I want to be on Maui Bob's team...

Maui Bob is always up to something cool. Tomorrow, July 13th is the 9.75 mile, 3rd Annual Naish International Paddleboard Championship and I guess the whole prone and standing community is all in- there may be as many as 200 paddlers involved.

Bob's promising more photos so we're going to hold him to it. No Spam Fried Rice until you send more photos.

Top Photo: This is what Maui Bob's going to paddle- it's a two man craft...

Second Photo: This is Qball- paddling with Maui Bob from Maliko Gulch to Town.

Third Photo: Why is it that everything is just cooler in Hawaii?

Last Photo: Like I said, I want to be on Maui Bob's team. Got room for one pudgy, kinda slow guy?

Click Here for the latest.... SCHWAACK off the top with chimpanzees watching!

Paddle Surfing Baja: Scorpion Bay Report

Check out these photos of Scorpion Bay- are you kidding me??? The place was made for stand up boards. Many thanks to Tom English of www.alohawealth.com for the pictures.

Tom and his friends just returned from a trip down to San Juanico- from the looks of it they pretty much scored. I think this is another validation of my belief that a stand up board can save any surf trip.

The stand up board takes the wave anxiety away- even if it's flat, you know you've got something fun to do. And if there's even a ripple in the water- you're on it!

I contacted Tom to ask him about airline travel with stand up boards. I've been a fan of his homegrown travel and SUP videos- the guy's been all over the place and he's always got a big old SUB with him. I figured if anybody knew the true scoop on flying with big boards it'd be him.

I needed to know if I could fly Alaska airlines with a 10' board. The airline's guidelines state that boards are restricted to lengths no longer than 9'6". In August, I'm heading to a spot in mainland Mexico that looks perfect for a stand up board- it's a left point that runs for a few hundred yards- the kind of spot that's just begging to be stand up paddled. It's an absolute necessity that my stand up board gets loaded onto that flight.

I was stoked to hear that Tom flew Alaska airlines with two stand up boards and that both violated the length restriction. That's the kind of real information I can use- believe me, I'm sleeping better at night knowing my board's coming along.

Top Three Photos: Scorpion Bay and riders with the English party doing their respective things down in Baja.

Photo Four: A couple of my buddies were down there at the same time as Tom English- here's Stukey cruising a six-incher on a twelve footer. The stand up board can save any surf trip.

Photo Five: Just how long do you think this waves is. Right. Now double that and you're just about there.

More Zapper Data: I've received some inquiries regarding the Zapper's dimensions. I'll give you the numbers that I know: 10' x 29.5" x 4.25" sorry but I don't know the tail and nose numbers. What I do know is that it looks SICK!!

The latest BeachSurf photos right here!

Loop Race Photos by Andie Johnson

Here are a few more Loop Race photos. These were taken by EJ's wife, the gracious and talented Andie Johnson. Thanks for the excellent photos Andie!

Top Photo: Chris Koerner (SUP 2nd Place) powering home on an 18' Tony Mueller race board.

2nd Photo: EJ on the new Ron House Stand-A-Maran winning the SUP division in two hours flat.

3rd Photo: Kiwi, first of the stock length SUP paddlers to finish on an 11'6" Stu Kenson paddle surf board.

Last Photo: I don't know, does he look a little tired to you? Where's the cold beers?

Here's my bet: the biggest growth areas for stand up will be racing and flatwater paddling. I had people on the sand, at the start of the Loop Race, asking about paddle surfing lessons and rental equipment. The interest is there!

I'm off on a little business trip for three days- I'll try to update from the road. See you Friday night!

Surf Ropin' up the Beach: South Swell Lights it Up Down Here!

I'm absolutely toast right now. Just did a three hour wave riding session right down here at the end of the street. Check the photos, these pictures are from last night- now tack on another three feet and stretch those lines another fifty feet and you've got a good representation of what we surfed today.

The predicted south swell just lit up our little beach town. All day long the reports poured in both on the Surf Phone and by email- every bank, every hole and every rip was creating a wedging, left hand, freight train. There were spots throwing barrels and peaks peeling all over town. Best part of it was the water was pushing 68 degrees - another session of bareback trunking it.

Four of us got out on stand up boards: Gabe, Big Chad, Kraig Surplus and me - safe to say we all scored some of our best waves this year. I've got to give Big Chad the Wave of the Day award for paddling his 10'0 Stamps into a macking six foot pier sucking wave. BC dropped in late, came off the bottom and disappeared.

I don't know if he got tubed or just traveled in the pocket but I can say that we're way past riding soft, reforms on glorified longboards. Here was a legitimate, grinding, head high macker being handled by a guy on a 10' board - it was cool to see and from my limited vantage point the line taken was clean. Clean is good.

