Should have posted this a while ago! Vote HERE for School of Vintage as Ideacafe's "Entrepreneur of the Year." If they win, I'll give everyone who voted from my blog a free Strange Flora surfboard*. Vote every single day! Thanks!
Also, buy some beets and make this beet soup. Throw in some carrots and things and you won't regret it!
I was going to post something from Tom Waits' newish album Bad As Me, but I came across this promotional video, so I decided to post that instead. I'll post a song tomorrow, when it's more à propos.
Just quick post on this cold Christmas morning to say Merry Christmas! Hope all is well with you and yours on this clear, cold morning. Enjoy the day!
A good Charles Dickens quote I read in a short article in the NY Times this morning on the author and Christmas:
“Lost friend, lost child, lost parent, sister, brother, husband, wife, we will not so discard you!” he wrote. “You shall hold your cherished places in our Christmas hearts, and by our Christmas fires; and in the season of immortal hope, and on the birthday of immortal mercy, we will shut out Nothing!”
If you like Christmas music in any way (which, if you don't, you're a monster), you must listen to Sufjan Stevens' Songs for Christmas collection. Absolutely one of the best.
Pretty funny, if not the best video quality on some. Check the 8:00 mark for one of the funniest. No, I have not seen the Muppets movie yet. But I probably will soon. Also, 009 is coming along. Been busy buying bikes, fixing bikes, surfing, playing football, hosting Thanksgiving, riding bikes, going to Portland, eating too much (see: Almighty Cheesus Burger), driving home, more working on bikes, cleaning up the shop, trying to stop Henry from eating very dead squirrels, playing with our new camera, riding bikes, etc., but I did the finishing touches on 009 last night, so I should be glassing by the end of the weekend. First time using epoxy, should be interesting. Surf's up tomorrow. Oh yeah, this song rules:
The Triumphs, with their pretty intense surf track, "Surfside Date."
Started working on 009 last week. I had cut the blank out of the EPS block a while ago, and I finally got around to gluing the stringer in. Last time I glued up a blank, I tried to stack bricks on top of the two pieces to weigh them down, which, while working in the end, was a big hassle and ended with lots of Gorilla Glue on my hands. This time, I actually thought for a minute, and used the system above, which was very, very easy.
I went with a template that was very close to 008, except I pulled in the outline a bit, and filled in a diamond tail where the fish would have been cut out. It's 5'5", which is what I thought that 008 was, except when I measured said board, it turned out to be 5'3". Don't know how that happened, but I like knowing that I've been surfing (and having tons of fun) on a board that short. I just like short boards.
The board is close to being finished, just have to do some final shaping touches and it'll be ready for glassing. As much as I like surfing keels, I think I'm going to make this one a quad, maybe canard quad cutaway fins or just regular quad (most likely the latter at first, since I already have them). I'm pretty excited to try this one out.
Really great song off of Fleet Foxes 2011 release Helplessness Blues. Check the album out, it's pretty good.
Sorry about the lack of posts recently, I've been kind of busy doing all sorts of things. You know, getting the yard ready for sod (which looks way better than white stones in our backyard), painting the house, surfing, reading tons (too much) hardboiled detective fiction from the 20s, 30s, and 40s, and, oh yeah, getting married.
That's right, after seven or so years, Jeannine and I finally got hitched on Oct. 29th at the Noyes Museum in Oceanville. I couldn't be happier and feel unbelievably lucky to have such a beautiful wife who somehow puts up with me and all my ridiculousness, and fully supports all of my interests (including the time- and money-burgling hobby of surfboard fabrication, to the extent she actually won't let me sell some surfboards when I think I want to).
It was a wonderful and wild night, and to anyone planning a wedding, I recommend the idea of the "never-ending" cocktail party, instead of having a sit-down dinner. I was a bit skeptical of the idea at first, but it definitely makes for an evening that is non-stop fun. Also, and ice cream and waffle bar is key.
Thanks to my amazing bride for doing a huge majority of the preparation and planning for our wedding, and thanks to everyone who was there! We're just sorry we weren't able to invite everyone we knew, but that's the way it goes.
