SURFMATTERS

Mat Riders...Which "Alternative" Surfing Style Do You Feel Closest To?

2012-02-17T16:30:00.000-08:00

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Body Surfing?

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Recreational Body Boarding?

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Contest Body Boarding?

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Hand Plane Surfing?

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Spoon Kneeboarding?

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Classic Foam/Glass Kneeboarding?

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Modern Kneeboarding?

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Classic Paipo?

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Classic Foam/Glass Bellyboarding?

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Alaia Prone Surfing?

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Alaia Stand Up Surfing?

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Finless Stand Up Foam/Glass Surfing?

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Pelicans Surfing?

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Seals Surfing?

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Dolphins Surfing?

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Killer Whales Surfing?

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Dogs Surfing?

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Hippopotamuses Surfing???

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Ducks Diving?

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Traditional Simmons Board Surfing?

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Modern Simmons Board Surfing?

(Hey, at least he isn't wearing a leash!)

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Gene Simmons Surfing?

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Stand Up Paipo?

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Finless Hot Curl Surfing?

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"Anything Inflatable In The Water" Surfing?

Surf Berlin!

2012-02-16T17:55:00.000-08:00

"Surf Berlin is a feature film about one man’s journey to surf the last wave in Germany. What’s unique about this surf spot, besides it’s pancake flatness, is the perfect wave that rolls through once a day when a giant ship passes by the shallow reef. Yet this unique point break is endangered, because the ship that’s been producing the wave for the last 30 years, will be replaced in the summer of 2012 with a new one, that unfortunately creates no wave. With no known documentation of this wave being surfed, local Berliner, artist, and filmmaker Ira Mowen (originally from California), has set out on the quest to ride this man-made wave into the annals of surf history."

Which Lighting Do You Prefer?

2012-02-15T21:38:00.000-08:00

Classic California morning overcast ("June gloom")?

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Cloudy, with the threat of rain?

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Sunny with front-lit waves?

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Sunny with backlighting?

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Surfing with no daylight at all?

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Or are you so stoked to be out surfing, you don't give a damn???

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Or, are you a mat riding purist...you don't even need to go down to the beach to be stoked???

What The F**k Am I Doing Here By Myself...

2012-02-14T16:42:00.000-08:00

Great surf travelog by Kepa Acero. Check out his other links here...

Thanks to Mister Dirk for the heads up on this vid!

Mystery Photos...

2012-02-13T20:54:00.000-08:00

A mat rider who wishes to remain anonymous has submitted empty wave photos from a location he says is secret. A regular Chatty Cathy this bloke is...

Which Transport Methodology Do You Prefer?

2012-02-12T17:41:00.002-08:00

Do you like to carry your mat under your arm, or in your hand?

Another Question...

2012-02-11T18:11:00.000-08:00

Where do you like to slip on your fins...sitting on the beach, or after you've waded into the knee lappers?

What's Your Frequency, Kendog?

2012-02-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Photo: Lance Smith

Being sick last week, I didn't get in the water for about 10 days. That's much longer than I usually go without surfing, especially in the fall and winter. I average once every 2-3 days, minimum.

Whenever I stay out of the water for more than a week, the next go out is really fun and exciting. Even junk surf seems good. On the other hand, when I get out every day, or nearly everyday, I start to lose my stoke, and even good waves seem humdrum.

So what surf-frequency do you like best? What's often enough to keep you in shape, but not so much that your stoke goes stale?

Bananarama!

2012-02-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

Pendo mentioned somewhere recently that he ate bananas, or a banana, before surfing. I've been in that habit for a year or so, and I have to say, it's really made a difference in my stamina and overall level of energy in the water. Especially when it's cold. Fewer leg cramps too.

So what do you eat before going for a mat surf? Anything special?

Real Time Surf Mat Action!

2012-02-09T11:00:00.001-08:00

Mr. Dirk in action via a local (for him) beach cam... grabbed at 10:57 AM.

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Another ride at 11:22...

Day 10: 4GF Prototype: Another Go Out

2012-02-08T22:59:00.000-08:00

I was up late last night catching up on mat orders, managed a few hours of sleep, then got up early to look at the surf. Couldn't figure out what to do, as the tide was really high in the morning, and the swell was big and bumpy along the Central Coast, and I was still tired. I went back to bed for a couple of hours, and dreamed that I took the new tapered prototype out in some lumpy point surf. (Seriously.)

I took it as a sign, and headed down to the Ventura/SB area in the early afternoon, a 3 hour drive. Rincon look good, but of course it was packed, and I didn't feel like hassling whatever Ventura-proper had to offer. (Still not quite over my flu.) I ended up going out at one of the lesser points whose-name-shall-never-be-spoken-in-public. 3-4 feet. Smooth, with some westerly sideshores, which is good. When I paddled out there were only 3 guys out. By dark, 90 minutes later, there were more like 30.

I took the tapered mat out, and paddled and surfed it "backwards," with a narrow nose and wide tail.)

First thing I noticed was that I caught more waves than normal...a lot more waves, actually. A few days ago I characterized the new mat, ridden backwards, as catching waves like a longboard. That was hyperbole, but saying it paddles like an 8 footer isn't. I was gliding into just about any swell that had any crest to it at all. Very cool. I also was able to paddle against the down coast current after a wave (it was minus tide by the time I got out) without much trouble.

The performance of the tapered mat, backwards, was fun and challenging...but I wouldn't call it "good," in the sense that I would call a Standard "good." Getting into waves early gave me time to set up whatever approach I wanted to take, and sometimes I would take off at an angle and just run a high line across the wall with the tail drifting the whole time. I got a couple of zippery tubes, and the new mat didn't like them as much. But the full faced/uneven walls were a delight.

I caught maybe 15 waves with the narrow end forward, and with each wave I gained more ability to control the wide tail...all the while making use of the added glide. Lots of waves died out, and but I was able to keep going 'till they reformed inside. I tried letting a fair amount of air out, and it became super slippery in the water. Both good and bad. But really fun!

I rode 3 waves with the mat "frontwards" (wide end in front) and it worked a lot better than it did on Saturday. I think the offshores really worked against it that day. In the more typical semi-glassy conditions, I could keep the wide nose under control, and got it going pretty good once. But it was still a bad paddler, and poor wave catcher. Not that much fun.

As the sun was setting, I went in and got my Standard and rode 3 or 4 across. After riding the narrow nosed tapered mat, the Standard felt a little odd at first...but after 2 waves it became apparent, again, what a good, solid mat it is.

I thought about hanging around for an hour or two to let the full moon rise further in the night sky, and maybe surf Rincon, but with a 3 hour ride ahead of me, I was happy to head home. (Gas was 4.17 a gallon in Goleta tonight.)

So, I don't have any hard and fast conclusions about the tapered prototype, other than it's a lot more fun backwards than forwards. I got a couple of laugh-out-loud rides as the tail slid out, the mat accelerated, and then I got it under control and made the wave. Some truly sideways mat surfing. I definitely think that more time, and some junk waves, will allow this concept to flourish.

I would also say that the wide tail/narrow nose mat feels really good on a wave, even when it isn't working well. Maybe with some tuning of the shape and more experience in the water, we can sort out the shortcomings.

I was thinking about the name "Trident" for the mat...any thoughts on that?

When I got home, Mr Dirk had sent this email from his 5GF adventures in the water this afternoon...

Hi Paul,

It's a glorious day today, hot, glassy, and pumping. I had to drive a bunch of school kids to a field trip activity, so I halfway resigned myself to missing it. However, the schedule allowed me to spend about an hour in the big thumping beach break conditions with overhead sets, so I decided to christen the 5GF. I got 6 strong rides, and my first impression is that it works great. I'm about 205 in my 3/2 wetsuit, and I was afraid that I might be too heavy. But there was a lot of juice, fast-moving swells, and the mat was as comfortable and solid as could be. Paddling out and duck-dives were easy, as expected, but take-offs were no problem at all. I did a couple of no-paddle, kicking-only take-offs right under the lip, and hooked into an immediate high tight line -- perfect hold and plenty of driving speed. The big sliver peaks that I picked off didn't allow me to really accelerate thru the gears per se, but I rode the last one all the way to the beach and strung together a couple of inside sections just to feel it weight/unweight -- very zippy. It felt especially tight after spending a lot of time on the Vespa

You know I'm a devoted Standard rider in full-bore waves, but I'm really excited about this 5GF. Can't wait to try it again!

Best, Dirk

Then, Matt P sent me this cool vid a few minutes ago!

Hi Paul , Some fun waves down here today! My friend Josh made a little video of our session...I'm on the XL and hes riding the Tracker RT..... Thankyou for making these available! PEace -matt

The Elfstedentocht...it's on!!!

2012-02-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

Hi Paul,

Are you feeling well already? Loved your story on surfmatters. I was so in it when i was reading it.

If the new design works out for the Dutch conditions i'll be there!

Heavy winters in Holland, minus 15 to minus 23 degrees!!!

Maybe they gonna iceskate the " Elfstedentocht" in Holland, thats Dutch for Eleven city route. Thats a very famous Dutch iceskating contest, which only can be ridden if all the rivers have frozen up, and that's not often. Like once in 20 years!

So no matsurfing till april...

All the best with the new designs and technology. I check out surfmatters every week, so i read the new stories!

Greets,

Marc

Magic From France...

2012-02-07T15:58:00.000-08:00

magic ride on my favorite wave belsa biarritz with magic standart model ;on a magic day all is magic on a surfmat photo magic daniel s longboards

Regis

Day 8: 4GF Prototype

2012-02-06T21:15:00.000-08:00

The surf today sucked...

...but there was a lot of good feedback from yesterday's post about my first go out on the tapered prototype mat. I'm surprised how many people were interested! After I up-loaded the post last night, I had misgivings...thinking that maybe I shouldn't have bothered with it. Glad I did now.

I did hold back one section of the "Day 6" post, and it was in regard to the subtle, but undeniable, connection between the new, wide-tailed prototype mat and the classic "guitar pick" paipo board.

One afternoon back in 1982, George and I went for a surf with Sean Ross out at Queens Surf in Waikiki, and I got some time in on a Paul Lindbergh HPD paipo board. The super wide tail really bugged me at first, but Sean showed me how to move around on the tail. George rode it for a couple of waves, and of course figured it out immediately. One thing that really jumped out at me was the planing ability of the wide tail.

Paul Lindbergh

Sean Ross

I'd never given any thought to applying that kind of configuration to a mat, for a number of reasons...until Saturday when I rode the tapered prototype backwards. I immediately flashed back to riding Sean's paipo at Waikiki that afternoon 30 years ago. The feeling was very similar, even though the nose/tail width variation was only 1" on my prototype. (Since mats are infinitely softer than paipos, there's no way you could handle a 30" wide tail on a mat!) And that 1" felt really radical in the water. I seriously doubt that a mat rider could hanlde much more variation, and as I surmised yesterday, 1/2" or 1/4" might be better numbers.

One thing a classic Paipo and the tapered mat prototype have in common is that even though they have wider tails than noses, the center section is dead straight...as opposed to a more thruster-like concept of a curvy pig shape. This is critical, I think, because when you set the rail line into the face of the wave, there's no drag. You're still driving a pure, straight line through the water.

As for the fanned-outward I-Beam grooves of the new mat, they kind of remind me of thruster rail fins being toed in. Not sure if there is any relationship in practice, but knowing how badly the mat rode with the grooves toed inward (when the mat was ridden forwards) maybe that's part of why the mat worked well going backwards. The grooves aren't parallel to the outer pontoons, BTW. The outer pontoons are at a slightly sharper angle.

I also wanted to talk a little bit about how important tail drift is to speed...not just in mats, but surfboards as well. Back in the 70's Larry Bertleman was riding swallow tails with a single fin set well forward in the box...similar to a Greg Liddle hull fin arrangement.

If you click the "Watch Trailer" link on this website, you can see how Bertleman's tail momentarily breaks loose every few seconds as he ducks into tubes, and the speed he achieves in trim. It's very similar to how mats reach their peak speed. When a mat's tail won't break out, that magic speed is lost.

So, it's a tricky balance between hold and drift that mat design has to achieve...and the individual mat rider has to fine-tune that balance in the water via his or her inflation setting. Ridden forward, the new tapered mat ridden had none of that drift...while the backward incarnation had tons of it. The question remains how controllable the width in the back will be. I surfed it in super clean, offshore waves, and it was easy to control it with my inside hip and fins. In lesser surf, who knows?

But, I'm optimistic there will be something good come from this latest design endeavor. It's raining here now, so probably no surfing for a couple of days. We'll know more by the end of the week.

Day 6: 4GF Prototype: A Gold Mine Masquerading As Failure

2012-02-05T20:47:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Feb. 4 rolled around, and I woke up around 6 AM feeling better. I checked the buoys (still too dark out to make use of the local beach cams) and that info, combined with the tide, got me out the door in the dark with the new 4GF prototype. My plan was to only go out if the surf was good, since testing new mats in junk is fraught with problems, and I didn't have the strength to surf just for the sake of surfing.

I pulled up at the spot I thought would be good, and it was swamped with too much swell. I headed for another, more protected spot...and it was pretty much as good as it gets. Chest high to a foot overhead, straight offshore, and no one out.

I was sorry I didn't bring my camera, as the surf was "magazine quality" good. This grab is from a local cam later in the day. Not the spot I surfed, but nearby...

I got my wetsuit on and was walking down the trail to the beach just as the sun came over the mountains to the east. I suddenly had a lot of energy, due to the excitement of trying a new mat, and the conditions.

As soon as I hit the the shorebreak and started to paddle, I felt something was wrong. I couldn't get the mat to move through the water. At first I wrote it off to me being out of the water for 10 days...then after a minute it dawned on me, "It's not me, it's this mat." The new mat paddled like an underwater wheelbarrow. The narrow tail was sinking, and the wide nose generated a lot of frontal area drag. This was interesting, since both the 5GF and the Fatty paddle well. But...the wide nosed Fatty also has a wide tail to support you, and the 5GF's overall narrowness moves through the water easily since there's minimal frontal area. Combining a wide nose and a narrow tail into one mat...it wasn't the best of both mats, it was the worst of both. Not a good harbinger!

I got out to the lineup and set the inflation level at a 90 degree bend, which is always a good starting point for a new mat. I paddled for the first wave...a steep, clean 5 foot wall. The mat wouldn't even begin to catch the wave. Another wave came along, but no luck again. Finally, I just I forced the new mat down the face of a smaller, steeper wave.

It's hard to describe what a mat that doesn't work feels like, but this puppy was a living testament to all that is bad! It was sluggish dropping in, the tail was stiff (like riding a gun in small surf) and the nose would either catch corners on the wall (and it was clean and offshore) or slide out, making the mat aim towards the beach. I couldn't coax it up into trim for more than a few seconds at a time.

I caught a lot of waves over the next hour, adjusting the inflation as I went. The softer it got, the more difficult it was to control the wide nose. The firmer it got, and more the tail would glue itself to the wall, but never breaking loose into a speed run. And my body was stuck in the middle of the mat, because the tail was too narrow to allow me to move over towards the inside rail without dragging my hip in the water.

The fact that this mat was a complete failure was a disappointment, but not unexpected. New ideas rarely work. Some prototypes point me in the direction of trying to sort out the problems, others are throw aways. This one was the latter, without any doubt.

I came into the beach, grabbed my super reliable Standard, and caught just one wave with it. It was like magic. Everything worked in unison, and it flew. At least I knew any problems with the new mat weren't me, or the waves. I was actually giddy coming back to the beach after that one wave, re-realizing how good the Standard was.

