Tuck's (poster here on Swaylock's) son took a related model out for a spin, maybe he'll have some insights
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Hi Huck, Great to meet you at the show! Your boards were beautiful! As it happens those guys were our camping neighbors at the show. All great guys. We shared supplies and watched each others stuff when away. Jack, Cache and I were blown away by the "out of the box" design of their boards. Matt King is the one pictured holding the boards. The shaper is Rick Rock. Laminating and color artwork by Greg Webster
Hey Huck, it's Cache, Brad Tucker's son. I love those boards! I didn't ride them for very long because they didn't have a leash and I didn't want to ding them up or swim in to get it every time I fell. But I would have ridden them all morning. They're sooo different and that's what I love about them. I wish there were more experimental boards like them around. That's how we discover awesome things! The boards glide really wall. The water underneath the board gets trapped in that tunnel in between the fins and almost pushes the board on top of the water once it gets moving. Instead of the board riding through the water it's as if the board is skimming over the top. The shaper, Rick Rock, did an awseome job. The only problem with them was that the fins are too far back or not big enough. When I first got up the board turned like a normal surfboard but when I put more weight on my front foot the board did a 180 and I was surfing sideways. It was surfable once I put all my weight in the back. I bet with a little more fin that board would absolutely fly. I would love to experiment with that board some more. I think the idea is great. Cool colors too, good job Greg Webster. A+ for having the guts to be experimental! I might try to make one of my own out of balsa.
I watched you shape…you were pretty sick at it, I wish I could shape half that good. It was fun to see the shapers, and learn new techniques. Hopefully this will help my shaping…
i had a great time, it was different with their setup but everything worked out well i think! the biggest thing that I do differently now than when i started shaping is using my planer as a sanding block…very very shallow cuts once the majority of the volume and foil is shaped, to blend it all together…thanks for swinging by!
i had a great time, it was different with their setup but everything worked out well i think! the biggest thing that I do differently now than when i started shaping is using my planer as a sanding block…very very shallow cuts once the majority of the volume and foil is shaped, to blend it all together…thanks for swinging by!
Hey Tuck, great to meet you and Jack also - you guys have some awesome boards, but I already knew that before I went! Nice to meet you too Cache, but I liked you better when I thought it was spelled C-A-S-H hahahaha (just kidding). I'm definitely an outside-the-box person myself, but when designs get too far out there, I don't have the surfing ability to utilize them, due to my surfing skills going into remission LOL. Homebuilt home-designed is why I love swaylocks! Agreed it takes guts to go out on a limb like that.
Hey guys, Just curious, what was the percentage of wood boards vs foam that were being displayed?
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hard to pin it down to a percentage - one reason is there were a lot of compsand, wood veneer over eps boards also, and they look just like a wood board, but are much lighter. But the wood boards were a definite presence - maybe in the 20's percentage-wise.
It also depends on what you mean boards as a lot of shapers had an alaia or two, some hand planes and maybe even a wooden body board. So all in all, I would agree around 20-30% of the wave riding vessels contained wood (more so than just a stringer).
Watching Wayne Rich shape that Spoon was inspiring and a confirmation of my own technique. Made me feel good to know that even as a young man though I never apprenticed under a master I had essentially acquired by word of mouth the same technique as people like Wayne use. I call it the "Parallel Universe" technique.
I have been working with Webster and Rock on this project for the last year or so. The above link takes you to youtube and there is a handful of edits put together by JL from Mobgroup that explain the project and show some riding. He has video from this last 2010 show, which is in the process of getting put together. Josh Sleigh has been working with Rock on the project through its evolution and a big Kudos to Matt King for helping us out and handling the press this weekend.
The whole idea grew out of Webby’s art project, Resin Psychosis, where he was picking shapers for their history and influence in their communities not to mention creativity. He told the shapers they could make whatever shape they thought needed making, as the shape is just as much part of the art as the resin work he was doing. Rick swung for the fences at the last Ventura Sacred Craft and continued a concept exploration of what he thought a future surfer would ride. That was the blue bottom ‘batman’ board. He originally intended it just as a showpiece, kind of like a concept car at a car show, big drawn out lines really exploring a new boundary. (this is why that one is that way, he is making them to be more functional now)
Due to the huge interest in it, and every one asking us if it worked or not, and us not having an answer, we naturally took it straight off the trade show floor and put it in the water that Sunday. That pretty much proved Webster’s project was all about making functional art right there!! It worked really well in what was then negligble surf. Webby was certain we had something, so we asked Rock if he wanted to explore his concept through a series of boards, and he was up to the task. What you guys saw at this last show are all the prototype designs Rock has been experimenting with and the development of the idea of building the fin, from foam, up from the board as one whole unit.
You can see in the later designs he began experimenting with dropping the fin off the rail. According to Sleigh, (I haven’t talked to Matt yet about each board) each board has a different, new and unique feel. We hope to be getting more of these out there and doing more demos so that we can begin developing feedback for Rock to work with from the public.
The other concept board in the display was a ‘fangtail’ design by Pendo, the red board you can see in the background of the booth, another Bunker Spreckels inspired design that got named by the old saying 'fanging it out ’ in reference to formula one driver Fangio. This was a finless design Pendo had seen from way back that he resurrected with a little ‘flex’ appeal.
The really cool thing about the whole project was that it was started last year in Ventura and now made it full circle back where it began, Sacred Craft.
This was truly a story that could not have happened without Sacred Craft providing a place for so many surfers stoked on surfboards of all kinds, to push us to put the thing in the water, to push Rick to experiment, and to provide a place for the whole thing to start.
Big Thanks to Scott Bass and crew for continuing to put on a helluva show and allowing these artisans a venue to shine!!
I just watched the (short) video of Todd Proctor shaping at the Sacred Craft and it makes me wonder: was the vacuum actually working? Looks like, although the planer is connected to a hose, most of the foam dust is flying out. My own vacuum barely leaves any dust on the blank. Anyone cares to explain?
The vacuum system was not working well all weekend, All the shapers did an outstanding job, Todd did a really nice board, for a guy who mostly does short boards, I was blown away. It was a close call to pick just one .
I really enjoyed checking out the various wood/wood composite boards (great craftmanship!), all the hulls, the handplanes and watching Wayne Rich shape a spoon. Also enjoyed meeting a handful of different shapers and seeing lots of friends from all over.
Just in sheer beauty/craftmanship, I thought Matt Moore's "Suku" Rincon gun stole the show. I talked to him about it for a while; he said he had 100s of hours put into that board. He did the shaping, all the gold leaf and abalone inlay work, the painting and helped to tape everything off when it got glassed. I remember him saying the board was glassed two different times during the entire process, between various steps. $7,000 seemed like a steal for what amounts to a one-of-a-kind piece of art. I told Matt that was the first board ever that I could happily just lean against the wall in a house and totally appreciate without ever feeling the need to surf it.
Did anyone get a good photo of that board? I could happily stare at the board for a long while...
I was watching that demo and about half way through they had to switch out planers. Not sure if the planer went bad or if the vacuum attachment was wonky.
Here’s some more pictures of Sacred Craft Ventura. Finally got around to downloading the camera. Enjoy.[img_assist|nid=1050435|title=Fins|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=442]