Now that it's over, I hope to get back to the board-creation fairly soon, especially with the early-darkness cold months upon us. Stay tuned...
Wedding Tunes:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, "Storm," off of their 2000 post-rock powerhouse Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. The wedding party walked down the aisle to this, we actually just used the first 6 or so minutes, but the entire song is more than worth a listen.
Neutral Milk Hotel, "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea," off of their everlasting 1998 album of the same name. The is what Jeannine walked down the aisle to.
The Zombies, "This Will Be Our Year," off of their 1968 masterpiece Odessey and Oracle. We walked away from the altar to this after we were wedded.
The Paris Sisters, "I Love How You Love Me," their 1961 Phil Spector produced hit. This was the first dance tune.
Charles Mingus, "Better Git Hit In Your Soul," off of one of my favorite jazz albums of all times, the 1959 Mingus Ah Um. Introductions were done to this.
Hurricane Software app for Android (that's right, I, half-Luddite, half-child-of-the-digital-age, have crossed the technological gap and now own a "smart" phone.It's pretty amazing and really useful but also completely unnecessary.)
Imagine if hurricanes were violent red and orange in real life? We should thank our lucky stars they're not, because that would be terrifying.
Thanks to ABC for the only video footage of me surfing. The only problem? "The surf was an early attraction for those trying to ride the big waves..." Trying? Wow. That hurts, ABC, that hurts. At 1:35:
The height of this swell may be unrideable (not to mention inaccessible), but we got a good 7 hours of surf today in some really, really fun chest to head high surf. It was the first good swell I have surfed my newly-repaired new fish, and so far it lives up to all my expectations. Can't wait for more.
Be safe this weekend.
One of my consistently favorite Dylan songs, off of his perfect album Blood on the Tracks.
I did this with my head. It is really way worse than this picture looks. If the picture were better you could see hair in the fiberglass. For good waves? Of course not.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
You may remember way back in April I did a post that said how this board was finished being shaped, and how happy I was with how quickly I was able to shape it. Well, here we are, more than halfway through August, and it's finished (actually I finished it last Friday). Shaping is definitely the easy part.
I did what I call a "rolled lightly in rich compost" resin tint, which actually means as I was glassing it I started to get chemical poisoning due to my mask not sealing over my beard, so I didn't get to evenly spread the charcoal-colored resin I was laminating with. Next purchase: supplied-air hood system, so I don't melt my brain.
The resin pinlines came out OK, there are definitely some flaws and I learned some lessons that I had already known but forgot (that's what happens when there's so much time between boards, especially since the last time I did pinlines was almost exactly two years ago with 001). I also made the keels for this out of Baltic Birch marine ply.
I have only surfed it once, in a crumby little windswell. After some teasers in late July or early August, I am really jonesing for some solid lefts to try this board out on. Basically, I took the template I used for 001, kept the overall width the same, but pulled in the nose and tail a bit, and gave it a single-wing to pull the tail in even more. I made the fish-tail a little shallower, and gave it a bit more rocker throughout. A bit more foam too, especially under the chest. Also toed the fins in a bit more, and gave them a little more cant. My goal was to make a fish that had all the things I love about my first one (some of those things being speed, ability to hold high lines, and general overall fun-ness), while giving it more performance-oriented characteristics, namely making it looser to do sharper turns and go more vertical on the lip, as well as maybe make it a little easier to ride backside. It definitely seemed to be looser, but I haven't given it the full test yet. Hopefully soon.
Henry is very happy with the board.
Other things I have been up to:
Picked up this ~18' rowing shell for cheap in my neighborhood. Just needs a little glass work, but the oars alone are worth about double what I paid for the whole thing. Looks fun for calm mornings on Barnegat Bay.
Very excited about this: Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera - the world's first folding SLR, encased in leather and chrome plating. I bought this at an estate auction in a box of camera stuff. I paid less than half what this camera is worth for the whole box, and the other stuff I'll be able to sell. So in the long run, the film is going to cost me more than this camera did.