I took the prototype out again. This time, I paddled it out backwards. The wide tail and narrow nose configuration allowed it to slip through the water. I reset the inflation at 90 degrees, and waited for a wave. I figured it would pick waves up easily...but ride like it had an anchor dragging off the back, being such a piggy shape. (Here I was, applying surfboard design attributes to a mat, falling into the very mode that I complain about in others!)

I turned to paddle for a right hander that was too far out to catch, just too see what the mat would do...and it picked the swell up without any resistance. A total glide-in, longboard-ish takeoff. Even a Tracker or Vespa Roundtail wouldn't have caught that wave. As I dropped in, the nose felt narrow. The mat rotated into a flat, right turn and tracked into into highest/steepest part of the wave on it's own. Then it started to accelerate, without me guiding or pushing on it. The tail drifted out a bit, but the width in the back let me comfortably move my body towards the inside rail, and it was easy to control.

I started riding waves with this thing backwards, and each one was the same as the first. It didn't want to carve a banking turn off the bottom, but it wanted to do a flat, point-and-shoot turn about halfway down the face, and aim almost uphill along the wall...which is the ultimate speed generator on a mat.

I tried a few cutbacks, and the tail kind of got in the way as I banked back around. But the wide tail also kept driving the mat forward, so my mistakes were easy to correct. It seemed like the wide tail was something you could learn how to deal with, and probably even exploit. I got behind the whitewater once after a cutback, and the wide tail forcefully pushed me back into the green. The stock Fatty does that, true. But the narrow nose really relieved a lot of drag as I moved through the water, so the wider tail became even more effective.

So, as I implied in the title, there was a gold mine of knowledge contained within what was essentially a bad mat design. I'm not sure where this information will take us. I have the ride the new prototype, backwards of course, in a variety of conditions to get a feel for what it will do. I'll give it some more time riding forwards as well, just to make sure I wasn't missing something.

Here's a Fatty, left, and the new prototype, right, sitting with its narrow end up.

On this prototype, I used round corners on the Fatty (wider) end of the mat, but slightly squarer corners on the 5GF (narrower) end of the mat. These are the corners used on the stock Fatty and stock 5GF design....so that's the reason why I went with them on the prototype. Both sets of corners seemed fine as I surfed this mat, and I'm pretty sensitive about that. (I'll do a posting about corners in the future design article.)

I can see trying a less extreme nose-to-tail difference in future prototypes. The current one has about a 1" narrower nose than tail. Maybe 1/2", or even 1/4", will work better. This is going to take some time, some mats, and some waves to sort out. If future sessions confirm my initial good impressions, then I'll send a few prototypes out to mat riders in the near future to get their feedback.

Even though I rode this mat in good surf, I'm really stoked at the prospect of a better junk wave mat on the horizon. My gut tells me that in small, weak surf, this might be a breakthrough, since the nose wants to hunt for power, and the tail wants to drive it. I have no idea how fast it will go, or how well it will hold into bigger waves, especially if they're bumpy and uneven.

I also went left a few times (my backside, which I really don't like) and it was a lot easier to get the rail set with the narrower nose...could be another benefit.

Sorry for the long, wordy post...but I wanted to convey this in a manner that reflected all that I thought and experienced on Saturday morning.

Webster's Unabridged Mat Geek Dictionary!

2012-02-03T18:38:00.002-08:00

A little know mat riding factoid...UKMS's Grayman (Graeme Webster) is the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of Noah Webster, developer of the profoundly influential Webster's Unabridged Dictionary in 1824.

(An 1888 advertisement for Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary.)

The Webster family resemblance is uncanny!

(Another bit of Noah Webster trivia...he was a friend of Ben Franklin, thought to be the inventor of the swim fin.)

To celebrate Noah Webster's 253rd birthday, I'm thinking we need to build our own mat geek dictionary.

These would be words or phrases that have a conventional meaning among the flipperless, landlocked hoi polloi...but have another, more cryptic meaning among mat surfers. These words must also imbue the user with "beach cred!"

Some examples...

Stagger:  Disparity between I-Beam height and overall thickness. Also, describes condition of most mat meet participants after an event.

Double:  Shouted in the water to invite another mat rider to take off on a wave with you. In some non-mat riding countries, can be misconstrued as an over sized shot of whisky.

Largely Unattended: Uncrowded surf. Greenough-ism.

Hisser: An extremely fast wave with offshore wind. Also, a mat that leaks through pinhole leaks when filled with air. Also, a full size, inflatable female doll with poor workmanship.

Ski Jumps:  Term for short period windswell with a crossing wind bump. Greenough-ism.

Buzz: Flange-vibration on big waves. Also can refer to various forms of intoxicants.

I-Beam: Vertical pieces of fabric inside a mat that helps create the pontoon shape.

Popcorn: The first sign of wind-generated whitecapping out on the ocean. Greenough-ism.

Rubber Duck: Surf mat. Greenough-ism.

Fold Angle: The angle a mat makes when it is folded in half lengthwise. Used as a crude method to measure the amount of air in a mat.

Flange: The small width of flat fabric that runs around the perimeter of the mat, generated by the manufacturing process. Also, vulgar British slang for...never mind.

Edge laps: Dale Solomonson's term for "Flange." (Hopefully, this term doesn't have a ribald British meaning!)

Mat Geek: An enthusiast of inflatable craft wave riding with an inordinate focus on all things related to mat surfing. Also, a male fitness model with extraordinary carnal dimensions and a litany of romantic conquests to back it up.

Pontoon: Inflated tube of fabric, making up a portion of a surf mat. Usually there are 3, 4, or 5 pontoons in a surfmat.

Valve: Small round opening, with a plug, in a surf mat which allows air to be added or released.

Mat Meet:  A planned gathering of mat riders at a particular beach. Also can be characterized as a "slow motion flash mob."

A Sheen: Describes a long, complex maneuver where a mat rider passes out drunk while paddling for a wave, goes over the falls upside down and backwards, then has to be rescued after being face down in the water for over five minutes. A term of praise generally bestowed posthumously.

Couch:  A pun to describe conditions which are setty. You often hear people say the surf is "setty" as in, having to wait a long time for a set. "Setty" sounds like "settee", which is the three seater which comes with two chairs to make up a 3-piece suite. Another word for "settee" is "couch". Eg. "Good waves. It's pretty couch though."

Wheezer:  A mat with a slow rate of air transfer between pontoons. Also, a band that can get you killed if you use them as your ringtone.

Free Breather: The opposite of a wheezer. A mat that lets air flow from one pontoon to the other easily. (Not the name of a band, but should be.)

Newbie: Any mat rider under the age of 50, regardless of mat riding experience.

Sand Tire: A mat that's super thick. Greenough-ism.

Swapping spit: Blowing up someone else's surf mat. Considered poor form if done without the permission of the mat's owner.

Foot Volcanos or Tropical Ulcers: Open sores one gets on their feet from overindulging in flippering.

Rubber Duck Riders: A short film made by George Greenough in 1970. It was shot by Greenough and students from Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara. RDR featured the riding of George, Mike Cundith, and friends...and shot entirely at Rincon. The soundtrack was simple: Creedence Clearwater Revival's hypnotic thumper, Keep On Chooglin'. In the decade of the 70's, no self respecting mat rider would even consider going for a surf without blasting Chooglin' on his or her car's 8 Track cassette.

Chooglin': Going uber-fast across a wall on an air mat. More historical details on the term are here.

Breaking Loose: Getting an air mat to drift across a wall at a slight, side slipping angle. Generates great speed.

Breaking Wind: Generally associated with flatulence. In mat surfing, "breaking wind" refers to a valve plug accidentally coming loose and releasing a sudden puff of stale air from inside one's mat. Conscientious mat riders rinse their mouths with a premium mouthwash before inflating their mats, to prevent the discomfort of others should their mat "break wind" at any point during the session.

23 Breaths: Lifestyle-derived term indicating how many breaths it takes to inflate a mat. Also the name of a mat riding blog from Pranaglider. Also, a form of braggadocio, as one must have great lung capacity to inflate a mat in just 23 breaths. Implies virility.

Magic Towel: Refers to a high performance air mat. Since experienced mat riders often ride their mats with low inflation, their mats give an appearance of being a beach towel to the uninitiated.

Cheapies or Pool Toys: Low cost vinyl or canvas/rubber surf mats, usually found in coastal drug and sporting good stores. Cost a few bucks, last maybe an hour in the surf.

A Grade, B Grade, C Grade: The quality rating of a surf spot. Greenough-ism.

Running Through The Gears: Building speed on a wave through bottom turns and trimming. Greenough-ism.

Sleeper: A surf spot no one think of as a mat wave. Ex: Jefferey's Bay. Greenough-ism.

Lurker: A rogue set of big waves breaking way out the back. Greenough-ism.

Centerfold: Cosmetically perfect surf. Greenough-ism.

Movie Wave: Also a perfect wave. Ex: "Did you see JJ on that last one? That was a movie wave for sure!" Almost always used when there is no photographers present.

Butter Texture: Ocean surface with no bump of any kind, and a smooth, light offshore wind texture. Greenough-ism.

Grenade: Huge pre-surf sandwhich. Greenough-ism

Breather Holes:  Holes made in I-beams to increase the rate of air transfer between chambers.

Denier:  Weight of material used to build mats. Calculated by grams per 9000 metres of a single strand of yarn.

Weight:  See denier (ie a "Heavy mat" relates to fabric weight, not the overall weight of the mat).

Smirk:  The facial expression of those who don't know what they're mising.

Bear Hug:  Both arms wrapped tight around the mat during a heavy pounding or turtle-roll

Turtle-roll:  Rolling upside down with your arms and legs wrapped around your mat to reduce the impact of a heavy lip about to axe you on paddle out.

Hot Wax Treatment:  Grip applied by melting surf wax into the fabric of a mat (needs heavy material)

Vulkem:  A stinky but sticky sealant used to apply pliable, rubberized grip to decks.

Stippleback:  Stippled Vulkem or other Sealant giving added grip.

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Submit your words (with or without definitions) in the comments section. I'll add them to this listing as they come in, and we'll try to keep this posting going as long as we can...

Day Four: 4GF Prototype: Deja Vu All Over Again

2012-02-02T20:18:00.000-08:00

Today greeted me with more "flu-like symptoms," and another morning of good surf I can't get too...

So, more frustration with the prototype mat project. At least the prediction for the near future is for more swell...

The other day, Graeme from Plympton wrote, "Would it be rude to ask about I-beam heights/stagger, and how these compare to the fatty and 5GF?"

This is in reference to the new 4GF prototype. (And no, it's not particularly rude to ask. Cheeky maybe, but not rude.) It's hard to put my answer into words, but here goes...

Stagger refers to the height of the two main I-Beams relative to the overall thickness.

This means that a mat with smaller I-Beams has a lot of stagger. And a mat with larger I-Beams has low stagger. Each 4GF model has a unique stagger, based on practical, in-the-water testing. Generally speaking, wider mats work best with a lot of stagger, narrow mats work best with less stagger. The reasons why are too tangential to go into here.

The new prototype has a Fatty nose (which is moderately wide and has a lot of stagger) and a 5GF tail (which is very narrow with less stagger). I decided to use the the stagger that works best for each of these designs...which means the stagger is greater in the nose and less in the tail. We've never made a mat like that.

You can clearly see the nose has a lot of stagger, the tail less.

You can also see the taper of the overall width, as well as the narrowing of the bottom groove width in the tail. Who knows if this concoction will work? If it does, it could be a breakthrough. If it doesn't, it would be a confirmation that the current stock 4GF mats are pretty good as they are.

Trying new things now and then always nets a new perspective, even if it doesn't change things. About 7 or 8 years ago, George ordered 4 Standards from me. (Believe it or not, he's always paid for his mats.) He said, "I want to re-explore the stagger, just to see if we got it right."

So I made him 4 Standards, one with stock stagger, three with 1/8" increment changes in the I-Beam height.)

About 3 months later, he called to report which one he liked best...and it turned out it was the stock design that we had settled on back in the mid-80's. So, we didn't learn anything new...but at the same time, we gained even more confidence we had that aspect of the Standard design right.

Day Three: 4GF Prototype

2012-02-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

I had (another) bad night of sleep due to my flu, and got up this morning to several dismaying bits of news...

One was the passing of Don Cornelius. His classic music TV program Soul Train was the longest, continuously running first-run syndicated program in television history. And, speaking frankly, it was a window into the Black American pop culture that was a lot of fun for white suburbanites like me to peep into. So sorry Don's life ended on a sour note.

Another, far less important news flash in the A.M. was that the surf was looking good in our area. I have a prototype mat I'm jonesing to ride, but I'm still too sick to surf, so the local cam was torturing me with images like this all morning...

-------------------------------

I received an order for a Standard late in the morning, and dragged myself out to the shop and built it. About 3.5 hours, start to finish. Took it to the post office straight away, as the customer was anxious to get it going. Most orders go out within a day or two anyway, but occasionally, I get one out the same day. Working actually made me forget being sick for a time.

-------------------------------

When I got back from the PO, I found this in my inbox...

"Hi Paul,

last March I received 3 surfmats from you. A lot has happened since then.
Living in Sweden I don't get the chance to use the mat that often, mostly due to lack of waves. However, last year I have been in the water twice as much because of the surfmats ability to deal with bad conditions. Mostly I was surfing alone and I had a blast.
At the end of last year I started shooting videos. Check out my site on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/tici/videos

There are two surf videos and both feature some mat riding. In both it's the last wave and the one that was the most fun.

I hope you like it.

Kind regards
Tim"

We get bombarded by the corporate wing of surfing all day, everyday. Seeing stuff like this really reaffirms my faith in surfing as a spiritual cleanser. And women surfing is the pinnacle of stoke for me. A complete rejection of the patriarchal, alpha male bullshit men have been slinging for generations in the water.

-------------------------------

Later this afternoon, I answered this email that's been lurking in my inbox for a couple of days:

"Hey there,
My name is Stephen. I am a teacher in inner-cty schools and guide wilderness trips and camps during the summer for at risk kids. Do you sell to outfitters at wholesale rates? I am trying to do a sea kayaking, surf trip and the surf mats would be perfect because they fit inside the boat. let me know any details.

Thanks"

We don't do much wholesaling, especially to shops, because our internet retail price is almost as low as we can go, so we can't offer much of mark up to shops and make any money at all. But situations like this really get my attention...so hopefully we can work something out with Stephan.

-------------------------------

I had maybe 6 email exchanges with Grayman today, which is normal for a weekday. I still can't get my head around surfing in England, when clearly, there's plenty of waves to be had. I keep asking him, "Really? You guys went surfing again?"

---------------------------------

The new mat is now sitting in my wetsuit storage area, already partially inflated!

The appeal of the prototype keeps changing as l look at it between sessions at the computer. Sometimes I think it will surely work...other times, I feel skeptical. As Grayman surmised the other day, the grooves caused by the two small I-Beams do taper inward, slightly, from nose to tail. So the water will be forced to move inward as well. But, the mat will be fairly soft, and it'll be twisting and bending all the while, so this doesn't seem like something that will be a problem.

The big worry I have is that the nose will tend to catch, because it's wide and more sharply angled in the corners. But if it's sticky, I have the option of changing the curve of the corners to a rounder shape. If it comes to that, I'll make any changes a little bit at a time, because as much as I like round corners, too-round corners are the worst!

"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever!"

This loopy thought process is what happens when I'm sick and out of the water. Two or three waves, even if they're junky, will tell us a lot more about the new mat than all the dry dock conjecture in the world.

---------------------------------

We keep getting emails from people stoked on the tapered prototype 4GF. Everyone seems optimistic it will be "a goer." Experience has taught me not to get pumped on a new mat until it's been in the water.

