Welcome Mollusk NYC

Mollusk Brooklyn should be recieving their first grip of Brownfish Handplanes either today or tomarrow. They went with nice, pure, functional planes. I really like the clean look of the Paulownia sans pad, strap only.  3 Brownfish, 1 Rolla, and 1 Pinliner.  These are the first that I have made this way and I'm really stoked with the way they came out. If you are in the New York area you can check them out at:

Mollusk NYC

210 Kent Avenue

Brooklyn

New York 11211

(718) 218-7456

Infinity Order and Whatnot

First the whatnot.  I got up this morning and headed north.  I had to drop off some handplanes to Infinity Surf Shop.  I figured since I was going up, might as well hook up with Jason, Kasey, and Kevin and get a session in.  I got a call from Jason as I passed Trestles.  He said there looked like some fun corners.  We bullshitted in the lot for a while, waiting for Kasey and Kevin to show, then headed down the road.  At first sight I was pretty stoked.  I haven't had a clean session in quite a while.  The eddie conditions have been getting the best of me lately when I get a window to head out.  It was peaky, waist to shoulder, or so, high, and some resemblence of spit showing on occasion.  We all swam out and for about 2 hours I had one of the more amazing sessions I've had in a long time.  We were all using different models, so we traded off to feel the differences in designs.  I think that everyone was pretty much STOKED on the purple "Short and Fat,"  prototype.  It will be a new model, as it is also my favorite handplane that I've tried to date.  After we were all waterlogged and logged plenty of time behind the curtain, we called it a day.  It was a great day.  I headed off to Infinity and dropped off this order.  They got 2 Brownfish, 2 Rollas, 2 Barrel Riders, and 2 Pinliners.  I think 2 or 3 already sold today, so if you are interested in picking one up from them, then I'd head over thier soon.  Patagonia Cardiff''s order is next and should be done sometime in the next 5 days.  Here is a shot of the order that was delivered, and a pic Jason took of me with some of Infinity's finest.  Here is Infinity's contact info:

Infinity Surf Shop

24382 Del Prado
Dana Point, California 92629
949-661-6699
http://www.infinitysurf.com/

If you are real nice, they may be able to arrange shippinng for you.

Should I be Honest?

Let's be.  Cause I'm really not that cool anyway.  Late one evening, after the rugrats and Rebecca had gone to bed.  After I had just got done padding and strapping some prototypes.  I came into the house, still a little high strung and not quite ready to slip into dreamland.  It was during my so-called break last month.  I hadn't been updating the blog, cause, hey, I was on vacation.  So, I figured I'd sit down and have a look at what had been going on in computerland, during my time away.  I clicked on the Handplane Goodness blog and looked at the tracking device.  "Why am I getting all these hits, when I haven't been updating?"  I looked at the where the referrels where coming from.  ESPN?  Naw, it couldn't be.  Why would Handplane Goodness be linking to ESPN?  I clicked over and was truly amazed at what I saw.  Just a few hours prior, after a few weeks of not checking in, it was uploaded.  WIERD COINCIDENCE if you ask me.  Especially because it was after midnight.  A short piece about handplaning and Brownfish Handplanes, written by Jake Howard.  I was never contacted about this piece.  Never had any idea it was gonna happen.  I came across it the same way as many had.  So, what did I think about this?  Well, I could be cool, and say, yea, well,  just another day in the life of a ...  In all actuality, cause we are being honest, and cause I'm not that cool, I was ECSTATIC!  Not only for myself, but, more importantly, for Handplaning in general.  Every day, sometimes 2-3 times in a day, someone tells me about another person or company that is now making Handplanes.  I used to be put off by that a bit.  Lately, I've realized that it isn't about me.  About, HOW I, can be the best or at the top.  It's not why I started doing this.  I started doing it because I found something new, that I really loved.  Sliding on a wave, with only the aid of a small planing device.  I wanted to make the best possible handplanes to amplify this feeling.  The more people making them, the more ideas this creates, so that we can truly achieve that goal.  So, if you haven't already had a look, here is a link to the piece on ESPN:
http://espn.go.com/action/surfing/blog/_/post/6431106/brownfish-hand-plane-140

Dana Point's Dirk Sanchez sliding into home at "The Strand."  Photo: Kenworthy

Handplane Goodness Pictures over last year

Hi Everybody,  over the weekend I took the time out to upload all of the good pictures that I have posted on Handplane Goodness.  I also got around to finally making a specific Facebook page for Brownfish Handplanes.  I took the 200 or so pictures and uploaded them thier.  It is kinda cool to be able to click through all the great pictures in more of a slide show.  If you like the Facebook page, please click on the like button.  I will soon be linking my Handplane Goodness Blog posts to that Facebook page.  You can check it out at Brownfish Handplane Facebook Page  Thanks for the support.    G

This Has Got To Be...

Somewhere cold.  These pictures were forwarded to me by Tim from New York, who found them on this blog, http://robkulisek.tumblr.com/page/2  I know that is one of my Handplanes, but am not sure exactly who the user is.  Anyway about it, I love these pictures.

