New Stuff From Stu Kenson

Stu's got other things going on besides the Zapper. Here's a couple of shots from a trip I just made up to the shop. Check 'em out:

Top Photo: Here are a couple in the 10' range. I've paddled and surfed one of Stu's new 10'2"s- the thing went insane! I managed to luck into one of the best lefts of the morning, drove the thing straight down and square off the bottom- not a warble. The diamond tail held and juiced me down the line- his new shapes have speed to burn and yet retain an enormous amount of stability. Check 'em out if you get a chance.

Bottom Photo: Just look at the 10'er next to Stu- don't even start to ask me about what that six channel Byrne is doing there... naked for all to see. Don't even ask me why Allan Byrne stopped by while I was there and chatted with Stu about things I'm not supposed to talk about... don't even ask.

Here's something else I'm not technically supposed to talk about. It's called KookBox. I can tell you this- it's a Joel Tudor/Stu K. collaboration. You're going to see Joel on them soon- boards with designs that are all over the map. And I may just have a couple of semi-authorized photos. Check Back!

New BeachSurf photos click it, kook.

Let the Magic Begin, Part III: Off to Paint and Glass

Once the shaping side is done the board is off to paint and glass. I like to leave the creative side of this up to the painters- after all they've done a million boards and they know what looks good. I just like to specifiy colors and for me it's greens and yellows. This is part of the fun of the custom board process- some shapers will even let you come in and throw your own paint on it if you're feeling like you need to express yourself. A tip: Less is more (Yeah that Molly Hatchet album cover might've seemed easy when you were tracing it in 8th grade- but it becomes a nightmare when you've only got one shot at it on your hot new board- simple and clean is the way to go!)

Glassing is another area where the board can be customized. You'll pay more for it, but you can ask for extra layers of glass if you think you're going to be beating your poor new stick to death. I like to pay a little more for what's called a gloss and polish. This is a final coat of resin over the epoxy and glass lamination that gets buffed out giving the board a highly polished look. I kind of dig it so I always go for it. Many contest surfers like to go for a lighter glass job and skip the gloss and polish, the board will be lighter but more then likely, less durable (most of these guys get them for free so they beat 'em to death).

In the end, the goal is to find a shaper you can talk to. I'm a fan of the new digital shaping programs; using them ensures that both shaper and surfer are in the same frame of mind. A lot of errors can be caught early when you have something tangible to look at rather then a bunch of ideas swirling around in the dusty air of a busy shaping bay.

Once you've found a shaper that you can work with, stay loyal to them. As you build your CAD file you can begin to work on variables one at a time until you've hit the mark- and you've dialed in your magic board. And that, my friend, is just the beginning!

Top two photos: Adding the good stuff that'll hopefully stop me from kooking out! Whatever it is, keep it coming.

Bottom Photo: Ready for a trick paint job and some bad ass glass. The hardest part of the whole process is the waiting!


All Photos: Cowboy


Thanks to Tim Stamps and the boys at ProCam- still waiting for the underground, double secret, good stuff!

Let the Magic Begin, Part I: Here Comes Something New

I love the new technology that's come to board building. The CAD programs, the cutting machines, the computers- they've brought a level of quantitative certainty to the design and build process. The advances are allowing shapers, and the surfers who go to them for custom boards, to track the evolution of a design idea and lock it down on the hard drive of a laptop. Work towards that magic shape and hit Save- that's cool!

This hasn't come without some due diligence on the side of the boardsmiths. Learning to effectively use a CAD program is a wee bit different then throwing in a brush rebuild kit on the ol' Skill 100. The programs are demanding- and the shapers that have retooled themselves to use them have worked hard to get there. The effort is one hundred percent worth it. The use of precision milling machines and the programs that drive them have changed the shaper-to-surfer dynamic. Ordering up a new ride just got really interesting.