I have a pending order from Chiledub for a 5GF, but I'm going to hold off making it until I get the prototype wet. He's not in a hurry, so it makes sense to put the project in a holding pattern for maybe a week. The new mat might be a better call for him.

---------------------------------

I don't know what to name the new mat...if it turns out to be a model. There've been a couple of off-color suggestions in the email box already. Apparently, the Brits have a knack for double entendre that the rest of us won't grasp for centuries to come.

Plus, we don't know if the mat will work going both forwards and backwards. That'll influence the name, if it's reversible...a semi-gun going one way, and a semi-pig going the other. (I guess "AC/DC" would have the inside track if that were the case...)

(The new guy is really great, but I sure miss Bon Scott...)

------------------------------------------

There were two, late 60's transition-era boards that had fins boxes at both ends, so you could have two boards in one. "Model #2" was from Bob White Wave Riding Vehicles. The other was a Greek called "The Pickle."

Both boards had the same approach...similar outlines in the nose and tail, but with low rails at one end, and turned up rails at the other. That's a pretty sophisticated option, in any era.

-------------------------------------------

The day ended with this email from Mark in NC...

Hey Paul.
Just had to write and let you know that I had a GREAT session on the mat last Friday. The waves have been pretty crap since then but we had good chest high peelers for part of the day and I took the Vespa out. Had a blast from the very start. But man, what a work out. I'm totally in shape for surfing, just not mat surfing! Nice humbling for me. And tons of fun.

Straight up hoot.
Will keep you posted.
Thanks again,
Mark

------------------------------

More coming, as things progress with the new mat...

------------------------------

Surfmatters Contest Winner...

2012-01-31T20:25:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems that many of our loyal readers took issue with Brigitte Bardot's current social and political perspective! Fair enough. Of course, a stint on an island with Ms. Bardot in her younger years would have given them a chance to broaden her horizons...and who knows what our brew master Gunther thinks about the world at large? What if he's further right than Atilla The Hun???

In any case, we've selected Pranaglider as the winner of the contest. Originality was clearly spelled out as a judging criteria, and he answered "Mary Ann" when she wasn't even an option!

20 bucks will go to Surf Sister in Pranaglider's name!

Day One: 4GF Prototype...

2012-01-30T22:49:00.000-08:00

In the past, whenever we started working on an idea for a new 4GF model, I've resisted talking about it in Surfmatters early on, because, 9 times out of 10, the idea doesn't work out. And even if the concept shows promise -- like the Tracker Roundtail two summers ago -- it takes 6 months or more to sort out the details. So I've waited until a new mat was finished before unleashing it on the ever growing, ever voracious mat surfing world.

The great thing about designing air mats is we're always dealing with straight lines and concrete measurements. I can build a new version of a mat I rode yesterday, make it 1/8" thicker, and do it with almost perfect accuracy. And, I can have it out in the water tomorrow. Building surfboards generates so many variations in shaping and glassing that it's rare for any two boards to come out the same. And then there's the high cost and turn around time of making new boards, even if you own a shop. Surf mats, then, really lend themselves to a methodical developmental process.

The downside of mat design is that all the variations and fine tuning aren't visible to the eye. I've built nearly 3000 mats by hand over the past 25 plus years, but even I can't look at a mat and determine how it will ride just by its appearance. Mats are a lot like shoes. A small variation (like the difference between a size 9 1/2 and a size 10 shoe) makes all the difference in the world when you wear them, but you can't look at them on-line, or even in the shoe store, and judge them. You have to put them on. The same applies to a mat...you have to ride it to really know what it's capable of.

The single biggest thing I spend time on, when answering emails, is trying to convince board surfers they aren't qualified to make judgement of what a given mat model will ride like based on its appearance or dimensions. The variation in dimensions between two extreme mats (like a 4GF Standard compared to a 4GF XL) is minimal compared to the numbers that two widely contrasting surfboards might generate. If I published the dimensions of a Standard and an XL, it would seem implausible to most surfers that there would be any noticeable difference between how the two mats surfed. But anyone who's ridden both a Standard and an XL knows they are profoundly different.

So with all that in mind, I thought it might be interesting to document the progress of a new 4GF prototype mat from day-one.

I've been thinking about how great both the Standard and the 5GF are when it comes to hanging into walls, but also how much better every other design is when it comes to gliding and skimming. Obviously, we're all looking for the holy grail...a mat that combines both aspects.

I've made so many variations of so many mats, that sometimes I think there isn't much more earth to till. What I haven't spent much time working on is a mat with a tapered outline shape. In the past, I've resisted fooling around with mats that weren't straight and square for a litany of reasons.

One reason is aesthetic. Square mats are pretty much our history. And the emergence of the body board in the 70's, with it's tapered outline, presented an appearance paradigm that mat surfers didn't like.

There's no doubt that this outline works...but nothing like a surf mat. So it's an aesthetic strike-out, in my view.

A second reason I've stuck with conventional square mats is that a square mat reduces the number of design variables to sort through. Once you start to add curves and tapers, another, almost impenetrable jungle of design and testing presents itself.

The third, and most important, reason is that square mats really do work. In the late 40's, Bob Simmons' research into planing hulls led him to determined that wide tailed, parallel outlined boards were more efficient than pulled-in curvy ones. Of course, Simmons' boards weren't very maneuverable, but they absolutely flew in a straight line. Untouchable speed, even by today's standards.

(That's about a parallel as you can get!)

So, a conventional surf mat with its straight/parallel outline has a significant amount of data, and history, to back up its obviously high level of performance. Of course, the original surf mats were square out of manufacturing practicality. But, they worked back then, and they work now.

Manly Beach, 1930's

That said, the idea of a mat that isn't perfectly square goes back to the mid-1930's. One the earliest known photographs of a surf raft shows a mat with a tapered outline.

George made a tapered mat back in the 80's, but we didn't have much of a design backlog to rely on, and the squares ones were working well, so that first one got wet a few times, then set aside. Last night, in a flu-induced delirium, I decided to give the tapered outline mat idea another shot.

What I wanted to try was taking two proven design quantities -- the Fatty (my favorite small wave mat) and the 5GF (the best big wave mat, IMO) -- and literally combine them. The prototype I built this afternoon has the wide-ish nose of a Fatty, tapering down to the narrow tail of a 5GF.

My hope is the narrower tail will hold in, while the wider nose will give it more planing. I've kept the outline straight, rather than curving the outline inward at the tail, because outline curve has never worked for me in the past. It usually slips out.

Fatty...............Tapered Prototype.............5GF

I have to wait for some waves, and for my flu to subside, before I can try it out. I'll keep everyone posted.

A Surfmatters Contest For The Guys...

2012-01-29T18:31:00.000-08:00

The legendary BBC Radio program "Desert Island Discs" turned 70 years old today!

The subject of desert islands brings up an interesting question:

If you're a pudgy, near-sighted mat geek...

...and you're stranded on an island with perfect surf...

...who would you rather be stuck with?

A guy named Gunther with an unlimited brewing capacity...

...or Brigitte Bardot (1960's era) and a surf mat?

Submit your answer in the Comments Section.

The winner will be chosen based on humor and originality...and I'm not going to lose any sleep if no one else agrees with my choice! The point is to generate some laughs, and give Surf Sister another 20 bucks. The winner gets bragging rights to the donation.

(And yes, that really is Brigitte Bardot on a surf mat!)

Quick 5GF Update

2012-01-29T06:44:00.000-08:00

Paul,

Surfed the 5GF a bunch of times this weekend. there were bumpy, stormy wedges with a fair bit of punch to them and the 5GF handled it all with ease. Cutbacks were a breeze, and like I read on a previous ride report, the 5GF definitely feels like it has a fin attached. No sliding out no matter how hard I pushed it. Have found a good level of pressure, which is super low and what I am normally used to riding on other mats.

Can't wait to get it into some sizeable tubes, I think the thing will come into a whole other level in those sort of conditions.

Will get some photos happening soon.....

Evan

Tips From The Pros: Breaking Up The Pack!

2012-01-28T17:45:00.000-08:00

Back in the early 70's, George and his Hodgman were out at Lennox Head on a pretty good day. A long lull let everyone filter back into position (no leashes yet, so that wasn't as easy or as common as it is today), and a good sized cluster of surfers was sitting on the peak towards the top of the point. After a few frustrating minutes, George decided that he'd had enough. He left the primary peak, and paddled up towards the top of the point.

"I really wanted to pick off a big one way out there!" George said at the time.

Paul Witzig was on the point shooting, and right on cue, the set George had summoned punched him square in the nose. I've never seen the footage of that ride, but this grab turned up in one of Nat Young's books back in the 80's. It's George, screaming across a wall, well outside the location where everyone else was sitting.

"That was the best wave I got out there that day," he recalled, "and everyone paddled up to where I was sitting when I caught it. By the time I paddled back, the main peak was almost empty. I broke up the pack with on an air mat!"

Chief Inspiration Officer

2012-01-27T20:07:00.000-08:00

Ryan Levinson's story is here...it's well worth a look!

Latest 5GF Update

2012-01-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

Hey Paul,

got the 5GF mat, mate!!

Was absolutely chomping at the bit to get out there this arv and can definitely feel the 5GF is a winner already. Felt really nice off the bottom on the bigger, bumpier sets at the Pass. Definitely feels like a mat for bigger, more powerful surf that's for sure.

Super keen to give it a run in some bigger stuff this coming week. Will keep you informed and thanks again!!!

cheers, Evan

---------------------------------------------------------------

I've had a couple of people ask about ordering a 5GF, even though it isn't a model on our home page yet. I've agreed to make a few, since the feedback so far has been good...and showing an understanding that the 5GF isn't an all around mat.

If you want to order one, go to our home page, order a Standard, and note you want a 5GF in the comments box.

We'll also donate 10 bucks for each 5GF ordered to surf sister.

PG

---------------------------------------------------------------

Surfmatter Triva Winner Followup

2012-01-26T17:34:00.000-08:00

Piskian's guess that a Greenough family member was the driver of the yellow Mustang in the post below was essentially correct, since it was in fact George's mother Helen at the wheel. So, we've given his name to a $20 donation to Surf Sister's medical fund.

So, why are images of Jane Russell appearing in this post? Well, for one thing, why the hell not? The other reason would be that Jane Russell was Piskian's other answer in the prize winning post. And, it wasn't a bad guess either, as Ms. Russell did live in George's home town of Montecito for a number of years. So, all in all, very good entry by the P-Man.

Besides, I have my own surf-related anecdote relating to Jane Russell...

When I was in high school, and starting to glass surfboards in our family garage, there was a retired guy across the street named Monty. He often gave me pointers about board building. He'd been an art director at Howard Hughes' RKO Studios in the 40s and 50s, and had pioneered the use of fiberglass in creating sets for feature films. Monty also glassed boards for the people at RKO who surfed Malibu back then. They would buy unglassed balsa boards from shapers (including Bob Simmons!) then slip them onto the RKO lot under the cover of darkness, where Monty would lay them up on the QT. Pretty damn cool!

Cooler still...while Monty was at RKO, he worked with Jane Russell on a number of projects. He actually had a hand in making the famous undercarriage brazier that she wore in the film The Outlaw.

Monty passed away in the mid-70's, while Ms. Russell died just this past year...and she was a resident of the Central Coast at the time.

Another Surfmatters trivia question coming up soon. Same deal...winner gets their name tagged to another donation to Surf Sister.

Yet Another 4GF Trivia Contest!!!

2012-01-25T17:31:00.000-08:00

The first mat fanatic to guess the identity of the person driving the yellow Mustang convertible at :32 of this uber-beyond-cool Greenough video gets their name credited to another 20 bucks for Surf Sister! Humorous replies welcome, even encouraged...but we're after cold hard facts to determine a winner!

Surfmatter Contest Result...Sort Of

2012-01-24T20:43:00.000-08:00

I don't know where to fall on judging the entries to this contest challenge. There are some good ones! And with a free T-shirt hanging the balance, that adds to the pressure.

Culturally, it's too late for me to hide behind any "I'm the decider" jokes. :(

I'm leaning towards Matt23's reply, with the idea of the bottom of the mat being a primitive blue screen. Then again, Mat Max was really in the groove when he speculated that George was signaling "bottoms up" to the crew on the beach. And Piskian, with his brevity, showed classic Brit-Wit.

And I can't decide of Grayman is brilliant or in need of some kind of therapy.

Anyway, what do you guys think? (And you can't vote for yourself!)

One option: How about we call it a draw, and 4GF donates double the cost of a T-shirt ($20 x 2 = $40) to Surf Sister? She busted her leg after the contest was announced...so that might be cool.

Daniel: i would have to say it's the end of the shoot and he can't wait to dump that cam and get away alive from that guy on the surfboard that keeps ditching it at him. he doesnt care what side is up he wants to go in and go ride somewhere else with paul up or down the coast like after this film shoot.

Piskian: Blue movie? And he was shy of displaying his valve?

Pranaglider: Certain "movie magic" involving post production techniques only know to the Marx brothers turn that footage into the intro for the original "Hawaii 5 oh" that we all know and love. Regarding riding the mat stripes down, a sudden oil slick produced by the hair products the male star was using so contaminated the local waters that fishing was ruined for years. George's mat took a direct hit due to his close proximity. The deck was covered. George flipped the mat over for the ride to shore attempting to prevent further transfer to his wetsuit. P.S. as it turned out both the wetsuit and his mat were completely ruined and had to be written off. Sadly the film company didn't reimburse George for the wetsuit or the mat causing George and friends to look into making mats for themselves. Yes nasty Hollywood hair products are directly responsible for the surfmats we ride today. True story.

KP: The Striped pattern on the Hogmans bottom is a shark repellant GG was way ahead of his time on this subject and was a setting duck with that camara gear at a well known shark hangout. First guess , The light on the dark bottom didn't reflect the light from the morning sun, second guess. I would keep going but I have to go to work, when I just typed that, have to go to work I thought of Manard G. Crebs one GG's hero's.

KA: Converse/Hodgman pulled the plug on George's three figure mat riding endorsement deal, so in protest, he flipped his mat over to make it look like he wasn't riding a Hodgman anymore?

Grayman: These days he needs to clad himself in rubber and rub up against moist bottom to shoot?

Mark: 1. we all now how actors like bright and shiny things and Mr. Greenough's mat being the brightest thing out there, he opted not to distract the "talent". 2. He was tired of getting smacked by the valve, dodging the "talent" and carrying the extra weight of the camera.

Mat Max: George was getting thirsty and signaled "bottoms up" to crew on the beach in order to have a beverage waiting there for him.

Matt23: Halfway through shooting Bruce O'Dube (scriptwriter) the guy in the shirt with a buterfly on the elbow changed the plot! George would play an intergalactic FBI agent hot on the trail of the main evil character. Later FX were added to show Georges camera as a high powered laser cannon. The main reason for the mat flip was to help aid an early version of 'blue screen'. Unfortunatley the film never saw public release as Carrington Sheen (Charlies grand father!) bought the rights and kept in under lock and key!

Surfempty: He'd become distracted by some excellent flange?

Mat Max: ...Well you see, George was getting fed up with Hollywood and California and the US is general, right? So, as a symbolic gesture of protest (it was the late sixties Vietnam era), he flipped his mat upside down to voice his opinion that he longed to go back "down under" in Australia...

Charlie Sheen Fires Back!!!

2012-01-23T23:04:00.000-08:00

satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire

Surfmatters recently covered the growing controversy of drug testing for mat meets...specifically in the "Premier League Of Mat Riding," otherwise known as the UKMS. It didn't take long for Malibu's own Charlie Sheen to bounce back with his thoughts on two subjects near and dear to his heart: Mat surfing and drugs. And alcohol. And women. (It's all kind of a blur with him.)

