San Sebastian Surf

Una afición muy típica en USA y especialmente en Cali: los coches clásicos.

Very tipical in USA, especially in Cali: classic cars.

Source: Surfeandocali

A traves de Just Add Water, la pelicula de uno de mis surfistas favoritos, Clay Marzo, conocí una ONG que me impactó mucho. Al final de la peli se ve como Clay Marzo, que tiene una enfermedad llamada Sindrome de Asperger, una clase de autismo, surfea con una tabla grande con niños con problemas mentales.

Casualmente hace poco, fui a pasar un finde a Santa Cruz, y me encontré a la ONG haciendo la actividad en la playa. Me quedé impactado. Niños autistas y con problemas mentales eran llevados a surfear con longboard en olas pequeñitas.

La cara con la que salian los niños era para flipar. Contentisimos. En la pelicula al final dicen que niños que en su vida han articulado palabra, al salir del agua han empezado a hablar…. Acojonante

http://www.rideawave.org/

Trough Just Add Water, the movie of one of my favourite surfers, Clay Marzo, I discovered a NPO called Ride a Wave. At the end of the movie you can see as Clay Marzo, who has Aperger Disease, a kind of autism, helps surfing some little kids with mental problems.

I happened to see them in Santa Cruz weeks ago. They were doing an activity with kids at the beach and I was impressed. Kids with autism and mental problems were taken to surf  some little waves in longboards and it was awesome,

Just seeing their faces coming out the water was unreal. At the end of that movie they say that some kids that never talked a word, they come out of the water talking….Awesome

http://www.rideawave.org/

Source: Surfeandocali

Hey surfers & fans of SurfScience.com – I have some news that is both exciting & a little sad. After three wonderful years I’m hanging up my SurfScience hat and heading on to new projects.

I have LOVED being a part of this community growing into what it is today and am so appreciative for all of the awesome people that have helped along the way. I’ve gotten a chance to sit down and talk with tons of great folks who’s brains are libraries of surfing know-how. It has been my pleasure to help gather that information and try to present it to all of our online readers.

While at SurfScience I was able to help out in many aspects – from marketing to product design and algorithm planning, but one of my favorite parts was writing articles for all of you. A  few of my favorites include:

Indo Board Workouts for Surfers

April Fools 2010 – California Surfbaord Permits

How to Choose the Best Surfboard for Your Waves

I’m excited to see how SurfScience continues to grow and what new projects the rest of the team puts into action. There are a lot of cool ideas in the works!

So, farewell from the digital world, next time I see you will be out in the lineup – catching waves and yew-ing all the way to the shore!

Surf Scientist for Life,

Greg Kroleski

Source: Surfscience

This month marks the 2nd birthday of SurfScience.com. Its hard to believe that just two years ago, our little corner of the surfing-internet didn’t exist.

Where did people go to learn about surfboards?

Who interviewed shapers?

How did people find rating on the boards they wanted to buy?

I’m not sure… but then a few surfers from Orange County had an idea. We would learn everything we could about surfboards and share it with everyone who wanted to listen.

SurfScience.com was born and has been growing like a bean sprout ever since. We’ve had the pleasure of working with some awesome folks from the surfing community throughout the year and have gotten tons of fan mail from our grateful readers.

WE ARE STOKED THAT YOU DIG SURFSCIENCE.COM!!!

So happy birthday to everyone that’s been a part of this ride. I can’t wait to see what our terrible two’s hold in store.

Source: Surfscience

Most of the time my blog posts are about exciting things in the world of surfing, but today I have a bone to pick. That bone is with Apple Computers, who I feel is a bit out of line.

Let me start by saying, I like Apple. I think they are a great company doing great things and making very cool computers. This post is mostly in jest, but… seriously, there are a TON of surfing pictures on Apple’s website and someone needs to call them out for not having any relation to the sport or culture of surfing.

Background Info: Yesterday Steve Jobs announced a bunch of cool stuff that Apple will be releasing soon including, iCloud, OSX Lion and iOS5. Very exciting things for lots of fan boys everywhere.

While I was checking out their site I noticed a picture of a surfer. Sweet I thought, a surfer.

Then as I browsed some more I saw another surfer….

and another….

and another….

Seriously?  I counted about 15 different surfing related pictures in all.  (More at the end of this post).  This isn’t just a pattern. It seems to me that Apple Computers uses surfers for like 40% of their pictures (maybe a bit less…). I’m pretty sure it was an intentional move from the highest levels.

Using pictures of surfing to sell products is nothing new.  Nike, Target and Hollister have been doing it for years.  But Apple has been doing pretty well for itself lately…

The company is currently worth around $300 Billion. You’d think they would at least throw us a little kick back. I’m not saying we deserve 40% of the cash just because you’re using our sport in 40% of your pictures.  But at least shell out a few million to build a cool artificial reef or help Kelly Slater fund his wave pool project.

Heck, I wonder if any of Apples 12,000 employees even surf.

I guess it is possible. They are pretty close to Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay and The Beach. I bet the one guy from Apple that actually does surf is the one that made it into this iPhone ad.

