1st place in Grand Legends division at the East Coast Surfing Association Contest in Cape Hatteras, NC.
You have been an inspiration for so many, not just in surfing, but in so many aspects of life. Thank you for all you have done.
Once again, the National Kidney Foundation Pro Am Surfing Contest has come and gone. This contest attarcts surfers as far away as Hawaii and has assisted in bringing back tandum events. This is the biggest non-profit contest held on the East Coast; CNN was there to capture the event.
I liked the Menehunes the best. These are the Kelly Slater’s of tomorow.
Bill Freeman, a local Cocoa Beach surfer, won 2 events yesterday; once against the young pro-wannabees and another against the old pro-wannabees. Thanks Bill for being the the person you are!
For the upcoming January Surf Expo in Orlando, Florida, we are stoked to present “The best of the best: East Coast Surfing Hall of Fame Legends”. In this exhibition of true talent, we’re bringing back names like Dick Catri, Claudie Codgen, and Phil Salick.
As is every year, the winner will be handed the Shape Off trophy to keep until the following year’s event. The winning board will be signed by all the participating shapers and donated to the Surfing Hall of Fame to exhibit.
Well, that time a year again, the half-way mark to the January show. It was great seeing familiar faces and new ones.
This Expo brought with it the energy of surfing literaly; we had the finest waves we have not seen in two years: Friday morning it was glassy, overhead, with plenty of time to paddle out. I resisted the temptation to look at the waves Saturday morning, and headed for the Surf Expo.
Back to the show. Body Glove International has teamed up with American Wave Machines, Inc to bring Body Glove Waves, surfing machines you can definetly surf on. Great for teaching beginners and bringing surf everywhere, which means inland. But what tickled me the most was seeing a picture of a friend of mine in the brochure, Lauren McLean. I’m going to have to ask her for an autograph next time I see her.
I also picked up a “Republica De Costa Rica” pasaporte to Witch’s Rock Surf Camp which has a beachfront hotel in Tamarindo, Costa Rica . They have a surf school, surf shop, restaurant, and bar at the hotel and provide complete services from boat rides to non-accessible-by-vehicle places to surf.
And for those of you people who cannot live without your cell phone and have to be attached to you 24 x7, they have a vaccum seal container…I got to see an Ipod getting dropped into and floating in a fish tank.
Hope to see you all at the January Expo. I’m getting very excited about seeing these legends shape!
See you in the water
US based Entropy Surfboards created a custom surfboard using a an epoxy system using a new chemical technology on the verge of expansion: Carbon nanotubes (CNT’s). They found using this additive makes the epoxy much stronger while still retaining flexibility and will be using carbon nanotubes in their products once they become available and affordable.
Carbon nanotubes (CNTs), a new molecular arrangement for carbon, is being used as an additive, greatly improving a range of plastic products. Bayer has begun work to increase the production of it’s Baytubes, carbon nanotubes based epoxy, claiming the product is 30% lighter and 20-30% stronger than conventional epoxy systems.
Up to now, CNT production has been at a pilot scale, but some large companies are on the verge of chaning that. The German chemical giant Bayer is increasing its production, as well as Chinese producer Sun Nanotech, and other US, India and Japan based companies. Hopefully, with more applications to different products, demand for CNT’s will increase, bringing the cost down.
Jeff Haney wins 2009 Fl Shape Off
Old Guys Rule and Young Guys still rock:
Big thumbs up to Jeff Haney overall winner of the Florida Shape Off, scoring one for the Old School camp, and to the first runner up, Pete Daly, young shaper from Daytona
Actually a congrats to all the shapers: Glenn Klugel, Pat Madden, Chris Birch and Pierce Meyer. As both Ricky Carrol and Juan Rodgriquez said before they declared a winner, not only shaping the boards in the time and space allotted is extremely difficult, so is judging them. Even though both judges had eyed and felt the blanks already shaped throughout both days of the contest, and Ricky started measuring the short boards an hour before Pierce Meyer (last contestant) finished his long board, it still took them a good thirty minutes to award the winning board. What made it more challenging was the fact that even though all the shapers did a top-knotch job, they had two totally different styles of boards to judge. They picked a winning short board and a winning long board, and then chose the one that came the closest to replicating the parent board.
Ricky Carroll expressed great admiration for the job the “New School” shapers had done, as some of them had never shaped or even seen the style of longboard that they were asked to replicate. Heck, they were years from being a gleam in their parents’ eyes when that board came out! “They did a fantastic job. That’s why it’s so hard to pick the best out of all.” This is the reason the Florida Shape Off only has 1 winner and 1 runner up; to pick a 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th place would be nearly impossible. To answer an attendee’s question as to what happens with the losing board, there is no such thing. All the blanks shaped are being done so by the best in the industry; in our minds they are all winners, especially for donating their time and talent to the cause of highlighting the unknown heroes of surfing that make surfing possible: the shapers.
Still, this is a contest, and only one of these magnificent pieces of work can be chosen as the winner. Interestingly enough, both the winner and runner up ran into a little trouble when shaping their blanks; Jeff Haney actually had big trouble when he dropped his planer, bending the blades, which he didn’t notice until he made passes with it, looked down and saw the Grand Canyon streaking along the bottom of the board. (Read about Day 2 on the blog) He was more surprised than anyone that he had actually won. And Pete Daly had started shaping and noticed that the template provided “wasn’t right.” In all the commotion, it was left behind, so he proceeded without one, also shrugging his shoulders at the possibility of winning.
So Jeff Haney gets to keep the trophy until next year, when it will get passed on to the winner of the 2010 Florida Shape Off! Till then …catch you in the water!
Jeff Haney takes measurements
Jeff Haney had a rough start: He had just gotten through outlining the blank, cutting it and was proceedding to plane the bottom. Earlier, his planer had fallen off the table and hit the concrete floor. Immediate inspection did not show anything wrong, it seemed ok. Until …he looked down and saw the Grand Canyon streaking along the bottom of the blank. Haney looked at his planer and saw that the blades were bent. So I asked him what he wanted to do: start all over with a new blank or proceed? Thanks to Ricky, who decided to bring his planer, all was not lost and Haney proceeded on with the same blank.
Chris Birch, one of my shaping heroes, was up next. Now, this board “Old Schoolers” were shaping is an unusually shaped board with a slight twist in the board; one that none of these shapers would ever choose to shape. Chris went right to work and created a sculpture out of foam.
Pierce Meyer running along the edge
Pierce Meyer really studied the slot bottom. He took all kinds of measurements; I liked his approach and procedure in shaping the blank. By far, he measured the board more then the rest of the shapers. As I put it up against the wall with the others waiting to be judged, all I could think was how I’d really like to ride this board.
Glenn Klugel
This contest has been so interesting to watch. Glenn Klugel, one of our New School guys, shaped his board in a record 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Pete Daly
Pete Daly was very particular so it took him the full time as he paid close attention to make sure his board was precise.
Patrick Madden
Madden, the first of the Old Schoolers, made an exact foam replica of a George Robinson balsa.
With what I’ve seen so far, I’d hate to be the judge and have to pick only one winning board.
For just $1 gives you a chance to win a replica of Robert Strickland/Skip Savage Con Rail Model shaped by Bill Eberwein at last year’s contest. This one-of-a-kind board will be on display at the surf expo and tickets for the raffle will be available Thursday and Friday during the shape off contest. The raffle is to benefit the Surfrider Foundation
Visit the Florida Shape Off store .for more coffee mugs, t-shirts and other gift items
