Sacred Craft 2010-San Diego

Phew!!! We just finished up a great weekend down at the San Diego Sacred Craft. We had a booth, and as usual we hooked up with our good friends at Hydrodynamica and Karl Ekstrom which makes for a very happening booth, and a range of boards that can't be matched by any other booth in the show! Thanks to all of the friends of Wegener Surfboards and lovers of all things alaia for stopping by and saying hello! And I dare say we walked away with a few more converts to the cause!

Richard Kenvin, John Elwell, and Carl Ekstom talking design and story...Thanks to Richard for putting this together and reintroducing the world to Bob Simmons and his designs.

Our friends at Korduroy.tv hosted the movie lounge where they debuted some great short films. They also put together a display very reminiscent of my backyard!

It's always great to see old friends at these events, and getting to meet new friends... Jon was stuck in the booth all day so I'm afraid I had to represent in most of the photos. Margaret (Bing and Jacobs surfboards) Riley, Charger Linda Benson, Me, and Farrah (I mean Robyn).

Bing Copeland and Carl Ekstrom catching up... and talking about surfboard design...how'd ya guess?

One of my favorite SC moments was when a surfer from Barbados came to check out the boards...he said that he smelled the booth long before he saw it. He said it smelled like his grandmother's house! He learned to surf on pieces of wood and there are still guys that won't ride foam boards because they are too slow! He and other converts to foam have the kids take off in front of them on the planks so that they'll make a good lip for them to smack. He said they can never catch the kids so everyone catches waves and paddles away happy! He also mentioned the best boards were made from school desks...so school teachers watch out!

Tom Carroll stopped by to say hello and say that he loves his Tombstone/paipo that Tom made him! He apparently hurt his ankle recently so he couldn't surf but staying out of the water was out of the question! Jon and I just nodded a little star struck and of course spaced on taking a picture!

I found this guy a little lost looking for the booth where he was supposed to drop off some mags and a skateboard. I asked what booth he was looking for...and as it turns out he was looking for our booth. Jeff Ho (Jeff Ho Surfboards, Zephyr Productions) and me!

Congratulations to Ryan Burch; notorious yard possum...and now the winner of the YOUNG GUNS Of Shaping! His fingers bleed and he gets blisters every time he shapes...makes me cringe looking at his hands after, but I'm sure after another 1000 boards or so he'll get some callouses!

Stay tuned as we have a few more pictures of the show for you...Jon thought that there was one booth in particular that deserved it's own post!

Overall, the was show was a success and a lot of fun...there were a few gliches and hang-ups at the set-up and take-down, and I do have to say that I did miss the board demos in the morning. They are usually a great opportunity for the curious to try the boards...as well as getting a surf in before a long day indoors! I hope you join us at the next one! Santa Cruz here we come!!!

Thanks,

r

Gabezilla

Gabe picked up his new board last week. It is a 9'8'' Gabezilla Model. Concave 2/3 rds way down.

At the sacred craft

These are a few more of the items we will have at the Sacred Craft. Above is a 8'0'' orange foam bluegill with square tail. This one is looking like a classic Simmons, That guy really knew what he was doing. Below is a 6'1''. This board is pretty sick, shape and wood layout.

There will be various alaias. 5'10 Peanuts to 7'6'' Anchovies. Above, 6'7'' with really nice grain.

4'0'' Belly board. I will have a couple of blanks and some some hand planes, and the hollow redwood board from a post a couple of weeks ago. I kind of made these boards for myself and would like to keep them all, but it is hard to make a living that way.

hollow experimental alaia/bluegill

This is my first chambered board. I thought would try a alaia template with some bluegill dynamics. I screwed together some est. 2 by 4s, shaped it until I hit some screws, unscrewed it and chambered the pieces, glued it back together and cleaned it up. The pictures are in various stages. I finished in time to take it to the Sacred Craft show this weekend. Come check it out. It came out 6'0''. It has some weight, but this could be good. If I do another this way, I think more wood can be chambered away.

Guiness book's youngest alaia rider

Terra took her dad, Sean, out on her alaia and taught him how to ride it. At the time of these photos I believe she was two and already passing the stoke.

LA Times

I made these boards for the LA Times. The Times has a booth at the US Open, and is there to demonstrate new graphic abilities for the paper. The surfboard are new examples of these graphics. Michael Persichina designed the layout and AOSA Image printed it out in a laminatable form. Besides the boards the booth has a photographic history of the US open. If you are in the area check it out. Also, you may have a chance to win the boards in a sweepstakes drawing

Hey gang, for those of you who live in caves or under rocks (like us) surfermag.com is having a battle of the blogs. Of course we all know that WFF is the hot ticket, but since the world has not been alerted yet... we hope you will take a moment and vote for Korduroy.tv. Cyrus and the gang are big supporters of Wegener Surfboards and put up information about many cool subjects. Please follow the link and vote.

Thanks, r and j W

http://www.surfermag.com/battle-of-the-blogs/