Well, the event was/is quite an eye full. Lots of excellent craftsmanship on display. I got to see a number of friends that I haven't seen in many years. All in all , it was time well spent. I enjoyed seeing a number of Swaylocks contributors there too. John Cherry had an impressive display of fins, and craftsmanship. What did you see there that got your attention, or inspired you, or stimulated your creative impulses?
Hi Bill -
It was great to see you again. You've made a miraculous recovery!
It was the first visit to a Sacred Craft show for me and I was super impressed by what I saw.
John Cherry's stuff was superb. Dessa Kirk had some fascinating mermaid art painted on some nice Skip Frye looking shapes. I wanted to get more info but she was swamped every time I went by her booth.
Brian Hilbers, Kirk Putnam and Marc Andreini had the hull mojo flowing and some really intriguing new shapes on display.
The Ekstrom designs were mind blowers as were the Mirandon twin fin double pin 'hour glass' shapes(!)
I enjoyed talking to the guy who did the corrugated veneer internal framed boards... those were mind blowers too.
I also met Whitney, Kendall, Wayne Rich, John Peck, Linda Benson and a bunch of other people. Kendall introduced me to Gary Linden who in my opinion did a great job on his shape-off board.
It was cool to see guys like Dick Brewer, Bing Copeland and Robert August cheerfully posing for photos even though you knew they must be tired of it sometimes.
All in all a great program!
The boards from the Santa Cruz guys. GP Surfboads!!!!!! Their booth was pretty small, and mostly longboards. John, is that the right one?
The longboards had these incredibly detailed stringers, and one even off centered at a diagnal. So rad.
Glassing for the boards was amazing.
Also it was great meeting you John!
Cooperfish had some great designs and beautiful glass jobs.
sweet deal.
peace.
I went by myself on Saturday. It was nice because I was able to just wander around, talk to everyone, and check out the great shapers working away in the booths. I looked for you, but somehow I missed seeing you Bill. Here are some iPhone pics of the shapers that I saw.
Dennis Murphy
Reno Abillera
Jon Wegener
Gary Linden
that looks so fun. like heaven for a surf nerd (and hell for the uninvolved surf spouse). so much to see and do! yeah, the GP surfboards are amazing. i see a super bright future for nick palandrani, the GP shaper- with the mentoring he has had (haut, coffey, pearson, andreini), he will go far and carry the mantle of the custom shaper far into the future. GP has the amazing glasswork of tony mikus, and the careful woodwork from bruce gordon- those board are art- I guess it is all art! i wish i could have been there.
My Sacred Craft Highlights: Watching Dennis Murphy kick-off the shape-off (every other shaper used the template he made of the model board) Watching Reno Abillera shape a contender by eye and feel, with literally no marks on the blank, like he’d done it before (…hmmm) Half- listening to Mark Richards and Pat Rawson talk story behind me, while watching Reno. (Pat Rawson: “I can’t cut a straight outline with a handsaw to save my…”) Watching Ricky Carroll shape. The guy does just amazing planer work, and his attention to detail is incredible. (I think he should have won, but who am I to second guess the judges Dick Brewer, Chris Christenson, et al) Seeing Donald Takayama warmly greet Dick Brewer outside the shaping booth, with hundreds of people passing by oblivious to being in the presence of shaping gods. Watching Robert August give shaping instructions to a 10yr old grom. Spending 20 min with Gene Cooper discussing the bottom contours on a couple of his boards. Watching Joe Baugess shape one of his amazing little (5’2”) Mini-Simmons-esque models. Listening to John Peck talk about giving waves and encouragement to others as his way of getting waves in return. I’d give John Peck a wave any day. Rusty and Jim Phillips were both there, but not that beautiful board Jim crafted. It should have been…that would’ve been cool. I believe that Sacred Craft is the single-most inspirational event for the surfer/shaper. I don’t care if you’ve done one board or a million, there is so much stoke in that building for so many reasons that it just boggles the mind. Sure, there are some large “corporate” concerns in attendance, but when you look around what you see is just a bunch surfers who really enjoy surfing and surfboards.
Who won the shape off this year? I liked Gary Linden's on Saturday but there were some top shapers that I didn't see on Sunday.
Pat Rawson won, with Reno a close second.
more pictures!!! awesome real shaping!!!
Rusty had the Jim Phillips board in his booth. Very nice looking.
Thanks to everyone who came by my booth. It was great meeting and talking with you all.
www.SpirareSurfboards.blogspot.com
I have been going to ASR shows since the 80's however this must have been the greatest event thus far for the Board Builder/Shaper.
To have all these Shaping Guru's in the mist of all the crowds.
Tim Stamps, George Gall, Timmy Patterson, Pat Rawson, Dick Brewer, Carroll, Gary Linden, Dano, Robbie, Saw Jim Phillips but I was scared to death to even say a word to such a talent. (Just like seeing Jack Nickleson at a LAKER Game). So many talented shapers under one roof. I was on senory overload.
