautiful boards everyone has made. Sure would like some action shots as well. So, if any of you got some action shots of yourself either handplaning(boarding) or bodysurfing, sure would love to post em. Here is a series that was recently taken of some local YAHOO.

Let the Games Begin

A quick e-mail I got from Ryon, super stoked on it:

I've followed both your brownfish and your handplane blogs for
sometime now and figured that I would drop you some photos of two of
my handplanes (#2 and 3). They are made from Redwood and are some of
my first forays into the shaping of any surf craft. Other than using
a jig saw to rough cut the shape from the raw wood blank, they were
shaped entirely by using nothing but a 1.5" wide block plane and some
sand paper. I shaped them as Christmas gifts for my father and
brother-in-law (both avid body surfers) after first creating one for
myself and getting hooked. Only problem is that I put way more time
and effort into creating their handplanes then I did on mine. Thus we
have agreed that the next time we meet we will all "race for pink
slips." Winner of the body surf competition gets choice of handplanes
from the losers. Thus providing motivation for all of us to get out
and use them more in the interim and hopefully to inspire the two of
them to create some of their own since I am sure they both already
know that I will emerge the victor and will be taking back one of
their sweet hand planes. Wahh hahahaha (maniacal laugh world
domination laugh).

Ryon Terry

I Like to get Burned

Truly I do. Especially by guys who haven't spent anywhere near the amount of time in the Ocean as I have. It even makes it more special when someone that I've never seen before does it. It completes me.

SOME GOODNESS FOR ME

I've been shaping a lot of planes in the last few months. Haven't had much of a chance to upgrade my own. My personal plane wasn't even signed. Finally told myself it was time to do one for me. This is my Barrel Rider model made with Paulownia. Took a little extra time to do the custom stain and pinlines, but, IMO, well worth it. Also picked up a new set of DaFins the other day to complete my set-up.

I just recieved a shipment of 10 Paulownia Blanks, so if anyone is interested in a Paulownia Plane, e-mail me.

BOBSURF SPEAKS

Yo BF,

I've got barely enough energy to type this email. Just finished my first handplane session after a solid surf at your favorite little low tide slab. Pulled up this morning to the spot and it was socked in with fog. Paddled out blindly to find glassy head high barrels to share with two other guys. Got it great for about an hour before breaking my nose off on my kneecap after taking doughnuts on a good right. I was beat up in more ways than one, but figured it was a good time to devirginize my handplane. Swan back out and caught a handful of waves in what was pretty heavy sucking toobs. I gotta say that I've never had a bodysurfing experience like that. Was finally able to actually keep up with the wave. I guess it was my first real body"surf" as opposed to a lifetime of whomping. One really good wave where I was able to hang in the pocket for a crazy distance, and a few other nice semi-long waves. Lost the handplane on my last wave and freaked out for a while before I found it floating 15 yards inside of me.

Can't wait to do it again. Didn't really like my old duck feet fins, as they tended to put a lot of pressure right on my ankle/foot joint. They just felt really long (I have size 13 feet, too). Thanks again for the killer board.

Bob

Handplane Goodness in Panama

Happy belated New Year.

My wife and I just returned from our honeymoon in Panama. I had some really fun handplaning sessions at Red Frog Beach on Isla Bastimentos, Panama. Unfortunately, our small digital camera wasn't able to clearly capture me in action shots, because of the auto focus delay, and by the time the camera took the picture the handplane was covered up in whitewater. Nonetheless, attached are some other pictures we took of my handplane while traveling around Panama.

-Afshin