"Hi Guys,

Charlie here. Thought I'd get back to you on the UKMS drug testing thing. You probably think I'm all "pro-drugs, anti-testing," and in the past that would have been one of those awesome "torpedo of truth" kinds of deals. But the other night I made it with my first brunette -- well, two of 'em actually -- and it turned my head around...pun intended!

I see now where you can go both ways -- blond and brunette -- and have a great time. So, I'm willing to look at drugs and the testing thing in a whole new light!

My issues with intoxicants and mat surfing really started back in the 80's, when I scored an endorsement deal with Budweiser to ride a mat with their logo. All I could think about when I was out in the water was getting back to my beach pad and cracking a cold one. Pretty soon, I just parked my mat in the corner of my living room and spent my days drinking beer and staring at that damn raft.

I was so out of it that I dragged my 4GF with me when we shot Platoon. I did a few improv scenes on the beach with the mat, but that no-talent hack Ollie Stone edited them out, claiming they weren't "historically accurate." Like that's ever stopped him before!

The big collapse, for me, was when I visited England and hooked up with with Grayman and a couple of his UKMS staff assistants. They were really into PEDs to torque-up their mat surfing, and I was so innocent, I didn't even know what PED meant! Before long, I was slamming 'roids and EPO like they were cheese puffs and Mr. Pipp...and absolutely ripping. (That G-man sure had a wry smile all the time. I shoulda asked him why.)

I hit rock bottom when I got back to the States. Without easy access to "the juice," as they called it in the UK, I was turning back into a kook in the water. Out of desperation, I chug-a-lugged a quart of lemon juice.

It took a month for my face to straighten out, and in that time I realized that I had to get the rest of me straight as well. I hired a medical staff to test me before every go out. The video crew was there to document the process for Mr. Dirk's upcoming film, "The Once And Future Kook: The Rise and Fall Of Charlie Sheen's Mat Career."

I put up the jack to shoot the film...but Dirk blew most of it on sunglasses and a new hat. (My people are looking into it.)

At first being tested all the time was a drag, but I got to the point where I actually looked forward to giving a sample...just to prove to the world that I could surf sober! Or, nearly sober.

So that's where I'm at these days. Clean, mostly sober, and stoked! I even give 4GF T's to all my romantic conquests...PG sells them to me in lots of a thousand!

Regards,

Charlie"

satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire this is satire

Co-Operative Fun!

2012-01-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

This was pinched from Lloyd's Blog. It's well worth a daily click!

Should There Be Drug Testing For UK Mat Meets???

2012-01-23T07:34:00.000-08:00

As UKMS mat meets grow in popularity, grand prizes have blossomed from small inflatable trophies to, well, slightly larger inflatable trophies! It naturally follows that the temptation is overwhelming for mat riders to cheat in hopes of giving themselves a competitive edge. And, with no drug testing program in place, what's to stop competitors from turning to PEDs in hopes of a coveted podium finish?

The governing body of the UK Mat Meets isn't inclined to deal with anything that doesn't involve a quick pint of bitter...but now these wallys have to face Sporting's Big Question: Should there be drug testing for competitors?

I interviewed a shadowy source deep within the bowels of UKMS Headquarters, known to the public only as "G," and he pretty much parroted the UKMS party line on drug testing. "If we screen for PEDs, and the majority our participants get red carded, what do we say to a worldwide TV audience of a half billion people? 'Sorry lads, we're shutting down UK Mat Meet #17. You'll just have to switch over to the World Cup Finals instead.' Imagine their disappointment!"

Spoken like a true mat geek!

Probing deeper, I asked "G" point blank, "What about testing for recreational drugs?"

"Should we test for those too...and eliminate 99% of the UK's mat surfing population from the meets?" he shot back rhetorically. "Crikey, no!!!"

The bottom line, it seems, is that big money and bigger egos are at the root of the resistance to drug testing in the UK mat surfing world. So, what's your take on this hot button issue? Should they initiate drug testing for UKMS Mat Meets? Sound off with your opinion in the comments section!

Early 5GF Feedback

2012-01-22T09:26:00.000-08:00

Jamie is taking his 5GF to Puerto Rico in a few weeks, but got some waves in cold (48 degree) water this past week.

Here are two shots from the day he surfed it...plenty of juice!

And here's what he said about the 5GF...

"The 5GF Test Track, day one. It was a fairly short session. Too cold and I had other stuff going on. There will be plenty of marathon session time in PR if the ocean cooperates. I did get a couple crazy deep views and snuck out of a good one. The 5GF has face-hold in steep situations that no other mat can touch."

A Pendo For Archbishop Tutu

2012-01-22T08:23:00.000-08:00

Steve and Cher Pendarvis were commissioned to create a board for Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday. Details of the amazing experience are here.

From Kendog...

2012-01-21T10:07:00.001-08:00

PG

We should do a mat one!

Kendog

(Use comments sections for ideas on "Shit Mat Surfers Say.")

Sometimes Ya Make It...

2012-01-20T17:47:00.000-08:00

...Sometimes Ya Don't!

2012-01-20T17:44:00.000-08:00

Surfmatters Triva Quiz!

2012-01-19T17:44:00.000-08:00

In part 4 of Crystal Voyager, beginning at 2:52, there's a sequence of George Greenough shooting water footage for an American TV pilot, circa 1971. To win a free 4GF T-shirt, try your hand solving this mat surfing riddle for the ages...

At 6:20, why was George riding to shore with his Hodgman "upside down?" (The dark blue side of the Hodgman was considered the bottom, since the valve was located on the striped side.)

The funniest answers are more likely to be victorious. I'd admonish entrants to keep it clean...but what good has that done in the past? :)

Noted Mat Rider Closes Family Surf Shop

2012-01-19T07:27:00.000-08:00

Mark Richards, a mat rider from Newcastle who later dabbled in professional contest surfing, has chosen to close his family's surf shop...which was opened by his parents in 1958. The shop initially began as a used car dealership. You can see their "transition era" in the photo below.

"I love shaping boards, it's what I'm good at, but I'm not so sure I'm so good at retailing," Richards said in the linked article.

More board building and less retail...Mark's a real surfer. Hat's off to him, and best of luck from Surfmatters!

From the Hodgman Files ...

2012-01-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

Unearthed by JJ...a cool Hodgman ad from back in the day. Maybe the 50's???

Also, this tidbit turned up recently...dated 1873. Could it be the same Hodgman company that made our classic surf mats??? This reciept says they were established in 1840. (The current Hodgman home page says "Since 1838," so this probably is the same company!)

From Piskian!

2012-01-17T21:17:00.000-08:00

Hi Paul,

Hope you had a satisfactory festive season! Just got back from Japan. The pictures sum it up, really. Now into a 5 day surfmat frenzy. Can barely type due to fingers still curled into matgrip like GI Joe.

Decided it'd be fun to do everything wrong today, so went out at the wrong spot for the wrong tide for the wrong wind on the wrong mat. Even turned the fins upside down on my feet. Still went well!

Here are a couple of pics you may not have. John Shaw at The Point, Cronulla, courtesy of thebodyboardingmuseum.co.au and George by Art Brewer.

Next time I go to Japan, must do a proper trip and visit all those 4GF customers!

Cheerio Ian

ps the mini RT goes well in anything, catches the wave well, top speed not as good as STD. Mini Std works a treat in powerful hollow stuff. Kana likes them in any conditions! My fave is still the canvas strip screw valve STD.

'Drew At The 'Con ...

2012-01-17T04:47:00.000-08:00

Waiting's Half The Fun!

2012-01-16T18:41:00.000-08:00

Dirk and I were talking on the phone the other night, and he was commenting on how many hours we spend anticipating surf days, preparing our equipment, travelling to spots, etc, relative to how many minutes -- or even seconds -- we actually spend ride waves. The ratio is insane by any measure...other than that of a surfer.

Even the ratio of time-in-the-water compared to time-riding-waves seems nuts to most people. That said, time spent waiting for waves can be fun, especially on a mat. Bouncing around...feeling more of the swell and current and surface texture under us than on any other vehicle imaginable. No wonder we enjoy every moment!

"You Grab Two Fistfuls Of Fabric And Go!"

2012-01-15T01:57:00.000-08:00

That's how Greenough once characterized the essence of mat riding. As to how and where the rider should grab his or her mat, well...that's up to them! Here just a few of the many variations...

John Severson's classic rendition of mat riding in the 60's revealed two basic approaches to hanging onto your mat...the nose grab and the rail grab.

Greenough is generally an advocate of the full rail grip...

A UKMS alumni carving with a full, sweaty palm caressing the bottom of his pontoon...

...while Mattitude carves with a hybrid approach.

Mat Max was a rail gripper early on...

...but evolved into the "hands-on-deck" approach.

The hands-on-deck style nets trim sensitivity. Like many accomplished mat riders, Greenough uses it in low power situations.

Another small wave effectively ridden with hands-on-deck. Chiledub.

There's a great shot of Matt P using the hands-on-deck style on a smaller wave starting at :18 ...

At 7:23 Mike Cundith transitions from a full rail grip on a bottom turn, to a hands-on-deck trim mode, back to a full grip. Very sophisticated mat riding!

Pranaglider with his inside arm extended into the wave. One hand grip.

George utilizing a one hand grip while his inside arm sweeps back as he enters the tube, at 9:28

Another classic image of George, early 70's. Inside arm swept back, one hand grip.

Last but not least, Tom A with what appears to be a "head first, no grip, two arms swept back" mode. Hope he isn't this casual when he lands his Lufthansa jumbo jet!!!

What's amazing is that every mat photo reveals something interesting about how the rider approaches their grip on the mat.

Mat Geek Design Forum: Flanges, Flanges, And More Flanges!!!

2012-01-11T18:40:00.000-08:00

A wide variety of mat flanges all in one place...JJ's back yard breezeway! I'm tempted to say it doesn't get any more exciting than this.

OK, I'll say it...it doesn't get any more exciting that this!

(My inner mat geek...stoked!)

Of all the design elements of the surf mat, none is less important than the width of the flanges...

...and yet, the flange width, if it's extremely narrow or extremely wide, can ruin a mat. A flange that's too narrow (or non-existent) allows water to wrap around the rail in low velocity situations...which is when you most need the water to shear off the rail. A flange that's too wide will "buzz" at high speeds -- slowing the mat down, and interfering its ability to hold in.

Below is one of the earliest known photographs of a surf mat, published in 1935. It would appear that there were no flanges on this design. At first blush, it's logical...a cleaner shape should work better, right? But in practice, surf mats perform better with flanges than without. That little bit of fabric running around the perimeter of a mat cleans up the water flow immeasurably. I've made mats with the flange bonded flush to the mat's outer pontoon, creating a truly round rail...and none of them worked particularly well. Very boggy in slow/bumpy waves.

A 50's era shot of English school boys on holiday in Australia. The surfoplane-style mats they were riding had narrow flanges.

60's Hodgmans sported narrow flanges.

Two shots of 70's era surf mats...look how wide the flanges were!

Two recent eras of 4GF mats. Surf Sister on the right with a thin deck mat with patches. Val with a later canvas deck mat. The stiffer material of the canvas deck allows the flanges to be narrower and still shear off the right amount of water, without buzzing at high speed. There's a sweet spot in every mat design that allows both those elements to be in balance.

Kendog on a Neumatic. Lean flanges, but still plenty of width to allow for shearing water off the rail.

Art imitates life. JJ's inflatable hand plane mat with nicely proportioned flanges...

...while his figurine-sized mat has flanges you could land a Piper Cub on. Break out the scissors, JJ!

Tom T's surf mat art features a fastidious depiction of the flange...

..as does the work of John C. :)

The flange of an air mattress is simply the result of bonding the top and bottom layers of fabric together along the perimeter. So in truth, it's a design element born out of manufacturing need. But, as we've learned over the years, the flange is essential to a mat's performance.

Flanges Rule!!! :) :) :)

5GF Test Riders???

2012-01-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

All three 5GFs have sold...thanks! We'll update you with their impressions when we get some feedback.

Left to right...Fatty, Standard, and a 5GF.

We're contemplating making the 5GF design into a 4th Gear Flyer model. It's a great mat in the right situation, but by no stretch of the imagination is it an all 'round vehicle. It's the same length as the Fatty and Standard, but the width is very lean. The 4GF widths, in descending order, are: UDT, XL, Vespa/Fatty, Tracker, Standard, 5GF. So, that will give you an idea of how radical the 5GF is.

The glide of the 5GF is limited in smaller waves, but the ability to hang into to big double ups is amazing. It almost feels like it has a fin.

Also, it's easier to duck dive than a Standard...but...it's not a huge improvement that'll change your life.

In terms of riders size, I'm 205 lbs and wear a 6/5/4 wetty most days. I can barely catch a wave on it unless the surf is overhead...at which point it comes alive. I would say realistically, it's a mat for riders 185 lbs or under. Maybe 200 if you're trunking it.

There are about a half dozen 5GFs out there right now, most notably in the hands of Surf Sister, Mat Max, and Jamie Mac. Sis and Jamie have it in their regular quiver rotation. Mat Max, on the other had, likes his so much he's cast aside all his other mats in all but the smallest surf, and rides his 5GF most of the time.

Here is what Jamie wrote me a few weeks ago, re the 5GF...

"hey paul

Surf sister put the bug in my ear about riding her 5GF in day to day conditions and she seemed to be really loving it

so i yanked it out of the quiver bin and blew it up one evening a few weeks ago. its been in my truck on regular rotation since then.

i've really been stoked on it. not necessarily because its faster than the STD, but because of the crazy amount of control i have with it.

reckless abandon is the only proper way to describe my technique with this mat. i'm throwing myself over and under ledges waaay deeper and waaayy later than i would on any other mat, drops i would only otherwise do bodysurfing. really radical carves/drifts/turns off the top and fully controlled bottom-turn/stall/tube/accelerate type stuff. and i've generally been sitting further inside, where i would sit to bodysurf or ride my paipo, because of the ease in duckdiving the 5GF.

i never saw much need in riding this mat in point surf, i was never out of my control capabilities on the STD, but with the ledgy shallow beachbreak i've been surfing mostly, i've really found the rhyme and reason for this design. i always knew it was there, but i had really only ridden it on a handfull of really large winter days where i mostly got pounded by closeouts and it wouldn't have mattered what craft i was on. i am still waiting for a chance to surf it in some more challenging rock reef type waves to see where its extreme performance edge lies. but for now i'm really stoked to have found an added dimension of freedom and recklessness to my daily go outs at home.

yew!

happy holidays, hope you're well mate

jamie"

We have three new 5GF's made up and ready to send out. We'll sell those three for the cost of a Classic ($135.) The idea is to get them out there quickly and see what riders think. While there's no hurry to get feedback, we'd like to get your feelings within a month or two.

Anyone thinking of getting a 5GF should have 1, or preferably 2, other mats, so a good comparison can be made by you. This definitely isn't a newbie raft.

To order, email me first at fourthgearflyer at yahoo dot com (spelled out phonetically to avoid spambots...just use the normal url language). Since we only have three at this price, we don't want to get a lot of orders we have to cancel.

Thanks,

PG

From Captain Jeff...

2012-01-08T07:45:00.000-08:00

Running up the coast on Thursday we saw a huge pod (herd? ) of spinner dolphins cavorting up ahead in front of us. It’s easy enough to motor up alongside them, and then once they spot you, they tend to come over and envelope the boat, almost like you see those old science films of an amoeba ‘absorbing’ a piece of food?

