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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.

It’s that time of year again in the Northeast. Trees have gone bare, vacationers have gone home and the lineups are thin with bodies and full with waves. Luckily, with the start of every new board building class, we’ve had a new swell arrive at the just the right time. Our November class was greeted to waves on their first day. Here’s some photos to get you in spirit.

We’re always excited to add new products to our online store, and as much as possible, we try to support those companies whose focus is on providing the best product with the least impact on the planet.

Starting in the next few days, we’ll be carrying a full line of hemp and recycled board bags as well as recycled leashes from Wave Tribe.

To celebrate our new partnership, for a limited time we’re offering a FREE All Hemp Day Bag with every Home Grown Kit purchased. Place your order today and we’ll automatically add an appropriate sized day bag to your order. Bags will be drop-shipped straight from Wave Tribe and will arrive separately from the kit. You’ll get one of three great colors - chocolate, emerald blue or natural (color varies with availability). These bags are designed for everyday, but are tough enough to travel too.

THIS SALE APPLIES TO US ORDERS ONLY

This sale won’t last long, so don’t wait, order today!

THIS SALE APPLIES TO US ORDERS ONLY

Recently, we had the chance to talk at length with some legendary shapers at the Sacred Craft show in Del Mar California. These people – some of them foam shapers from the beginning – have helped make surfboard design what it is today. Part of the credit goes to foam – it’s quick and easy to shape, allows quick alteration of boards that need tweaking, or to have their fins relocated. But whether these iconic board builders worked in wood or foam, the experience and thoughtfulness that they have applied to board design have made all boards what they are today – or have opened our eyes to the true qualities of the boards of yesterday.

Tom Wegener with Mike

Tom Wegener is one that’s looking back to look forward… his long research into perhaps the most fully evolved board of the ancient Hawaiians – the alaia – is deeply inspirational. Tom’s choice to give up the hubub of a west-coast lawyering for the pure quest for a simple life crafting boards in Australia is impressive enough. But the discoveries he has made in shaping deceptively simple looking planks that are in harmony with ancient traditions as well as with the environment are stunning to see on film - as we were able to do during a presentation he made after the show closed Saturday night. Look for the upcoming Thomas Campbell film “The Present” that should be out this winter. Amazing.

Wegener Surfboards with alaia surfer Rob Machado

Another inspiration is Malcolm Campbell who, with his brother Duncan, invented in their late teens the first three-fin board (pre-dating the Simon Anderson thruster by a decade). The Bonzer was the most radical design of the times, and was made for many years by Bing, Gordon & Smith and Eaton with deep, deep concaves that run through radically oriented and shaped fins. As Bonzer5 Surfboards, the Campbells have kept evolving these boards to be some of the longest lived, most complex functioning surfboards the world has seen. Malcolm was so generous with his time when we met him that we’re already deeply grateful, but on top of that, he’s also given us permission to start work on a Grain bonzer-style board (name to be announced). We just got our first order for this board which promises to be a milestone in the Grain line.

Old-school Bonzer with Duncan Campbell
© Maggie Marsek 2008

We also have to thank Greg Noll who continues to move through the world as one of our true and lasting originals – never to be imitated, always respected. My short but memorable conversation with him left me with his words about our boards ringing in my ears: “radical craftsmanship”.

Greg Noll with tribute boards
© Maggie Marsek 2008

Meeting these guys and others and looking at their work inspires us even more to create the best shapes we can. And to get more wood in the lineup for a cleaner ride.

Thanks to Maggie Marsek and Rosa from Wegener Surfboards for the use of the photos in this post!

The decision to leave Maine is always a tough one, because we’re always doing so much there. Our friends are there, folks come by the shop all day long, the beautiful fall weather is on now and of course there’s all the boards we’re working on. But flying out west to the Sacred Craft show was worth the trip – worth the risk of schlepping hundreds of pounds of boards and booth dressings and miscellaneous schwag through homeland security, worth getting lost in the no-man’s land of malls and desert south of Ventura, even worth the time away from the shop.

Sacred Craft - it's about the boards

Sacred Craft is about the boards and the board builders, shapers, glassers and fin foilers. It celebrates the tradition of hand-made surfboards and we were lucky to have a chance to meet many of the legends of the craft there.

One thing that surprised us was all the wood boards at the show. There were standout craftsmen like Tom Wegener and John Cherry who have been working in wood just about forever. Their work is masterful and it was great to meet them and look at their boards first-hand. But there were also some new explorers in the world of sustainable board building which was great to see. They’re thinking about all sorts of ways to make surfboards impact the environment less. Overall, signs at Sacred Craft point to more wood boards in every line-up. Awesome.

As usual kit-builders aplenty stopped by the booth to talk about their projects, ask questions and groove on the finished boards that we brought with us. We also had on hand two Grain boards loaned by the Wetsand shop in Ventura . The curious or those in the market for great looking Grain boards – a 6-0 Wherry by John or a tricked-out Root by Randy - should stop by this terrific shop for a look. The place is first-rate, with plenty of really great boards to check out.

The fabled Santa Ana winds that were ruining the surf all week had pushed one of the infamous SoCal wildfires across the highway to close it down as we were rolling south to Moonlight Glassing late in the trip. We regretted that the fire helped keep us from making it down to visit our instant friends there, Peter and Sally St. Pierre. Moonlight is the ultimate glassing shop, with years of experience at putting on some of the best glass in the biz. They’re super-nice too and will do polyester resin glassing on home-built boards as well.

