"Pleasant Plunder" - Custom for Ian

Presenting the "Pleasent Plunder"   6'4"x21"2 5/8"

This board was a custom for Ian, brother to pro surfer Nate Dorman. It has a nice wide outline and plenty of volume for easy paddling. The pulled in rounded diamond tail means you can still get this board on rail, despite its floaty, full bodied appearance. With a flatter rocker and higher volume it should generate plenty of speed and glide. The single fin box and quad setup allows for a variety of fin setups depending on your mood. 

Shaped by hand from a stringerless eps blank.

 

 

Quality control guy.

 

 

This was the board we modeled it after.

 

As i was "researching" one day I ran  across this new shape by Hayden Shapes, looks like they might have been twins separated at birth, but one was raised by hippies and the other by... James Bond? 

 

This very well could be that ever elusive "one board quiver".

Stay stoked!

-James

"London Fog" A Modern Longboard - Custom for Doug

"London Fog" a Modern Eps Epoxy Longboard 9'x23"x2 3/4"

 

Doug's previous longboard was a beautiful hand shaped poly Perfection and so we took that general idea and came up with this beauty in EPS Epoxy. The nice wide outline allows for stability for fancy footwork and being eps it's much lighter and buoyant and feels very lively and snappy. 

Doug is a world traveler and one of his favorite pit stops is London so we did a fabric inlay of the map of London, along with some beautiful resin tint work by Jamie Tuttle of dynamic glass.

 

 

 

 

Hot coat!

 

Family photo, old board and new side by side for comparison.

Stay stoked!

-James

Performancy Fish - Custom for Morgan

Introducing the performancy fish 6'2"x21"x2.75


This was a custom inspired by a Michael Dolsey shape for long time local shredder Morgan Hickman. Added a little more girth but kept the general outline pretty close.








This was a fun one, most performancy shape I've done so far and first poly blank I've worked with other than the reshapes I did when I first started out.

Stay stoked!

-James

Double Agent - Custom for Doug

Say hello to my hefty friend, The Double Agent 7'7"x23"x3" 

My good friend and mentor Doug usually rides longboards but on a recent trip to Cali had an epic session on a Walden Mini Mega and he had to have one. The Double Agent is my take on that shape. It's a high volume compact design, for the longboarder wanting something more shredable or the beginner looking for a stable floaty stoke harvesting machine.

The length-to-volume ratio is what delivers significant performance advantages over other mid length surfboards.

The beveled rail, wide outline and flat deck allow for a lot of volume which promotes speed and glide while the bottom contours allow for sensitivity and responsiveness rail-to-rail. 

The outline is designed for performance. Both the nose and tail have been pulled in to allow the board to fit into more critical parts of the wave, and turn in a tighter radius. A little extra flip in the nose rocker allows for late steep drops.

 

 

Doug loves it and said it makes him feel like a kid again! 

 

Stay stoked!

-James

Mega Shortbus

Introducing the Mega Shortbus 6'2"x22"x3".

This shape was commissioned by Sean at Trunkplayer Surf Shop in Cherry Grove, SC. He is focused on carrying boards that work well for the average guy or gal in our local waves. It wasn't in the shop too long before Kelly Anne came in and snagged it. 

 

And now a brief description of this shape:
 
This Mega Shortbus blends modern surfing with the speed and glide of a retro fish. This board was designed to catch a lot of waves, supplying endless amounts of fun and copious quantities of stoke. It's designed to not only race down the line but also turn in the pocket. The beveled rail, wide outline and flat deck allow for a lot of volume which promotes speed and glide while the bottom contours allow for sensitivity and responsiveness rail-to-rail.

This chunky split tail shred sled is hands-down the most fun Fishy/Mini Simmons type board you will ever surf. This design is a perfect blend of front foot speed and back footed shredding. It loves clean lines, but can make even the summer slop fun. Full rail turns, soul arches, cutbacks, speed floaters and cheater fives are a few of the things that can be enjoyed on this wave hog. It has a wide range and will shred on anything from ankle high to head high hurricane waves.

When everyone else says it's a longboard day you can still catch as many waves as the loggers without the hassle of hauling your log out.

This board could be the answer for surfers who want the volume of a longer board, but still want the shredability and freedom of a shortboard. 

Stay stoked!

-James

"Somethin' Fishy " - Split Arc Tail Fishy Mini Simmons

This board is another version of the Shortbus, just a little fishier.

Pictured here with my Dads 1971 Cutless 442, he ordered this car brand new from the factory 45 years ago.

This was a fun one to shape, added a beaknose inspired by McCallum Surfboards which turned out to be very tricky, not sure I got it completely right but it looks kinda cool at most angles and gives more volume and float to the nose. Also made the swallow cut out deeper and shaved a little off the back corners, something I've seen done a lot on Mandala surfboards.

You can see here the new tail and the old tail for comparison.

Right before she was sent off to glass. Came out at 5'9"x22"x3"

Final product. #1960stimemachine

Rocker shot...

I decided to play around with the fin configuration on this one by bringing the back quad fin in from the rail 1" 3/4". my past models were only 1" 1/4". As I spent some time at the Instagram University studying other wide tail shapes I started to notice a lot of guys are bringing the back fin in quite a bit. I got to chat with legendary shaper Gary Wilson after a fun sesh at Dunes Club and learned he brings his in around 2" give or take, so I feel pretty good about my decision to bring it in this time. Hoping by tweaking the tail and fin setup I'll get more maneuverability and top to bottom surfing without sacrificing down the line speed and glide. Speed and glide are the two main things I want my shapes to be known for, (as well as catching waves easily and radical fun colors/art). 

Terry Fitzgerald, "The Sultan of Speed" says " There are two types of surfing today, there are people who ride surfboards and there are people who ride waves. The world tour guys, the guys who do stuff you've only dreamed of, are focused on riding their surfboards in an athletic fashion. The other kind of surfing is when you focus on riding the wave, and picking the line that gives you the most speed. You almost can't compare the two. It's a different brand of surfing." 

The average guy will probably have more fun on a board that promotes speed, which will probably end up being fatter, wider and flatter. On this type of board you will catch more waves, go faster and the ride will last longer. Depending on your area you might be able to go shorter, but in Myrtle Beach our waves are typically small and slow so for the average guy you might be surprised how much fun you can have on a mini Simmons type board the same length (or longer) as your usual shortboard. When everyone else says it's a longboard day you can still catch as many waves as the loggers without the hassle of hauling your log around. 

I'll end with this quote from finless frontier pioneer Derek Hynd "Speed is the beginning and end of surfing." 

Stay stoked!

-James

The "Fun Czar" - A Bonzer/Twinzer Inspired Diamond Tail

Just picked up my latest creation from the glasser!!! Colors came out Siiiick! Went with a heavier glass job again so the weight feels like a poly board. Did the same on the previous shape and its holding up great, no real heal dents or dings and I've been riding it for about 7-8 months.

 This is similar to the Bing Synchronizer with a fishier nose, the same nose as the Shortbus model, my last shape. 
With the 5 fin box configuration and the deep double-concaves, there are tons of options to play with. First test ride was on a small weak day so I tried it as a twinzer  and that setup seemed to give me plenty of speed. It was very responsive and I got a couple nice close out turns that felt really good. 

It has a lot more hull in the entry than the last shape.

I gave it a little more rocker and kept it a little thicker in the tail since I narrowed the tail down a bit to work better with the single fin option. 

My little bubby Asher helped me every step of the way. 

Here's a vid of the shaping process and some of the first test rides.

Stay stoked!!!

James