Tips From the Pros: Inside Rail Drop-In Technique

 

 

 

It's simple...instead of laying your entire weight over the middle of the mat when you drop in on a smaller/weaker wave, unweight the outer rail. You reduce the wetted surface area, and set yourself up for a run down the line on the inside rail!

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From Steiny ...

Hi Paul-

 

Glad to hear you are busy and the mats are flying out. That shout in the WSJ Times was cool.

 

Here is a shot that my friend Aurora Alifano took on a small day at Indicators when the once a decade sandbar set up last spring. While at first glance there is nothing remarkable about it, lately I have come back to it and really come to love it and the feeling it shows. So much texture!

 

Thanks the wonderful mats, the Omni has been living up to its name.

 

Best to you,

Steiny

4GF Shipping Delay ...

 

The Wall Street Journal's vision of mat surfing...not bad!

 

As you know, we pride ourselves on getting mats out within 48 hours of receiving an order. And we work to maintain that pace while building every mat as a one-off to order. We don't keep mats in stock. Customers sometimes have a unique need, and we make minor changes from mat to mat in order to maximize fun and performance for them.

A few weeks ago, our good friend and mat enthusiast Mark Anders penned a nice primer on beginner-friendly surf vehicles for Wall Street Journal. Why WSJ -- or anyone who reads it -- would care about surfing, I have no idea! But mats got nice coverage, and as a result, orders have been pouring in over the last 3 weeks. Great news for us...but it has generated a backlog of orders I can't keep up with, even working 12 hours a day.

So...we're going to put a moratorium and quick deliveries for the next 3 weeks while I get caught up.

Any order received as of today will go out after August 15th. I will stay in contact with anyone who orders to keep them in the loop regarding the ship date of their mat.

Thanks for understanding...

PG

From Michelle ...

Bretto at it again...

From Ida ...

Wow....so fast! Thanks so much Paul for such speedy and great service!  I really am excited.  I will be sure to tell everyone about you since I am sure I will get lots of inquires.

I would have bought one from you years ago had I known that your company existed. Instead I have been missing what I thought were bygone days of mat surfing.

I found this photo of myself out with my dog at Bird Rock in La Jolla so many years ago. Date was around 1983. My dog's name was Risa (Spanish for Smile). The dog never swam out to the big waves, so I would just take her out for a swim and then she would turn around and go back.

It was an old mat and not many people had mats anymore. (I think I had bought two so I would have an extra when they were getting hard to find.) I was truly one of the last holdouts. I used to paddle out with the surfers at Bird Rock, La Jolla. The guys all knew me so they didn't give me any grief for being out there in "their" waves on a surfmat.  They actually thought it was funny that I was still riding one.

Mahalo!!!

Ida

From Peter, Still On The Road ...

Hi Paul,

Here's the blog for my trip.

The surfmat has been awesome!

I'm behind a bit on posts so will try to upload some more.  Also having some trouble with my water camera, so troubleshooting that so I can take some more surf photos (I will upload a few soon but they're not great... Camera stopped working on the better shots last two sessions).

Peter

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UPDATE:  7-19-14

Thanks, Paul!  Neat to be in surfmatters.

The mat has been great and lots of people are always interested in it - have directing people to check out your site (and just updated my gear page to include a link to surfmats.com as I keep getting so many questions about the mat).  It's for sure the ideal surf vehicle for a bike trip (might do a post about that) and lots of folks in general have just been stoked on they mat.

Peter

Michelle Going For It !!!

Hi Paul,

Here's Michelle on the Standard.

Cheers
Bretto

From T. Wild ...

Hi Paul,

 

The online mag I mentioned in my last email has published the article. I think it shows matting in a great light. Have a look.   

 

http://www.slideaholics.com/journal/2014/scumm.html

Thanks,

Terry

From Retired Guy Eric ...

Hi Paul

 

Gotta tell ya mate, this being retired (one year today) is the way to go. I have lost count of the number of great days and surfs we have had, here on the South Coast NSW.

 

Attached are just a few piccies taken by Adam of the waves we had this week. Been sliding on my DRP Omni as slack me has still not fixed my 4GF Standard.

 

Regards

 

Eric Da Bolt 

Liquid Salt 2.0 !!!

Thanks to many of you, the kickstarter campaign for Liquid Salt Surf Magazine 2.0 was wildly successful. Glenn Sakamoto will launch his new site this Tuesday, July 15th. 

The link to the new Liquid Salt is here!

This is Glenn, in case you see him in the lineup and want to tell him he has the best on-line surf mag going...

More Video Anaysis From Bretto ...

Hi Paul,

Sometimes these peaky closeouts provide a bit of punch. See how fast the standard is on these couple of short rides.

Cheers,
Bretto

From Bretto and Michelle ...

Hi Paul,

Michelle has a cold so she took a bit of video.

Its school holidays here now and as well the Lennox Head Grom Fest is on so its hard to find a wave with all the people around. I'm riding the Standard, as you can see I still had to work it a bit as the waves even though they look great were pretty gutless.

Cheers
Bretto

From Captian Tom In Brazil: GGGGOOOOOOAAAAALLLL !!!!!

Hola Paulo,

 

from the dive - with strange telenovelas with white blonde women - in the background -in Boiçucanga, Sao Paulo (!).

After all that great mat-geek-centric stuff you've been posting - and after a few (politically incorrect) beers and caipirinhas and some perfect after-surf 'Lula a dorê' I've decided to bother you with ex-mat-centric stuff.

Folks are totally into the REAL football world championships here.

 

The guys providing for the beachfolk are seriously awesome and mix good stuff.

 

And - after several hours of sliding waves and climbing back onto my (inflatable - at least it's that - same thick round rails as a mat - makes me think about peeling off the fins) sup - the session in the beachbreak on the XL was just plain - GREAT! 

Anyone going to Brazil: Bring a mat and go to the beach!

 

Good people and good vibes.

 

Hope, all is well.

Tom

From Colin ...

 

Hi Paul!

 

Been having a blast on the mat lately.  Also lets me ride my bike to the surf spots which is liberating

 

Finally caught the wave I was talking about, the mile-long swim back to shore isn't too bad on a mat  ;) 

As usual, photo credit to the good folks @ http://internet-flexin.tumblr.com/
 

Leaving next week on our bike trip, I may order an OMNI in preparation for our arrival in southern California.

 

All the best,

 

Colin