The garden is doing well. I've harvested hundreds of tomatoes, which has been awesome, but unfortunately the dreaded squash vine borer got my squash plants before I could get that many, but I got a few. Now it's time to plant lettuce, brussel sprouts, spinach, and broccoli.
I walked out to my truck to go to work and this butterfly was moving sluggishly, so I thought it was dying. In fact, it had just emerged from its cocoon and was wondering what its new wings were, and how to use them. Not a sight one sees every day.
Versus
The Jaynettes, with their 1963 song "Sally Go Round The Roses." A strangely beautiful song which sounds way better when you hear it on AM than any of the videos I found on YouTube.
This wasn't even going to be a Versus installment, but I found this video of ? and the Mysterians doing this song. It is kind of embarrassing to watch, and the version is just alright. The Jaynettes win, but maybe you should watch a minute of the ? video, just to laugh a little.
and use this salsa in it. Make about quadruple the salsa recipe, because you will have to use more than the casserole recipe calls for, and you will definitely want some left over. If you follow this advice, I guarantee you won't regret it.
Billy Corgan's Zwan with "Baby Let's Rock," off of their 2003 album Mary Star of the Sea. Hadn't listened to this album in a long time, then decided to put it on the other day. I suggest you listen to it. If you do, like the recipe above, you won't regret it.
When you set off a batch of hot resin to do, say, a glass roving leash loop on the tail of your new fish, for example, and you have all your stuff set out on the deck of your board (on wax paper so as to protect the surface), try to keep in mind, as you stand back thinking the job is done, that the container with the leftover resin is probably getting very hot, especially if you had too much resin in there in the first place, and that it would be a good idea to remove it from the surface of the board. If you don't keep this in mind, you will end up with a nice size crater on your board, complete with weakened glass and foam and a nice greenish-brown burn circle on you nice new board. Lesson learned. Oh well, at least it's on the deck, where there will probably be pressure dings anyway. If this was on the bottom I'd be really heartbroken.
P.S. I cannot recommend seeing Captain America, but I can recommend its unfaltering patriotism. U.S.A!
The Outsiders playing their version of the classic "Summertime Blues." After that excellent wave forecast for Friday dropped off to the typical knee-high summertime fare in a matter of hours, I think I've got a serious case. We need real waves.
...when I got out of the shower this evening. It was during a pretty good thunderstorm, and if there's one thing that Henry is afraid of, it's thunder.
Poor guy. He could later be found cowering under my desk.
Happy 4th of July, everyone. Although a quick browse of the 4th of July wiki page will reveal that legally we became even from evil England on July 2nd, Congress took two days to debate and revise the Declaration, hence we now celebrate on the 4th. Back then Congress got things done quickly, as opposed to nowadays, when they can get nothing done at all. And I am allowed to complain about that and other shortcomings of the government without getting jailed or executed, and that's one of the things that makes the U.S.A. so beautiful.That, and we have some pretty good patriotic anthems.
and one that really gets my patriotic blood flowing...
I prefer the U.S. Marine Corp version of this song, the one with the mournful harmonica solo, but I chose this one because of the video poster's comments below the video. Just another thing that makes this country so great: some genius can spatter ignorant jingoist babble on YouTube, and that's alright, too! "MESS WITH US AND YOU WILL DIE LIKE THE REST" (!?!) Yikes, after reading that I don't know anymore. Oh well! Happy 4th!
Apologies to all my loyal readers for the slacker approach I've taken with this blog lately. I've been busy with summer things, and this summer that includes plenty of alright to decent to downright amazing days of surf, and many of them on weekends no less! This summer also includes a decent amount of ice cream: Soft-serve Swirl with Chocolate Sprinkles in a Cone, please.
Got to do the lam coat on both sides of 008, which has been waiting patiently for me to finish it. With the long weekend coming up, I'm going to hopefully at least get the glass-on keels set and the board hotcoated, and possibly, though not probably, get it sanded and pinlines laid. I think I've already got the weekend overbooked in my mind with countless projects, so we'll see how it goes.
