Art About Art

Steve Schirmacher recently aquired this cool, 6-9, Skip Frye fish with Thomas Campbell artwork.

He asked me to build a vertical stand for it so it could be enjoyed in his home.

This is what I designed and built for him.

Woods: African Mahogany  and Parota (the base).



Primary Colors

I got a visit from Dave Siteman (L.A.) and Michael West (O.C.), both aspiring shapers, and some orders for rudders for their new boards.  Both wanted some classic marine ply.........with some color.  Here's what we did.

 Baltic Birch, tri-fin set tinted coke-bottle aqua and Finnish birch, Simm-21 set tinted yellow for Dave.  

 And this Killer 9.5" flex out of Finnish birch, tinted with Fiberglass Hawaii red for Mike.

FUN STUFF GUYS!    aloha,        JC                                       

Lotta Fins Goin' Off = Too Busy To Blog

Business in February has been keeping my head down, bustin' out fins (a good thing).

 Terry Martin shapes X2 for Big Steve.  One-fin-Pin (L) and a classic noserider (R)

10" Cherry flex template for the OFP and a 10" pivot for the noserider.

 JC quads for the 7'5" and 7'11" T. Martin round-pins below.

T. Martin quads for Big Steve, sitting at Moonlight, waiting for cloth, fins, and color.

 Reverse D template.  Figured crotch Jatoba. Laminated ready to glass on.

                   9.5" lacewood fin.  This one is going on a T. Martin 10' balsawood Legacy Model.

 Center Box Fins!  Check it out.  These (3) are For sale;  Tattoo $265, Reverse D, $245, Bonzer $175
(plus Ca. state tax)  No Charge for local shipping.

 9.5" flame Maple.     Tatoo designs are woodburning and watercolor on a fine-sanded wood surface.

 Reverse D, full template.   Woods:  Imbuya (Brazilian walnut) and inlaid diamond of basketweave pattern, end-grain doug fir, with purpleheart border.

 All are custom fit bay hand.......Straight..........Snug.

6.5" Bonzer   woods:  Narrah and maple pinlines.

DT 7.5's For Takayama and Larry fuller

Donald Takayama and Larry Fuller brought to me one of Donald's 7.5" Fiberglass Fin Co, glass, box fins (lower right) and asked me to do (5) glass-on wood fins from the same template for some wooden boards he and Larry are doing.  I did (3) in figured zebrawood and (2) in redwood burl.  Donald asked me to do a 1/2" bead on top of the 7.5 template for the zebrawoods, slightly less on the redwoods.  Here they are.  These are laminated, ready to glass-on.  Finished height; 8.0"

 Redwood burl

 Figured zebrawood

Like all of Donald's stuff, and previous boards I have done with Larry, I'm sure these will turn out insane looking.    Stay tuned.

Italy~ Secret Point~ Francesco Di Tommaso on his "Tube Machine"

January, 2011, Francesco Di Tommaso

Northern Mediterranean, Southern Italy

When Storms in the Mediterranean kick up a long enough fetch for swells to hit Italy.....This happens.

Frigid winter air and Santa Cruz winter water temp's Don't keep Francesco out of the water.

Back in 2007, Francesco told me, "I'd like you to shape me a gun.....disguised as a longboard".

This is what I shaped for him.   This 9-0, pulled-in double ender, with low relaxed rocker, subtle single-into-double bottom contour and a set of reverse-D-template quads that I designed for it....... is deceivingly fast.  This is what he is riding in these photos.

Dimensions:

Francesco and his wife Manuela both have an impressive command of the English language, but I still find myself doing this sometimes......trying to interpret his exact meaning.

in Italian this means, "I'm cool with it".

After riding it, he has named it,  "Tube Machine" or T.M. for short.

Thanks for the photos.  Aloha Bro.

JC