I never worry about ‘hitting’ one of them, as several commercial fishermen down there have told me, ‘Not only have I never hit one, but nobody I know has ever even heard of anyone hitting one, are you kidding me, they’re just playing with us and are the fastest, smartest, most maneuverable things in the sea…

I know we all hear about how polluted the ocean is these days, but when you see something like this, it’s give you hope. Thought you’d dig the shots-

Best,

Jeff

Follow Up #2 to UDT Swimfin Post...

2012-01-06T09:33:00.000-08:00

While I was going through the Yahoo image files looking for shots of UDT swim fins, I came across this shot...

UDT fins were there when Apollo 8 splashed down...very cool!

Apollo 8 was the first time man left the gravitational pull of earth, and it was the first time man saw earth in its entirety.

Surf mat content: A nice early morning peak as Apollo 8 prepares for launch.

Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman.

Years after the mission, Jim Lovell acknowledged that they figured the odds of making it out of earth's orbit, around the moon multiple times, and back to earth safely were 50-50 or less. Sounds optimistic to me.

Bill Anders took this incredible photo on December 24, 1968. The image became the inspiration for the first Earth Day in 1970. This is what the US government might classify as an "unintended consequence" of the space program.

UDT clad divers meeting the capsule.

The Apollo 8 capsule on the deck of the USS Lexington.

This is the after-mission party for Apollo 8...they knew how to rage back then!

Rocco's Revenge!!!

2012-01-04T16:34:00.001-08:00

#2 Follow Up Story To "Lost and Found" ...

2012-01-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

Along with George Greenough and Bud Browne, Dan "Man Mountain" Merkel did the water photography for Big Wednesday.

Bud Browne with clapperboards and his surf mat.

George Greenough with a water housed Arriflex. When he was caught inside at Sunset -- which happened often -- he would let the camera go and hang onto his mat. He reasoned that it was easier to ride the mat into the shorebreak and retrieve the camera than it was to swim in with the camera and find his mat!

Dan Merkel shooting up at Conception. This is the same mat and camera rig he's duck diving in the shot below...I built the housing while we were in El Savador.

All three water photographers utilized surf mats in their effort...but none more impressively than Dan Merkel. For all you lilly-livered wusses who moan and groan that you can't duck dive your mat in surf over 2 feet, check this out...Merkel takes down a water-housed 35mm camera and a huge, rental-sized raft at Sunset Beach!

Next time you're caught inside on your mat, keep in mind the sage words of Dee from Sunny/Philadelphia: "Sack it up, Bitches!!!"

Seriously, there's a nice interview with Dan Merkel about the changes on the North Shore from a photographer's perspective...here.

First 4GF Testamonials of 2012!

2011-12-31T22:02:00.000-08:00

Hi Paul

Thanks a lot the surf matt has arrived it looks very well made, I like the fabric on the top and the slick bottom . It should catch waves long before body boarders .

I will give her a blast and get back to you .

By for now Jeremy

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Hi Paul

Recived the Trackers today, looks amazing (and surprisely very solid) ... Manuel is surfing in Canary Islands as soon as I wet the mattres I will let you know...

Thanks Paul

Carlos

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Hi Paul,

Thanks, so much for the update, the very swift processing/shipment of the order, and the Riders Guide.

I know how you men are with instructions, but you have personal assurances he will not get his new toy, until he can recite the entire thing. This is a Christmas gift to supplement his retirement gift, which is 10 days camping on O'ahu with his surf bum crew. This solves many riddles. Packs into a checked bag. Nice and soft, to minimize injury, and as a caveat, he just turned 55 in body. He's about 16 between his ears. For me, I'm getting piece of mind knowing that if he goes after some bigger waves, he'll avoid some trouble, and for him, it fulfills some homage to George Greenough. Being around surfers for the past 25 years, I can appreciate the metaphysics of it and the coolness factor. I'll never understand it, but he's my husband, the biggest gremmie (His words.)

R,

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Hi Paul,

I still haven't got the mat wet yet. No waves!! Nothing over 2-3ft. Merewether Board Riders Club had to decide their Final under these conditions. Bumped into Mark Richards at the supermarket and told him about my mat. He said he knew of you and your mats. I can hardly wait for some decent surf to come through!!

Dave.

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Hi Paul

Just got back from a couple of days in Cornwall. Something Ive noticed recently is the lack of inflation Im using. I always inflate my mat so that when the vale is open theres no pressure i.e none escaping. Once Im in I tend to let air out. It seems Ive found a level of inflation that Im very happy with, which doesnt seem to be very much at all, when I leave the water its barely inflated and limp. Is this normal?

Another thing Ive discover is putting the arms forward in a superman position, puts a little bit of weight forwards, the results are amazing. I usualy do this on small waves or coming the end of a ride.

Cheers

Matt

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Hi Paul

Light winds to day and a big swell running in St Ouens bay, so I went to St Brelads to try out the matt , the waves there were glassy and 1'1/2 to 2'1/2 feet , had a few short lefts but mostly strait handers, lots of closeouts, the matt seems fast and manoeuvrable and should be a lot of fun .

Thanks a lot Jeremy .

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Hi Paul,

I arrived home from South Coast NSW yesterday pleased to find a card from the local post office under my front door so rushed down to pick up my Vespa.

All seems good. Thank you.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Regards,

Charlie

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Yeeeeh, ace! Can’t wait to get on it. Will let you know asap, but will have to wait till atleast the 30th as there is no waves in leeds and 400 miles from home! Thanks for all your help and advice dude.

phil

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Paul, the more I think about how mats work,the more I realize the less I know,which leads me to be grateful for trained professionals[You],conducting research under highly controlled conditions with your lovely assistant[Gloria],at your,side clipboard in hand,saving the data for future generations to ponder. Paul,and Gloria,keepin it Real,keepin it Boss. Thanks, Guerdon.

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paul, Wow, that was quick..thanks and i will keep you posted..but may wait til warmer waters lol. cindy

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i really enjoyed your recent postings at surfmatters (inside rail, big wednesday footage, fin mod), it got me totally stoked!

florian

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Thanks Paul!!

My friend Sean referred me to you--I've gone out on his spare mat and thoroughly enjoyed it. This one's actually for my mother! She's caught the surfing bug, and is keen to try something that she can take out even when there isn't big enough surf. Looking forward to helping her break it in ;-)

Cheers,

Meara

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Hi Paul

Standard arrived today, super stoked on your fast shipping (cracked up when I saw BEACH RAFT on declaration note). Waiting for Christmas morning to open it. Also I have read your rider/user guide it was really informative. Just a quick question what are UDT fins like? are they as good as everyone says, once milled down. I tried my dad's old duck feet earlier today, wondering whether they would be good enough for matting? Once again thanks for the mat, pleasure doing business with you. Also I'll try get a ride report to you a soon as possible.

Thanks heaps

Michael

: )

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Paul, received the mat and we are all excited to give it a spin.Would like to have had it on this trip to costa rica we took just 2 weeks ago.i would have been in the water more instead of being the photographer (although it's what i do and love) thanks again..next pics will be surf mat riding :)..cindy

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The package arrived last night, Paul. Thanks again. Will let you know how it goes!

Happy holiday, Sheila

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Hey Paul i got to ride my tracker out the pass this morning for the first time, had a hoot!

thanks for the nice mat.

Dustin

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Dear Paul,

Your box arrived yesterday and Steve put it under the Rosemary bush dressed as our Christmas tree, for us to open together on Christmas morning.

Thank you again for thinking of us.

We look forward to sharing about riding the new joyful wave riding vehicles that you have made.

Merry Christmas!!!

Love and Aloha,

Cher and Steve

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Yo paul,

Opened it yesterday, really pleased with it thanks for the work that went into making it. Like I said im thrilled with how it looks and will be having a test run on Thursday once I head home to Cornwall.

Hope you have enjoyed the holidays, will hopefully get a video of Andy Cooke and I catching some waves.

Cheers dude

Phil

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Hi Paul,

Thanks very much for the Standard that you sent out, received in the mail the other day, no problems.

The surfmats are great - along with the Standard I also have a Tracker RT, and I'm impressed with them, and pretty excited about their potential as well, so much fun, really versatile, and so easy to travel with. The last surf I had on the mat was interesting, conditions weren't that great, hardly anyone out, about 3-4 ft irregular swell, but it made for the waves that were coming through to be wedging up into little peaks all over the sandbar, low tide too so it was hollow, which just meant barrel after barrel for a couple of hours, it turned ordinarily bad conditions/short rides which most people wouldn't take a second look at, into one of the best little sessions. Surreal too, to be going through normally rough little barrels on a soft cushion of air! I got stopped on the beach after coming out by a couple that said they had stopped and watched for a while as they said they were fascinated by the surfmat, so it must have looked like a lot of fun too.

The surf isnt very good here at the moment and work is going to be fairly busy the next couple of months but after that I'm hoping to spend a fair bit of time on the mat with the idea of getting some nice photos/footage together, but I'll let you know when, hopefully it turns out well.

Anyway thanks again for the mats Paul, hope you're having a good time over Christmas and New Year!

Matt

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Thanks Paul! I can't wait to get it in the water. I have put off buying a mat for too long.

Colin

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Dear Friends,

Hope you are having a good winter holiday.

It was totally tough this year, but we could survive this hardness and now we are ready to invite a new year. We want to express our deep appreciation for your thoughts, concerns and supports in 2011.

Then we will have a winter break from tomorrow to 4th Jan. We'll be back to work on 5th.

I'm looking forward to seeing you soon in 2012!!!

With warmest wishes,

Kazunori

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Hi, paul.

How are you.

In the end of 2011. yes I'm fine. but there are too many tragedy. Radioactive substance passed out from Japan. I'd like to say sorry to all over the world.

I've treated them by the therapy at minamisouma city Hukushima in june and september. I'm a japanese traditional therapyst. That's What I do. I heared many sad stories of them, when I went there. One of them was become totally alone, her family was carried away by tunami.

Anyway, your mat that you send me is really awsome, I love them.

I really thank you for your consern and kindness.

Sincerely yours

Yasuhira

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Stoked. Happy new year. I’ll let you know. Brad

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Banking While Trimming

2011-12-28T18:58:00.000-08:00

Pulling a mat up on its rail while at trim speed is a simple and easy way to hold in, generate more speed, and/or re-direct the mat into the juiciest part of the wave. It's like a bottom turn, but it it doesn't result in a large change of direction. It reduces the wetted surface area of the mat, if only momentarily, and allows the mat to aim up into the pocket. Most every mat rider executes this move, often intuitively.

The above video clip is of Mr. Dirk at the LA County Mat Meet earlier this year. In the last half of the ride, Dirk slithers around the section that lets down in front of him, then banks the mat over to redirect his momentum. He does that two more times along the wall as the wave tapers down in size. A classic example!

In the second "close-up/slo-mo" part of the video, you can see Dirk's mat start to drift out of control for just an instant as he picks a line between the two board surfers, then when he banks the mat over, the rail resets itself and he's off again. :)

Following are images that are variations of the same move...

The Latest Bomb From UKMS...

2011-12-27T19:00:00.000-08:00

Piskian and a fellow crew member prepare for a dawn bomber raid. Apparently, they're dropping 4GF Fattys on the enemy!!! (Not sure who "Patty Ann" is, however...)

Grayman and his mates -- who enjoy a typically British obsession with WWII :) -- have devised a way to win over Deutschland once and for all! By dropping clusters of surf mats housed in bombshells from the sky, they hope to convert citizens of The Fatherland into a mat-surfing-obsessed rapture...thereby destroying their legendary productivity. Good luck with that, G!

Follow Up To Our UDT Swimfin Post...

2011-12-26T20:41:00.000-08:00

Peter Dixon has over 60 years of diving, surfing and life guarding experience on a professional level. Among other things, he did a lot of work as a diver and technical advisor on Seahunt.

He has written 30 books. His latest, Hunting the Dragon is the story of a young surfer who signs aboard a pirate tuna clipper. When he learns that the catch tuna dolphin are killed for dollar a can tuna he vows to sink the ship.

Peter is also Mat Max's father, and an avid mat rider to this day!

He was kind enough to provide some insight to the photos a posted last week regarding the UDT swim fins. He really knows his stuff, so it is a thrill to get some first hand information to help clarify some of the grey historical areas.

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Hi Paul,

I'll yo-yo between this and the photos of the Frogmen. Have you seen the 1951 Fox film THE FROGMEN? Lots of fins showing in the movie. Worth a look at the trailers. The gear is true to the period. Here are remarks key to the eight photos.

#1 WWII preSCUBA pre UDTs Frogmen. Fins may have been made of synthetic rubber due to shortage. The heavy set guy on the right may be a LA City Lifeguard I worked with in 1952 named Earl Emboden. He gave my my first SCUBA lesson by shoving me off the Santa Monica Pier after saying, "Just breath normally and come up slow."

#2 Probably black synthetic rubber fins. I recall the carbon black in the rubber rubbed off and stained the skin.

#3-5 Korean War vintage 1950-53. My brown Duck Feet are of this era. Churchills still dominated for skin diving, body surfing, and yes Hodgeman surf matting. A lot of the older LA Beach Guards kept surf mats in the lifeguard trucks for candescent fun and even rescues. I rode mats many times at the mouth of the LA River in six foot surf. We'd jump off the rock jetty and catch the wave on the fly. The dry suits were pre-SCUBA era.

#6 I'm guessing this is the late 1950s. The SCUBA mouth pieces have non return valves and the divers are wearing earphones for some sort of primitive UW sound system.

#7 The SCUBA regulator and steel banded twin tanks (back breakers) suggest this was mid 1950. We wore these monsters on SEA HUNT in the late 1950s.

The single diver exploring the wreck seems to be wearing Duck Feet. I'm guessing the diver is a civilian and the photo from an early Skin Diver magazine.

The best fins I ever had for body surfing were gum rubber Duck Feet.

When you check out Frogmen on Google there's a brief clip of WWII German UDT divers blowing up a bridge. (At 2:05) They're wearing fins that lace up like shoes.

Where the Dixons and "water wise" neighbors lived by the beach for decades, so many fins were lost we'd collect them by the dozens. At the end of summer we'd have a fin exchange party and usually match up 15-20 pair.

I hope this help to widen the obscure information file.

Cheers, Peter Dixon

Almost forgot. In my book The Silent Adventure (Ballantine softcover 1968) there are several photos of vintage fins and diving gear.

Mat Surfing's Year-In-Review!!!

2011-12-25T14:38:00.001-08:00

2011 started out rough for us here at 4GF. On Monday, Jan 3, we got our first piece of mail...with 34 cents due. The year was only three days old, and we were already in the red!

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Over in Europe, Tom devised a way to simultaneously inflate his mat while checking out the chicas on the beach...a solid tip for guy mat riders everywhere!

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Marc's surf-trip-of-a-lifetime to France was spoiled when he was robbed at gunpoint leaving the water on day one...

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Deflated mats are easier to transport...but in most countries, you get an insurance discount for having a scooter with a permanently deployed air bag!

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The July issue of For Men Only featured a stunning expose' on the surf culture entitled, "The Hell Surfers."

Inspired by actual events, the final chapter of Hell Surfers depicts a bizarre beach-orgy during an LA County Mat Meet!

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Up in Santa Cruz, Daniel misconstrued his new-found trim speed for superhuman wave riding talent!

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Charlie Sheen never lost sight of his Malibu roots...flying the 4GF colors at a Vegas shindig!

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Mat riders the world over held their collective breath as Surfer Magazine re-discovered mat surfing...

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Mat Max proved that you can indeed ride a mat in a crowd!

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2011 also proved that fat guys sporting reef walkers and a trans-green surf mat will never go out of style!

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Rocco The Cat -- who helps me build mats when he isn't napping -- turned one year old in June!