Here's another sweet deal on a used board. This one is a BK Pro model C4 Waterman 10'0. I've seen this board, it is for all intensive purposes a brand new board. The retail price on this board is in excess of $1500 - this one is for sale for $1000. If I was a few pounds lighter I'd pounce on this one- it's a sweet deal on a hot board. If you're interested, contact Kelly Kraus at Emerald City Surf Shop in Coronado (619-435-6677). Also - if you decide to buy a new board (not the used C4) and you mention this website, Kelly will drop a hundred bucks from your next stand up board purchase. Dude, are you kidding me?

Hot Fun in the Summer time, er... Spring time

Don't know about your part of the world but down here in San Diego it's feeling pretty darn tropical. We're talking early morning heat, bare back trunking it, three hour paddle sessions in clear blue water.

I may be nuts but it looks like there's some south in it down here- there's definitely some angle to the surf that's coming in.

Check out this shot of Seal Beach local Mitchell de Jarnett streaking at the warm water jetty, that's a Harbour stand up board he's on and it looks like it's going pretty good. I haven't seen too many Harbour SUBs around so I may have to poke my nose around up there and see what's up. (photo: Elva de Jarnett).

I'd be back on it if I didn't have some real life commitments to tend to- hope you're out there getting my share!

Wait a minute: It's 6:30pm, still light, still warm and glassy - and - it looks like the surf is building... I think I'm out there!

Yard Sale: Hoe he'e nalu bumper sticker and a Big Red

Get 'em while they're hot: Hoe he'e nalu bumper sticker in the official paddlesurf.net green and gold. These are only available online- check 'em out here.

Here's a hot deal on a great board: It's no secret- I started on a Sean Ordonez Big Red. I still have it as a matter of fact. The board does all kinds of things really well- big and wide enough to learn on yet racy enough to surf waves big and small. And it's not a bad cruising board either- I just paddled mine twenty eight miles down the Colorado River.

A friend has got one for sale in the LA area- if you're looking for a solid deal on a great board shoot him an email: tbsurf@ca.rr.com The price is $950 for the board and a $250 DaKine board bag that fits it. Not a bad deal.

Sunday Surf Video and some more Hennessey's Photos

Here's a couple more Hennessey's race photos and a little clip of Sunday's pier nuggets. Somehow my breakfast of three cups of coffee and a piece of cheese danish didn't quite keep me powered for the twenty eight mile length of the race.

All of us from Imperial Beach would like to give a special thanks toBuy-Rash-Guards.com who set us up with their awesome Kore-Dry paddle shirts. These things kept us cool, protected and stoked for all twenty eight miles. Thanks guys!

Be sure to scroll down to check out the race video I posted yesterday. And, for a hilarious race account (including a fine mullet reference), go check out Brewer's BlueLine site. Funny stuff.

Top Photo: Hobie paddler Chuck Patterson. First place overall, which means all he saw was open river for three hours. I don't know, think he works out? He was one of what I call the "Manimals" (man/animal... get it?). These guys are all Unlimited Class paddlers. They just tear through this stuff on boards reaching up to eighteen feet. Funny, but I don't see any water on board - I wonder what he did for hydration?

Bottom Photo: Prone Unlimited Class Manimals. These guys have my total respect, prone paddling the entire race course- most of them in just over three hours. Ridiculous.

Hennessey's River Run Video

Just got back from Needles California and the Hennessey's River Run. Check out this video I threw together:



Photos: A few of you've been asking about the board Tim Stamps won the Stock Class on; here are some extra photos for you.

A Little Bit of This and A Little bit of That (hopefully)

Keeping my fingers crossed that we'll score some fun surf tomorrow. I was able to steal a couple of hours out of the day today and hop in at the end of the street. Turned out to be a fun two hour paddle with mushy waist high lefts funneling into a new hole punched out by our recent storms. The beach is changing with the season, the sand's moving offshore and some of the slow, shoaling sand bars are starting to work. Perfect for our type of wave riding!

I'm keeping my hopes up that tomorrow will bring clear skies, clean water and fun little waves. A big part of this is the blue railed number you see here. It's a scaled down version of the Mahi and I really want to see how it goes. It's fun (and really important) to try different configurations of the same design. You start to rachet down the variables until you're where you need to be. I'll keep you posted.


Top Photo: 10'o and hot.

Middle Photo: Sweet rocker.

Bottom: Good clean fun.

All Photos: El Tigre

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 II: Clean and Fair

The shaper brings it all to life. Once a board arrives from the mill it's up to the shaper to make it work. This is where hard earned years of experience pay off. The best make it look easy- linking curves, eyeballing rocker lines and fairing rails all while cracking a joke (or a beer).

