Summer is in full swing, and the shop is humming like a well-oiled machine. Classes, custom boards being built, kits being packed, wood deliveries, 3-hour sessions, movie nights….On any given day you can swing by to see many hands working away, milling, sanding and creating those dream boards for anxiously awaiting customers. I’ve spent the past couple weeks observing the beauty that’s been happening inside the shop and thought it was time to show some of the faces and boards behind the clouds of cedar dust. This past week in particular we’ve had the pleasure of having ex-pro snowboarder/Grain builder Randy Gaetano, ex-pro surfer/first kit builder/Philly resident Ben McBrien, and local surfer/woodworker Nico Evans on hand at the shop, helping us fulfill the craze that is the Sea Sled. Below are some images for you to enjoy as we wait for the next little pulse to show up on the coast.

Yep – we’re getting together with our buds at Dogfish Head Brewery again this week. It’s almost exactly a year after we over-indulged ourselves at the tail end of the Rollin’ Nolan East Coast Ramble while brewing Grain-To-Glass beer with Sam and the gang. This time, we’re invited to come quaff brews, eat great food, listen to live music and hang about with a bunch of other artisans that still honor the analog way of being – and the beer’s already brewed! The brewmasters at Dogfish tell us that they’ve concocted another flavor of beer seasoned with our cedar wood scraps so it’s not to be missed as far as we’re concerned.

So we’ll be loading the Pug up with boards, then shuttling down to Delaware, to take in the sight and sounds of Dogfish’s Analog-A-Go-Go weekend. They’re planning to have all sorts of things going on including – amazingly – piles of vinyl LP records to paw through, buy, sell and swap. All this stuff has been assembled in one place by the truly great bunch of people that make Dogfish Head Craft Brewed Ales.

Check out the full line-up at the Dogfish site. They sold out the tickets available online, but if you get there early enough, they’ll be selling a limited number of tickets at the door, so make it if you can.

We’re also going to be hanging out at the Rehobeth Beach Museum on Thursday evening (June 23rd). They’re having some live tunes, libations, and a pretty cool display of surf stuff in a new exhibition called “Skimming the Surface: Surfing, Skimming, and Floating off the Delaware Coast”. We’ll be there starting at about 6 pm and staying ’til it wraps, so come by and check it out.

We’ve been saving our pennies for some time in order to replenish our inventory of logo t’s. We took advantage of that time to seek out some new materials that would be long lasting and have the least impact on our planet. Truth is, it’s been a challenge – that is, until we found recycled cotton fiber.

Environmentally speaking, there’s no better t-shirt material than recycled cotton. There are no dyes, little water consumption or waste and no pesticides used in the processing of new cotton scraps into recycled fiber. Spun together with some tough, recycled PET, the result is a long-wearing t-shirt that’s super-soft and is something you can be proud to wear. We love the way these feel and look, and can’t wait for you to try them. Proudly display your love of all things Grain with a comfortable, quality, 100% recycled T. The men’s charcoal grey t’s have a black and blue logo, and the women’s earth tone t’s have the brown and blue logo.

We pulled the trigger on some trucker hats as well. We looked high and low to find one that looks great and has some enviro-credentials. All the plastic on this one – including the size-adjustment snap – is from recycled PET and it has a stand-up single panel front and bill made from long-wearing cotton twill instead of oil-based foam. We’re happy to offer these smart looking lids with an embroidered Grain Logo patch sewn on front and center.

These are new items soon to arrive – pre-order now to make sure to get your size, and expect at least two weeks for delivery.

A recent student, Marie M, told us on day two of class that as a woman, she was a little nervous that she would get to Grain only to find out that we would be “all cool and shit”. She followed with this observation: “But I got here to find out that you’re not cool at all!” We hope we know what she meant…

Maybe our un-coolness is the reason we’re still not sure whether it’s OK to say “surfer-girl”. The PC police are found everywhere that people still say “mailman”, yet female surfers seem generally OK being called “girl surfers” or “surfer girls.” Whatever – the important thing as far as we’re concerned is that everyone of every size, shape, ability, color and sex that has a passion for surfing and surfboards can scratch their itch for waves or for building their own board.

A new friend, Courtney Hayes, has just started CetoSurf.com which is full of surf-related interviews and stories (there’s a two-part Grain story up there now). But even more interesting is that the bulk of the site is given over to women surfers, acting as a free social networking site with event announcements, news, forum, classifieds and more that will be of special interest to womyn surfers.

We love that Courtney’s heart is totally in the right place – she’s just looking for cool ways to help women surfers of all ages to connect around their love of the ocean. The CetoSurf facebook page is loaded with conservation and beach preservation actions and news for both guys and gals, and has video and events geared for girls (can’t pass up the alliteration).

At Grain HQ, we’ve had a growing number of women surfers that have built boards themselves and have shown our male students a thing or two about how the feminine touch can often get a better result in class. In fact, two of our shapes were designed in part with female surfers in mind – the Pandan and the Steamer. We even put the seat down.