We did have time to visit the welcoming crew at Channel Islands Surfboards though – just a few minutes too late to be part of a surprise party they threw for Kelly Slater to congratulate him on his ninth(!) world title. Having a chance to talk with uber-shaper Al Merrick about their hi-tech production facility and his personal pet project, an agave/redwood gun, was a standout treat. It was almost funny to be in their small warehouse surrounded by foam that was hanging or racked pretty much everywhere and to see five guys all clustered around the only wood board in the place. Pure coincidence had Rob Machado there at the same time, and briefly meeting him reminded us of our admiration for his pure, easy vibe and his dedication to environmental responsibility.

Honestly, this post could go on and on with all the great people we met, friends we were able to reconnect with, and great stuff we were able to put together that should keep firing people up about the possibilities of surfing wood. But this needs to be wrapped up, so we’ll post some more news from the trip later.

This week, Brad and Mike and several of our newest and most exciting shapes will be flying to California for the Sacred Craft Consumer Surfboard Expo in DelMar happening this weekend, October 11th & 12th. Last year was the first show and we were so excited to be there, that we decided we had to make it an annual event. This years’ show will be bigger and better with an amazing line-up of surfboards, exhibitors, shapers, board builders, seminars, movies, live shaping and more!

Visit http://www.surfboardshow.com/ for more information. Hope you can make it, and we look forward to seeing you there.

Due to overwhelming interest in our board building classes, we are offering our last class before the end of the year, November 16-22. Come and join us for a fun filled week of Fall waves and walk away with a custom wooden surfboard for yourself or even a Christmas present for someone else! November is a great time in York to enjoy the benefits of off season rates, offshore swell producing storms, and a chance to connect with other folks excited about surfing. In order for this class to happen we need a minimum of 4 participants to sign up. Call or email soon to hold your spot!

In late August we wrapped up our second board building class here at the shop. Drawing in builders from as far as Vancouver BC and Los Angeles CA, the week was crammed with woodworking, skateboarding, and laughs.

A few of the early arrivals even got a shot at some nice thigh-high surf a couple of days before class started. And as usual, Molly’s terrific cooking surprised us all at every meal - most likely tasting best to Jeff and Eric who camped for the week outside the shop under the pines.

An end of the week lobster bake is quickly becoming a tradition for each class

Looking back, we all agreed these guys did an amazing job with their boards, adding custom details and keeping quality workmanship a top priority - Brian even worked a pintail onto his new Waterlog. It was a great week overall that ended with six beautiful boards heading for breaks on both coasts so look for three new 9′ Roots and three 10′ Waterlogs at a beach near you.

Rather than take them home for the final glassing, a few of the guys decided to have us do it for them. So we’re going to offer that to all future classes, too. That way, no one needs to worry about not having the space or the time to complete their board once the class is over.

We’ve got two more classes coming up this year, and one spot still available in September. That’s just next week, so if your schedule allows last minute planning, treat yourself to a week hanging around the shop - and a new surfboard you built yourself. If that’s too short a notice, we’ll be announcing our 2009 schedule in November, so keep an eye on the blog for all that’s going on. There’s also been some interest in a November workshop, so if that sounds good to you, let us know… we may add one more this year.

Alan uses pvc clamps to add glue strips to the board

Thanks to Eric, Alan, Jeff, Will, Brian and Evan for another memorable week!

Labor Day has just passed - always a hallmark because it brings mixed feelings… regret at summer’s end, but excitement at the the prospect of fall and winter waves coming!

It’s now we think back to the great times we have had with friends this summer, like the first annual Grain Potluck and Open House. If you missed it this year, be sure to be there next!

Were happy to announce that we’re now offering our 8′ mini-tanker model as a Home Grown Kit.
The Steamer has proven to be very popular with the longboard enthusiast looking for a something slightly smaller and more maneuverable. Please note, this newly developed kit will take an extra week or two for delivery while we work out the finer details. Feel free to email mike@grainsurfboards.com with any questions you might have.

The Sapling, the Root and the Steamer

Wednesday afternoon, we made it over to the Pine Surf Shop & Gallery - open about a year now across from Farius Surf Shop (where Grain Home Grown Kits are available). Pine Gallery was a very cool place - great photos and art, and some pretty special boards for sale. We’re hoping to do a larger event there in the future (get on the mailing list to be notified). We talked to a bunch of folks that made the trip down to see the boards, and even some old friends like kit builders and folks that have been regulars on our web site. Burgers, cold PBRs, and good conversation filled the afternoon before heading down to Beach Haven to show a slide show of Nick’s exceptional photos. Our thanks to Jon and Ann Coen for setting us up on LBI.

Thursday we made a short run up to Bayhead where we definitely had to check into the Beach House Classic Board Shop. Eric and Sandi were super-nice and fun to talk to. The shop is a full-on classic in its own right, and shows their dedication to the roots of classic boards everywhere you look.

After hooking up with some friends for lunch, we hit the road for the return to Maine. It was a full-on slog, with heat, rain, night and fog all on tap. By the time we found our beds back home in the wee hours, we were bleary and done up. But even though there were no waves to demo boards in, I’m glad we went. There’s no place like Jersey - the accents alone are worth the trip.