For those of us who have ordered custom boards for decades, working with a CAD proficient shaper is a whole new ball game. Shapers may come to you with wire frame printouts (see graphic above) of ideas that you've communicated with them- files can be sent back and forth over the internet; a surfer in La Jolla could easily work with a shaper in Huntington exchanging ideas like email, refining a shape until it's ready to be cut. Take a look at the top graphic of a board designed for me by Tim Stamps, for this shape I was looking for a carve machine, something that'd handle a bit of speed and size. I didn't want to be submerged up to my ankles and I didn't want to worry about balancing too much on sloppy days. At my size, finding a board that'd come down a bit in each dimension while not getting ridiculously narrow, thin or lean is impossible. With a CAD build process you can see exactly what you're going to get. For example, I was really concerned with the volume number. If you check the new board design above you can see the overall volume will come in at just about 155L which is close to a 15L drop in volume from my previous board- an acceptable and predictable volume loss. I also like the width- I'm not afraid of a 29" belly, especially since I've got the gut to turn it (ah, the beauty of the custom board).
Shapers who will work with you through the CAD design process are the exception rather than the rule. The time required to work up your custom design, communicate changes and re-check for viability is considerable. I'm fortunate to work with a guy who loves this stuff. Tim Stamps sees where this is going and recognizes the benefit it brings to both shaper and rider- he's definitely worth contacting if you're considering a custom CAD stand up board. The guy knows his stuff.

There is one common theme when a new board is in the works. It's a gut feeling. Whether it's an emailed CAD workup or the first snap shots of the cut blank (see second photo) the new board magic has a visceral impact. Can you feel it? It's killing me!

Middle Photo: Fresh from the mill and ready to be finished out- lookin' really, really good!

Last Photo: Who da' guy? Stamps, taking a second away from scrubbin' one out to clown around- now get that thing done, I'm going nuts over here!

Stepping Down to 10'0

Wednesday ended up being a great day to run up the coast; there was still a little bump in the water, I had an open ended agenda and a full tank of gas to burn.

Leaving home by 5 am, I was able to pull into San Onofre, surf for three and a half hours, eat a ridiculous, million calorie breakfast (try Tommy's in San Clemente. My standard order? A chocolate and peanut butter malt with corned beef hash and eggs- I eat) and still make it to Tim Stamps' shop in Huntington by 1 pm. As if that weren't enough, we were also able to squeeze in a two hour session just before dark at the Seal Beach Jetty- obviously it was a full day.

If you've never been able to tuck into a corner of a shaping bay and watched a surfboard crawl out of a block of foam, you need to fire up your networking skills. Make calls, do lunches; whatever it takes to figure out a way to get yourself into one of those blue rooms, you'll never look at your surfboard the same again.

I got my chance that Wednesday- I was able to hang out, ask all the stupid questions and learn as much as possible from a guy who's obviously logged thousands of hours shaping boards. Tim's been involved in all phases of surfboard manufacturing since he was a twelve year old apprentice at the Harbour shop in Seal Beach- so when he talks about surfboard design, I listen (and when you don't know anything it's easy to shut your mouth and pay attention).

It was funny, then, when Tim pulled out the board that he thought I'd like (it's the yellow board with the black quickblade deck pad on it), I took one look at it and totally disagreed with him. I told him that I'd ridden some ten footers and that in general I kind of preferred the stability, glide and paddleability of the larger (11'6" to 12') stand up boards. Tim's a tactful guy and in his easy manner said, "I really think this is the one you'll like, it's got all that twelve footer pushed into ten feet". So basically, the stage was set- the boards loaded into the trucks and off to the Seal Beach Jetty we went.

I have to say that I was intrigued by the width of the 10'0, most smaller boards that I'd ridden up to that point had been proportionally reduced in width as well as length. Tim had kept a lot of width in the board and the thing had a fat tail- think J-lo not Gwyneth. Who knows maybe the guy's right- there was only one thing left to do.

