The Kidman/Clams New Years Widowmaker

When it comes down to it, this is really all about surfboards. Looking at them, thinking about riding them and every so often actually riding them. This widowmaker collaboration by Joey Clams aka The Grey Ghost and Andrew Kidman aka Andrew Kidman seems like the perfect way to go out for 09. What could be better than well thought out, hand crafted pieces of beauty like these? (there's more pics at Joey's excellent blog here) Uncool as it is, I couldn't care less what people surf- if a popout longboard, generic lost Islands thruster or board shaped miles from your home makes you happy, then go for it. I do believe however that the truly creative and innovative minds out there deserve support and that's what we've been trying to do in our own half assed way here. The likes Kidman, Mackie, Griffin & Lynch, RK, Ekstrom and Bauguess deserve their due, especially in these times when a board can be knocked off and marketed within days thanks to the internet. What makes me happy is seeing people find the source and realize how great these boards are, and seeing guys like Clams and others over there in the blog list- Jamie at Head High, Rob Royal, Reverb, Manny Caro, Squire, Jeff Beck, Eli, Daniel Thomson and company who are all doing their part to keep surfing exciting. Thanks gents, and thanks to all of you who have supported our efforts over the last few years. Hopefully we'll have some good stuff for you in 2010.

Joe Curren Posters

Joe Curren made a quick visit through town on his way to another cold surf mission. He has an odd life, periods of small town domesticity, tucked away working on his creative outlets like photography and various aspects of woodwork (the guy inherited more than just his father's surf talent, he's got the serious craftsman vibe too) then all of a sudden he'll be scrambling around the country or the globe, three 12 hour drives in as many days and flights to places you'd not expect, and he maintains a quiet balance I can't manage even when I'm just driving to the beach. He's also just released two limited run posters through his website- they are the above shots of Rincon and Taiwan, they are 17" x 36" and available as a signed and numbered
run of 100. Visit his site for more info, and I hope he'll flow a few shots of his current trip for me to post once he's back and film is processed. I'm off for a surf.

DCC Update - December 2009

Sand levels have remained constant and high throughout December. During the last two weeks of December, regular south-westerly winds resulted in a slight reduction in the sand levels at the salt water pool end of the seawall, re-exposing some rocks, but the same winds have also resulted in an increase in the sand deposits at Lawyers Head. At the time of writing of this report, the sand bar, usually just off shore, had moved landward creating a very wide, flat beach at low tide.

Access to the beach remains available at all points, however access via the accessibility ramp might be difficult due to a slight drop at the bottom. Sand levels on the beach continue to be monitored regularly.

Ocean Beach has continued to remain popular with New Zealand Sea Lions and even Leopard Seals. Please keep an eye out for advisory signs (with an outline of recommended behaviour around these animals) that are now in place.

Asymmetricals are go!

It would seem all is happening fortuitously on the asym front- there will in fact be available a run of the Ekstrom planing hulls available. Obviously a fairly eccentric and custom surfboard, but very functional. Here's Del Moro working one at the Hydrodynamica blog. If you're interested, email info at foamandfunction.com and we'll help send you down that path. Fins by Geppy or boxes if you want 'em.

Wood Sim

A guy in Australia named Rohan made this, and it works really well- I've seen the photogrsphic evidence. Nothing but respect for those who take the time to make their own surfboard, especially when it winds up looking like this.

Mackie Photo Round Up

The good thing about working with these guys who are mad talented is every so often I can throw out the 'send some photos' call, and someone will deliver big tome. Mick Mackie did the honors this go-around, and yes, that single fin would have been a pretty epic board to have had around this past swell. Not that I'm complaining, I did alright. Mick's off on a New Year bindingless snow surf mission very soon, so hopefully there will be some shots of that too. Nice shirt he's got. Don't forget the Kidman shows, Dec 16 and 19 for all you NE coasters.

Thread Monthly #3- The Long Brothers

Long Brothers backyard by Trefz

Greg Long also by Trefz
Both photos from 'Thread', available signed.

