After a long drive, a ton of hard work and some great times, we’re back from Surf Expo and getting back into the swing of things. The 2007 Surf Expo in Orlando was an amazing experience for the company and our whole staff. The Grain Surfboards booth was in a perfect location, on the outside of the Launch area, front and center to the entire show. We were at the cross roads of the two busiest aisles in the whole Expo.

Spending four solid days talking with some of the heavies in the surfing world was eye opening for all of us. Our wooden surfboards and kits got a great reception, and more than one person was overheard saying that we had the most innovative product at the show. It was a great opportunity to talk with buyers from large and small shops all over the country, and in the next couple months you’ll be able find Grain Home Grown Surfboard kits in shops up and down the east and west coasts.

The crew all pumped up and ready to surf in St Augustine. All the locals we met were super nice, and totally stoked on the boards. A few fin sightings, but nothing to get anyone out of the water.

We spent months of hard work preparing for the show and drove 24 hours straight to Florida on the way to Surf Expo. So on the way home, we decided to enjoy ourselves. Our friend Ty Williams and his mom Wendy were so nice to open up their house to us in St Augustine and we finally had a chance to relax and eat some great, healthy food. Thankfully, there were also some small waves, so the boys got a chance to put wood to water.

Randy G. gets ready to hit the water on one of our new 5’10″ fish’s. We’re keeping this board as a demo model, so keep an eye out for it this summer at a beach near you, we’d love to get a lot of people on it.

Grain crew paddling out after Surf Expo

Brad A. getting ready to paddle out on a new 10′ Waterlog.

We drove the coastal route home, giving us an opportunity to see some of the beautiful parts of the east coast, without the crowds found in the summer. If you havn’t been there, Cape Hatteras and Okracoke are beautiful this time of year. And with those memories still fresh, we’re all back at work, building wooden surfboards, filling new orders and making our customers even happier. Being back in the shop with the buzz of machines and familiar smells, we’re as stoked to be doing what we’re doing as ever. It’s a great life!

A few different ways to blow off some steam after some long hard days!

Old school style.

Nick and Molly enjoy some fresh air on the ferry to Okracoke.

Exploring Cape Hatteras. We first tried to bushwack our way to the beach, but soon found ourselves in a swamp. We gave in to taking the main paths, but it was still a beautiful place to see the sun come up.

Walking the sands of Cape Hatteras