Above: Stamps, linking the numbers. A good view of my new board, mid-scrub. Too heavy of a hand and you've just destroyed the rail, too light of a touch and the foils all wrong. Think I could do this? Nope!




2nd Photo: A California solution to the surf we've got right here. Another view of my soon to be carve machine.







3rd Photo: How sweet is the rail line and foil on this thing? Still got some beef in it to float all 220lbs of me and at 29" wide isn't going to be skittish in the chop.




All Photos: Cowboy

Grab this board!

Take it home.
Tim Stamps' personal Stand Up Board (and since he's got three others, used very little), 10'0 x 27.5" x 4".

I featured this board in an earlier piece, it's a sweet ride. Ten footers offer the perfect compromise between cruiseability and high performance surfing. The board was meant to be turned and driven down the line.

If I were a bit smaller I'd have already snagged this one. Stamps is looking for $1000 obo with pad and fins. An opportunity to get into a high-end, hand made board without hitting the 2k mark- save yourself at least $600. Normal wear and tear but in all honesty, as new condition. Don't drop the ball, jump on this one!

Make an offer!
Contact Tim Stamps here.


Board has been sold and will soon be prowling the lineups of North San Diego County!

New SUBs: Aipa Stand Up and... the Gemini (Part 2)!

This Photo: An Aipa Stand Up Board on the beach at Cardiff. Something old becomes new again; I remember looking through surf-mags in the late 70's and seeing Ben Aipa's little stingers. Seem like they've grown up- anybody ridden one yet? Give us some feedback.

Middle and Bottom Photos: You asked for it, you got it: The Gemini Part 2!

There's been some interest in checking out the rest of this board so I scoured the paddlesurf.net archives to bring you the best I've got. Check out the nose scoop on this thing, some serious foam irrigation going on there. Capt. Neg9 told me that this allows for air flowing up the wave face to get under the board and create lift.

Got some questions for Capt. Neg9? Hit the comments button at the bottom of the post and fire away- we'll see if we can pull some good info out of him.

Middle and Bottom Photos: El Tigre

Thanksgiving Board Glut: 2 New Lairds

The board-fest continues: Two new Ron House shaped SurfTech Lairds.

Once again, it's all about increased surfability.
The blue striped board is an 11'0 x 27" x 4 1/4" version of the original Laird. The second board with red stripes is a 10'0 x 27" x 4 7/8" micro-Laird.

Compared to the original Laird (12'1" x 31" x 5") these boards are a big step down in size. The new boards feature really pulled and foiled tails and extremely surfy looking rails. Contrary to the opinion of many paddlers, I've always thought the big Laird was a great board. The board truly delivered a legitimate stand up paddle surf experience; it had the legs to cover miles and the neutral template to surf anything that got in its way. But at 220lbs, turning that big boy wasn't as much of challenge for me as it might be for a surfer in the 150 - 160lb range. The new Lairds may be perfect for lighter paddlers looking for a well-rounded, proven template. The small Laird looks particularly good- even to a big guy like me. I'd love to give that one a shot some time.





This photo: Check the rail line on that 11'0- and the board's relatively thin. Looks fun.

Below: A really pulled tail, much narrower then the original Laird. At 27" wide this board is a full 5" narrower then the first Laird.

Penultimate Photo: Steppin' it down another foot to 10'0. Again, at 27" wide this board was made for surfing. It's going to be interesting to check the stability on this one as I tend to like boards no less then 28.5" wide.

Last Photo: I really want to ride this one too!

See all these boards at Emerald City Surf Shop (1118 Orange Ave Coronado 619-435-6677)

All Photos: Igor Von Smiley

New Boards: Bonga Perkins S-Rail/C4 BK Pro

The first wave of molded boards has come and gone. Many of us started on this first iteration of stand up boards. Our boards were typically wide (at least 28", unless you were one of the masochists who learned on the 26" wide Munoz) and long (touching and even surpassing the 12' mark).

The times, and dimensions, they are a changing. The boards are getting lean. Typical lengths are now 10' and below with widths reduced to the 26 - 28" range. The anemia is a result of the development of the sport's practitioners. As last years entry market paddlers climb the learning curve they are beginning to demand more performance from their boards. No longer content with point and shoot surfing; stand up surfers are now looking to drive their boards, find the hidden gears and generally just drop hacks and snaps like they were surfing their prone boards. The shapers have responded, producing boards that trade surfability for stability.

By the numbers. Here are a couple of hot looking boards Kelly just picked up at Emerald City Surf Shop stop by and check them out.