One of the better moments of surf cinema (in my humble opinion anyway) is the Long Brothers sequence the Trefz opus- huge waves, low fi backyard party, all set to a genius Can song. Seems even better now Greg has won the Eddie, not bad for a kid from San Clemente. Congratulations all round.

Kidman in NYC

The master of making good use of his time, Andrew Kidman, has not one but two upcoming east coast events. The above is a full blown gallery show featuring some epic new work, and a few nights later on the 19th there's an old school surf shop party with the Mollusk Brooklyn folks. It'll feature a full blown music experience with Andrew aided and abetted by New Zealand's own Hamish Kilgour, and you know it'll get fun.

Public to Have Say on Coastal Reserves

From the ODT By Chris Morris on Mon, 7 Dec 2009

Submissions must be received by the Dunedin City Council
before 5pm Friday 12 March 2010'

Members of the public have until mid-January to have their say on a new management plan for coastal reserves around Dunedin.

Dunedin City Council staff have identified 11 coastal reserves across the city - including at Brighton, Karitane, Long Beach, Ocean View, Waikouaiti and Warrington - to be reclassified under the council's draft coastal dune reserve management plan.

The change would result in the reserves' status being changed from recreational areas to local purpose (coastal protection) zones, providing new powers to protect the sensitive areas at the expense of some recreational rights.

Councillors at a recent meeting of the community development committee voted to approve the draft management plan, containing the reclass-ifications, for a two-month period of public consultation.

Depending on the number of submissions received, a public hearing could follow.

A report to the meeting by council reserves policy and planning officer Dolina Lee said the change aimed to protect and preserve the dunes while providing for recreation where possible.

Under the Reserves Act 1977, local authorities were required to classify the primary use of the reserves they owned.

Speaking to the Otago Daily Times earlier this year, council community and recreation services manager Mick Reece said changes in the reserves' status recognised the importance of protecting the coastal environment from flooding, erosion and other threats.

"You can't recreate if the dunes disappear and you are inundated, so the primary driver for managing the reserves should be coastal protection," he said.

Consultation was the latest step in the development of the draft plan, stretching back to 2002.

Approval of the reclass-ifications was needed by the Department of Conservation, and a final approval of the changes would be made at a subsequent council meeting.

Camano Island

Behind most of Camano Island's beaches are eroding bluffs that now and then dump sand and gravel onto the back of the beach. Camano's beaches are made of old landslides. But like bluffs all over Puget Sound, every couple hundred feet is owned by someone who loves the beach and the view, but is nervous about their proximity to the edge of the bluff (the very thing that provides them both the beach and the view). Erosion rates are pretty slow on the Sound, however, so most homes won't fall in for centuries, but that is little consolation to someone who had a big chunk collapse last winter.

Seawalls of one form or another can now be found on a third of Puget Sound's beaches and there are many more every year. The effects on our future shoreline of all these walls are going to be very real, but not necessarily immediate and not necessarily the same everywhere. It's too bad we can't bring our great grand kids back from the future to help us explain the problem - they might get more traction than the rest of us!

Narrows Park

I swung by the park early Tuesday morning on the way to Port Orchard. They had just wrapped up the remodel project - the bank has been cleaned up and the logs repositioned. The steel anchors are gone and the concrete wings on the outfall were removed. Together, these should address some of the problems the park had been experiencing the last couple of years.

The underlying issues at Narrows Park are an unfortunate function of the original filling of the stream mouth and the construction of the concrete outfall. Maybe someday there will be a chance to restore a more natural stream mouth. I suspect this would lead to a more sustainable shoreline - albeit a more dynamic one (maybe a small spit, rather than an eroding bank). It would still be a great park and a great beach to visit.

Previous Posts: November, 2008 March, 2006

Gift Giving Guide

My apologies for the mercenary nature of the post, but it 'tis the season and all that. We have a fine range of goods including DVDs, shirts, boooks, art and even boards if you're really generous or lucky, and it's all made by independent artists and craftsmen so the purchase of these items helps keep a small corner of the creativity of surfing alive. Thanks for looking, and as always info at foamandfunction.com if you have questions, comments or good stories.

