mike, please bring some scotch tape if you think about it. Just a few inches is all I need. Thx
Sorry couldnt attend fellars....SMOKIN' local waves today! Holloween/family stuff this afternoon and eve.
Surfed one of my fav waves, with a specific board for that wave. Smokin 100 yd plus rides!
Im loving this tiny board movement...guys around me missed tons of waves cuz they couldnt paddle to them or into them. I caught some freight trains on a 7'1 twin with speed to burn! Saw one dude out there he must have been 180 lbs and riding what looked like a chippy 5'10, in long walled up waves.
The bad news is that I tend to attract crowds. I paddled out to a spot with one other guy, after 30 min of catching some screamers, guys started moving in all around. But most of them had bad boards. It was mostly cool but dont like the obsticle course tho.
Hope the waves are good up there too! Cheers!
Can't blame you for that! I had to bail out early. The only Swaylocker I met was Greg. He had a really cool double stringer fish there. I would have liked to meet more people though. It was pretty awesome seeing Ricky Carroll, Mike Daniel, Forstall and others. I am not a very good surfer so I tried to stay out of everyones way. Is anyone going to be there tomorrow?
Yeah, boy! It was nice to see some of the local crowd. I met Greg and ran into Mike and then watched a keg of Kona Longboard Lager plop down right next to me at 9:30 am with waves breaking outside and reeling all the way to the beach with just enough weakness to be perfect for a fish.
I even rode one of Steve Forstall’s fresh fishes. Talked to Ricky Carroll about dominating the shaping competitions on the left coast and who had to hold off the beers as he had a gig later on. His twins are some of the best around. The man is a selfless icon of surfing.
Pridmore, send me your address.
If I new that was Kona I might have made some new friends. That longboard lager is some good stuff. I was too nervous to talk to him haha. I felt like a flea at a football game.
The day just went too fast...
I had some fun times out in the water with Greg Tate and Balsa Bill. GT rode the hell out of my 5'10'' kevlar Coil while I got to sip on the Griffin kool-aid with Greg's 6'2''. Bill saw me avoid tearing up the Griffin AND decapitation when some guy completely stuffed a take-off right in front of me.
The modfish goes like stink, I can certainly see why people like the boards so much.
Also a lot of great boards all over the beach from a bunch of shapers I've known a long time. The surfboard ''made-for-you'' is alive and well in our area. Makes me proud to be a part of it.
Really hate to have missed this one - was really looking foward to it. I hope the plan is to still have a few-a-year (?). Any pics from the event?
i call B.S. ... never happened.... prove it...
in other words, we need pics!
What a great day. It’s one thing to have good surf for an event. But to
have good surf all day long? Alex you must have been living right for
awhile to make this happen. 
And by the way. That last wave I saw you on the multi colored board.
You should go on the World tour. I don’t know how many turns you did in
the pocket but it was a twenty pointer for sure.
Great seeing and surfing with many old friends: Bill Kirwin, Mike
Daniel (who gave a great lesson on how to deal with a drop in and avoid
getting decapitated), Brian and a whole host of others.
Thanks guys for letting me get a shoulder every now and then on my log.
Taking off on a wave and seeing some short boarder drop in behind
me and I go uh oh and it’s my son Jay laughing at me and riding his
Channin 70’s twin fin. It’s always a treat to surf with him and his
girlfriend Raye. She hasn’t been surfing that long but she’s decided
that when she goes right she’s a regular foot and when she goes left
she’s a goofy foot. Reminds me of Dale Dobson.
Really the level of design and craftsmanship was very impressive in
the boards on display. Then the level of surfing on those very boards
available and what people brought was even more impressive.
Kevin Hines, Mikey D. great seeing you guys again too. All grown
up. I remember when you two were in high school and working for me for
credit in some business class. Now you’re all grown up. I am getting
old!
And free food to top it off! Wings and hot dogs. Even good mustard for the hot dogs.
**
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Mike, I apologize for hogging your kevlar Coil. What a fun board to ride. Simply amazing tech you guys put into that thing. Hope everyone got a chance to fondle it on the beach. Please make a 5-8 and a 5-6 so I can keep stepping down in length. ha.
Great meeting everyone. Guywhocan’tsurf, great number 1 and 2 boards. Roger, nice work pulling it all together.
I am not allowed to have a camera, but the cute girl who posts video on 16thstreets.com took a bunch of pics and vid and said it would be posted in a couple days.
And yes it was a fun day. Torn between wanting to stay on the beach and talk and get in the water and surf 12 sec groundswell.
