So I was all set to paddle out yesterday, but when I pulled out my new Michel Junod Pumpkin Seed out of my sweet surf rack, I nearly had a heart attack.  In the middle of the bottom side of the board there were dozens of stress fractures running from rail to rail. CRIPES! (See [...]

Seeing The Present was the first time I’d ever heard of Michel Junod or seen his surfboards in action.  In fact, Michel Junod was at the screening of the movie when I saw it.  When I got home from the movie, I immediately Googled it up.  There was some peripheral information, but nothing direct from [...]

Surfing in a age after so many board revolutions have occured, I often wonder what’s next, or if anything is next.  There hasn’t been too much progression in board design in the last 20 years.  (I’m not saying there haven’t been little innovations here and there.) I was starting to get the feeling that going [...]

It’s hard to think about breaking boards when the ocean is so flat like it is today (assuming you are reading on the day this posts).  But just one week ago the whole of southern California was firing and we were loving it.  But as we reported last week, we loved it at a price. [...]

After Tracey recently turned me on to Hess Surfboards, my radar has been tuned to finding other enviroboards.  Yesterday I stumbled upon Grain Surfboards, a board company in Maine that makes “locally grown” wood boards.  The “About” info on their site summarizes everything in a nutshell: “Mike LaVecchia combined his love of board sports with [...]

You may remember us writing about Duane’s broken board recently.  His replacement board just came in.   It’s an 8’5″ x 19″ x 2.75″ gun, very similar to the one he broke.  More interestin though is what Duane wrote to me: It’s an 8’5″ North Shore gun made for double to triple overhead surf.  One thing [...]

Poor Mike had a collision with a buddy today while surfing.  Took a significant gash out of the bottom of the board.  It’s funny how right-of-way rules go right out the window with friends sometimes.  Though, Mike said he didn’t even notice the ding until after he’d gotten out of the water.  (Looks like it’s [...]

My buddy Duane lives on Oahu.  We exchange emails about great surf sessions regularly, and I often use him as my surf guru when I need advice.  He’s been surfing for 20 years or more and in Hawaii, so I trust his knowledge.  This past winter when things rockin’ here I emailed him and said, [...]

This is my favorite board, my trusty log.  It goes by several names: The Red Scare, The Red Menace, The Comrade… but Jeff took a ride or two on it and named it “Kruise-chev”, and now that’s the name it is most often called.  The shaper was a dude named Ryan Horlacher for a company [...]

I’ve been jealous of Josh’s Harbour Electric (the orange board you often see Josh on in the pictures).  So I had my own made for me.  I was driving home from El Porto last Friday when Harbour called and said my board was ready for pick up!  Oh joyous day when you get to pick [...]

This is a Becker Hybrid, a pin tail with a 2+1 fin set up. (7′ 4″ long x 20 1/4 wide x 2 1/2″ thick) It has a lot of float which makes it awesome for paddling and catching waves, and it has a pretty sweet turn and is quite a bit faster than my [...]

I had the Green Machine custom made for step two in my learning process.  I’d been surfing for about a year at this point with Elwood and was ready to bring the size down a bit and bring the maneuverability up.  This poor thing has really taken a beating.  I still had plenty of learning [...]

The Pumpkin Seed (Pepito) was a birthday gift from my lovely wife.  This is the shortest board I own (and probably the shortest I’ll ever go).  The sweetest feature on this short board is the width and float.  Both tend to be a bit more than your usual short board which gives a little extra [...]

This was my learner board.  I found this board for $200 at Huntington Surf and Sport.  I had not been surfing in a decade and decided it was time to try it again.  Even after all I have learned about the sport of surfing and board shape, I still think this is a great board.  [...]

The Spherical Revolver was a super lucky find.  For years I have been going to Harbour Surf Shop for all my repairs and equipment.  (The staff there is great and incredibly helpful.)  And for years I had been drooling over the Revolver model.  But Harbour boards are not cheap and I never ponied up the [...]