Archive for July, 2009

To celebrate nearing the end of our 12 day building and glassing class, the Grain crew and our students headed down to Hampton Beach last night for the area premiere of Dear and Yonder.

Created by Tiffany Campbell and Andrea Lessler, this is a great film highlighting the history of some of the first women big wave surfers, and following through with unbelievable footage of classic logging and modern shortboarding. It features a dynamic cast of ladies, some of whom are bathed in the limelight while others have only existed in quiet pockets until now. Each of their stories is unique, but a spirit of adventure and love they have for the ocean connects them.

If you have a chance, you should definitely check it out.

Johnny recently wrapped up these two killer boards, custom designed and built for some music industry heavies (who chose not to be named). Built as wedding gifts, this 9′ Root and 8′ Steamer were designed to go together forever. With wood-burned art by our pal Randy Gaetano that mates when the boards stand rail-to-rail, the effect is pretty stunning as you can see from the shots Nick took out in the barn.

We normally book-match planks in our boards’ tops and bottoms so that there is a mirror image of grain on either side of the centerline. Because Johnny split the bookmatched planks between them, each of these boards shares wood from the same tree, one reflecting the beauty of the other, but each still wonderfully unique on its own as well. These may be surfed together or separately throughout the happy couple’s new shared life, but neither will be totally complete without the other standing next to it. Nice.

If you find yourself in the York Beach area this Sunday July 5th, be sure to come by Long Sands for the 2nd Annual Big Andrew Surf Competition and Fundraiser. We’ll have the Pug down at the beach with boards to ride.

Events include surf contests, raffles, product tosses, SUP relay race, a memorial paddle-out in memory of Andrew Gmelch Jr. and a day-long BBQ. The proceeds of the days events will go to benefit both the Big Andrew foundation and the Leukemia Society.

Hope to see you out there for a great day at the beach!