Seeing Reno shape was really soulful. Spoke with Dick Brewer such a humble guy for such legendary status he even remembered when my brother worked at the Brewer Shop in Wakiki in the late 70's. Gary Linden, the way he can organize the troops is truely amasing. He is truely gifted in many ways.
Walking the aisles and seeing so many people I know in the industry. US Blanks, Marko, Foam Easy, FCS, 4 WAY, FUTURES, White Hot all supporting the industry.
It made you feel that we are alive and well and the art of board building will live on. I'm so thankful my wife made me go and let my projects take a rest. Good Call. My only regret is that I met not one Swaylocian? I don't even know what Bill Thraikill looks like?
Inpiration was all I can say and I swear to chill the @#%$^ out and concentrate more. There were some beautiful board!
I saw some beautiful boards and I liked the way Tim Stamps had all his boards the same color his booth was kind of stylish. On the last row I saw some clean Brewer Guns and the Greg Noll in KOA was pretty amazing. Being a woodworker I was just in awe seeing large pieces of KOA transformed into such wonderful works of ART. If you have ever made a solid wooden surfboard you will understand the wood the Mr. Noll put in to those pieces. There was also a Brewer Gun near the door with a small square tail that I would love to have hanging in my house.
Here are some photo's from my Blackberry:
Just a sd surfer here at 34 years. Love the craft. I was stoked on a lot of stuff. There was some wild design on display. I was stoked to see eckstrom. Bing. Cooper. Jeff clark because he is one of the true pioneers, probably the biggest highlight for me actually. August shaping. I thought the kids at almond had some clean boards for youngins. The greg noll boards and the rest were really cool, I was the guy who squeezed behind the curtains to feel all the bottoms. I get amped on really light boards and there was a board at markos booth with carbon rails that was feather weight, guys at marko were really really cool. Bing copeland makes a really cool noserider, his original is my favorite, seeing him and the big group at his booth celebrating an anniversary or something was nice. Got to meet lance carson, who I think was pretty radical for his time. First two people I talked to were pendo, who I surf with all the time, and stewart who I always have felt makes the best modern longboard. That rack of 7’4 brewers was really inspiring, I need a new gun!
I was glad to have been able to see the epoxy laminating. I think that in the future this thing will grow quite a bit. Such a different world from asr and the typical surf show. Next time I will be there all day solo so I can watch the boards being shaped start to finish. I think that they can have way more demos, lots of improvements can be made. Look forward to this for years to come.
Hi Bill,
I was stoked to see you when you came up to our booth!
You looked great man. There was so much of a good spirit
throughout the building, I'd walk up to a shaper I heard of
and we would just start talking shop. Saw a lot and learned
a lot. I was amazed at the diversity of board designs and
found a lot of guys really trying some wild stuff. The cool
thing was how well some of the wild designs worked during
the demo. Daniel Thomson explained his development of his
designs, made total sense, they worked unreal. I've seen
the Mirandon's boards in action before and it was nice to
see their stuff on display. I had a handful of people I made
boards for ages ago. One guy I hadn't seen in almost 30
years, that was really cool.
My only qualm was not having enough time to walk around
and see/learn, at one point I couldn't leave my booth for
close to 4 hours, ha ha, as my replacements were watching
all the shaping and glassing and seminars going on-
What a great time! Thanks to Scott and all the sponsors
for making it a really happening event!!!
George
I also ran in to Steve (Mahana) but regret not meeting Surfding, Swied and any other Swaylocks people in attendance.
Having been born in Hollywood I learned as with the 'Jack Nicholson at a laker game' analogy, sometimes you just leave people alone. I felt that way with Brewer, Mike Hynson and Jim Phillips although I would have liked to have greeted them all. You can kind of tell when they're overloaded with well wishers.
I agree with Whitney that the woodwork on some of the Palandrini boards was damn slick.
There was one guy in the back shaping booth who was working his ass off. I was thinking that his board didn't look like any Brewer I had seen but it turned out he was doing his own demonstration, not participating in the shape off. I give him two thumbs up for a job well done.
I saw Lance Carson but Sam George was talking his ear off and I didn't want to interupt.
Also regret not seeing Lee Vanderhurst's "Design for Dummies" talk. Had to get back to work today. It was a long enough drive as it was.
Were you talking to Dick at the table where he was signing posters? Was there a middle-aged asian guy sitting next to him? That was me. I think I remember hearing your story. Swaylocians are everywhere.
Some photos. More coming later.
couple of sick Brewer balsa guns - 11’ single fin and 12’1" thruster
shortboards
rack of semi-guns
Dick talking to visitors
Gary Linden checking out the shape-off board
Me, Dick, and Jeanette on a rare (and short) break
[quote="$1"]
John Cherry had an impressive display of fins, and craftsmanship. [/quote]
great thread... sure would love to see any photos of Cherry's work/booth should someone out there have any.
Good to see John down there , my head is spinning from overload, so many cool boards to checkout, fun stuff.
Kendall,
In your photo # 4 above, titled ''Dick talking to visitors'', the visitor in the tan shirt is Don Hansen.
Your right they where everywhere kind of stealth. It would have been nice to meet you. I remember you at his booth.