Archive for December, 2008

The story of our trip to the North Shore of Oahu is typical of the weird way that things just seem to line up around here… Hawaii just happens to be (sort of) mid-way between Australia and Maine, and early December was the only down-time Rasta had in which to build a board, flights happened to be cheap, and we happened to want to do a new mini-gun. Rastovich was pumped about building a board himself, and he just happened to get hurt the week before we arrived. There happened to be world-class waves that week which would have kept a fit Rasta in the line-up all week instead of on the beach working on his new Grain board… There’s more too… It’s almost weird, but we try not to look behind the curtain, and just keep clicking the old heels. You should be able to read an enlarged version of the postcard above by clicking the image of the back. And you can read the whole story of the trip in our new Board Stories Section. You also won’t want to miss the piles of cool pics that Nick put in the new Pro Gallery of photos

We recently found out that Grain was selected by Sustainable Travel International to be featured in their 4th Annual Green Gear and Gift Guide. The guide showcases a variety of eco-friendly, renewably sourced, and fairly traded products and we couldn’t be more honored to be included.

Sustainable Travel International (STI) is a global leader in sustainable tourism development. The 501(c)(3) non-profit organization’s mission is to promote sustainable development and responsible travel by providing programs that enable consumers, businesses and travel-related organizations to contribute to the environmental, socio-cultural and economic values of the places they visit, and the planet at large.

Visit STI’s website or check out their monthly newsletter for more information.

We’re also pleased to be included for the second year in the TreeHugger Green Gift Guide. Our Board Building workshops are an unforgettable gift that can be shared by the giver and the getter because we often have family “teams” building boards together.

Don’t forget, it’s not too late to order Grain goodies for the holidays for your favorite surfers. Our bamboo, hemp and organic cotton t’s and hoodies, woodworking tools, Wave Tribe leashes, or if your unsure, a Grain Gift Certificate branded and burned into our cedar plank scraps.

Special Gift Certificate for Surfrider Foundation with beach-cleaning castaway

The North East has experienced a major ice storm which caused us to lose power at the shop for the last few days. This is obviously very bad timing as we’ve been working hard to get all the holiday orders out the door. As soon as power is restored we’ll be back behind the planer doing our best to fill every order as quickly as possible.

If you have called or emailed in the last couple days and have not heard back from us, we apologize and will get back to you as soon as we can. Thanks for your understanding.

You can read more about the storm at the Boston Globe.

If you’re thinking of ordering a kit for the holidays, now is the time. Every custom board and Home Grown Kit is put together in our shop in Maine. Kits are assembled to order, which means it does take time for us to mill, pack and ship your kit.

Place an order before Monday December 8th and we will do our best to get it to you before the holiday. Also ending on Monday the 8th is our Holiday Special. Take advantage of the opportunity, order now and get a free Wave Tribe Hemp Board Bag to keep that beautiful board safe. Hemp is a renewable resource that steps lightly on the planet, and these bags are some of the best built, best designed we’ve ever seen.

A couple of folks from Grain’s crew are headed for Oahu for a little taste of the North Shore winter. Photog Nick LaVecchia and Grain co-owner Brad Anderson will be drifting around the island with our personal chef Molly Johnson and our good friend Allen Anderson.

Down for a special project that we’ll let you know about later, Brad and Nick will also have plenty of time to talk boards, kits, wood or whatever. We don’t have any set schedule, as it’s competition season out there, and its hard to plan around all the buzz. We’ll probably have one or two boards with us as well, but if you don’t see the boards, stop anyone that doesn’t have a tan and ask him if he’s from Maine. Better yet, give Brad a call if you’re in the area and have some questions about our boards.

We’ll be around from Wednesday December 3rd – 11th, and looking forward to meeting some new people.