Amazing Tom and Jerry episode brought to my attention by FRANK
Are you comin', or are you ain't? The Jamies, with "Summertime Summertime." Great summer song.
...and I feel fine. That's right you may have heard that tomorrow may be the beginning of the end, which is true in the sense that any day could be the End, and truer in the sense that for many, many people, tomorrow will be the End of their world, and it could be the End of my/your world. Who knows?
And since any day now could be the End, I bought a new board this week. Well, new to me. A 6'2 swallow tail Bonzer, shaped by Malcolm Campbell. I've been reading about Bonzers for about a year and a half, and I have to admit at first I wasn't that interested. I thought that fin setup looked kind of funny. But as I started reading more, I liked what I heard, especially the lightning-down-the-line part.
There are those concaves. So this one came along and it was reasonably priced, so I grabbed it. I can't wait to try it out, because it's a completely different fin setup than I've ever surfed. Now all we need is a large swell. Hopefully I don't have to wait until fall.
When it comes down to it, I feel like one of the key aspects in all music is repetition. It could be the decision to repeat a musical phrase for an entire song and elaborate on said phrase, or not to repeat a part at all. I find a lot of the music I like has lots of repetition, like the song above. Brain Eno with "The Big Ship" off of Another Green World. Eno is a master of making repetition interesting. I am still waiting for someone to make a surf film using Eno's transcendent "Discreet Music" as a soundtrack. The entire song. Below is half of it. The surfing would have to be very good.
This came on shuffle on the way home from work. Amazing ELO song recorded for their 1973 album On The Third Day, but unreleased until one of the reissues. That's Marc Bolan, of T.Rex fame, playing guitar. Funny coincidence, because yesterday, while shaping 009, which is my first board from the EPS block I procured, I was listening to The Slider, T.Rex's spectacular 1972 album. So spectacular, in fact, that I'll also include a track from that.
...this block of foam came straight from Brooklyn one morning. That's right. Last week the block of 2# EPS finally got delivered to the distribution center in Brooklyn, so I drove up and got it before work. Of course there ended up being waves that morning, but I had to do it, I had been waiting for almost a month for it.
There's the first blank cut from the block, with cedar stringer salvaged from some job. It was tricky cutting it the blank out; Jeannine had to take one side of the hotwiring device while I held the other, but it went relatively quickly with no set-backs to speak of. Gluing the stringer in also presented difficulties, but I've since devised a better way. I'm excited about shaping this board, as I've never shaped EPS, or worked with epoxy. The block of foam should yield a minimum of 10 - 12 blanks, if my figurin' is correct. Maybe more.
Part of the reason I haven't posted in a while is because I've been devoting a lot of time and energy to exterior pursuits. We built a vegetable garden the other weekend, and we've been doing lots of work around here trying to make what looks like the post-war rubble of Warsaw into something a little more pleasing to the eyes. Been planting lots of seeds (the spinach will be the first crop the garden will yield, as the spinaches have already sprouted!) and doing lots of reading on gardening and growing vegetables. So, often times, at night, when the options before bed are A)do a blog post or B)read about companion planting or composting, B) has been getting the priority lately.
Also, speaking of gardening, were you wondering how Henry has helped with it all?
That's how. Henry, who has always loved to dig and roll around in dirt (but somehow never gets dirty), suddenly has a large quantity of gloriously rich mushroom soil delivered right to his backyard. So he rests right in the ways, covered in dirt. It's a dog's life, I guess. Of course, getting him to keep out of the garden has been a trying task.
Recently found this album at a thrift store, and it's pretty good so far (actually listening while I write this post). Buck Owens, "Tall Dark Stranger," off the album of the same name, 1969.
This blog was started as a way to chronicle my adventures into surfboard shaping and just surfing in general. Since its inception, it has evolved into a log of whatever I feel like rambling about and sharing with the world, including, but not limited to: photographs, bicycles and bicycling, film, music, gardening, cute pictures of Henry, and more.