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Mr. Dirk was the only participant who showed up for "Santa Barbara Mat Meet #1." We asked him to grab some digital action pics for the blog, and he generously obliged...

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The highest and best use for body boards was finally discovered...

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The art world was overjoyed when a long-lost Picasso entitled "Muchacho Feliz En Azul" (Happy Boy In Blue), was unearthed. World renown "mat riding Picasso historian" Mr. Ricky of Los Angeles assessed the piece. "My educated guess is that it might be from Picasso's Blue Period...you know, since it's mostly blue, and blue is in the title and stuff..."

"Muchacho Feliz" foretold of surf mats, wetsuits, and Churchill swim fins over 100 years ago! It was discovered at the bottom of an Easter egg basket in an abandoned storage unit in Gardena, California. "I hope I get my money back," Mr. B. Weiss of Beverly Hills commented after finding the dog-earred image. "After all, I paid 50 bucks for that locker in auction..." No worries, Mr. Weiss!

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After blazing across LA County walls for several years, Surf Sister finally learned how to go straight off...

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And finally, 2011 concluded with a bang when the "surfmatters.xxx" home page was launched!

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Update! Chad in the OC just made the 2011 deadline with this surf matting video gem!

Surfmat in many different ways from chad Stickney on Vimeo.

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UK Matters End-Of-Year Wrap Up!!!

2011-12-25T14:38:00.000-08:00

It was a huge year for mat surfing in the UK...so the Brits earned their own 2011 send off!!!

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The hype was so thick from the other side of the pond, I seriously considered stowing away to the UK for one of their Mat Meets!

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UKMS Mat Meet #7 was well attended. Here, female fans paraded on the beach wearing paper mache' likenesses of their favorite UK mat legends. Left to right: Webbo, Cookson, Piskian and Grayman!

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UK Mat Meet masterminds ponder their scoring sheets under a cloud of Irish Whisky...in a beach tent that was pitched in 1942!

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UK Mat Meet regulars stayed at England's hippest retro-coastal-hide-a-way, The Sea Dip.

The hotel's own Dave Clark Five tribute band, "The Inflatable Four," go mat riding in the pool every afternoon. "Some cheeky little quilt named Joe came up to us one day and said we looked more like the Beatles than the DC5," band leader John complained in a thick Liverpool accent. "Who raises these wee plonkers???"

Aforementioned cheeky little quilt/wee plonker, Joe...

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G-Man gives props to Piskian for being the first UK matter buff enough to go shirtless at the beach. Cookson even broke out his plaid boardies for the occasion!

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Between surf sessions at MM #6, the UKMS presented three rounds of "Authentic Jersey Girl Prize Fighting." Here, JWoww lands a right hook to the jaw of Snooki to the delight of the crowd!

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Grayman's foray into the world of mat construction was mucked up by a typical newbie miscalculation...he transposed inches into feet on the fabric. Next time, stick to metric, Laddy!

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A time honoured tradition in the UK...dunce hats are given out to surfers not riding 4GFs!

Merry Christmas from UK Mat Surfers

2011-12-24T13:40:00.000-08:00

Some Historical UDT Swimfin Imagery...

2011-12-23T15:04:00.000-08:00

...but not much in the way of historical detail. I spent about an hour on the net this morning seeing what I could find about the history of UDT swim fins made by Voit Rubber Company, and ended up more confused than ever. So, there's work to be done, or maybe someone out there has first hand knowledge they could pass along.

Churchill fins were the first to be used in U.S. military application, from what I can discern. These shots are from WWII, but no specific date was given.

Two "transitional era" photos, when both Churchills and UDTs appear to be in use by the Navy Seals. Again, no date given.

The earliest clearly dated photo I could find depicting what appear to be UDT fins in military use is 1950. Those suits look like a nightmare to use...

50's era training photo.

No date on this photo, just the US Navy ID in the corner. It's hard to bend a UDT fins with your hands, so either this guy is really strong, or they were using softer rubber back when this was taken. Maybe an experienced diver could date the scuba gear?

No date on this print advert, but I looks pre-1960. The fins are called "Duck Feet," yet the manufacturer is not "Voit," but "Spearfisherman." Some Wikipedia clarification is here...

This is from a vintage diving site...look like UDTs to me.

This is a Vietnam era photo, showing Navy Seals with UDT's.

I would date this ad as mid-70's, based on the graphics. (Just an educated guess.) Swimaster was Voit's dive company name, and the fins, which are what we call UDTs, were called Duck Feet in the ad. The smaller, sleeker surfing/swimming Duck Feet were at least 10 years old by this point, so I'm not sure why they used the same name. Maybe because diving and surfing were two different marketing demographics?

The same brown Swimaster UDTs as shown in the above print ad. No date on the photo, unfortunately.

Even the modern UDTs have the Duck Foot name on the shipping box.

This Voit ad, which is recent, makes the clear distinction between Duck Feet and UDTs.

The Longest Night...

2011-12-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

Today is the winter solstice in the Norther Hemisphere, and the conventional sentiment goes something along the lines of, "This is the shortest day of the year."

But, it's also longest night of the year!

Since we have a lot of time in the dark tonight, that brings up an interesting topic...night surfing on a mat.

Paul Masiel (right) and myself getting out of the water at Rincon at who-knows-what time of night. George had his still camera with a flash on the ready to document the epic event. This was taken on Tom Adler's porch, right at the top of the Indicator at Rincon. PM has on an Animal Skin wetty, but I was sporting thin cheapy...and I remember being so cold I was getting a little delirious. I'm carrying a Merrin mat with an unpeeled bottom, so that would put the date around 1978/79.

The first night surfing I was aware of was Greenough surfing Rincon in the dark, although surely night surfing was being practiced elsewhere...Malibu in the summer being the obvious spot for that kind of stoke.

George loved to surf at night -- usually at Rincon -- and by the 70's, there was a whole squadron of mat surfers who joined him for late evening/night go outs. Off the top of my head, a typical night-time lineup was populated by Paul Masiel, "Charthouse Duke," Bob Gillette, Greg Huglin, myself, and of course our ring leader George. Having a lot riders out at one time was a big advantage at night, because there was always someone sitting at the peak, so you would know what area to paddle back to.

Plus, it was less spooky when there were more matters in the water...the odds of being eaten by a shark went from a million-to-one to 6-million-to-one if 6 guys were out! (At least, that was our existential rationalization.) Of course, George's legendary "sense of humor" usually revolved around telling shark stories on moonless nights during long lulls. ("I was out drop line fishing right at this very spot in the water once when a 15 foot White cruised under me...and he reeeaaallyyy looked hungry!) Thanks buddy...

Night surfing at Rincon (on boards) picked up in popularity as the crowds of the 70's increased. Also, surf leashes made riding a board a night a lot more feasible. There were plenty of nights where just a few board surfers in the water would make it less fun (and a bit more dangerous) to ride a mat.

But, I've been thinking lately that maybe it's time to start surfing a mat at night in quality waves, rather then a steady diet of daylight junk. Both situations are uncrowded, but maybe the trade off of light for dark would be worth it now and then.

So how hard is it to ride a mat in the pitch dark? For me, the issue was picking off waves in the right spot. Mats have a more limited range for gliding into waves (compared to, say, boards over 7 feet long) and if you take off too far back, or too late, then it's hard to get your rail set and grab enough power to make it past the first section. I usually waited for a wave to break further out, and then caught the edge of the whitewater. Just wait for a mound of white water to come to you, and Bob's Your Uncle.

I found that I liked running a bit more air in the mat at night, to emphasize holding over skimming. I also tried using contact lenses back in the 80's to bring my 20/200 vision into better focus for enhanced surfing, day or night, but managed to loose a lens every other go out...and I ended up riding with a more upright style to keep my eyes further out of the water. I didn't like surfing a mat that way, so I went back to my natural blurred vision.

My contact lens riding style...boo!

As for actually riding a dark wave on a mat, I always thought that part was easy and fun, even if there wasn't any moon that night. There's usually enough ambient light (from cars on the highway, street lights, etc.) that you can make out the shape of the wall as you go along. That said, I was never good at cutting back and re-establishing my trim line. I preferred to hang high on the wall, and if the waves slowed, just slow with it. Then accelerate as the wall steeped in front of me.

George's primary riding technique was to simply go by the feel of the wave underneath him. If you ride a wave in the daylight with your eyes closed, you can really feel how fat, or how steep, the wave is through the mat. It's pretty dramatic, actually. George would go almost entirely by feel.

I had lunch with Sally Yater about seven or eight years ago, and we started taking about surfing in Santa Barbara in the early 60's. She and Renny had moved up from Orange County several years earlier, and ended up living right on the point at Rincon. Bob Cooper was renting a room from them, so there was a lot of positive energy emanating from what had to be the bitchin-est surf pad on the face of the earth. (Or at least the Northern Hemisphere.)

One of Sally's fondest recollections revolved around the nights when George would come around their place after going door-to-door in the Rincon neighborhood selling the fresh fish he had caught that afternoon...then he would suit up on their porch, launch with a mat in the cove, and surf in complete darkness. On nights when the water was filled with phosphorous, Sally said they would sit on the porch sipping beers, and watch George's glowing green track as he streaked across the bay on perfect, empty walls.

I can't think of a single reason not to give that another shot...the waves are still out there when the sun goes down!

How about a night-time Mat Meet at a point break near you???

Spring 1984...

2011-12-20T18:55:00.000-08:00

Greenough, 4GF Standard, afternoon speed run.

#1 Follow Up Story To "Lost and Found" ...

2011-12-19T17:00:00.000-08:00

Piskian made a comment (rather flippantly!) regarding my swim fins in the film clip on the "Lost and Found" post:

"Pretty flippy-floppy fins you had there, mate!"

The fins I was wearing back in 1977 were Duck Feet Large, mold number 1244. I still have a pair from that era...

The mold number was important, because Voit used at least a half dozen different molds for each size Duck Foot...and each mold had a slightly different foot pocket configuration, which made a difference when you used them on a daily basis. George and I used to look for specific mold numbers when we bought new fins, and oddly enough, the same size and mold number fit our respective feet properly. Just a weird coincidence.

When they stopped making Duck Feet from the original rubber configuration (in the early 80's,) we scrounged every surf shop in So Cal and Oahu for about a year, buying up as many pairs as we could of our favorite mold numbers (1244 and 1355.) We were sorry we didn't start the search earlier, as we only netted maybe 5 pairs each, which lasted a good ten years.

The next-gen of Duck feet had stiffer blades and softer foot pockets, which were more comfortable when you first used them, but over time, they were hard on your feet...since the softer tops allowed your toes to distort the pocket, and that caused painful friction between your toes and the pocket. The harder rubber in the old foot pocket was actually easier to use once you got your foot accustomed to them -- or if you used wet suit booties -- since the pocket held it's shape better.

We used to grind down the ribs on the blades of the "new" Duck Feet to soften the tip flex, and used plastic inserts inside the top of the foot pockets stiffen that area...all in an attempt to replicate the old design. But with the ribs flattened out, they didn't hold in as well. The dark blue rubber on the old fin (right) was of medium stiffness. The light blue rubber on the newer fin (left) is quite stiff. The black rubber on both fins is very soft. You can see where the newer fin's foot pocket is entirely soft.

I still use the same modifying techniques on the UDT's...

The original Duck Foot is a gorgeous fin, IMO!

The flex of my current UDTs and a "good" old Duck Foot is very similar...I keep the old fin handy when I'm working over a new fin with a grinder to monitor the progression of the tip flex.

Of course, many of today's current fin designs have stiffer blades, but the entire fin is designed around that idea, so they work fine. Personally, I like using the UDT's as a blank, because they are long, and the quality of the rubber is excellent. I'm able to trim/shape them to my liking...but that's a lot of work!

Mat Surfing: Lost and Found Department...

2011-12-16T23:52:00.000-08:00

I've had this short clip of 35mm Panavision movie film tucked away in a storage bin for the past 34 years, and finally got around to having it transferred to digital. (Well, actually, it was Mr. Dirk who put out all the effort with regard to the transfer!)

Some back story on the shot...

When GG and I were working on Big Wednesday in the Spring of 1977, we needed to do some test shots with the backpack camera that George built for the project. We didn't have time to shake down the rig before leaving for El Salvador, so when we got down there, a bunch of the actors and their surfing-doubles went out at Zunzal to ride waves alongside George...while he tried various focal lengths, aperture settings, FPS speeds, and camera angles. The camera wasn't designed as a point-of-view unit, but more for tracking shots as someone rode the wave ahead of him. (This was new for George, as most of what he had previously shot off his back was POV.)

I had been jockeying the camera rig back and forth to the beach most of that day, and I was pretty tired. The air, water and humidity were all "85." At one point, a wave came along and George shouted "Double!" which was 70s-era mat surfing shorthand for inviting another matter to catch the same wave. We got that one wave together, and then George went back to shooting the serious test footage.

The material shot that day was flown back to Hollywood. (I love saying "Hollywood" like I was an integral part of the film industry!) After processing, it found its way back to our encampment a few miles north of La Libertad. We watched the footage one evening, and I had completely forgotten about the shot George had taken of me until it popped up on the screen. Culturally speaking, this was near the bottom of the mat riding bell curve, so none of the many surfers in attendance took notice of it...other than Greg MacGillivray, who thought it was neat because I was laughing. (In truth, who doesn't laugh when you ride a wave on a mat with someone else???)

The next day, George snipped the mat riding shot out of the reel of test footage with a pair of scissors, and gave it to me for safe keeping. I brought it home a few months later when we wrapped, and hadn't seen it projected until a few days ago, when Dirk forwarded the digitized version it to me.

I have to say, the first thing that jumped out when I looked at it was my abundance of hair and the lack of body fat! Beyond that, the lively performance of the old Hodgman is what's really neat. I do remember that the surf down there was well suited to those mats...having a strong shoreward push without a lot of curling power. So, the relatively crude shape of the mat was in its ideal element. The current generation of mats would go even better, by a long shot, but it was a lot of fun to ride the last-of-the-Hodgmans in warm water and fun surf conditions. And I think the film clip really conveys that.

The first few frames of the clip are of me sitting with Greg MacGillivray and Lance Carson. They were taken earlier the same day, as I recall.

This is George at Zunzal during the Big Wednesday shoot, riding a pretty big wave with the same backpack camera rig. I shot these photos with a 400mm lens from a lifeguard tower near the water's edge, so that will give you an idea of how far out in the ocean he was.

Nice Historical Perspective From the South Bay...

2011-12-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

I just came across this. It's a couple of years old, but very interesting and, in my opinion, accurate. :)

Loading Up The Inside Rail...A Visual Tutorial

2011-12-13T20:51:00.000-08:00

George called the other evening, and we ended up talking about mat surfing...will wonders ever cease!

One of the areas we wondered off on is how important it is for mat riders to position themselves towards the inside rail to minimize the wetted surface area. It's better to load up the inside pontoons rather than distribute your weight evenly across the entire width. Of course, there are exceptions to this "rule," but it's a general truth, nonetheless.

This was one of the key elements of George's amazing riding technique, which he developed the 50's and 60's, that unlocked the potential of mat riding. You can see from the older photos of him posted above (riding striped Hodgmans and the yellow Merrin) how far he pushed this concept.

In terms of the design of 4GF mats, one of the things we've always worked on is getting the I-Beam "stagger" correct for each model...the stagger being the difference between the height of the small I-Beams that separate the pontoons and the overall thickness. When the small I-Beams are too short, the mat becomes overly sensitive to the lateral weight shifts of the rider, and makes it hard to find the sweet spot in terms of positioning. If the small I-Beams are too tall, then the rider's side-to-side weight shift produces a lessened positive effect. Which is why George's positioning on the Hodgman's was so extreme. The I-Beams were too tall, making those mats too "stiff" width-wise. Smaller I-beams would have loosened them up a bit and made them easier to ride. (This is one of the many areas of design we were able to address with the 4GF.)

