GRASSHOPPER SURFBOARDS: June 2011

Monday, June 20, 2011

I jumped out of a plane

I have been in need for some major excitement so when my co-worker Jared asked me if I wanted to go skydiving with some of his friends I was totally in. We drove up to Walterborough to this stereotypical backwoods southern operation, complete with chained up rottweiler. Once you take the fork to the right on HWY 17 towards 'the borough' I think you immediately go back in time. Pretty awesome.

Jared and I getting ready for battle

This plane was awesome. I think it was held together mostly with duct tape and skydive stickers. It sounded like a lawnmower engine and topped out at 80 mph.

My chute depolyed early and i got to parachute from 10,000 ft..........................

not feeling so hot after 100 rollercoaster turns to burn altitude to get back to the ground

this is an irishman that went with us and also a random 87 year old man that jumped with him. what a badass!

the crew

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Epic Surf Adventure

Names and places have been changed to protect the innocent:

What's up Richard? Well the big board made it back from TUBE CITY with 3 man-sized caverns. BRO#1 and I agreed that next time we need even bigger boards. 7'6"-8'0" plus! I surfed a 9' Rawson Pipe Gun at massive TUBE CITY and got one wave. Also charged down to the legendary TEMPE ARIZONA WAVE TANK with Jenson Hasset (google him) and one of his bros who are both big wave hellmen who have lived on the North Shore for a while. Surfed huge 12' Hawaiian (they were saying) open ocean WAVE TANK on the 9'0" and caught one wave in 6 hours. They each caught 3 waves. Once BRO#1 and BRO#2 arrived we caught like 6 days in a row of double overhead plus TUBE CITY. BRO#2 only paddled out one or two days there. He said it was too big. The hurricane really messed things up. Short period wind swell and some wind associated with it. We only caught CHANDLER'S POINT "good" one evening. BURKHEARTS was so so. Surfed the big right on the hurricane swell that was long and fun. Surfed the left on a good decreasing swell but was too spaced out and not breaking right. Def. scored more on the CHANDLER'S POINT and BURKHEARTS last year. Surfed COW PATTIES pretty good. Surfed TROMBONES a few times (not a good wave - you basically have a good drop and maybe a turn and then just do cutbacks, not a real point more like going straight. hard to explain). SALSA POINT is where all the alex knost wannabe s and serious kooks go. Decent wave though but a little soft for my taste. Noone was really down there thats for sure. ALEX RODGERS paddled at TUBE CITY even after the onshore wind (one session after I broke my leash and struggled immensly (don't wanna say almost drowned), he did the same came in, got his board, and immediately paddled back out with no leash... he continued to loose his board and go straight back out 2 or 3 times - mad man!)

I broked my leash string after getting caught inside by a set after paddling back out after a wave. had to bail my board and pop - leash string. took 3 or 4 on the head then paddled outside. treaded water for 30-45 minutes deciding on what to do. i got 3/4 of the way to the river and decided to charge in after a set. got halfway and heard a ski take off. shit, that means there is a set. got caught in the impact zone for 6-8 waves and couldn't get in or out, foam is impossible to float it. i heard that the guys try to get rolled by waves to get pushed in. tried that and it worked. more foam and struggling then made it to wear i could stand. good experience to have that under my belt. felt pretty confident after that.

hope all is well and wish you could have been down there

can't wait to try the new quad

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Fresh off the boat

Jamie dropped off some freshly sanded/polished boards that I recently shaped.

A 5'6 boost machine, a potato shaped single fin, a noserider bound for NY, and a couple shiny sleek customs for my buddy Rhett, who is doing rogue wave. How cool is the salmon slider?!