Let’s do this again and get some more garage guys out with their fish to show off. Give me a few months and I will have my asym fish finished and ready to debut.
I didn’t bring a camera either. Greg, I didn’t have to do anything once Alex turned on. I was setting up to help Adam, but Alex took the ball and ran with it. I only surfed once for about 30 minutes, but caught some fun ones. I sat with a couple of folks while enjoying the Kona beer and discussed maybe next time to do some planned events (Mike, did you do any?) and give recognition to “best in show,” “people’s choice” or something just to get more interaction between the shapers besides the roam around and talk story and surf.
No problem with you enjoying our board. I wouldn't call it ''hogging''. It got fondled a lot, but not as much as the old spoon that I brought.
I didn't shoot any photos either, couldn't post 'em if I did, haha. There should be something on ESM's website soon, Mez hisself was there, as you saw.
Plans are already in the works for another fry, maybe in January.
Hey Bill, what do you think would have happened if you and I had swapped boards right before that guy dropped me? (btw, I don't think he was involved in the event, more likely a random visitor to the park)
Thanks for the kind words Greg. Greatly appreciated. Next time I might skip out on surfing since I am a little too kookish to be surfing with the level of skill that was out there and focus on meeting people. I missed the guy hand standing.
Since everyone on this thread is more or less from this area, does anyone know or shop space to rent in the IHB area? I picked up a second job that might help to fund this a little more.
A few pics of the Fish Fry through a fish-eye in the link
http://www.flickr.com/photos/militiaknights/sets/72157622593335881/
Man, so much fun. Like pompano, I only got to surf for a small bit but talked to a ton of people. Missed meeting you MikeD, but I saw you go out on that Griffin and commented to Burry about it. I may even have a photo of you walking down the beach. I took a ton of photos on someone elses really nice camera. I’m getting the memory card tonight so should have a bunch to post, unfortunately I didn’t take a lot of board shots.
I think I got some pics of pompano’s cool Compsand cross-section pieces.
“The modfish goes like stink, I can certainly see why people like the boards so much. - Mike Daniels”
Mike
since you are the most experienced and technically savvy board maker posting here consistantly who’s actually ridden one of Grffin’s boards, what your take on what’s going on with them and why they bring such reactions from their owners?
I think you mentioned something about an 80’s design but after riding one for a day alot of us would like to get an(high techie) old timer’s break down of what’s happenning as you ride these “smilies” as I call them. I don;t remember any of my 70’s-80s’-or 90’s boards giving me the same “feeling”.
mahalo
Haha, I was just about to respond to some of the other posts when I see we have an Hawaiian visitor... Aloha!
I don't want to get too analytical about it out of respect for Greg, me trying to ''explain'' his design would be a little presumptuous on my part. Before when I mentioned 80s boards I was referring to components, mainly the (almost) flat bottom and the tuck-edge rails. Thickness also consistent with that time. But there's a lot of differences from 80s boards also.
What I like is the coherency of the design, the way he fit the ''pieces''. Everything works together. Like a lot of really good boards, I'd bet the rocker is highly tuned. Those 5 G10 claws holding it in complete the package.
IMO, ''what's happening'' is effective planing with good hold, and a ''shortboard'' feel in a stable, user friendly craft.
lawless, sorry I didn't get a chance to meet you. I didn't do any demo, basically too much surf and not enough DIY'ers.
Next time somebody should gather up all the shapers and get a group pic. Stick it on the wall at the post office...
thanks Mike
I understand
the design appears so deceivingly simple with a very clean outline, rail line, rocker and bottom, but the overall impact in the water is so startling its hard to describe. Even when Greg talks about what each piece of his design is doing I can get lost but they all contribute something to the end product
No wings, bumps, concaves or channels just a nice crisp edge nose to tail and everything is tapered in some form or another its so smooth you really can’t see it. even in his fin foils you can see how the water just naturally falls off the curve like it does his outline.
Most people focus on the fins but he really brought me back too the concept of designing the complete package and not over doing one thing or another. It all just fits, like you said.
the hard part for all of us owners has been to articulate in an understandable way the feeling of their ride. But there’s just something there that make you understand that what’s happening is different and good.
based on all the various body types, experience levels and wave types it really takes me back to the concept of a true custom solution. How he does this with pretty much a single design or two is amazing but shows how much he understands the pieces to tailor it to anyone anywhere. I really haven’t see this anymore with modern boards. Each design seems to be built for a specific rider or specific break.
thanks again for the words…
i would anticipate the coil to be a more lively and tempermental beast than the modfish…
Please put up a pic of your kevlar Coil fish. Or email me the pic and I’ll put it up.