Tim Griffin

I saw Tim Griffin briefly this past weekend, and that made me want to see this 2 + 1 diamond tail which seems like it's the sort of thing you might want around during winter. As would be the Lynch designed swallowtail single he makes. Time to start thinking about runs north, cold kelpy water and bigger, pointier boards- widowmaker season.

Joemma Beach

Joemma Beach State Park is located on the west side of the Key Peninsula, just north of Whiteman Cove. Historically, Whiteman Cove was a large estuary or lagoon separated from Case Inlet by a spit. The spit is now a causeway - the entrance road to Camp Coleman (YMCA) - and the estuarine lagoon is a large lake, except for a very small remnant spit and lagoon at the north end next to the Park. I was last out here in 2000, immediately after the Nisqually Earthquake, noting the sand boils, cracks running through the mud, and slumps in the roadway fill resulting from the shaking (the epicenter was about 10 km southeast and about 30 km down).

What attracted me most to Joemma is the beautiful high bluffs and the long stretch of undeveloped shoreline that lies to the north (see Google Earth map linked to the title of this post). I suspect it is one of the larger remaining chunks of unaltered beach, bluff, and upland forest in South Sound. Unfortunately, the shoreline north of the Park is heavily posted - I guess someone owns this beach. Exploration is clearly discouraged, but sediment movement clearly is not -- the bluffs are dumping sand and gravel on the beach and and the air photos show a wonderful set of spits across the next small estuary to the north.

Mayo Cove

Mayo Cove is on the east side of the Key Peninsula. The village of Lakebay is at the head of the cove. And Bay Lake is just up the valley a little bit.

Penrose Point State Park lies along the southeastern shore of the cove. The Park consists of lots of forested shoreline - mainly low bluffs, but also several small barrier spits. One of the big draws of the park is "the spit", which really isn't a spit at all, but a slender ridge or bar extending offshore - visible at low tides and probably the seaward extension of one of the glacial ridges. Or at least that's my understanding. It's been years since I've visited here at low tide, and today most of the beach was underwater.

The park has a couple of day use areas. One is a picnic area and a soggy lawn, probably built over a historic wetland. The green of the lawn was matched by the enteromorpha (or ulva?) recently washed up on the beach. Around the corner is a long terrace of fill, held together with an ugly, and aging, timber bulkhead. Makes it easier to walk along the shoreline at high tide - but no more beach! Seems like there might be a compromise.

The other day use area is located on a small spit that sticks out into the bay across from the old Lakebay Marina. It looks like it has an interesting history - there are a series of plank groins - and a plank wall going down the spine of the spit. Sort of looks like someone tried to put the spit in a wooden box. Sort of makes for a strange spit. Seems like it might do perfectly okay on its own, though I suppose if you took out the timber skeleton all at once, the spit might wobble a little before getting its sea legs back.

Key Peninsula

The day after Thanksgiving and the weather report claimed this would be the dryest day of the weekend. The rest of the family had other commitments, so I dropped D in Redmond, filled up my coffee cup, and headed for the Tacoma Narrows and western Pierce County.

The Key Peninsula is the southern extension of the larger Kitsap Peninsula, the convoluted almost-island connected to everything else in the continental U.S. by a narrow strip of land between Belfair and Allyn (and the Tacoma Narrows Bridge). It is home to Vaughn, Longbranch, and Lakebay. It is also home to Home (an ex-Utopian enclave on Van Geldern Cove). Most of its shoreline is hard to get to without a boat or a deed to waterfront property, but there are still some nice beaches accessible to the rest of us. Turned out to be a wonderful afternoon.

DCC Update - November 2009

Sand levels have recovered well, and at the time of writing this update, access to the beach is available at all points. Sand levels on the beach are being monitored regularly, and will be augmented on an "as required" basis over the summer.

Ocean Beach is also proving popular with New Zealand Sea Lions, and a number of these animals are frequenting the beach from time to time. Advisory signs (with an outline of recommended behaviour around sea lions) are now in place.

Ether Monthly #7

Larry Gephart by Andrew Kidman, from the book 'Ether'

Think how many keels Larry has crafted over the years, and think of the boards they went on and who rode and still are riding them. Many of us certainly- I think I ride some of his handiwork every week. Thanks Larry.