Double over toe!

So here is what I propose. Apple, you owe the sport of surfing a few Mil. I know you have the extra cash sitting around. If you’re going to use the soul of our sport to sell your computers, phones and music players, at least help us out a bit. Steve Jobs, I know you’re a good guy. I think this is an appropriate effort for you to spearhead. (Spaceship offices can wait!)

$1 Million to the Surfrider Foundation – They help keep the water clean and the beaches open

$300K to the Surfing Heritage Foundation – They preserve the history of our sport through photographs, stories & a surfboard exhibit

$250K to fund a surf contest in Santa Curz where only asymmetrical boards are allowed. – They are the future people!

$200K to Kelly Slater’s Wave Company – So they can get the first circular wave pool off the ground

$150K to SurfScience.com – So we can continue developing cool surfboard related science experiements

$100K purse for the most innovative surf invention of 2011 – Shane Dorian got a head start

Sounds pretty good. They are all focused on technology & the environment. Things Apple is concerned with too.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a proper surfing rant without a “stole our soul” reference, so…

For those of you interested, here are the rest of the surfing references on Apple’s website.

Source: Surfscience

It has been over two years since SurfScience.com started.  Every so often we like to take a look at where things are and where they should be headed.  Today I’d like to share some of this process with you.

One of the big questions we ask ourselves is what areas of surfing we should focus our efforts on.  Should it be surfboard design?  Surfing tips?  Interviews? Product reviews?

We try to focus on things that are useful to the average surfer instead of talking about what the pro surfers are up to.  While that sort of celebrity stuff is great fun, we believe that you care more about things that will actually impact your surfing.  Things you can apply in the water tomorrow to surf better and have more fun.

I recently took a look at the words that appeared most recently on our site.  I ran a big crawl of our entire site and came up with the most used terms.  (Other than plain English terms)  Here is a nice keyword cloud to show what our focus has been so far.

Surfboards – if you had to describe SurfScience.com in one word it would be “surfboard”.  Basically 90% of our website is devoted to surfboards.  And that is how it should be.  Surfers really only need two things – waves and surfboards.  We’ve got half of it covered.

Over the years we’ve pulled together a lot of great info about surfboards including articles about board design, interviews about emerging technology and a surfboard directory with information on over 1,500 surfboard models.  That is a lot of surfboard stuff!

But its always good to check what your audience is looking for.  So I also ran a crawl on all of the words our readers have typed into the search box.  This next picture is a keyword cloud of things that our readers would like SurfScience.com to have information on.

Surfbaords – that is what our readers are looking for.  But not just generic information – they want to know about specific types of surfboards.  They want to know about big name surfboard models and shapers. Our readers want to have a place where they can learn about the surfboards they are thinking of buying.  So that is where we are going to focus our efforts over the next few months.

Along with the Board Rack, Board Match and Best Surfboards for 2011 – we will soon be releasing new features to allow you to research, compare and review surfboard models.  We hear you loud an clear.  More information about surfboards.  Got it!

Buying a surfboard is a big decision.  We are here to help you choose wisely.  Can’t wait to see whats next.

Source: Surfscience

A surfboard will perform the same regardless of its paint job.  But when your board looks sweet, you probably ride a bit better just because of the confidence boost.

There is no doubt about it, surfers love how their boards look.  Many surfboards sell because of sweet artwork.  Look at …Lost Surfboards.  Sure the boards are great, but would they be nearly as popular if it weren’t for the cool art on every board?

Even pop-out manufacturers are putting cool designs on their boards.

I took a look at the surfboards that are most viewed in the SurfScience.com Board Rack and just like you might have guessed, the boards that look the coolest get the most clicks.  No one wants a plain white board.

So lets say you want a custom painted surfboard, how do you go about getting one?

Its is actually pretty easy.  I was recently at Stewart Surfboards talking with Bill about his new surfboard model, the Fartknocker.  It is a small wave board designed to get speed even when the waves aren’t great.

I decided on the board size I wanted, and had a cool idea for the art I wanted.  The Polish Eagle!  (I am Polish, which might have had something to do with this April Fools Joke)

The graphics guy at Stewart let me know that if I could find a high quality vector image, it would make the art that much better.  This was made possible by wikipedia.  Right on the article about the Polish Eagle there was a huge image.

Here is a close up of the eagle.  You can see it is pretty freaking detailed.  Both the front and back of the surfboard have a fade from red to white.  The Polish flag is red & white and the fade was a nice touch.

Source: Surfscience

Have you ever wanted to shape your own surfboard?  I did, but thought it was going to cost a ton of money.  In fact, I didn’t even know where to get the tools and materials.  That problem has been solved.  Thanks to Foam E-Z, if you have a few hundred bucks and a free Saturday, you can make your own surfboard.

Foam E-Z is surfboard material supply shop in Orange County, CA.  They sell blanks, fiberglass, resin, tools and everything else you need to make/repair surfboards.  They also have a shaping room out back that you can rent out by the hour.  Pretty sweet deal.  It comes stocked with all of the tools you need.

