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.
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.
