It's Warming Up

 Magicseaweed Chart

Tom Lowe: In Winters Arms

Sea Badgers

Southern Lines

I am really keen to get down to Chile one day but this years trip going to be Peru in March and hopefully will find myself scoring point breaks like this.

And I'm keen to check out the Andes too.

A Shoal of Fish

This is my current workable quiver. The genesis for all three of these boards is Steve's own Magic fish,  a MR style modern twinzer fish. The middle board came first, which was made as a good allrounder and last March I took it to Indonesia. The board goes amazing in all kinds of conditions, but I felt I wanted something extra for fat weak waves and something else for bigger more challenging waves but still retain the feel of the original board to ease transition between the boards. So, Steve recently shaped for me a shorter, flatter and fatter version for little waves and a longer, slimmer and drivier version for bigger waves. So, all three boards have similar characteristics, just tweaked for different conditions. 
 
Left: 5ft 8" x 20.75 x 2.75" small wave quad. The bottom shape is a subtle flat - single concave - double concave vee between the fins. I asked Steve to incorporate some of what he has learned from making his Lumus model. The rocker is very flat and rails boxy helping the board to get up and plane quickly. This lift seems to keeep the board loose and lively even in the smallest of waves. The fin setup is a Neal Purchase Junior style Quartet. Which seems to give the board lots of speed and drive, but still be loose. 

Middle: 6ft x 20" x 2.65" all round performance fish with five fcs fusion plugs. Single concave - double concave - vee quad concave through the fins. Works well as a quad, twin with trailer fin or in powerfull and hollow surf as a quad with a knubster fin. Thinner railed and curvy where it needs it to perform turns in the steeper part of a wave but straight enough to be fast down the line or generate speed in small waves.

Right: 6ft 4" x 19.75 x 2.65" Step up Bonzer fish. This is a stretched out version of the 6ft fish. So, when the surf is bigger and, or hollow, I have a board that will the familar feel  of a fish but with more control and extra paddle power. With the nose/tail pulled in and the curvier rocker this board is starting to look more like a conventional shortboard. The Bonzer bottom shape, thinner rails and Bonzer5 fin system make the board fast, drivey and responsive. 

All three boards function different but have a similar feel which allows me to swop between the boards smoothly. There is also an amount of overlap between the functionality of each board, which means if it turns out bigger, smaller or slower etc, it does not matter as much as if I was transitioning between widely different boards. Each to there own and this is just what works for me. Thanks for the great boards Steve.

http://empiresurfboards.co.uk/ 
http://empiresurfboards.blogspot.co.uk/
 

Pikerust

Here is interview with local surfer/illustrator/botanist Chris Bisson, http://www.driftsurfing.eu/index.php/archives/10019.

http://pikerust.blogspot.co.uk/

Powder Dreaming

Watch "POWDER DREAMIN... Snowboard freeride" on YouTube