For about $50-100 you can buy a big chunk of foam like this.  They have blanks in every size from shortboard to retro to longboard.  They also have PU & EPS available.  I would strongly recommend PU for your first board since EPS is much harder to work with.

They sell a few DVDs that teach you how to shape.  I got Shaping 101 by John Carper of JC Hawaii.  After watching that DVD about 4 times you should have a pretty good idea of what you’ll need to do to make your first board.

You can rent the shaping bay by the day or hour.  Its $10 an hour if you have your own tools, $20 an hour if you need tools and $50 for the day.  Professional shapers can make a board in an hour or two, but your first board will probably take more like 5-6 hours.  That being said, just rent the room for a day, its a fun way to spend a Saturday!

The setup is just like the shaping rooms your favorite shapers use.  The lights on the side are there so you can see even the smallest imperfections in your surfboard.  Because they are to the side, bumps and scratches cast shadows that make it easy to know where you need to sand.

I decided to finish working on my asymmetrical surfboard.  I had a great conversation with Carl Ekstrom about the benefits of them and wanted to try it out for myself.  The right half of the board is based on a 6’3″ squash tail thruster I really like and the left half is based on a 5’11” round tail thruster that is super smooth.  My idea was to create a board for Newport rights that raced down the line and held a nice wide cutback.  I think it will be fun for places like Upper Trestles and Rincon as well.  Who knows though… maybe it won’t work at all.  Either way it was fun to make!

If you would like to try shaping a board, here is what you need to do.  Call Foam E-Z at 1(714)896-8233 or just visit their website.  Order the Shaping 101 DVD.  After you’ve watched it a few times, reserve the shaping bay for the day.  They are located in Westminster, CA which is just by Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach.

If you don’t live in So-Cal, you can still order a blank and the tools you need.  You can also get most of the tools at your local hardware store.

Seriously, go shape a board, its a ton of fun and will make you appreciate your other surfboards!

Source: Surfscience

We just got done installing a new search function on our site. The custom search engine by Google will make it easy to find what you’re looking for on SurfScience.  Located at the top right of every page, the search bar is the best way to find what you want faster than a speeding Mick Fanning.

Basically it’s the same Google you know and love but… it only searches OUR website and blog. Pretty cool!

The results display on a new page of the site and make it easy for you to keep reading.  You don’t have to worry about jumping back and forth between different websites.  Its all done within our framework.

Our favorite part of this new tool is that it will keep track of all of the terms that our visitors search for. If we see a lot of people are looking for something that we don’t have much information about, guess what we’re going to do? Thats right, go learn more about it and write some great new articles.

So go test out the custom search feature yourself here. Some fun searches to start with if you can’t think of anything else: “thruster” “channel islands” “surfing tips”

Source: Surfscience

Sacred Craft is happening this weekend in Santa Cruz, CA.  If you haven’t heard of the expo yet, what are you doing?  Its basically the premium place to geek out on surfboards.  There is one more day left, Sunday the 20th, so if you’re anywhere near Nor-Cal, make the journey.  Below are some things I enjoyed seeing today.

More info here – Sacred Craft Expo Website

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Here is the crowd at the show.  A lot of people showed up.  As you can see, the building is 50% surfers and 50% surfboards.

This next board is my favorite one at the show.  It needs to win best in show this year.  (Scott Bass, if you’re reading this, please take note)  It is a collaboration between mad scientists/shapers Bufo Brauers & Carl Ekstrom.  SurfScience.com has done interviews with each of them (Carl – Bufo) and we’re stoked to see them working together.

The board is an asymmetrical EPS fish with adjustable flex pressure.  This is the future people!

Some of the fins from Rainbow Fin Co.  Check out the cool colored glass ones.  The one on the left with a huge rake was made to surf in kelp.  Pretty good looking stuff.

Bulletfins were designed to split the water around the base of the fin.  Gene Cooper really enjoys it on some of his shapes.  Its an interesting idea, I’ll have to give it a try.

A wide offering of foam blanks from Marko Foam.  Notice the one with a ton of stringers.  Also, the one one with no stringers.

Some boards from Cooperfish.  The one he is showing off now is a stringerless high density PU pig shape with a glassed on fin.

Looks skatey.

Here is a giant wooden SUP.  That thing looks beast to paddle and will set you back a coll $2,500.  You won’t have to worry about wind chop though.

Some shots from the shape off.

I saw this board sitting off in a corner.  Shaped by none other than Dale Velzy.  A good looking board and piece of surfing history.

Here are the team of surfboard appraisers going over the classic boards people brought in.  Sam George was hanging around for a good part of the day.

If I had $10,000 sitting around, I would buy all 15 of these Rusty boards.

This is called the topless boardbag.  Its a neat idea.  It slips on easy and protects your board from UV damage and scratches.  Unlike a board bag it doesn’t get all wax covered in the inside.  A novel idea.

A company called Incide was showing off their new blanks.  Each one has a 3D carbon fiber stringer in the inside like the one pictured here.  I will most likely be buying one to test out for my next surfboard project.

This is Santa Cruz style at its best.

FCS showing off some of their new SUP product.

Source: Surfscience