Well, you knew this was coming: It only took me one wave to know that I will be ordering one of those boards for myself. And, Mitchell, if you're reading this, you know which wave I'm talking about. But, I'm getting ahead of myself, let me first set the stage.

The conditions were technically difficult: we paddled out through the warm water river which was running out to sea against the swell and wind chop creating short interval cross chop- to add to that, the wind was blowing 15 to 20 miles directly on shore (guys were flying 11 and 12m kites outside of us). The surf was knee to maybe waist high and not pretty- some lefts had a little push and some make-able sections but it was otherwise pretty weak.

Tim, Mitchell (a Seal Beach local getting into the "dark side") and I paddled straight into the teeth of that wind. I was really impressed with the paddleability of that board. The board paddled very well. And the thing was stable even for a bigger guy like me- I didn't fall until I had gotten out into the surf and was paddling through waves to the outside. Most boards of this size have been a handful for me when their width is dropped into the 28" and below range. The board was as comfortable to paddle as my 11'11" Big Red- I was liking the thing more and more.

The surf was pretty poor that day, but for what was there and how the board performed, I was blown away. The board didn't have the "point and shoot" feel of the 10'10" Big Blue, this is not necessarily a walk the nose, drop knee cut back type of ride. On The Wave, I dropped into a doubling up waist high left, cranked off the bottom, power banked into the oncoming wall and repeated that drop and pump for about twenty yards ending right in front of the rocks of the jetty. Talk about making something out of nothing! The board felt light, fast and loose- which was odd to me because it was rigged with a 9.5" single fin- and I didn't think single fin boards could feel like that.

Here's my conclusion: If you're thinking about moving down in size from the board you started on, get yourself to a shaper who's made a few boards and has the experience to know how to build a board that's customized to your shape, size and weight. For me, some of the production boards in the 10'0" range are too narrow- the board Tim's built here seems to be just perfectly proportioned for its size. It's for this reason that I know that there will always be a place for the full custom, hand shaped, paddle board- one size definitely can't fit all, especially if you're eating million calorie breakfasts like me.

I can tell you with 100% certainty, one of these boards is in my future- check one out if you get the chance!

Contact Tim Stamps through his website: www.surfboardsbystamps.com

Also: You may have noticed the flowered stand up board (top right photo)- that's a custom stand up board for Tim's wife Linda who's become a paddling junkie too! Go Linda!


And: Tim's glassing a green stand up board (top left photo) that is a refinement of the yellow board I liked so much- who knows I may be driving back up to Tim's shop soon to test another board. Bummer.

Finally: Maui shaper Jimmy Lewis will be here in San Diego at Cardiff Reef with some of his new boards Friday, August 3rd- go check 'em out!

Check Back: Tim Stamps full custom Stand Up Boards

I know what I want in a 10'0": it's yellow, hand made and will change the way you surf a stand up board. Check back for a full review of the best board I've been on this summer.

New Board: 10'10" Sean Ordonez Big Blue

My wife Kathy and I made a ten hour round trip to Santa Barbara yesterday to pick up a brand new stand up board. The board is a birthday gift to my wife Kathy who tried out my board (and the whole sport of stand up paddling) and decided it was something she'd like to do.

Although I gave her free choice of any board she wanted, I was happy when she asked about the Sean Ordonez Big Blue. We had seen the Big Blue six months ago at the Surfing Sports compound (which will be a future entry; going to visit Wardog is like walking into a candy store- visions of sugarplums definitely begin dancing in your head!) it looked like a board that would really surf well. Kathy liked it because it was blue. The decision was made, Kathy would have a Big Blue. I was ecstatic. If it sounds like I have my own plans for the board, you're right I do- I can't wait to get the thing into some good waves!

Kathy, being more intelligent then me, made a preemptive strike. She put flowers on it. Check out the little flowers ornately arranged on the deck, cut from the left over scraps of her deck pad. She really didn't want me poaching her board. I've since heard that there are even more "flower plans" for the board; am I worried? Hell no! It's going to take more then a few little daisies to keep me off that board.

