Better Get Hit In Your Soul

     Yesterday morning, I sat down at our little breakfast table to have some post-run coffee, and I started to read a book on Gardening I bought at the thrift store. So I'm reading it and at the bottom of page four I read the line pictured above: 'Turn the page for the truths that will make you free." Wow. After I read that I wasn't sure if I wanted, or was daring enough, to turn the page. That's what I get for most of my gardening books being from the early- to mid-70s.
     So I haven't posted in a little bit, but it's because I've been kind of busy moving and all that. We're living in the house, we have been for over a week, and it's really great. Been doing stuff to get the shed ready, started siding it yesterday, and I've been doing what little the inside needs as well. It's been a busy time, but that's OK, because there haven't been that many waves to distract me.

    As far as ride reports for SF 004, I did get to take it out twice so far. The first time the waves weren't that hot, but I did get to see that the board paddles and catches waves very nicely. I got an idea of what the board rode like, but since the waves were small and mushy and I was still finding the right foot positioning it was a little bit of a bust.The second time the waves were a little better, still small, but there were some nice lefts with a little line to them. The board is fun, fast, and loose. I'm just curious how it will handle on some bigger, cleaner stuff. I think it will work out pretty well. Hopefully I'll find out this Wednesday.

     "Better Get Hit In Your Soul," the first track off of Mingus Ah Um (1959), by Charles Mingus. I realize that jazz has been given the short end of the stick on this blog, and that has not been sitting well with me. I'm not one of the oh-so-and-so played-drums-on-this-record-and-it-was-recorded-on-such-and-such-a-date-with-whosit-on-sax-type of jazz fan, the kind that know every detail about all kinds of jazz records, but I do know when I'm in the right frame of mind, jazz can get me just as well as any other music. That being said, Charles Mingus is one of my favorite jazz artists, Mingus Ah Um one of my favorite albums of his, and "Better Get Hit In Your Soul" one of my favorite songs on the album. So yeah, dig it, man.

004 Completed!

     Well, I just finished SF 004 about 20 minutes ago. Actually, that's kind of false, I still have to grind little notches in the fins to serve as landings for the screws to push against, but 1 AM is kind of late for that kind of noise. Otherwise, it's done.

     It was nice not doing a gloss this time. It saved a lot of work, a lot of weight, and not to mention I think a shortboard sometimes just feels nicer with a sanded hotcoat finish instead of a gloss. I sanded it down to 320. I was going to go further, but then I didn't.

     I'm really excited to try this board out and see how it goes. I think it will catch waves really well and ride them even better. I'm really siked about that wide tail, and the adjustable fins.

      And speaking of the fins, here they are. I'm really pleased with how they came out, even if they did take forever. They could have been better, but of course the whole board could have been better, but I'm satisfied. Well, maybe I speak too soon, I haven't ridden it yet....
     Bu yeah, so it's late, and I'm off to bed. Hopefully we'll be getting some swell this weekend, it looks like Saturday might be good. Can't wait to try the board out. Next up on the build list is Mark's board, and fortunately I just got the five gallons of resin and 25 yards of cloth I ordered today, so the sky's the limit (acually, time is the limit). Alright, goodnight.

Soon No. 2

 

     So, it's been a while. The board is coming along. The fin boxes are in, the bottom is sanded, and the leash cup is in. I've been working on the fins, as seen above (also, see below).

     Here is one of them, foiled w/ the lam coat on them. I've since notched the base out for the screws, so all that they're waiting on is a touching up, then a hotcoat, then a final sanding, then a gloss/sealer (which I'll probably do with Krylon acrylic gloss spray paint, because A) it's easier and B) it still looks really good and C) did I mention it will be easier?). Making these fins has been really fun, but it has also been really, really time consuming. I think it's taken as much time to make these fins as it has taken me to do the whole board. Maybe. Part of it is my fault: when I milled the rough panels with the surface planer, I didn't make them thin enough to fin in the boxes when they had a few layers of glass on them (three layers on the inside, two on the outside), so I had to do extra work to get them down to the right thickness. Even so, it's a time consuming process. But it's way cheaper (the wood was free, the cloth is cutoffs, and there isn't that much resin to a fin) not too mention I learn more about fin design by doing it than by buying a set of $75.00 fins. Still, if I had bought fins I'd be surfing this board tomorrow.

