The Living Curl

When I went to pick up a new wetsuit from Wave Hounds, Todd tossed in a copy of The Living Curl. "You'll like this. It's old-school." With footage from the late fifties and early sixties, strung together and nasally narrated by Jamie Budge, this film was one of the first to show what was really going on in the water, at a time when Southern California surf pioneers were quickly becoming salt in a stew. Everyone was there, though. Lance Carson, Miki Dora, Dewey Webber, Johnny Fain, Mark Martinson, Corky Carroll. And there's lots of hot dogging, nose riding and So-Cal surfing sans crowd. So if you have a soft spot for films shot before all the bullshit, when surfing and style held hands and backside bottom turns were big business, pick up a copy of The Living Curl.

Churchkey Can Co.

On her way home from work on Friday, Ms.Wood stopped by Full Throttle Bottles in Georgetown and picked up a six-pack of this stuff. Hipster beer brewed by the Churchkey Can Co. It's a 'pilsner style beer' in a flat top can that you need a church key to open. Wait, what the hell is a church key? Well, when your father's father wanted a cold can of Coors, he needed something to open it. Something other than a sharp stick. And then came the can opener, er, church key.

Named after it's likeness to the keys used to keep churches closed, a church key is what your grandfather used to crack a cold one. Okay, so what's with this throwback stuff? Well, according to their website "It’s about the joy of drinking good beer—from the people you drink it with to where you drink it and, now, how you open it." We can dig it. Which is why we snatched a six-pack. So, how'd it taste? Like a pilsner with a bit more bite. Worked well with hot dogs and hamburgers. And was it worth the effort? I'd say so. Something fun for when there weren't any waves. Beer is never bad.

Click here to learn more about the Churchkey Can Co.

Cali Haze

A beautiful bit of film featuring Troy Mothershead, Corina Barnick and Richard Balding. Filmed at San Onofre, Churches and Doheny in August of 2010. As seen on The Nineplus Group.

Watermelon Water & Milky White Mustaches

Memorial Day weekend is always a shit show. All of the inner city 'surfers' head west for the first time since Labor Day. Kook stacks and coolers. Five friends in a fully loaded Ford Fiesta. Suppose we're no different. Just the two of us this time, though. Left late on Friday and arrived to find Shawn and Quyen cornholin' at their campsite. We had a few beers and went to bed. Woke up early enough to avoid some of the onshore wind. It was waist high... maybe. I hand a handful. But a west wind came on strong, so we decided to get out of the water for a few hours. Cornhole and a couple of cold ones.

I paddled back out shortly before sunset. It was ugly out there. Grabbed a couple and came in. Sunday morning was the same story. Onshore wind and a small swell. Should have suited up at sunrise! There wasn't much to work with, so we spent the rest of the day cornholin' and killing time around the campfire. Monday morning made up for all of it, though. All of the onshore wind, the shitty swell, the rain and cloudy conditions. It was shoulder high or better when I first went out, and there wasn't any wind. Shared a peak with three other people. Had lots of lefts and a handful of rights. Even ran to the nose two or three times. It was the right way to end an otherwise ugly weekend!

Fancy Footwork

Karissa can't make up her mind. One minute she wants a Surf Thump, the next a Nathan Adams. So on Friday, when she shoulda been working, she instead sent me this - a short video featuring Cyrus Sutton surfing an Aquatic Almond. Guess I'll add another log to her ever growing list. This one's a 9'7" pintail with a step deck, and was designed by Sutton specifically for surfing Cardiff Reef. According to Almond, "The outline is extra wide for stability and planning through sections... and the pintail has a slightly tucked rail for lively turns." Click here to learn more about Cy's Aquatic Almond.

Memo from the Surf Desk: Man Make Board

A lot of ingredients go into shaping a surfboard. Wood, foam, fiberglass. But most importantly, some stoke. The soul of a surfboard. Made by the hands of a man. Scraped and shaped in some small, well lit room. Or maybe an empty trailer parked in their driveway. It takes time, you know. Deciding which way to go. You have an idea of what you want. And what you want it to do. But no matter what, not one board behaves like another. Too much tail rocker. Just the right kind of rails. Narrow towards the nose. Every little alteration effects its performance. Gives it a personality. Some of your stoke.

