A new Italian Master

My good friend and apprentice, Francesco DiTommaso, in Bari Itay, just sent me these photos of his first personally-built board. a beautiful round-pin quad. FD borrowed one of my templates and shaped, glassed and made the fins for his first board. FD spends every summer here in LaJolla and Carlsbad. Although FD has had the benefit Of several instructional sessions in the shaping bay with me and with Terry Martin, you don't pull this off without the heart and the eye for the craft. FD has both in spades. FD shaped this in is home town in Italty, minus all the production products and amenities that would be available to him here in So. Cal.

Great Job Grasshopper. Love ya Bro, JC

Hey China!......KISS MY A*#%!!

Smash-Ball paddle set for the Collins family. Purpleheart veneer over top-grade Finnish plywood.

Flame maple through and through inlays.

Phillipine mahogany handles with purpleheart and maple pinlines with leather wrist thongs.

Cooper Collins, for whom I have done a few groovy fins sets to go on his Terry Martin fish and quads, brought me a dilapidated set of smashball paddles, made in China (Bastards!!).

The plywood was chipped and delaminating and the plastic handles had fallen off of one of the two. He wanted to know if I could make him a better set (hee hee heee). These are what I came up with; high-grade aircraft plywood, dense, exotic wood veneer, hardwood handles and leather wrist thongs. They have a 3-step furniture grade finish. they are glued up with high-tech, water-proof wood glue. The wood will break before the glue bond will. BULLET PROOF!

The handles melt into the shape of your hand and they have a superb balance. They will last forever (almost) and they will look cool hanging on young Conrad's bedroom wall when they are not at the beach. The price for a similar pair would be $275 if anyone is interested.

It shouldn't be too difficult to draw the parallels between the smash-ball paddles and Chinese surfboards..................Know what I mean?

Aloha, JC

New BNR (balsa noserider) for Francesco From John Cherry and Terry Martin

Francesco's Balsa Nose Rider clamped up, ready for first glue-up. The red circles indicate where the board will be spot glued so it can be taken apart and chambered after rough shaping.

The BNR rough shaped by T Martin at Hobie. Ready to take apart and chamber.
Weight at this stage: 33lbs

FD's BNR in JC's shop, chambered by JC. Ready to re-glue and finish shape.

T. Martin finish-shaping FD's BNR in his home shaping bay in San Clemente, CA.

Hobie's head shaper, Terry Martin with FD's finished shape. Finished weight: 16.5 lbs

J. Cherry pivot fin for FD's BNR; African mahogany, flame maple, Peruvian walnut.

FD's BNR in the laminating room at Moonlight Glassing, waiting for a rudder.

Francesco setting up the "Balsa Blade" for a little tube excursion. near Bari, Italy.

Francesco DiTommaso, near Bari Italy, setting up for a nose glide across an empty section on the 10-0 "B B" that I built and shaped for him in the summer of '08.

See you this summer!

Aloha Grasshopper.

East Coast Bonzers

Old Soul Surfboards. New Jersey surfer/shaper, Joe Freeman is definately getting it right on the right hand coast. Check these out!

Photography: Steven McGlynn
They just don't get any cleaner than this!

I had the pleasure of doing a set of Bonzer-3 side fins for one of Joe's latest bonzers. These were done in Canary wood.

Thanks Joe. Keep on keeping the craft alive. Aloha. JC

9.0" glass-on Speed Rudder for C.T.

Finland birch plywood with maple-over-bubinga veneer.

This flexy, raked fin is going on a racy, Ice-blue-tinted, 9'-0" double-ender shaped by Christopher Tomlin.

Simmons keels for France

My friend, Renaud Cardinal of UWL Surfboards in France is doing a series of Mini-Simmons boards. I was stoked to get to do the double-foil, Simmons templte keel sets for him. Renaud left the wood selection up to me. I sent him 2 old school plywood sets and 3 in various exotic / premium woods. UWL builds some great boards over there. I'm anxious to see these boards when they are done. I will post them when the photo's show up.

(5) for France

Indonesian (Bali) Leeche wood

Brazilian walnut

California Redwood lace burl

8-0, 21st Century, Simmons Interpretation

This Cherry-red stick was inspired by my 10-0 Balsa Simmons reproduction and by some of the high-performance stuff RK, Joe Bauguess and a few others have been doing.

I wanted to incorporate some of the elements that really worked on the original board, but lose about 20 lbs, some length and blend in some modern performance characteristics.

It worked. This board Paddles and catches waves effortlessly. The low rocker and single-into-double concaves translate into superb hull speed. The forward placed, single-foil keels

give it superb lift at trim speed and it is a maneuverable rail-turner like a big fish.

The small, center, stabilizer fin adds just the right amount of tail drive and keeps the board from being too skaty. I think I'll be spending a lot of time on this one.

TwinFins: Cherry/Pavel template, redwood burl. Center fin: Mini-Simmons template

Moonlight Glassing did the incredible glass job.