Archive for June, 2007

Below is a note and images from Matt, Grain Surfboards’s West Coast evangelist, who recently christened his brand new 5′10″ Waka with friend, Tracy Feith on the right coast.

Here is what I have for the Tracy Feith shoot in June: The baptism of this 5′10 Waka by Tracy Feith took place at Long Beach, NY in small waist high surf. Tracy was hooked after his first ride on the borrowed board, exclaiming with his signature bearded smile, “I’ve gotta get one for myself!” The board performed flawlessly a few days later in head high surf in Maine. This gem is gonna travel many miles of waves. Thanks heaps, GRAIN!

If you made it this far, you might be interested in this Home Grown Kit builder and his summertime blog: The Summer of Chris. Enjoy.

The face of Grain has changed quite a bit over the last year or two. And while my face might be on the homepage, this is far from a one man show. We have an amazing team of people that bring a lot of skill and dedication to the shop. Over the next few weeks, keep an eye on our blog for posts on everyone that helps make this place tick.

While John Hamblett is one of the newest guys at Grain, he’s certainly no stranger to a woodshop. After leaving his custom woodworking job, John came to Grain with a desire to build surfboards, and because of the shops location, now rides his bike to work everyday. While he’s been honing his building skills, John’s been a powerhouse around the shop. From working on the custom rocker table we had started, to building the dust collection housing, John is always willing to jump in hands first and always does so with a smile on his face.

Currently, John is putting in a few hours in the milling shop helping to get kit orders out the door, while keeping his custom board orders moving forward. His first 6′5″ Seed is a masterpiece, and the Waterlog he is currently shaping longs for those waist high summer days.

To read more about John, check out his bio by CLICKING HERE.

We’ll be heading down to Mystic Seaport for the 16th Annual Wooden Boat Show, Friday June 29th through Sunday July 1st. “Uniting the most dynamic wooden boat show in the country, with the premier American maritime museum, creates an unforgettable weekend of excitement.” So if your looking for something fun to do, head on down.

The show has something for everyone: demos, boat building exhibitions, lectures, special tours and more. And if you don’t see the connection between surfboards, boat building and Americas history with the sea, then you have no choice but to come.

We’ll have boards and kits for you to take a look at, and even hope to be building a board on site. Check it all out at http://www.thewoodenboatshow.com/.

Hope to see you there

It probably isn’t something most of our customers think about, but it is super-frustrating to spend weeks building a board and then not get to try it out. Though they leave the shop unwaxed and unsurfed, we are always pumped to think that someone will be riding them soon. So we live vicariously through those of you that take the time to send a few words or images of your boards in action.

We recently got a whole pile of pics from Andrew in Oregon – he even included some sequences that we were able to dump into a quick animation. His board was a great example of the partnerships that we have with our customers… his builder (Brad) kept in touch throughout the process to be sure that Andrew would get what he wanted – an 8′-0″ Sapling, modified to a round-tail and thruster setup. The board required some frame modification, refairing and a bit of planning to move the fins, but Andrew let us know how he liked it with words and pics – all of which we examined hungrily. Thanks to all of you who keep our photo album growing!