     But I'm not, so oh well. It will without a doubt be ready by the supposed small swell forecast for this Saturday. Either way, I'll take it in the Ocean, waves or no waves.

      And for music today, a little bit of a downer, but a beautiful song nonetheless. "Please Stay," the ninth track from Warren Zevon's 2003 (and final) album, The Wind. The album was recorded as Zevon knew he was dying of throat cancer, which when kept in mind makes this song, and the entire album, all the more poignant. There are many softer songs in which the devastatingly heartbreaking reality of death rings through every word and wrenches at the listener: the oft-repeated phrase in the song "don't go, please stay" really tears at you when you consider that at that point in his life the going was forever, and the staying was impossible. This album is full of songs that make you confront death and the goodbyes that come with it. Zevon's version of "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" stands out among the countless artists who have previously covered this song, because he really was.
     But there are also some of the finest and rawest rock and roll songs of Zevon's career on this album, with which he achieves the perfect balance between the crushingly necessary contemplation on one's mortality and the viewpoint that yeah, we're going to die, but so what? Zevon always had a sardonic rebellious streak to his music, especially in his more rocking songs, and they are at their peak here.

     "Disorder in the House," a scathingly satirical stab at the government and all that comes with it. Bruce Springsteen does back-up vocals on this one, as well as a phenomenal lead guitar, and it sounds like they may have practiced it once before recording. The song comes off so raucously raw, with each banged and bent string sending the signal: "Yeah, maybe everything's gone to Hell, maybe everything's corrupt and falling apart, but who cares? As long as we've got tube amps and telecasters and rock and roll."
     So, yeah, I've got to wake up in less than five hours to surf (hopefully), so time for bed. But before I sign off I've got recommend one thing: Listen to Warren Zevon's The Wind, and listen to every track not only with the fact that he knew he was dying in mind, but the fact that you are dying too. The experience will be that much more enriching, and you'll be the better for it.

 

That's one upset little toad.

Soon

  

     Even though I've been pretty busy with moving-related stuff lately, I've still been able to work on the board some. Got the second lam coat done on Sunday, and then I was able to do both hotcoats Monday evening. Everything went pretty well with all the fiberglassing. All the gel times were perfect and most of it came out smooth. I did free laps, which is nice (as opposed to cut laps) because it A) saves the waste of tape and B) saves time by not having to tape off and by not having to cut the laps. I'm getting better at knowing how much resin to use so as to reduce waste: on the deck hotcoat I used 20 oz., which was enough to do the board, then hotcoat the four fin panels. On the bottom, I used 16 oz., which proved just enough. It's a far cry from my first and second boards, where I would only use 3/4 of the resin I had catalyzed.

     For this decal I used my paint spray gun and sprayed the back of the rice paper, to make it opaque so the stringer wouldn't show through. It worked pretty well, and is something that I meant to do on the last board, but didn't.
     Didn't get to go surfing the past couple days, mainly because of work and busy doing other things. Yesterday morning I got there before the wind had really cleaned it up, and after work the wind had cleaned it up too much and blown it out for the most part. Water looked really beautiful though, really clear. I'll get in again, at this rate maybe not until I've got a new board.

A new home, a new board, and no waves!

     As most of you probably already know, this past week Jeannine and I bought the above house. It is blue and located in Tuckerton. In the bottom left you can get a glimpse of the future headquarters of Strange Flora, not too mention whatever projects I'm in the midst of. So I've been busy with the house stuff for the most part, which is pretty fun. Rebuilding the old wooden windows that need it should be interesting, and fixing up the shed to be a shaping/glassing room on one side and a wood shop on the other will a nice challenge, as far as getting the most out of the space provided.

     BUT just because I haven't been posting, don't assume there hasn't been any activity on the surfboard construction front. On Thursday night, I glassed the flats of the fin panels, as the are going to be single-foil. They're looking pretty nice, I can't wait to start foiling them.

     Also, tonight I decided to do the first lam coat. I was just intending to get the board ready for glassing tomorrow morning, but as I did that, I got an energy boost, so I did it. It came out not bad. I'm excited to get this board done, of course I don't see the point since we don't get any waves anymore.