And then came epoxy. Pop out pieces of shit, made in a mold. Soulless sticks. Not shaped but squirted - direct injection. They're vanilla to Bing's bubble gum. White rice to Almond's joy. I understand the appeal. They're fun and affordable. But they're anything but beautiful. There's no 10oz Volan or tinted resin. No glassed-on fins or five stringers. And you can't see the shaper's signature. The mark of a craftsman. Putting his name on something he's probably proud of. No. Instead you get a hollow hunk of expanded polystyrene, covered in epoxy resin. An ugly aesthetic and a sad signature. The mark of a man who's sold his soul. Sold his shape. So that GSI can sell more shit. More soulless surfboards.

Sincerely,

Duke Dangerpants

Lost & Found: Alex Knost

Short bit of film featuring Alex Knost and a small(er) single fin. Lots of butt down bottom turns and noserides to the right. Filmed by Tyler Manson before Al started with all that wild gesticulating and what not. Shawn hates the stuff. I'm on the fence, though. Do share your thoughts...

Surf Wagon: A Short Sprinter

Spotted this Sprinter outside of Morris' Fireside Restaurant in Cannon Beach, Oregon. Complete camper with dual sliding doors, all-terrain tires and three big boards on a tall top. That's one helluva van!

Jai Lee

This bastard could build a blanket fort on his board. So solid. Devilish and daring. All kinds of envious.

The Wrong Recipe

It was windy when we woke up. And our tent was wet. Took over an hour to get our shit together. Grabbed coffee and a crepe before scoping a couple of spots. It wasn't working. Onshore wind made waves into white wash. It was ugly out there. Todd suggested another spot, somewhere there wouldn't be much wind. It's not the friendliest place to peel. But it can work. Especially when it's windy. A small swell with a reasonable rate of return. Five, maybe six waves in a set. A few minutes apart.

There were six or seven surfers in the water when we showed up. Wasting waves. I watched as one after another peeled past. Small boards just don't work well on small waves. It's the wrong recipe. So I suited up and paddled out. Took to the outside, against the rocks. First peak I paddled into was knee high. Up and at'em. Twas a long left on my log. Given what I'd seen scouting from shore, I didn't think I'd be sharing many waves. How wrong I was. A few photos for fun.

Glen Terry Martin

"Whatever you do, grab a hold of what is real simple and easy for you, and what you like. Don’t abandon that to look for greener grass. Perfect it. You have plenty of time... that’s the pleasure of life, liking what you do every day. When you like it, you’re good at it."

- Terry Martin

Finterview: Greenough 4C

According to True Ames, George Greenough took cues from the pattern of human evolution when designing the 4C and "found it adaptive to become less wild and more upright." The 4C, a 9.5" fiberglass fin, shares the Greenough 4A's flex, but has less rake and a much smaller base. It's upright posture allows "midlength eggs and logs to make lower-radius, looser turns." I attached it to my 9'6" Harbour Banana Model, a board that came equipped with an upright-ish, 9.5" fin made by the Fibre Glas Fin Co. But for some reason, I found the 4C to feel a bit short. On an eight foot egg, or perhaps a board with a bit less tail rocker, the 4C would work well. But the Banana needed something stronger. Whiskey not wine.

Down the face the 4C felt fine, but the bottom turns were sloppy. Loose. Once I pulled into the pocket the 4C required me to stay toward the back of the board, trimming from the tail. It just seemed too short. Take a few steps forward and the Banana lost it's balance. All over the place up front. I became frustrated. Certain it was the fins fault. But alas, it was just the wrong tool attached to a long stick. I'd recommend the 4C to someone with a shorter board. Someone looking to make fast, loose turns, but maintain some stability down the line. I would not, however, suggest you affix the 4C to something you're accustom to making big, slow, calculated bottom turns on. Just wasn't what I wanted.

This Finterview originally appeared on Stoke Harvester's blog.