Check Back for Big Blue's first paddle.

And: I have to send out a huge thanks to Wardog, Debbie and Annie at www.surfingsports.com. I was in a pinch, hadn't preordered the board (a must if you're trying to get a Sean-O board, the boards are usually sold even before they arrive in Santa Barbara) and needed it before Kathy's bday- Wardog went out of his way to ensure that I'd get a board, one of the cool Sawyer composite paddles that he's raving about these days and a well made board bag to protect Kathy's new baby. If you stand up paddle you need to know about these people; they talk it and walk it- a gracious, fun loving and knowledgeable couple. Thanks a bunch!
PS: Lilly says "Hello"!

Shaping Bay: Craig surfboards paddleboard

It's cool living in a small beach town- if you're in the right place at the right time opportunities open up for you. A couple of weeks ago I was at the Imperial Beach street end that I call "Dave's Office" checking the surf. The reason I call it Dave's Office is that every morning Dave Craig, walks across the street and checks the surf, talks shop and sips a cup of coffee. He's about as predictable as a leap year and, being in the right place at the right time, he invited me to come check out some of the boards he's doing.

Dave's been carving some stand up boards lately and they look clean. His clientelle consists of some pretty serious paddlers, guys who've got some years of experience- the shapes reflect this progression in skill. He hasn't been carving out any 12'x 30"x 4" cruise machines (I'm not bagging on these dimensions, I ride a board with a 29.5" gut) he's making 9'0" and 9'6" carving tools. As he told me, in Hawaii (where one of these boards was headed with its owner), "the shapes are evolving" even while we speak.

The board that I was invited to come take a look at was a 9'6"x 27"x (sorry can't remember the thickness) SUB with a 2+1 fin set up bound for the good and juicy waves of Hawaii. Would a board like this work in California, where our surf is just a bit different? I've got my thoughts on that but before I go popping off I'd like to try one- scaled to my personal dimensions (I'm no 145lb-er, in the words of Hendo: "I been eating". I'm at least 210lbs.). The board looked good, nice full template with the thickness just back of center along with the widepoint. Dave's idea is for surfers to paddle it and surf it pretty much from the same area on the board- maybe one small step back to the sweet spot and you're driving that thing down the line, off the bottom and back up into the lip. The board was definitely meant for lip collisions. Also, check out the green high density foam he's routered into the blank to provide extra strength in the deck- pretty slick.

I'd be interested to see how seasoned paddle surfers handle the width in the chop. In my experience, the width is the most important variable when things start to get messy. Granted these are definitely not beginner boards (my advice to beginners:"Go 30 or go home" the learning curve is so much steeper with a narrow board for a beginner). At Punta Conejo, for example, when the wind got on it, I was still able to ride. I'm going to credit this to the 29.5" width of my board. Here in Imperial Beach, I'm limited in my exposure to other more experienced riders- I have my questions about how these guys are doing on the narrower (I consider sub-28" width, narrow) boards. I'd love to take advantage of the surfing benefits that a narrower board brings but I feel comfortable with the extra width I'm on now. I'll keep you posted.

Additionally, the shop was glassing a couple of Blane Chamber's Paddlesurf Hawaii shapes- I think they were 9'0"s. Again these boards have that purpose built look of a Formula 1 car; check out the tail shapes. Somebody in Hawaii must be working out their issues on poor, unsuspecting, south shore waves. Cool looking shapes- again I'd love to try them all. What we need is the Public Board Library where we can check out the shapes for a couple of days, that or a sponsor. Any takers?

I really like visiting surfboard factories- if you've never walked in to order a custom board then you're incomplete; hollow, like some carbon fiber Aviso pop-out. There's magic in those places- visit one now while they're still accessible.

Coming soon: The Shaping Bay

Dave Craig (Craig surfboards) polishing out a new 9'6" SUP- check back for more on this and other boards!