the 6'6" Utility

Recently built 2 versions of the Utility shape. An EPS/Epoxy version, built for Wil of OneL Productions, uses our latest carbon-fuzed epoxy resin. As you can see, we are now able to get the resin to be bright white, rather than the previous black.








The bioboard version is glassed in 100% organic hemp and a bio-epoxy resin partially derived from plant materials. Given the camo look, I'm calling this one the "Eco-warrior" in honor of Suneil who we originally designed the shape for. Suneil also happens to be a real eco-warrior for The Nature Conservancy.




Dims:6'6"x20_1/2"x2_5/8"

My Homebreak away from Home

There's nothing better than surfing your homebreak on a good swell. Yeah, other spots may be bigger, more hollow, less crowded .... whatever. There's a spot in Hawaii (sorry I can't say exactly where) that we've been visiting for the past few years and there's this super-fickle reefbreak that only goes off on a BIG swell and in the narrowest of swell windows. In the years past, it always seems we just seem to miss the swells that make this place go off, so we usually have to find other spots to surf. Well, this time we finally got lucky and our visit was timed perfectly with a nice sized Hawaiian swell (i.e. North Shore was double to triple OH). This swell was able to wrap through for some fun-sized shoulder-head high surf, all day on friday.

I was able to test our 6'8" bio-epoxy/hemp board which made the quick pitching drops nicely. The EPS core keeps this board fairly light given the bio-glassing treatment and was super maneuverable and loose. Being a regular foot, I'm never great at surfing backhand. So we left this board with some friends who are full-time watermen and truly believe in the boards we're making. We're hoping they can give the bioboard a run for its money in some pure Hawaiian juice. Looking forward to hearing what they have to say. Thanks to the O.P. crew for helping us out with some R&D!
Saturday, the swell declined fast so we took to the SUPs for some fun, knee-high lefts. We rode the S.O.S. (Sean Ordonez Shapes) 11'11 and 10'10 Big Red and Big Blue shapes. Really versatile SUP shapes that can be surfed off the tail. http://www.sosshapes.com/2006/home.html


By Sunday, it was flat, so we took to the 6 man canoes, and were able to see and HEAR a group of humpbacks who had been hanging out off the coast for the past few weeks. Truly an incredible experience, especially to hear them communicate. Here's one our cousin Pete caught on his camera. Thanks to Danny for the paddle out.

Bioboards at ISPO 2008

Got back last week from Munich, Germany where I spent the week at the ISPO 2008 Show to represent the prototype bioboards we designed and built. We're happy to say the boards were a hit and were nominated as a finalist for two awards, the Brand New Award and the Volvo EcoDesign Award. ISPO is pretty much the biggest sporting goods show in the world.... kinda like ASR on steroids. Everything and everyone in the action sports community was there, from pro-athletes to manufacturers to brands to concepts, complete with Euro-style fashion shows. Got lots of good feedback from the European action sports community, including many German river surfers. Even pro-snowboarder and new enviro-spokesperson for Rossignol, Jeremy Jones, stopped by and wished us luck. The Volvo EcoDesign Award was an impressive all-day event, with seminars and an Oscars-type awards show. We were honored to have been nominated for the boardsports category, alongside well-known brands like Arbor and Salomon. Below, you can see our board sitting atop a Firewire board. We were up against big companies with big budgets, so we really appreciate the ISPO and Volvo committees for recognizing our effort.

http://www.ispo-sportsdesign.com/award/categories/board-equipment.html

The reception for the concept boards was great and I got to hang out with some really cool folks, especially the guys from Finisterre, Folha Seca, and Kapitol Reef who were also nominated for the same awards. Finisterre makes some dope eco-conscious technical outerwear geared for the surfer. Cool vibe to their brand as well. Folha Seca is a Brazilian crew who designed a biodegradable skateboard using an open source approach to ecodesign.

Stay tuned!