Jul 3, 2011

The Postman Always Rings Twice...

...unless it's a batch of emails to 4GF!


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hi paul

picked up the mats today. thank you

they actually arrived yesterday. i could not pick them up as i did not have my car back from the workshop till today.

regards, warren

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Hi Paul,

My personalized Vespa RT just arrived! Thanks so much for making the mat for me.

I'll have to wait a bit longer to get in the water with it. I'll let you know how it goes ...

Gary

PS - I think you have just redefined "customer service" ... for the better!

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Hi Paul-

Just got it! excited to ride it……..I assume you lay on the black textured side so you don’t slip off?

My wife thinks I’m insane for buying a “mat”, but my boys (10 & 6) think it’s awesome…….betting most of my surfing pals will agree with my boys

Will keep you posted……

W.

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Hi Paul,

Winter has left and spring has arrived in the Netherlands.
Today i had my first matsession of 2011!!! From januari till the begin of may is simply to cold.

I went out on my new Vespa mat, first time. When i paddled out i tought the mat was to small for me. There was a small wave, like 1 meter.
I had to find my place on the mat, but after my third ride i got it!
The speed was insane!! The Vespa goes so fast on such small waves.

For Dutch waves the Vespa is great!

So stoked and very happy to be back in the water!

Speak to you soon.

All the best and greets to Gloria.

Marc

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Hi Paul,

I ordered the tracker roundtail off you a few months back and just thought I'd update you on my progress.

Unfortunately due to moving house and injuring my foot I was out of the water for a month after my initial run of getting friendly with the magic towel. I got back into the water last week in some decent 3-4 foot beachies on low tide breaking on an outside bank then reforming into the inside.

I got my best wave to date on a set wave, took off at the outside peak, found an edge, gained speed and without thinking put my legs up and edge off for a speed glide across the face. Made it past a section that broke in front of me right into a subtle cutback through the reform and into the inside wave/shorey and virtually up onto dry sand! Looked back to my mate from where I took off and he was quite a distance down the beach from where I now sat!

For some reason I found myself effortlessly riding the roundtail after a month break, it seems that the less you think about it or intellectualise it, the more the mat rides you :)

Also got a late drop that day onto a set wave, man... the speed of the thing, my mate couldn't believe how fast I was going, ha ha. I went out the next day and proceeded to get a flogging, not punching through a 4 foot set and getting sucked back over the falls, losing the mat and having a decent swim too retrieve it. Strangely, I really enjoyed the struggle during that surf, always a learning curve! Seems the ocean wanted to show me the glory then the guts :)

Thank you for such a fun and inspiring wave riding vehicle, it is such a soulful way to ride a wave and the most fun I have had in the water in a long time.

P.S. Went for a quick one at 2 foot offshore Greenmount yesterday, wasn't really getting waves, I put in a prayer to Huey just as I was about to head in and got a little screamer that connected through the inside run into the gutter/reform . A longboarder went to drop in but saw the speed I was travelling at and pulled back in shock!

Dale W.

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Gday Paul,

got the Greenough spec UDT today, thanks, its quite a bit bigger than my XL and I’m looking forward to surfing it in the morning. I will send some photo’s soon.

Thanks jason

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Paul,

The baby has been baptised - not sure if Catholic or Episc but seriously thinks Huey is the man.

On the other hand - there was in idiot trying to ride it - he needed divine intervention - especially as France and Bali beckon and both have rocks!!

Marc

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PAUL!

I cant express my joy and thanks to you!

Thank you so much. Nanni and I have been matting every day since they arrived, we are hooked!

We have surfed everything from burleigh heads, snapper to straddie and they go amazing!

haha so stoked its silly, I even think they communicate with dolphins, they all come under my mat to check it out!

Thanks again paul, will have to send a photo over asap!

Cheers Gus

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Hurray! hurray! thank you soo much! My daughter is sooooo jazzed!

Aloha, marta

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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Paul,

I just wanted to let you know how much fun I've been having riding my
mat. It is awesome, and the speed/ feeling of speed is incredible! I hope that Surfer's Journal gets around to uploading "Inflatable Dreams" to its archives. Thanks again for so much fun.

Sincerely,
Andrew

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Hey Paul:

Just a note to let you know that I took the Vespa Roundtail, XL and Greenough Spec. UDT to CR last week for some low key surf sessions in front of our hotel. We were there more for R&R than a hardcore surf trip, which was fortunate because the surf where we were wasn’t really pumping at that time, probably 3-4 feet and mushy, mostly closeouts all across that section of the beach. That being said, I still managed to get a few sweet little rides when the mat found the isolated little pockets of open water and tracked into them. I used all 3 mats and probably got the best rides on the Vespa, as it was a little easier to make a late drop on the open section, but all 3 mats worked great.

An added bonus was that it was much easier to travel with the mats and I would have probably regretted dragging surfboards along given the hassle, expense and the waves which were ultimately available. This proves to me that if one can open one’s mind to the possibilities and advantages of surf mats there is a lot of fun to be had.

Naturally I will be taking the mats along on any trip which has even a remote chance of seeing surf. Thanks for opening up the window for getting quality surf time a little bit more….

Regards, Mike

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Hi Paul,

The mat is awesome! I took it out in 2-3' waves and had a blast. I need to figure out how to ride it better, still finding it challenging to stay up high in the face to get a fast line, but I'll study the rider's guide and look at some videos online.

Thanks again! Really enjoying the mat!

Delphine

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that was a cool rendition .
the canavas top is quite genius.
the girl is estatic with anticipation.
she has been using a toysarus red
canvas mat for a couple years on visits
to home kauai.Now at a down time in life
working in t-wan she is Stoked about summer
and surfing her mat.

thank you for your attention to detail .
aloha from waipouli
...ambrose...

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Hi Paul,

Got the mat today! Thanks for getting it out so quickly. Looking forward to Obzor Bulgaria and some wave action!! Will let you know how it goes!

Mark

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Hi Paul,

how are you?

I just got back from 48hrs in Camburi, Brazil.
Remnants of a storm on Sunday made it hard on Monday, but things calmed down, I figured out the rips and had a few nice slides on 8-10 ft faces culminating mostly in poundings on the Tracker but more so on the Vespa.
Smiles and laughs (locals looking at the mat), but in the end some sort of respect - "If you can´t convince them, confuse them!".

Running barefoot between the pousada and the breaks all day, dogs sleeping in a shady spot in the middle of the main road (while cars circumnavigate them) topped things off.

I hope I´ll make some decent pictures when I go back in two weeks.
Won´t make it to the California in June or July...

All the best
Tom

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Hey Paul, just got back (to California) from Costa Rica and would have to say I am hooked on the surf mat. I bought a Fatty in May and took it down on my surf trip. I barely rode anything else. Most of the the time I only surf for about two hours per session, but on that mat I would go for hours and hours. I was catching long rides with longboarders in Tamarindo, and speeding past short boarders in Playa Hermosa. I love it to death.

Rolland

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Paul,
recieved the mat today,you mean i got to blow it up??? i am looking forward to giving it a go.Why did you include patch material are you trying to jinx me!!!!!Felt like a kid with a new toy funny how the thing made me laugh had so many surfboards in my life but the stoke of this thing made me grin must have good vibrations built in

aloha Ruben

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2 comments:

Growling Gecko said...

Thoroughly enjoy reading these letters. That last one is a hoot!

GRAYMAN said...

Just so people knew, Inflatable Dreams is available here:

http://ukmatsurfers.org/html/downloads.html

Cheers

G