Nothing Gold Can Stay

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.

 

-Robert Frost

Don't Count Your Fishes Before They're Caught (Or Something LIike That)

    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. 

Recipe of the Day

Make this:

Tex-Mex Summer Squash Casserole

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. 

Hot Tip of the Day

     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!

Ain't no cure...

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.

First Thing I Saw...

...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.

Stars and Stripes, FOREVER!

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!