Blog

In my head, this blog is great way to keep my website dynamic and fresh. In my head, I update it daily with new pictures and shaping experiences and musings about that magical, salty pursuit that turns us into frothy kids. In reality, I haven’t touched this blog in so long that I couldn’t even remember how to log in. I would like to think that I’ll get back on the train, but if I drop the blogging ball (again) and this post is years out of date by the time that you’re reading it, please know that I’m still very likely covered in foam dust at this very moment, and I’d still love to talk to you about a board, or boards in general, so please drop me an email, or give me a call, or–even better–just come on by and follow the sound of the planer. (Don’t forget the beer.)

Jeff

So I’ve completely fallen of the blog wagon (blogon?) so far in 2014. I blame Instagram (@spindriftsurfboards), but I’m committed to getting back to my virtual roots. So here we go…

Stringers add strength and stiffness to a board. When the stringer–the stiffest part of the board–is down the middle, some of the energy loaded into a turn is lost to torsion (twist). In the case of boards with parabolic stringers, like these two Standard Issues, the rails become the stiffest parts of the board, thereby minimizing torsional forces and enhancing the nose to tail flex that makes a board feel lively.

The absence of a center reference point makes them a pain in the ass to shape, but the performance improvement is real for high level surfing, and I’ve wondered for years why we don’t see more of them in the water.

Painting day. Keeping it clean…

New tee shirts in stock! Art by Adam Kidder (AKA Al Ortiz, jr.)…
Who’s ready to represent??

The work of Spindrift OG Adam Kidder, (AKA Al Ortiz), including the piece that he did for the new Spindrift tee shirts, is being featured on the Korduroy TV blog…
http://www.korduroy.tv/blog/2013/exhibitionists-al-ortiz

Laminates and decals in some new colors…any takers?

The challenging thing about shaping multi-stringer boards is that the stringers intersect the outline mid-rail and wood and foam do not shape the same way…this one was worth the effort.

Part of a batch of logs headed to the Board House in Port Aransas. Ted, the owner, asked me to base them off of a hand shape that Donald Takayama. It’s always interesting to make a study of another shaper’s work, especially when it’s one of the greats. RIP DT.

Sometimes the best shapes for groms are the ones that round out their uncle’s quiver.

Weaponry, headed for undisclosed semi-tropical locations.

The injured reserve squad gathering dust in the corner. One, old before its time, just doesn’t run like it used to. One is awaiting a major transplant to get back into action, and one has had a long and storied career but will probably never get back in the game.

Just one for the rest of my surfing days, this might be it: mid-range egg, 4 + 1 fin set, belly in the nose for glide when it’s small, down rails in back for driving off the tail when it’s not…custom for Gary.

Nothing feels quite as smooth as a single fin rounded pin…

I’ve received lots of rad pictures over the years of my boards in random and far flung places. As seen in NYC, New Zealand, and Portugal…

Sterling blazed through town in his Baja rig to pick up his Mexicali Especial.

Custom blanks! A stack of shorties with Appelcore blue-natural-blue and some logs with half-inch cedar.

Painting day…pulling tape and seeing fresh clean lines of color is fun no matter how many times you’ve done it.

It’s not often that a customer asks me to shape a contemporary single fin shorty, but I love it when it happens…

Came across this shot from last year of Spencer’s 5-fin convertible rocket fish.

Nothing halts after hours production like solid red on the baby monitor.

Even after all these years, seeing fresh boards on the laminating rack still makes me feel like a kid.

Young Jaren will soon be trading this in for a weapon of a different sort. Best of luck at boot camp, amigo.

I had the privilege of shaping this egg as a fund raiser for the Coastal Bend chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. 6’10 single fin, poly foam core glassed with Entropy bio-based epoxy resin. Coming soon to an auction near you…

Mid-shape concave check on an EPS modified Mexicali Especial for Sterling.

Spindrift Surfboards, bringing couples closer since 2003.

This twin keel fish is currently in the belly of a plane bound for El Salvador, where next week’s surf forecast is calling for 6′ @ 20 seconds. Sean is about to find out what 6th gear feels like…

Revisiting old haunts in SC. 10 years ago this visual would have been accompanied by the whine of a planer and puffs of foam dust. Note poor man’s AC (door cut in half to accommodate a box fan). Roots!

As someone who is constantly thinking about board design, picking the right board for the conditions, blah blah blah, there is something strangely liberating about relinquishing control of my equipment choices. In SC for a week, surfing small background swell on this (circa ’82), and couldn’t be happier.

This 5’1 Eps grom rocket is waiting for young Bradley when he gets home from NSSA Nationals in Huntington Beach…

This one is going west with Jaren when he strikes out to find his fortune in the Maine Corps later this summer.

We’ve made the long overdue switch to Entropy Super Sap bio-based resin for our epoxy laminations. Reduced environmental footprint with no compromise in performance. Available over EPS or poly cores.