     Yeah, so it's been an exciting couple of days, with a lot more excitement to come as we move into our new home. Hopefully I'll get to do the other lam tomorrow morning, and then maybe, just maybe, the first hotcoat tomorrow evening. But I don't know about that. What I do know is that it's 2:52 in the AM, it's raining outside, and I'm tired. Good night.

oh oh four

     Basically finished shaping 004 this evening. There are some minor adjustments that need to be made, but I'm going to wait and do the final final sanding right before I glass, because I know I'll just keep on messing with it if I go near it with a piece of sandpaper before then. I already started to go at it too much today, but I refrained and called it quits for the night.

     It should be a fun board, definitely a lot of foam. I picked up the fin boxes from Greenlight in Philly on Saturday, along with two (2) blanks: one for Mark's board, and one for Ryan's. It'll be cool making theirs (hopefully) very soon after I finish this one, instead of there being a couple months in between.

     I've also been up to this the past couple days: four cedar panels for four wood fins. I laid up the panels out of seven 3/4" strips, and then I surface planed them today. They came out really flat and it should be fun making the fins for the Probox system. I'm really excited to be able to experiment with fin placement without having to make a whole new board. Plus, these will be pretty cheap, and I've got plenty more cedar if I want to experiment further (double foiled fronts and/or rears, smaller rear trailers, a Canard Quad Cutaway setup, etc.). I hope to begin glassing this week. I've just got to finalize the decal for the board, which I think I'm going to do right now.

     P.S. - There is a type of bird I've been hearing a lot lately, and it has the most sing-songy carefree birdsong I think I've ever heard. I laugh every time I hear it. Once I am able to identify said bird, I'll share it with all you bird-lovers out there.

So it begins: 004

     Started shaping 004 today. I had planned on starting it tomorrow, but then I ended up having a free night tonight, and so I started.

     I'm basically going off of Frank's Chemistry "Boombastik" that I love so much, and since I love it so much, I decided to change very little. I did decide to make a change to the tail. Above: the Boombastik tail is the template on the right, and the tail I'm going with is the tail on the left. Kind of a rounded-diamond type thing, kind of...I'm the extra area on the wide tail will add some speed. That way I can beat Frank on all those party-wave races.

     After thinking about a project for an unmeasurable amount of time, it's always exciting to take that first irreversible step and drive that saw deep into the foam. You know then that there's no turning back now. I imagine after someone shapes hundreds or thousands of surfboards, some (hopefully not all) of the excitement disappears from shaping. But for me, starting on my fourth, it's still the embarking on some epic journey of wonder. The epic thing will come back again with the music selection of the day. See below....

     So yeah, I was able to flatten the bottom, cut the template out, square down the edges, get the outline smoothed out, and start on the rocker today. I don't know if I'm going to be able to get the board glassed by the end of next week like I wanted to, tomorrow being Wednesday already, but I'm going to try. We'll see.

     And now for music to take epic journeys by. A lot of my favorite bands from the past couple years have been from Canada. Those Canadians know how to play interesting music well and do it time and time again. Some of my favorites are Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops, both led by Stephen McBean, and utilizing a collective of musicians, but they are not the focus here. All the rest of the bands from Canada contain about three members: Carey Mercer, Dan Bejar, and Spencer Krug. That is an exaggeration, but not by too much. These guys are linked to so many good bands that it's kind of mindblowing. There are three songs I will post today, and I wish I could post more, and really I could, but I won't.

     "You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)," the sixth track from Sunset Rubdown's 2009 album Dragonslayer. This is Spencer Krug's project. It was hard to pick a song off this album, or to even narrow it down to this album. But I did it...

     "A Hand At Dusk," the eighth track off of Swan Lake's album Enemy Mine, also released in 2009. This band is comprised of all three of the previously named Canadian gentlemen. This song is really good, but something tells me I should have picked "Paper Lace." But then which version, the one off this album or the one off of the aforementioned Dragonslayer?

  
     And finally, "Stockades," the third track off of the 2007 album Tears of the Valedictorian, by Carey Mercer's band Frog Eyes. Not only is this a good song, but Frog Eyes is releasing a new album I think this month or the next month or sometime soon. Anyway, I've downloaded it and can't wait to listen to it tomorrow. By the way, they are playing in NY in June, I think.

Goodnight.