The ideal stagger can only be determined by feel when test riding prototypes. No mathematical formula seems to work...each model calls for a different stagger. Mat designs with the right stagger just want to move across the wall without any fussing around on the part of the rider. You pull yourself up on the mat after catching the wave, and naturally fall into the right spot.

Anyway, I was thinking about our phone conversation from the other evening, and figured it might be a good topic to toss out there.

UK Mat Surfers - Matmeet 9

2011-12-11T11:09:00.001-08:00

Hello there matters!

Time to get thinking about Matmeet 9 for Feb, 2012. I know it seems a way off but you know how these things sneak up on you.

Anyway, all the sorting a gubbins are going on here:

http://ukmatsurfers.forumotion.com/t33-matmeet-9-time-to-get-sorting

Please give this your attention ASAP.

Party Wave Tutorial!

2011-12-06T05:15:00.000-08:00

Grayman goes on about group mat rides in his latest forum entry...the lad needs to push away from the computer desk and breath some fresh air!!!

Chad Hanging Inside...

2011-12-05T09:39:00.000-08:00

"There's no point in being nuts...

2011-12-03T13:26:00.000-08:00

...if you can't have a little fun."

Quote attributed to mathematician John Nash, who was the biographical subject of A Beautiful Mind...

The Forum is BACK!

2011-11-24T14:45:00.001-08:00

Hello there.

As you may be aware, I recently had my Google account hacked meaning I lost access to the UKMS blog. After some internal chit-chat we decided to go with relaunching the forum, although in a stripped down version.

Anyway, it's up now HERE

Please follow the rules and enjoy!

Cheers

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T21:47:00.001-08:00

Less Is More...Sometimes A Lot More

2011-11-20T23:58:00.000-08:00

Neil Pye's wonderful blog Lo-Tech-Hi-Joy had a nice post the other day. Amongst his thoughts was this gem...

"Riding a surfmat is an inward journey that cannot successfully be recounted to others that haven't experienced such subtle heights. To the outsider viewing a surfmat tracking along a wave it appears as if 'nothing' is happening, whereas the reality is that the opposite is true. The rider of the surfmat is deeply fused with the wave and effortlessly makes subtle adjustments to remain so...the more subtle and unnoticed the better. If I had to find an analogy for this, meditation or astral projection would be the best fit but this doesn't really come close!"

End Of The World As We Know It, Part IV

2011-11-18T07:27:00.000-08:00

Not much you can say. I guess a motorized surf mat should be next on the 4GF design agenda...

True (Mat Surfing) Confessions!

2011-11-15T16:50:00.000-08:00

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I finally got out on the mat this weekend and I am still grinning!!! Unreal...I just had so much fun!!! Got some smaller, mushy swell on Sat and headed to the beach. A solid hour into the session I was still flopping around and beginning to wonder if it would even work but then I snagged a solid right and it all came together! I managed to pull off a solid bottom turn and then set up for a 60 yard drainer! I was most surprised by the speed and how well she tracked in the face; I'm not sure if I've ever been so close to the curl for so long! After 3 hrs in the water I was exhausted but the mat made for a nice spot to take a quick nap as well!!!! Keep up the great work PG, I look forward to catching up soon mate.

- Collin

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Thanks Paul the standard mat is jammin so stoked!!!!!!

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Hello Paul thanks for the tshirts. They are super nice. My daughter is stoked and will represent it at school. I'm sure the only 4th grade mat surfer in santa cruz. My buddy ordered a mat his name is Sylvio he rode our classic and was hooked.you should wax his with soap!!!!!

Looking forward to the vespa rt. The waves have been great and the standard mat is a jammer. I havent rode my surfboards in 2 months since i got the mat. Is this normal? Keep well and stay blessed.

Daniel

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Hi Paul,

Just a quick note to say that we've had a few days of decent swell here in the last week so i've finally had a chance to get out with the Vespa. It took a while to get used to as it felt huge compared to the fatty, but i'm loving it now.

Viva la mat!

- Neil

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Hi Paul,

Just want you to know that I picked up the mats from Craig and they are with me here in Bulgaria. Some of the kids have already had the opportunity to use them and I will pass some pics along for you. We will be at the seaside with all of the kids the last 2 weeks in August. Craig and Cathy will join me then.

Just know this; you have helped put smiles on a lot of the faces of the disenfranchised children from the home in Roman, Bulgaria. ;)

With the warmest regards,

Mark

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Hi Paul

I received the 4GF T-shirt a couple of days ago. Very quick too, thank you.

I had an awesome June/July on the Atlantic coast of France. for over 2 weeks in June the surf was outstanding especially at Capbreton, & this is my favorite spot a very consistent left off the jetty, holds up even with onshore winds & a right from the other side of the beach, smaller but still fast. (photos attached) Most days it was early morning glass & late afternoon juice when the sea breeze kicked in. The "Standard" was perfect. I was getting longer rides then either the board riders or the bodyboard crew. I had arms & legs like noodles at the end of the day. It was "surf, eat, sleep, repeat" for 16 consecutive days, with wave sizes from shoulder high to near double overhead. Tired but stoked every day :))

I got lots of very strange looks, comments, a few laughs, but that usually changed when folk saw how fast these mats go & how they track. Only once as I was walking up the beach at the end of an early morning session a long boarder, commented "Ah just like George Grenough!" I nodded & said "That's right, your the first one in 5 weeks who knows!"

What struck me too was how little fun most of the short boarders & a good proportion for the body-boarders were having. But then I am 63 with nothing to prove & grateful to still be able to do this. I have been back in the water these last 3 years after what must be a 30 year break, its taken some training, but this year I surfed the biggest & best I can remember. I find the mats perfect for me, though I still sometimes use a kneeboard, that feels stiff & unresponsive in comparison. I remember a quote from the "short board revolution" in the early 70's "reduce the medium" mats are the ultimate reduction of the medium between rider & wave! Thanks for a couple of amazing surf craft. I'm going back at the end of August for another go :))

Peter

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Hi Paul,

We went matting twice this weekend, and even though it was pretty cold, Fiona had a ton of fun plowing around in the whitewash. Given the smiles I saw after each ride, I think this will be a gateway to paddling outside and getting some clean faces before the Summer is out. Thanks so much for helping us with the quick delivery. I tried to get some pics to send with my cell phone, but they didn't really come out too well. Hopefully I can talk my wide into bringing the real camera one day soon so we can send something in for your website...

All the best,
Peter

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Hello Paul

Thank you for sending out the commodity.

I looks forward to the arrival.

I want to try early because of the wave of Japan.
I'm exciting since now.

I report for you.

Takashi

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Hi Paul,

Here's a brief update on my first mat-experience...

First surf was in June in Dubai !! Freaking hot and 32 degr. C water !! Waves were mushy shoulder high. I had a blast and felt a lot less silly than the regular guys in the line-up.

The mat feels really good ; I like the grip the top layer gives. This summer I had some more sessions in France. It was fun so I'm stoked !!

I think you make a nice product Paul, thanks !

Sandor

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HELL YEAH!! I just got my fins and can't wait to ride it!

My first surfmat! Thanks to Surfsister!

-Marvin

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Hey Paul, the UDT arrived and it's a thing of beauty! I can't thank you enough... I'm under deadline right now, but I'm gonna try to sneak in a session this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers, Tremor

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Thanks, Paul! Got my mat! So excited! I know what I'm doing this weekend...

Grace

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I took my mat out on her maiden voyage today and had a blast! Rode one wave to the inside and was trying to stop so I wouldn't have to paddle ALL the way back out, but what happened instead was I folded the mat, and it took me for a very graceful somersault. I surface and tried to pass it off like "I meant to do that!" Too much fun!

Grace

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Hi Paul,

I got the mat last week. Thanks for the fast turnaround. It's a beautiful piece of work.

Just wanted to say that I tried it out today and was blown away. I admit I was thinking of the mat as a novelty to round out my wave riding experience and that I would catch a few waves and then go grab my board, but after one wave I did not want to get my board! The speed was eye-popping. I realize now you are not so much planing across the water on a mat but literally flying.

I've read the rider's guide and have a couple of questions:

1) I found myself clenching the mat in my fingers to hold onto it in the soup. Is it ok to do this (so long as fingernails aren't too long) or do I risk ripping or puncturing the mat? If so what else should I do (always a bear hug?)

2) Do you have any further advice on duckdiving than what is found in the rider's guide? Is there for instance some trick you do with squeezing the air through the mat to make it go under the wave and then pop up?

- Ron

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Hi Paul,

Just wanted to let you know that I am very much enjoying riding my mat! It's a quality surfing experience. I have ridden it so far in mainly weak onshore summer slop (that's what we get here in August) and the lack of friction is quite a feeling. Many thanks,

regards and best wishes, Dave Mc

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Hi Paul got the fatty mat and i love it. The glide and turning is so smooth. Thank you

Daniel

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Hi Paul,

Bless you for moving my order ahead. I really appreciate it.

I am happy to hear you have so many orders to fill. I rode the waves on the old canvas/rubber mats in the sixties and wanted to experience that again, and in my childhood favorite spot - LaJolla. I am so glad I found your website.

The classic is just what I'm looking for.

I'm putting my daughter on the standard.

Thanks again,

Christi

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Paul,

It's Wednesday and I got the mat with today's mail. STOKED. Surprised it only takes 1 1/2 to 2 minutes to inflate (to the 90 degree inflation).

I hope to use it in some good surf this week/weekend.

A bunch of mat people are meeting at Cottons on Sunday...that will be crazy with this swell.

Thanks again for getting it out to me a little earlier than expected.

Craig F

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Thank you Paul,

You actually have a picture of me on your blog. im the guy on the mat high fiving my mate Andrew in the brotherly love post. I'm good friends with Jamie too. I stayed with him and Tatum in Australia and OBX. Each time getting some amazing waves. Rode the tracker at the cliffs a few weeks ago and loved the feel. The waxed deck canvas feels just right!

Beyond that the pocket stability was instantly obvious with the tracker. Pendo likens the round tail to a single fin. After riding it I understand his point. Very different than the square tails. Blah blah blah stoked!!

Mark M

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Paul -- Got out before and after the storm on the mat. It took a little practice, but I'm getting the hang of it. It's not physically as easy as I thought it would be. On a paddle out, a fellow surfer asked me if it was a Paul Gross mat. He seemed to know who you were, but I don't know his name. Thought you might like to read a report of the hurricane's affect on the local scene. Skip W

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Got it, tried it, think surfing is easier, but I'm digging it. Thanks

Michael Y

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My mat came today... cant tell you how fired up I am. Thank you!

Graham

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Hi Paul,

It's Thomas again, here are some feeling's of a Mat's rookie rider on the atlantic coast of France (summer sessions).

Mattsurfing is so different than bodyboarding or surfing or bodysurfing. It's a diferent way.

Maybe because i am a light weight rider I really find myself confortable with a very underpressure mat (for both duckdiving and surfing).

The feeling on the wave is unique, and I really understand why you speak of year's of experiences to became a good mattsurfer.

I am so impress by the tool that I want a big matt to go in the water with my 6 year's old son to catch waves in tandem (we already test prone surfing together on a special "father and son" bodyboard).

Next surf will be on the "mediterranée sea" next month were Matt's should really fit.

Kind regard's

Thomas

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Hi

I just got my first chance to take out the XL I bought, for the first time in a perfect 4 - 5 South Swell here in Sydney yesterday WOW

I was blown away, I got into the waves much earlier than my other mat, and the speed and flow was incredible

I found the canvas very grippy too, much easier to paddle if need be, and my body wasn't slipping around in critical sections

Brilliant!

Thank you sooooo much, Bart

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Hey Paul,

I just received my Tracker this morning! It arrived in one piece and the mat looks great! So stoked on testing it out in the Atlantic. Thanks for overall perfect buyer experience, I'll let you know how it performs and I'll try to send some action photos your way in the future!

Thanks again!

Sincerely,

Erik S

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Hey Paul

Thanks for getting those mats out to us so quickly! Looking forward to getting on some waves- the difference between the tracker & standard seems very subtle, though I haven't inflated either one yet.

-Sean

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NO WAY! I always thought that would be fun -- but it was just....FUN!

Nope, couldn't wait until Monday! That did put me in my own race with the lifeguard. They are active at our beach. And there were groups of kids doing a clean-up. I knew the lifeguards would be extra vigilant.

My rush made the paddle out even funnier. Struggled out there, caught my breath. Shrieked over to Kwin, who was just laauuughing. Set wave rose up, I struggled to position, but the wave and mat ignored me and took over, and I was flying! Reforms took me to the sand!

Good thing I set my expectations at one ride. Because every lifeguard in a 3-mile radius probably could hear me on that first ride hooting like a crazy person! I got out of there!

Ha ha, I believe I inflated the mat a tad too much. AND STILL IT WAS AWESOME.

Out of the water tomorrow. Can't wait until Monday! Big thanks for sharing the mat stoke with everyone!

Nina

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Hi Mary and Paul,
(what about Peter?-)

anyway... just wanted to let you know that a had a great two mornings at County Line.

Despite the bad forecast I was up a Leo´s at dawn yesterday. It was glassy and the shape from the tiny swell was perfect (Now I understand, Mary!), but the place was occupied by a menacing sea lion (not a seal) who drove away the lonely longboarder that had just gotten in. We went up to County Line which was looking better/larger anyway and had a good time in the glassy beachbreak.

(It´s funny, too, how the mat seems mellow out people.)

Today I went to CL again. 3,5 hrs of nonstop watertime with the most fun, cleanest and longest rides I´ve had so far (in beteween long lulls) and a huge dolphin sharing one of those waves.

Now back to reality...

Hope all is well!

Tom

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Picked it up yesterday, hopefully break it in this weekend! Seems to have arrived unscathed from the post, looks great.

Just wish we were able to get a better selection of fins over here… Can’t find Vipers anywhere at the moment, and duck feet cost about $90-95 after postage from the US.

Anyway thanks for the mat, will give you a report after a few sessions, Mitch.

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Hi Paul

Tracker round tail arrived safely in Brisbane this morning.

Surf’s flat at the moment, but can’t wait to begin the learning process when conditions improve.

Regards

David B

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Hi I have used one of your mats before (tried a friends) and was jazzed by the speed and responsiveness. Am excited to get my own..Donna Z

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Aloha Paul,

Just wanted to let you know I got the Tracker today and got to give it a quick test run this evening...So much fun and I'm sure I've only experienced the 'tip of the iceberg!'

Mahalo, Anthony

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Just had my first session on the new mat! Sunset surfin at Pleasure Point.

An evening to remember! Nice big glassy swell, warm water - stunning sunset colors.

Oh and the mat was pretty sweet too! Getting used to the smaller size- handles like a sports car, but you were right... It's going to take a little more effort to get into waves.

Having fun so far :)

-Sean

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Hey Paul,

Rode the mat for the first time this evening, 3-5' beach break. Man, it's a lot of work! Had a great time getting worked over, got a few decent waves but not sure I ever got it out of first gear. Got a few shoulders where I could experiment with body positioning and weight control, but it's a whole new learning curve. I mostly just sideslipped around until I started figuring out how to apply pressure here and there. All in all I was laughing all the time and had a blast. Thanks for the mat.

Eric

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Tracker goes great! Got it yesterday, but surfed instead. Wife got the mail then called me, "did you get another mat?" Price is so reasonable, no trouble there.

