and we did it…

apologies for the long delayed ending to this particular chapter of the blog- the launch went off amazingly well, we were up against some serious surf, and so we had to be pretty careful about how we went about it, but there was a good crowd and we all had a real good time.

we travelled home safely yesterday. we are all exhausted, but glad to be home. sad, too. we made some really good friends in Malibu, and we had a lot of fun, whilst also working our tails off…

there’s a lot of debriefing and planning to do… :)

so, for now, peace and love. we’ll see you all soon.

thanks for being on this journey with us.

-suz

 

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‘this board is a piece of history’

Tim Dion, our new best friend and fin shaper extraordinaire, told us this on one of his visits. The boards that we are making, well, the design harks back to the first paddle boards to be paddled in open water, the fins reflect two distinct designs and periods in the history of surfing, and the shield design that we put on this weekend is reminiscent of shield designs from way back when too.

and yes, we blatantly stole our ideas from the great designs of the early days of surfing and paddling, with some guidance from our friends out here, and we are hopeful that the surfing and paddling community will embrace our ‘handcrafted in Malibu’ boards with all the love and care that we, collectively, have put into making them.

things are winding down here, yet they are also stepping up a notch- we’re putting on all our finishing touches, lacquer, epoxy, finish sanding, sugar coat, and that all involves a lot of waiting and drying, but at the same time, everyone here is getting pumped for this to be finished and for the boards to be launched, to actually get out and paddle them. to test their seaworthyness.

we’re pretty excited.

(here’s a little peek into the making of these boards, and where they’re at now…)

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Home Stretch

I thought I’d give you all a nice shop update-

Our logo and grip shield pattern went on the deck. A deep walnut stain works incredibly well to brighten up a specific area on these boards. The edge was then be outlined with a little household latex, which seemed to just place itself in a perfect curve around the pattern. Next we faired all of the frames and stringers that shape the board from the interior. Running a straight edge across the top of the board is a quick and painless way to find your hills and valleys and fix them up.  Once the tops of the frames, stringers and sheer were all fair and ready, a generous heap of glue consistency resin mix was applied to all of those edges to receive the deck; a simple two man (or woman) job. Since the deck was cut exactly for the shape for the hull, setting it atop the hull assembly is as easy as putting the lid on a tupperware.

HA!

Ok.. here’s what’s really happened.

Our logo and grip shield pattern did in fact go on the deck. However.. do you know how hard it is to hand draw a duplicate logo (quite large, in fact) on two different boards? I don’t either, but Luis didn’t seem all too thrilled about it. As for the stain.. a minwax walnut would have been delightful, but budgetary restrictions birthed a mean creativity within us. After trials of coffee stain (with and without cream), powerade, and pepsi, we decided to go with a lovely stain made from equal parts pepsi one and hershey’s syrup. It looks like ebony and smells like a sundae. Yet.. chocolate doesn’t quite dry the way proper stain does. So? We’ve had to “re-texture” this deck design several times to use chocolate’s natural glossyness to add depth to our wood grain as opposed to letting it just puddle and shine like melted kisses. The edge line, you ask? It was ok. I think MPC’s Mike Morgan almost had aneurysm from trying to paint in a fair curve.. which he described as the definition of stress.. pretty significant coming from a youth programs director. Then, we faired everything. It was horrendous. The kids couldn’t quite grasp the idea that if you hold a sander to a surface and then start a conversation with your friend about the awesomeness of goldfish crackers, you WILL gouge the surface… which means the rest of the lines now have to be brought down to that height. Wonderful indeed. Finally.. we glued the deck. Did I mention we ran out of thickener for the epoxy? No? Well maybe I didn’t mention it because I bought double what the plans called for… the kids must’ve been eating it. So we scooped handfuls of wood dust and plane scraps off of the floor/tables/cabinets/sawhorses/tools/shirts to create a lovely wood glue resemblant of three month of clam chowder. Incredible. Yet, as always, it worked. Everything worked. Even using a heap of bibles to weigh down the deck onto one of the hulls when we ran out of cinder blocks worked. That’s the beauty of wooden boats.. they go with it. They let you give a little here and take a little there without much of a fuss. Beautiful.

 

fairing.

logo.

 

Thanks for being with us!

Jesus

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hula pie?

so much for normality.

today was a day of learning curves.

luis in the waves with a surfboard.

jesus in the shop learning to place fins.

mike in the van planning a steep teaching curve.

me learning to let go a little, use the math that was hammered into me, accept peoples generousity.

we all had to learn to let go of our schedule, to lean a little more on each other and those around us, and to be grace-filled people.

it’s definitely getting to that point, that breaking point, that exhaustion, running on pure adrenaline, haven’t had enough time off point and so the little things get big and the big things…. phew.

but the end is in sight. this week, after the weekend, will be a delight.

the deck design is almost ready, the fins are in place, the boards are readying themselves for their unveiling. my goodness things are shaping up around here, and the conversations? well, they just make me laugh. and want to bring all these people back to camden. the things we could do. the ideas, the energy… it is marvellous. hopefully we’ll catch some more of that and you’ll get to experience it too.

until then you’ll have to make do with my witterings.

peace and love -suz

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