One of our old posters from the archives. Art by Spindrift test pilot Chris Aeby.

Finally found the right application for my last Clark foam blank, which has been buried and all but forgotten in my blank storage. Funny how long the relics of that era have persisted.

Elegant curves, no parts without purpose…not unlike your favorite chunk of foam and fiberglass.

Crabby came around with photos of the Hosoi Hammerhead skate deck and asked me to update his double ender. Just add trucks.

My wife disappeared to Indo for 10 days and came back with this pair of BALIbong shorts (note the not quite Billabong logo and the reference to skateboarding), for which she paid 29,000 rupia (about $2.75 US). They may be ugly but at least they are really, really long. Thanks Honey.

When young Mitch first came around for a board, he was fresh out of high school and bagging groceries at the store down the street. He’d stop by at the end of each week and put a few dollars toward the board; I think it took him 6 months to pay it off.

Now he and I have done so many iterations of his go-to 5’4 that he has his own dedicated template.

/>

Caught up on custom orders so finally getting back to a fresh batch of handplanes. Roots!

Testing new color combos on the shaping room door…

After over a decade of production with Clark Foam modified Hitachi planers, it’s time to elevate my game.

Built for speed.

Coming soon to a t-shirt near you.
::www.adam.kidder.com::

Elegant is elegant, regardless of your vehicular persuasion. We’re all here for the ride.

Davis contemplates curves for his new single fin speed egg. #takethehighline.

Mowing through fish blanks like they’re going out of style. Must be summer…

When our favorite local environmental super hero, Neil M, asked me to turn his magic 8’0 into a 6’5, it took me a quick minute to catch on. Now that it’s done, I think he might be onto something…

Pretty funny that a board as fast as this 5’10 rocket is destined for a guy known as tugboat.

After dinner wisdom, delivered in cookie form.

This Spindrift OG, known in shady circles as Salruzian and Benzario, normally holds it down in Dirty Jersey, but he recently went feral in undisclosed locations down south and sent us these tokens of his affection.

Evolution is absolutely the name of the game, but it’s sort of flattering when someone asks for an exact replica of a previous shape. 5’8 hybrid quad for Kacie.

Random sighting…thanks Coffee Waves!

I always like looking up at fresh shapes on my overhead rack. Sometimes it feels like I’m looking at the outline through new eyes. Don’t let the shadows fool you…Custom rocket fish for Jacob.

Johnny K stopped by mid-shape and snapped a few images on the sly…

Look closely…makable?

New hybrid fish, bound for Costa Rica…

Mike from Luling, TX finally made it down to pick up his new egg. As for how long it has been on my rack, suffice it to say that it is fully cured…
Thanks Mike!

I was wandering around City Hall today and grabbed a picture of this fish, which is one of two boards that I shaped for the City of Corpus Christi Parks and Rec Department a while back (art by Jason at Tribe Surfboards). So, if you find yourself down there exercising your civic responsibility, stop by the 3rd floor and tell them how much you like their sign…

The first few big fronts of the fall have pushed through the Coastal Bend, which means favorable winds and big winter drift sessions are on the way.  We’ve had a lot of guys come through looking for rounded pin performance shapes like these, designed to drawing high lines and hold in the hollow stuff.  Give us a call if you’re looking for something to help you make the most of the winter season.

It’s been a pretty consistent winter here on the Third Coast, and we’ve been working on some new additions to our texXsas outlaw series lineup.  There’s a lot of variation in these concepts, but all of these boards are about helping local surfers make the most of local conditions, which generally means shorter, flatter and wider.

We’re in the middle of a complete web overhaul (luckily our turn-a-round time for boards is better than for web updates), but in the mean time, check the Boards page and Gallery for some shots of recent boards.

Spindrift is pleased to announce a new partnership with CO-OP Supply, a new outfitter in downtown Corpus Christi. Stop by to check out a couple of hand shapes and some of our latest hand planes.

Speaking of hand planes, we’ve been doing quite a few lately out of Pawlonia (grown in S. Carolina!) as well as old skate decks! We’re offering a variety of templates, and each of the planes made from an old deck is completely unique in the way that it bears the markings of its former life. If your quiver doesn’t include one of these and a set of fins, you’re missing out on some of the most fun you’ve ever had in the surf. We’ve got a stash of Pawlonia blanks and old decks and are taking custom orders, but if you happen to have an old skateboard that you’re ready to see rise from the ashes, send it our way and we’ll style you out. Or, if you feel like going after it on your own, feel free to drop us a line with any questions.

Happy New Year to everyone out there.  The latest for the winter at Spindrift Surfboards is WOOD.  We’ve finally gotten around to finishing out a few Alaias  out of Pawlonia grown right here in the USA (but haven’t gotten around to taking any pictures of them yet), and we have been giving new life to all sorts of old wood in the form of super sleek, one-of-a-kind hand planes.  Pics coming soon!

