Archive for July, 2010

Just a quick thanks to everyone that made this past weekend such a great one at Grain. Saturday finished up our July class, with six new beautiful boards coming out of the shop. We’re thankful to our students for staying for the premiere of Taylor Steele’s “Castles in the Sky” and for talking it up with our visitors about their experience during the week.

As the moon rose over the barn, the parking lot began to fill with people from all over town, even some who drove from Cape Cod. Corn was popping and cotton candy was being whipped up by the minute. Not a bad setting for a surf move premiere.

Sunday afternoon it was off to Novare Res in Portland, to have a few beers with Dogfish Head founder Sam Calagione. Lots of what we’ve been doing with the great folks at Dogfish Head will be included in an episode of the soon-to-be-aired Discovery Channel show BREWED. In BREWED, Sam shows viewers the other side of the bottle, sharing the stories of beer sub-cultures as well as exploring life inside The Dogfish Head Brewery where many of their beers are flavored with wood – including cedar left over from our surfboard building!

It’s been a whirlwind couple days, but it’s the energy and passion that we take away from these days that keeps us moving forward and loving this place.

It started when a couple of Delaware surfers road-tripped up to Maine for a surf film fest we helped with in Rockland last spring. While visiting the shop, they spied a small trailer that was only half full – basically, the scrap we generated over the entire winter. Kyle and Mark turned out to be from Dogfish Head Brewery, famed for groundbreaking and unique heritage brews – often seasoned with wood.

Mark from Dogfish Head

They quickly decided that the wood left over from our board building would make a perfect accent for a new beer, called “GrainToGlass”, which has been released and can be sampled for a limited time at the Dogfish Head Brewpub in Rehobeth, Delaware. We’ll have a pile of boards up at what should be a great party hosted by Novare Res Bier Cafe in Portland Maine on Sunday, July 25th where we’ll be meeting up with Dogfish founder Sam Calagione and some folks from the brewery to sample a pile of hard-to-find Dogfish beers. If you can’t make it, you can still experience this whole story vicariously when the Discovery Channel program “Brewed” is aired later this year.

Thinking back, it must seem obvious that two unique companies like Grain and Dogfish Head would find each other and, more importantly, discover that they’re driven by the same values. After all, Dogfish Head Brewery is named after a point of land near Sam’s family home up in Boothbay Harbor Maine. Meant to be.

We were invited to head down to Salisbury Massachusetts last night by our friends at Zapstix Surf Shop. Donavon Frankenreiter was playing at the Blue Ocean Music Hall, and they were putting on a before-and-after party at the Surf Side 5 Bar next door.

Brad, Alex, Alison and I along with our friends Priscilla and Nicolette headed down to have a few beers and take in some tunes. Pat from Zapstix pulled some strings and we were able to park the pug right on the boardwalk between the two venues.

We had a lot of laughs and after the show, Donavon came by to talk about the boards, and tell us the story of surfing at Sunset last winter on the board that Rastovich built at Pipeline the year before. We heard some photos of the barrels he got on the board are going to surface soon, so cross your fingers, hopefully we’ll be posting those soon.

Donavon and Nicolette both work with Sanuk, so when she broke out a pile of ’staches that Sanuk makes to poke fun at the infamous Frankenreiter crumb-catcher, they started sprouting everywhere.

>>>Donavon Tour Dates

We’re happy to announce that we’ll be premiering Taylor Steele’s new film Castles in the Sky.

The premiere will be at our shop, Saturday July 24th starting at 8:30pm. Come early for tours of the shop, and to check out some boards that were just built by students in our July class. Weather permitting we’ll be showing the film outside on the barn wall (inside if its raining) so bring your beach chairs.
Free popcorn, BYO beverage. $5 per person, kids under 7 are free.

Buy your tickets here or at the shop the night of the show.

Castles In the Sky is a visual whirlwind that follows surfers to the farthest reaches of the known surf world and beyond. Castles in the Sky is a completely new approach to surf filmmaking. Filmed in five countries over three years, the movie delves into the true heart of the locations while the surfers travel through them with a sense of open-minded awe. With never-before seen waves, an original score, and some of the best surfers in the world such as Jordy Smith, Dane Reynolds, Rob Machado and Dave Rastovich contributing their art, passion and athleticism, this is as close to the experience of pioneering new coastlines as you can get without getting on a plane.

This is gonna be a great night!

Whew, what a trip! It went by fast but I have to say I had a blast! Everywhere I went people turned up, got stoked, and generously extended their hospitality—all of which kept me, and the Pug, going for the long haul. I know surfing is essentially a solitary pursuit but it was really all of you and the interactions we shared that I’ll always remember.

Thanks to Jon Hoover for the Flickr Photostream he made from shots taken on LBI.

So I would like to extend some thanks for everyone who contributed in one way or another. First off, those who deserve a mil gracias (thousand thanks) for making the ol’ ramble possible:

Big big thanks to:
Jim from Jimbo’s surfwax for cranking out a last minute batch of wax with dope labels! It was so great when people asked me for a business card (which I don’t have) and instead I gave them a bar of wax! And who doesn’t need wax? So now there’s a trail of Jimbo’s down to Hatteras!

Planet Earth Clothing for some sweet (organic cotton) threads and gas money!

Michelle and Ted at Eastern Mountain Sports for hooking us up with camping gear. Seriously, I ended up using all that gear a ton. Without it I would have been eating with my hands, lost in the dark, and in a bad mood from not being able to sleep in those army stretchers. Thanks to Eastern Mountain Sports I slept like a baby with the uber comfy extra wide (to cover the wooden sides of the stretcher) sleeping pads and sleeping bags. The fork/spoon/knife utensils were clutch, as were the headlamps (especially when the lighting battery had been run down). Finally, the tent was nice for allowing Chris and I to sleep separately after we spent all day long together. Anyone interested in mountain-oriented action sports (or music or conservation) make sure to check out the Nor’Easter festival put on by Eastern Mountain Sports in September.

WaveTribe for the hemp boardbags and socks, recycled leashes, and cork traction pads. It feels good to be doing less harm to the environment while protecting the boards!

Drift Surfing for following the tour on their rad e-mag site.

MAS Epoxies for the financial assistance that allowed us to keep the Pug rolling.

And of course not forgetting all the people who helped to get the Pug road-worthy: Power Mike, “Bonzer” Bob, Tom Behr and the guys at Grain.

Editor’s Note: Nolan met so many people that helped him on his ramble, that we had to put the rest of his shout-outs in the Board Stories pages. Good to have him back though, and if you’ve been waiting for a kit while he’s been on the road, you’ve not much longer to wait!