Chano ,Resinhead ,Pickleweed point ,Crystalization

General Discussion
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PICKLEWEED POINT

It was your normal day out at Pickleweed Point. Mellow crowd on the inside,Chano and Resinhead controlling the outside peak. Stingray the bottom feeder was patrolling the inside picking up the leftovers and snaking kooks when the big boys did not make it through the Big Brother Boil Section. I had gotten tired of the whole mess and made my way into the sand bar. Not a great wave but some fun closeout barrels. Who cares I thought to myself… What I really wanted was a spot in the pecking order next to Resinhead and Chano. Resinhead the top south county glasser and Chano the ripper shaping killer Fishes for the masses. I was totally blown away when the legendary Pickleweed Pete paddled over to the Sand Bar and started up a conversation. He wanted to check out my board and was impressed with my resin work. You see , Pickleweed Pete had been lurking on Swaylocks for quite a while and he liked my style. Pete wanted me ,The Stingray , to glass a board for him. How could I say no? Not only would this get me a spot in the outside line up but my whole future in the Surfing Industry could be riding on this board… “It’s a standard 6’2”, should be no problem for a glasser of your caliber”.

I was off to Bashams to get supplies. 6oz ,4oz, lam resin, catalyst ,hot coat ,fin rope, sand paper. I already had some UV cure catalyst so everything was a go.

Pickleweed Pete showed up Monday morning with a 6’2”.

Standard board…Yeah right. Some sort of modern fish thing with a Bonzer type double concave,wings and a giant turbo channel running out the back. Heavy deep red painted board with black rails. “I’ll get the four fins for you in a few days” Glassers nightmare…

I set up shop and was determined to impress. Bottom lam went very good considering the channels and wings. Took it out into the sun for the UV to kick. No sweat. Flipped the board for the laps to kick and saw a small crystallization on the tail. No problem.

Brought the board inside ,cleaned up and took a shower. I’m dreaming about getting a little respect out at the point and this job is my ticket.

Back out to the workshop and OH SH*%.!!! The black rails had the worst crystallization ever! The Red was acting weird too. My whole surfing future down the drain…

Resinhead and Chano will be laughing at me for weeks !

I had to call Pickelweed Pete. Told him to come over right away.

I was straight up and honest. Told him everything.

Pete just smiled. “I hate it when that happens”.

You see , Pete was confident in my ability he wanted to test my integrity….

Tons of info in the archives and resources about crystallization.

Do you have a story to share??

Ray

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Later that day in 1982, Ray takes his position on the outside peak of Pickleweed’s. Picking off a bomb, (see picture for verification) Ray notices the lost souls trying to scramble away from the Green, 56 degree, deep water beast. For a split second Ray looks down at his foot placement and instantly remembers, Looks like the crystializations and bleeding aren’t slowing me down, but I sure hope I got the six bonzers fins all pointed in the right direction.

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is Pickleweed Pete really Ben Shipman’s real name ?

cecil / …

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That’s an ugly mess. I’d put the fins in backwards and surf it upside down. Really, just hot coat and sand it down, then spray it with the same colors and then gloss it with UPOL spray. It won’t add any weight, it will look like an opaque job. Or you can sand the UPOL down to 400 grit and will have a cool sanded finish…all is not lost.

-Jay

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Hey Jay,

Hot coated it yesterday. The top looks fine but the entire rail on the bottom Crystalized. We were going to glass on wood fins but decided to save the custom fins for another job. Going to install FCS plugs and use old fins that we already have laying around. Board will be a quad / twinzer / Benzer tpye of thing.

What is UPOL spray and where do I buy it?

Thanks

Ray

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Going to install FCS plugs and use old fins that we already have laying around.

five plugs each side , and a back fin box ? "prawn 2…american version " , please ?!

ben

I’ll send ya some fins, if you do it …

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Howdy Ray,

I get UPOL at Advanced Color Coating, ACC in El Cajon, same shopping center as Michaels. If the black is the only thing messed up, then you might be in luck. The board will look cool with a solid black bottom, make sure you sand that thing flat, black really shows any wobbles in the lam or sand out. Lay the UPOL on pretty thick, it comes in a spray can, and dries as hard as gloss, and it kicks off in about 5 mins if you do multiple light coats. Dries ready to be polished out in about 2 hrs. It can be polished out brighter than gloss. Can costs about $11, just about the same as doing a gloss job, just more control.

-Jay