On the surfboard front, we’ve been building a lot of 5-fin convertible diamond tails…relaxed rocker + round outlines + high performance bottom contours = your new addiction.

Stay warm and don’t be a stranger.

On the design front, we’ve been taking advantage of the consistent early spring swells to refine a few new models for sum sum summer time. Keep an eye out for our newest variation on the fish platform. Blazing down the line speed and a huge sweet spot with tight control in the pocket when surfed off the tail.

We’ve also been playing with different variations of a moon tail quiver killer. Like so many of the boards we design for everyday conditions, these boards are shorter, wider, and flatter than standard issue thruster shortboards, but they have very high performance bottoms, accelerated tail rocker, and sensitive, speedy rails.  Like a diamond tail, the moon tail shortens the rail line, giving you a tighter turning radius.

In anticipation of summertime south wind and big, sloppy wind swell, we’ve been developing a few models of hand planes with the hope of stuffing ourselves into some hollow inside sections. If you’ve never tried one, you’d be amazed out how much fun you can have on an otherwise frustrating day, not to mention what you can do once conditions actually turn on. The plane below is shaped out of poplar and finished in linseed oil (no chemicals!). As for bottom design, belly in the front gives way to a huge concave in the back half of the plane. Pics of other models, including a lower volume, rounded pin tail barrel rider coming soon.

Welcome to the family, Spencer and Ashton!

After a few years of making stock and custom kite boards for the guys at ProKitesurf, we’ve started introducing new materials and composite construction into the mix. The board below has a 1/8″ thick balsa inlay in the deck to enhance compression resistance.

Now that we’re emerging from the longest summer flat spell in recent memory, we’re seeing a lot more interest in SUPs here on the Third Coast.  We’re making everything from big cruisy down-winders for flatwater paddling to high-performance quads for progressive surfing, so give us a ring.  We can also put together packages including a carbon paddle, traction, and board and paddle bags.

Summer doldrums = time for long overdue web updates. The sequence below is of a recent two-part compsand travel board that is a collaboration between Spindrift and engineering mastermind Jarrod Oldham of Oldham Composites (www.compsand.com). Shots of some of our other collaborations are below on this page and in the Gallery.

In other news, we’ve been getting great feedback on our most recent batch of parabolic stringer performance shorties (available in both poly and eps/epoxy) – check the Gallery for some other pics.

Spindrift is really pleased to announce a new partnership with SOMA Air Bag Designs,  which is producing revolutionary new board bags that will change the way you travel.  We  are please to be able to offer all of our out of town customers the option of having their board shipped in a SOMA bag.  We’ll also be helping to represent SOMA here on the Third Coast, so drop us a line if you have questions about the bags, and shop owners, please give us a shout if you might be interested in adding SOMA products to your lineup.

Happy New Year! Thanks to everyone who helped make 2008 such a blast for us here on the Third Coast.  We look forward to another great year in 2009.  We hope to do more with alternative materials and construction methods, particularly compsands, this year, and as always we’ll be working to find tune our shapes for optimal performance in local conditions. Keep an eye out for some performance shapes with parabolic stringers coming soon, too.

In an effort to reduce the environmental footprint of our production, we are pleased to offer Homeblown Foam’s Biofoam in lieu of traditional polyurethane blanks — all of the performance of traditional PU foam with half the guilt. This board was done in Biofoam with a bamboo cloth deck inlay and was glassed with (tinted) epoxy resin.

Our first batches of compsands are finished! The single-fin egg (7’2) below has a bamboo veneer and carbon rails over an eps foam core; the single-fin shorties (5’8 & 5’10) are done without the carbon rails. Bamboo is a rapidly renewable natural resource with tremendous potential in surfboard manufacturing. Bamboo veneers add strength and durability and reduce the quantities of other chemical and manufactured components used in the board building process.

The 3-fin bonzer (6’8), performance shortboard (5’10), and quad-fin fish (5’10) in the second row below are made with balsa skins and rails over eps.

Spindrift Surfboards is really pleased to announce a new partnership with Jarrod Oldham of Oldham Composites, a founding member of the international cooperative know as www.compsand.com, which was recently featured in Drift Magazine. ‘Compsand’ is short for composite sandwich, an alternative mode of board construction that involves vacuum bagging wooden outer shells onto EPS foam cores to yield lighter, stronger, and livelier boards with amazing flex character and a timeless aesthetic.   Starting in early summer, we’ll be offering Spindrift custom shapes made with our own hybrid composite technology. Stay tuned for photos of our first prototypes, featuring bamboo veneers and carbon rails.

Spindrift Surfboards is excited to be working with Marimekko Miami to offer custom boards with designer fabric inlays. Marimekko is a Finland-based design brand that offers an insane variety of fabric patterns and colors, which we’re combining with our custom shapes to offer the next level of art and function. Drop me an email if you’re interested in incorporating a custom fabric inlay into your next board.