European Fish Fry 2011
So I went to the Fish Fry last weekend. There were some nice looking boards on display. Unfortunately, due to the rain, it was all brought inside the pub but there was just about enough room.
Rob Lion's boards stood out to me. It's a shame he's off to shape in California. Rob's Royal Surfboards just embodied everything that's wonderful about the word 'custom'. Proper interesting, fun, deviant, innovative and seductive boards - I particularly liked his grey/rosy 'Post Modern Twinzer' and the black/blue/yellow incut. These small fish were foiled nicely with a bit of volume where it's needed but thinning out well to the rails. In fact as I looked around all the boards and shapes it was the massive variance in foil/volume management that really caught my attention. Some boards looking bulky, some thin and everything inbetween. As I've learnt about surfing I've always been reading about fish, swallow tails, moon tails, pintails and so on, but there doesn't seem to be nearly enough stress on the effect of foil which is perhaps more important in finding the right board or 'magic board' for you than subtleties/fashions of - especially tail - template.
The NT surfboards caught my eye, the Skip Frye long fish, the Kookbox 5'3 twin keel, Glide's & Luke Young's. It was all a bit of a hypnotic array to be honest and the delirium was further enhanced by the wonderfully odoriferous smell of Mr Natty's Beard Elixir.
One thread I was grateful to follow from seeing the Kookbox was that I looked up the shaper Jeff McCallum and found that he's recently been shaping a 'Stand Up Spoon'. In investigating the influence of George Greenough recently I'd actually wondered if anyone had made a spoon shape designed to be surfed standing up. It's not as thin and translucent as a real spoon but it's got a well scooped out deck: a beautiful board, looks intriguing and looks like fun!
Thinking about heritage - Bob Simmons was certainly muscling well in on Steve Lis' influence at the Fry!
It was a real shame that our annoyingly prevalent onshore winds spoilt a potentially super-fun swell leaving only a few to brave the messy and hefty lumps that were passing themselves off as waves that day. (I hadn't even taken my wetsuit as this had become a bit of a family outing rather than a me-me-me-surfy-surfy-surfy day.)
The only terrible thing was that my daughter was ill so we only stayed an hour or two and scarpered, unwittingly, fatally, well before Thom Yorke slipped in to delight everyone with a little accoustic set. It's things like this that make swearing an absolute fucking-wanking-bastard-shit-tit-arse necessity. (Excuse me.)
Rob Lion's boards stood out to me. It's a shame he's off to shape in California. Rob's Royal Surfboards just embodied everything that's wonderful about the word 'custom'. Proper interesting, fun, deviant, innovative and seductive boards - I particularly liked his grey/rosy 'Post Modern Twinzer' and the black/blue/yellow incut. These small fish were foiled nicely with a bit of volume where it's needed but thinning out well to the rails. In fact as I looked around all the boards and shapes it was the massive variance in foil/volume management that really caught my attention. Some boards looking bulky, some thin and everything inbetween. As I've learnt about surfing I've always been reading about fish, swallow tails, moon tails, pintails and so on, but there doesn't seem to be nearly enough stress on the effect of foil which is perhaps more important in finding the right board or 'magic board' for you than subtleties/fashions of - especially tail - template.
The NT surfboards caught my eye, the Skip Frye long fish, the Kookbox 5'3 twin keel, Glide's & Luke Young's. It was all a bit of a hypnotic array to be honest and the delirium was further enhanced by the wonderfully odoriferous smell of Mr Natty's Beard Elixir.
One thread I was grateful to follow from seeing the Kookbox was that I looked up the shaper Jeff McCallum and found that he's recently been shaping a 'Stand Up Spoon'. In investigating the influence of George Greenough recently I'd actually wondered if anyone had made a spoon shape designed to be surfed standing up. It's not as thin and translucent as a real spoon but it's got a well scooped out deck: a beautiful board, looks intriguing and looks like fun!
Thinking about heritage - Bob Simmons was certainly muscling well in on Steve Lis' influence at the Fry!
It was a real shame that our annoyingly prevalent onshore winds spoilt a potentially super-fun swell leaving only a few to brave the messy and hefty lumps that were passing themselves off as waves that day. (I hadn't even taken my wetsuit as this had become a bit of a family outing rather than a me-me-me-surfy-surfy-surfy day.)
The only terrible thing was that my daughter was ill so we only stayed an hour or two and scarpered, unwittingly, fatally, well before Thom Yorke slipped in to delight everyone with a little accoustic set. It's things like this that make swearing an absolute fucking-wanking-bastard-shit-tit-arse necessity. (Excuse me.)
European Fish Fry 2011, a set on Flickr.
Funny you should mention mccallum I have a 5'6 mford due in November! Should be fun!!
ReplyDeleteYum! Bam - and another spankingly tasty board!!! Your 'my quiver' artilce in Drift could become an annual feature! That board looks really, really appealing. Developing a taste for stringerless sliders eh? Really look forward to seeing this one.
ReplyDeleteMay I ask who is the purveyor of this fine surfcraft over here? Adam? Or have you ordered it from a shop in the US?
Jeff just did a shaping trip to uwl factory in France so from there via his mate matt in Bournemouth!!!
ReplyDeletePretty excited actually