Top Photo: South Point Bonga Perkins Model with S-Rail. 10'0 by 27", 4 1/8" thick, 2+1 fin set-up. This is the board I'd be most interested in test riding. I like the clean, full template with the pulled tail. The board looks like it'd do well carving and nose riding. Additionally, the board possesses a stepped S-rail that may increase bite without sacrificing too much volume in the rest of the board. An interesting idea that I'd like to check out.

2nd Photo: C4 BK Pro 10'0 x 27" x 3 7/8" wing swallow, 4 + 1 fin setup. Kelly's riding one of these now and from what I could see, the thing is a rocket. I'm not sure how well it'd go for a guy my size (220lbs) since I declined his offer to try it out two days ago in good surf. Blame that on my wave tunnel vision, with nobody else around, I just wanted to nab a bunch of waves. I'm kind of kicking myself now- probably would've been fun.


Baja happening:
One of the great things about traveling is the people you meet. Tommy (never did catch his last name) was a firefighter off of a Hotshot crew- he rolled into our camp just after getting bucked off of his motorcycle on his way to the point. His bike's a classic, an air cooled BMW with Vermont plates that he planned to ride all the way down to the tip and back. He had a nifty Pope Bisect 6'10" egg in the case just behind his seat. Just a kid on a bike with a cool surfboard looking for some adventure on the road.

Back to Business: Surf/Tow-in teams/S-rails?

Whew! Good thing Sunday brought such fun surf, I was getting a little too uptight with Jason Smith's puff piece in Surfing Magazine. Final word on that: In the end he's right, this sport is no fun and it's lame- better if he never gives it a shot.

The head high swell predicted by many surf forecasters came in just as predicted- on time and as big as promised. Don't know how it was up the coast but here at home, it was lined up, head high, lefts and rights. A few new faces in the water including two unknown tow teams buzzing in and out of the lineup. One team featured a tow in boogey boarder. Five minutes before the law showed up, one of the guys bolted south- not really sure if he thought he had anywhere to hide down that way but he was going for it. Mike P. with the lifeguards told us that they are restricted from any surf break by a thousand feet- since they obviously broke the law and CF numbers were taken, somebody is going to get busted (Coast Guard was alerted). I'll keep you posted as details emerge.

Top Photo: Kelly Kraus Kills it Konsistently. Going right and going fast on his new BK Edition C4 10'0"
Check out the tow team in the background.
Photo: Spidey

Middle: Kraig Surplus looking happy on his new Stamps 10'0". Last saw Kraig dropping into an overhead right doing about Mach 10. The bigger guys (220 - 270, yup I said 270) are digging these boards. Stable, fast and carvey they are really a nice choice for a shorter board.
Photo: El Tigre

Bottom Photo: Emerald City Surf Shop in Coronado (619-435-6677) just added to their inventory of stand up boards. I'll post some of the stand outs later but for now, take a look at this: The S-Rail on South Point's Bonga Perkins model. In person, it looks really nicely done, would be great to try it out. More on this and others to come.
Photo: Igor Von Smiley

Jason Smith's Ancient Code: Or why SUPing Sucks

Did anybody else get a chance to read the "At Random" piece in this month's Surfing Magazine? It's called "Death Before SUP" by Jason Smith. Jason's thesis is that we should follow an "ancient style code... surfers are to... well, keep it simple." The guy offers no support for this proclamation, just that we shouldn't have fun for fun's sake, because even though we think nobody cares, guess what? Jason's got it all figured out here, get ready- this is going to be heavy... here it comes..."Surfing cares". Good job, Jason- that's deep.

Every thesis deserves examination. I wonder how "simple" Jason, the arbiter of all things surfing, keeps it? Since we're following an "ancient code", I think it'd be fair to assess where this guy's at. Let's see, got fins on that board? Tom Blake must've set off all kinds of "ancient code" alarms when he stuck one on- undoubtedly pushing surfing's evolution backward according to ol' Jason. Whoa there, is that one of those hot new quads you're on? Four fins, all glassed in too, right tough guy? That's not one of those new fangled wetsuits you're wearing is it? After all, keeping it simple means bareback or wool sweater doesn't it? Did you just bust an air over that section or was that a floater? Don't you know? They're watching, better just keep it simple dude- point A to point B, nothing complex here. Speaking of your board, let me check that out. That's not a down rail is it? The "code" demands 50/50s on those sticks, right?

In his piece, Jason's got no point. He's just pissed- that's it. Invoking Darwin once again (the guy's a big fan- read his piece), Jason's just another grumbling surfer sitting static instead of adapting to fit the habitat. Pathetically, he's a guy who sees us as the defilers of his personal holy temple of surfing, subsequently passing off his knee jerk reaction as, "Surfing cares". The best part is while Jason sits and worries about defining what real surfing is, we'll just go out and ride some waves; as paddle surfers... or whatever we are.