Somewhere in Maui!

Yup, I Stole this One

Straight from Shawn Parkins Facebook.  This is such a great picture.  Obviously Shawn didn't take this, unless he's got some mad trick  photo skills that most of us don't know about.  Completely and totally BITCHEN!

EDIT: I got a text from Worthy about 30 minutes after posting this.  Figures, Jason Kenworthy took em.  Well at least they get to stay up and I don't have some mad photograper guy yelling at me on GMAIL for posting without permission.  Strong work guys.  I like the concept, photographers taking pictures of photographers ripping.

You can check out Shawns photo skills at:  http://www.sparkinphoto.com/Shawn_Parkin_Photography/home.html

amd Jason Kenworthy's at http://www.jrkenworthy.com/

Short and Fat- a review

Over my break I had a good time to test out some new designs.  Thanks to Ryan Rolla and Shawn Hayes, who kinda pushed me in the right direction and gave me some ideas.  I put out some pictures of my short and fat model about a month ago.  It was around 11" long and 7.5" wide.  I took it out on a low tide dredging reef day, about head high, with a few bigger sneekers coming through.  I wasn't expecting too much, but was floored with the performance of this handplane.  For starters, obviously swimming was much easier than with a larger plane.  More importantly was the hold and speed I was getting.  Luckily nobody was ever in position for the sneakers.  The guys surfing would make it out, but wouldn't have time to spin and go.  This is wear the handplane makes good sense.  I was easily able to spin and take off late.  The thing that really blew me away was on many barrels, I had already given up, accepting my old fate where the foamball or lip would engulf me.  Not this time.  I kept finding myself blasting through the curtain and coming out.  So, what did I learn about the design.  I think the deeper spine gives far more hold, but, more importantly leaving the sides flat and creating a planing area that the water could plane on created speed.  Whereas my old design would start with a deep concave from side to side, and the spine would be inset into the concave, this new design is more on creating a larger flat area and putting the spine inside of that.  This also allows the spine to have more depth.  This new change has now been incorporated in all of the handplanes that I offer that have a spine.  It is more work, but, in the end, they are better performing designs, and hey, they look way cooler too!  The first pic is of the original Short and Fat Prototype.   Then we have a look at an the old Pinliner design vs. the new.  The New Pinliner is the checkerboard patterned one.  Notice at the tails, how deep the W is and how tall the spine is.  Also, when you look at the sides, how much flatter it is.  Like I said before, this has been incorporated into all of my handplane models that have spines.  The original Brownfish and El Gigante are still the same.  I hope you all like em.     G

Some shots by Shawn and Rick

Everyday I am more and more floored by the level of photography that handplanes are showing up in.  These two photos are prime examples.  First one is a self shot by Shawn Parkin and the second is of Shawn Parkin by Rick Erkeneff.  Keep up the good work guys.  Great stuff.

You can check out Shawn Parkin's work at http://www.sparkinphoto.com/

Get outta my way, can,t you see

I'm from LA! Sean is a very proud Dodgers fan. He tends to put the Dodgers LA logo on pretty much everything. Apparently these hand planes that he made for himself had one somewhere, but, for some reason or anther, the logo didn't make it to the final product. He asked me to strap these for him, and though I usually don't strap others handplanes, he has kept me very entertained with his posts on the Surfermag Design forum over the years. I think he did a great job making his first set of planes. You should try and make one for yourself! I guarantee it will go better than a foodtray.

Back in Full Swing

It was nice to take a month off from making Handplanes.  Actually I didn't really take a month off.  More like, put off the business side of things to do a little R&D.  I don't tend to get much time for testing when things are as busy as they have been over the last year and that has always bugged me a bit.  I constantly get great design recomendations from people, but rarely do I have the time to act on them.  The reason this bothers me is that I always want my designs to keep progressing.  More on that in the coming weeks.  I've recieved numerous e-mails in the past few weeks regarding availabilty of Brownfish Handplanes.  In a way, that is good, in a way, bad.  I'm excited that the demand is their, just bummed that I can't make more.  So, here is the present rundown.  The handplanes pictured below are heading off to Atlantic Bodyboard Shop http://atlanticbodyboards.com// on Long Island.  I know a few of them are spoken for, but the rest should be available for purchase within the next week.  Next on the list is an order for Mollusk Surf Shop in New York.  They will have 5 handplanes coming to them.  We are stoked to have them on board as a new account, so if you are in the City, check em out.  After those go out, I will be working on two large orders for Infinity Surfshop in Dana Point and Patagonia Cardiff.  Surfy Surfy presently has a few clear Brownfish Models in stock.  Check them out in person, or you can order them on-line through Surfy Surfy at Surfy Surfy on-line store   I will also be putting the two handplanes pictured 2nd in the Brownfish On-line Store at http://brownfishhandplanes.bigcartel.com/   Thanks and I should be back to posting on a regular basis.