Today we went to the seawall/reef down past Tropics where we had a super fun session. Waves were glassy and overhead (for my daughter) and she's starting to pull some real bottom turns. She's so stoked out there, just a chatterbox, it's fun to be out with her.

The tracker gets down the line for me way better than the vespa. Got a handful of great rides, pretty fast waves down the line and I was staying ahead of it without the side slip I was struggling with on the Vespa. Not in quite as early but with the better hold/projection I'm really happy with the tracker. Another mat session where I got more good rides than any of the surfers out there.

Yeah, really amazing.

Had another fun one last night at the point. Small, neg tide and windy, a couple little corners but pretty poor conditions. She rode her classic and we had plenty of fun.

We were changing at my van and a lady comes up and asks "where do you get those things? They look like a lot of fun.. are they better than a boogie board?"

WAY BETTER! I told her how to find you.

Cheers-

Dan

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hey Paul just thought I'd let you know, got the mat in the water yesterday on the dropping swell. Never had so much fun on the inside 3ft over head. but by the shape of my ankle today I can appreciate the learning curve.

cool... not a toy

willy

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Hi Paul,

Got the mat as promised on Wednesday. Took it out to Bolsa Chica this morning and got a couple of good rides. I've got a way to go to get where I need to go on the mat, but I certainly have the right tools. Thanks, and best...

Brett

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Thanks Paul,

Just wanted to say that riding my mats, made what would of been a crappy summer up here lots of fun.

Thanks again,

Mark

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Hi Paul,

Had my first tryout on the tracker this sunday morning in a clean 4ft offshore swell. The tracker works great. Easy to catch waves and quick making speed. A few times i skimmed out of the wave because of the speed so i have to work on that. The deck is great! Good traction, but still easy to replace yourself on the mat.

Making turns is smooth so i'm very stoked to have this mat in my quiver. For Holland it's a great mat!

Speak to you soon.

Marc

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Thank you for making the mat for me Paul. It is very different than the other mats ive ridden. More versatile.

Enjoying the ride

Mark

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Hi Paul

David here from Sunshine Coast Queensland.

The surf has not been ideal for the round tail tracker since it arrived.

I took it out though yesterday and today in less than ideal conditions, 1 – 2 foot crumbly.

It was my first go out and I’m aware I broke the ‘3 foot or bigger’ rule.

Consequently nothing to report except I’ve got a long way to go to learn how to handle this mystery machine.

I’ll keep plugging away and let you know as soon as I have the first magic session.

In the mean time I’m a much more attentive studier of the Rider’s Guide and any other printed or video material I can find.

I even watched Crystal Voyager again last night with the mat bits of special interest.

Regards

David

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Paul,

Finally got out on the mats yesterday. Surfed mid to low tide on it. I had a blast the lack of fins to drag through the kelp. Rode the Vespa and then switched to the fatty, which was great on the smaller waves we were getting by the end of the day.

Ed

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Paul,

We received it today! Oh my goodness... so exciting.
In perfect time for our gathering of kneeboarders this weekend.

Can't wait to give it a ride.

Thanks a ton!

Amanda

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G'day Paul,

thanks for the quick delivery of the RT tracker. Unfortunately I busted my ankle just after I got it, so it's mostly been in the pool for ankle rehab.

I showed my dad, he told me about the surf-o-plane he used to ride at Nth Avalon, NSW. He said surf-mats went out of fashion when this american turned up in the mid 60's with a fast hollowed out, thing and a new fin, George Greenough. ("nice fella, always happy to talk surf, his sharp fin was the one that stabbed your uncle Patrick, you'de see him at NthAv, go up to Byron and he'd be there too, all the guy did was surf" ).

I guess things go in circles.

Thanks again

Mike W

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hey paul, I got my mat today. it looks awesome! cant wait to get it in the water.

thanks heaps!

Dustin

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Hi Paul,

The Mat arrived this morning, 25/10/11 - only 8 days to Newcastle Australia! I can see why you can hit 4th gear on these mats, it's as light as a feather!! No swell at the moment, can't wait!! I was at Merewether on the weekend telling everyone about the mat. I think you might get some more orders once I start using it around Newcastle's different beaches!

got the Mat inflated first go to George's recommendation for 5ft waves! I already had a pair of Flippers but I've also bought some 3/4 webbed paddle gloves, at 6' 1" and 240lbs I figure I need every advantage I can get in the line-up!! Can wait for the swell!!!!

Dave

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Hi Paul - I got a standard from you a few years back and now my wife wants to get into matting so I have an excuse to get a new mat! Anyway I am friends with Steiny and he really liked the Fatty so I think I would like to order one of those - I am 6'1" and 175lbs and I surf beachbreaks in SF and also go to SC for pointbreaks and ride small surf
Thanks

Rob

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hope you are well! I purchased a mat off you last year. its going amazing! im currently on a cycling trip through south america and have been carrying it through these huge mountains for the last 3 months in anticipation for the waves in northern peru.

Im emailing though to order another mat for my girlfriend. she is 161cm tall and her weigh is around 45 - 50kg. the waves she would be riding on the mat would range from 1-3foot, in all conditions. let me know what you suggest and ill send the money through! thanks again paul! I cant explain how much joy matting brings my way!

hope your well! speak soon

angus

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Thanks for the Fatty Paul. Seeing more mats in the water in Santa Cruz. Lotsa surfers. I've seen the youtube vids and I'd love a new stoke. Well, just to let you know, I'm 51 and I'm a retired lawyer and full time surfer now and I remember a time when mats were all we rode. :)

Tim

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Thanks a lot for my Fatty, steiny got me hooked last Sunday.

Jed

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Hello Paul,

the mats arrived yesterday afternoon in good order.Am very pleased with them. I was able to surf the xl this evening in 3 to 4 foot mediocre waves. How good is that deck canvas,so grippy and an apparent firmness to it.Some good pace when able to run, given that the waves were not great. Thanks again! Shall keep you posted, Kind regards, Wes, Annette and Stephen.

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Hi Paul

Got the mats out today for their first session. Unreal! Less seems to be more and more seems to be less? Can't imagine how these things will rip in bigger surf cos they really kind of take off once you get em in the right spot.

Anyway they are the business, we are really happy with them and would like to thank you for your service.

Best Regards

Sam & Aniko

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hope you are well

my 2 year old brags about how his papa rides mats at rincon

i caught so many waves to the call box and it was so uncrowded for some reason

he said he wants to pop rickys mat with his drill

as much as stand up surfing is fun i am feeling mat riding is more fun

RC

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My name's Blake and I bought a mat from you a few weeks ago.

I took it out for the 4th time yesterday, in the best conditions I rode it yet. 2-3ft and steep, low tide beach breaks. I had some good rides in my first three sessions but I had yet to hit this "fourth gear". Yesterday, I was having a tough time getting to go down the line until my last wave, which was a flying, low-line barrel festival where I was screaming the whole way. I went from frustration to girlish glee in one wave.

Lovin' it.

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Hey Paul,

Thanks! Very excited to try them out, will send pics for sure!

We leave for Costa Rica in 25 days… not that I’m counting! Can’t wait to try mine out.

Thanks again!!

Jenny/Toronto

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Hey paul just wanted 2 let you know I used the round tail tracker today while doing step off's from A PWC thing worked way better then I thought. matching the speed of the swell on the ski then jump landing on the mat was really cool. I got some pretty cool hel-cam footage that I'll throw up later tonight. Thought you might trip out on this. Talk to you later.

Chad

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Thanks Paul I'm currently can't paddle a board due to a shoulder injury so hopefully this will help me catch a few waves until it repairs. I'm sure I will get a few comments from the locals down here but will let you know how it goes.....best regards bill

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Hi Paul,

Thank you for shipping this out so quickly. I've been a stand up surfer for the past .. Oh .. 35 years, going from short boards to ever longer long boards. I was born with a lot of birth defects that made my learning how to surf more difficult than all of my friends but not impossible. Over the years as my body aged (I'm 53 now) my boards have gotten longer to accommodate (compensate really) how ever more slowly I got to my feet.

Well, it so happens that over the past two years I've surfed maybe a handful of times with very limited success at getting to my feet. While sitting on the balcony of Hubb's Hall at Scripps Institute, I watched someone paddle out on a small mat (possibly one of yours) and I was suddenly inspired to check into them. I've been out of the water for way too long and I believe that this will get me back out in the lineup and enjoying myself in the surf again.

I've watched some videos of surf mats and I'm convinced that it will work quite well where I lease property in Baja. It's a little point set up and I'm stoked to get it into the lineup there.

I am grateful that you have created and perfected such a vehicle that will keep my back salty and a smile on my face. I'm looking forward to learning something new and gaining a different perspective on the many waves this will get me into. Who knows, maybe all the kicking in the lineup will strengthen my legs enough that I'll be able to grab my longboard and paddle into a few on the smaller days. Mahalo.

In peaceful rhythms,
Jeffrey

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Lee's In Manhattan Beach

2011-11-13T22:37:00.000-08:00

Hi Paul,

Hope all's well. This place Lee's used to be at Marine and the Strand in Manhattan Beach in the '50s-'60s. Someone just told me that "besides the best burgers and cotton candy you could rent surf mats. And if you turned in bottles they paid you with that gum. We used to spend hours collecting bottles on the beach."

Best,

Erik

MM8 Action Vid!!!

2011-11-13T18:37:00.001-08:00

Matmeet 8 - Report and Pics

2011-11-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

UK Mat Surfers - Matmeet 8 happened today.

"Report here..."

Epic Reunion...

2011-11-12T13:40:00.000-08:00

Mad Magazine cartoonist Sergio Aragones, left, Jack Davis and Al Jaffee, right, speak with Savannah College of Art and Design professor John Larison, second from the left, during an event hosted by SCAD and the National Cartoonists Society, Friday, Oct. 11, 2011 in Savannah, Ga. Aragones, Jaffee and Davis are among eight veteran MAD contributors gathering Saturday for a rare reunion. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton)

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Think of them as the senior class of the "usual gang of idiots." Or the original MAD men perhaps.

There's Al Jaffee, who at 90 still draws the optical illusion fold-in gags for MAD magazine's back page. And Sergio Aragones, still whipping out eye-straining and gut-busting miniature cartoons in the magazine's margins after 48 years. And Jack Davis, who was there at the beginning, drawing the horror spoof "Hoohah!" that appeared in MAD's debut issue in 1952.

They're among the cartoonists who put MAD on the map in the 1950s. Over the next six decades, they blended celebrity caricature, pop-culture parody and political satire in a way that would influence American comedy from Saturday Night Live to The Onion and more. And some of them are still churning out gags for MAD, in defiance of the ever-expanding generation gap with the magazine's young audience.

"I have kids come to me at conventions saying, 'My grandfather grew up with your work,'" said Aragones, 74, whose recent features include "A MAD Look at Lady Gaga." "Older people think the older MADs were funnier. But not really. You grew up. Your sense of humor has changed."

Aragones, Jaffee and Davis were among eight veteran MAD contributors gathering Saturday for a rare reunion on the Georgia coast. With their homes and studios spread across the U.S., the artists who put their work side by side in hundreds of MAD issues don't often meet face to face.

This weekend, the cartoonists are being honored and humored by their hosts, the Savannah College of Art and Design and the National Cartoonists Society. Their art is hanging in a gallery, while their schedule includes workshops with the college's art students and a panel discussion on MAD's history and their work.

John Lowe, the Savannah art college's dean of communication arts, said the MAD reunion represents "roughly 400 years' worth of comic book experience collected in one place."

"MAD, to me, was really the first print publication to satire popular culture and American political culture," said Lowe, 44. "It is still very edgy. I can see parents wanting to keep it out of the hands of their children. And children wanting to get it in their hands."

Launched in 1952 by comics publisher William M. Gaines and editor-writer Harvey Kurtzman, MAD evolved from stories spoofing its owners' stable of horror comics to a broader range of send-ups lampooning American culture, celebrities and politics. By 1956 the magazine had a gap-toothed mascot, Alfred E. Newman, who soon became a cartoon icon.

The artists worked on a freelance basis, but Gaines rewarded their loyalty with annual group trips overseas for decades, beginning with a trip to Haiti in 1960. Davis recalled being cajoled by Aragones into fighting a bull — a very young one without horns, he admits — in Spain. Jaffee still laughs at how a MAD writer, during a tour of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, shattered the hushed reverence by remarking aloud that Michelangelo's painted ceiling was so priceless that God couldn't afford the rent.

MAD's stable of artists and writers embraced the group moniker "the usual gang of idiots." Now published by DC Comics, MAD similarly downplays its own influence. On its website, MAD touts its success as "the best-selling magazine in the world with that title."

Jaffee, who first contributed in 1955, recalls how Time magazine initially dubbed MAD a "short-lived fad."

"They didn't think this crappy little magazine would last this long," Jaffee said from New York. "However, I think MAD is challenging Time for longevity."

And perhaps, in an offbeat way, challenging Time in stature?

Jaffee's MAD fold-ins — which have jabbed at everything from the Beatles and the Vietnam War to TMZ and "The Jersey Shore" — recently received the kind of star treatment normally reserved for major literary works. In September, Jaffee's entire 36-year run of some 400 fold-ins was collected in a hefty, $125 set of four hardbound books, a package he called "hernia-inducing."

While Jaffee and Aragones still work to keep pace with MAD's younger audience. Davis, 86, chose to end his more than half-century affiliation with the magazine more than two years ago.

"I'm an old stodgy man and pretty conservative," Davis said. "I like all the guys up there a lot, but I felt like it kind of got a little raunchy."

For those who remain, Aragones says, decades at the drawing board honing the razor edge of humor has kept the cartoonists feeling young — an energetically meeting deadlines.

Known as "the world's fastest cartoonist," Aragones reckons he's drawn 12,000 cartoons for the margins of MAD magazine since 1963. When he travels to Savannah, Aragones said, the deadlines won't stop as he writes on the flight from Los Angeles and draws at his hotel.

"It's not stressful," Aragones said. "Being a cartoonist is taking out all your frustrations on paper. You don't have to get road rage. You just draw a cartoon."

Pulled From Daniel's "Sea Of My Mind" Blog...

2011-11-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

didnt take this shot but its one of my favorite back yard spots. rode the standard mat all day today so much for the heal up. i can hear this spot breaking from my house a few blocks away when that sound hits me all bets are off everything is dropped. nice low tide pushing up and the first one out for about a hour about 5 foot on the sets and i rode the standard real floppy so it would bend all the way over unreal speed through the tunnels glides across the flats and of course many reef slams and mat fetching. i saw my surfboard on the rocks watching me play with my mat. i went in a got it and paddled out its been a long time and it felt strange and block like a few slides and missing tubes i would have made on my standard. the leash felt lame and the rides lacked that flying speed and glide i love so much about my surfmats. i used to love surfing so much how could this be. i went in an got my mat again and said good bye to my old love for now. maybe that way to ride has been mastered and the challenge is not there any more for me i guess only in really large surf it comes. but i find huge challenge in my mats and when i lock a wave skimming full speed in perfect trim the thrill comes back like when i was a kid learning to surf.

11/11/11

2011-11-10T03:54:00.000-08:00

UK Mat Surfers - Matmeet 8

2011-11-07T14:16:00.000-08:00

MATMEET 8

Widemouth Bay, Cornwall

Saturday 12th Nov, 2011

CLICK HERE to join us!!!

Wishing for Mat Meet-Worthy Waves (sigh)

2011-11-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

Make avatar

From Hal and Sherry...

2011-11-04T13:50:00.000-07:00

Last one in is a rotten, thousand year old egg!!!

Typical UK Verbal Excess...

2011-10-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

"From today at Mawgan Porth