Idaho Pipeline!

 

Recent Mat Go-Outs

 

Jeff Thomas, Ft. Lauderdale

Pack Ratt, South Of The Border

From The Tusked Beast

 

Hi Paul,

One of my favorite Surfmatters posts was the Denise Kaufman/Ace of Cups one. The link to the interview (which is great) is now dead.

 

If you want to fix it, it's on the Internet Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120214175240/http://www.lysergia.com/LamaWorkshop/AceOfCups/lamaAceOfCups.htm

Writing cause I appreciated discovering her and her band there, and there's something a little sad about that cheery old post with a link to nowhere hanging off into the void.

Hope you're well,

TB

Ace Of Cups on YouTube!

From Barber's Baskets

 

 

 Bird's eye view of an old man having 4th Gear Flyer fun on the sea!

 

San Diego Mat Meet

 

Colorado River Matting

 

 

More IG river matting here...

https://www.instagram.com/surfcollusion/

From The Tusked beast

Hi Paul & Gloria- hope you both are well. Here’s a bunch of pictures (in two batches, hope that's OK) and a few notes on my recent trip to New Zealand.

I got lucky with accommodation. An amazing little cabin at a friend’s house was available (“The Bat Cave”), right overlooking one of the three points. It was a treat to be in that room; my friend is a hardcore lifelong local surfer and every space he builds is designed with big windows to observe the surf.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Because of rampant Covid in NZ and the relative brevity of my time there, I spent a lot of time at the house (and the points) and limited my socializing to a few close friends. But that was fine. My host is one of the coolest, happiest guys I’ve ever met, and was a pleasure to hang out with. He’s retired (after a lifetime of surfing these points at their best and a string of eccentric short term jobs that accommodated it), lives in the house he built on property he bought for a song 40 years ago, and spends his days socializing, adding to and maintaining his place, building his own functional surfboards that he hand paints with images of flying lizards and Amy Winehouse (!) and his trademark glitter, and does world-class abstract art photography that he has absolutely no desire to promote. And surfs, when all the factors align.

I arrived in the dead of winter, and got pretty lucky. We had about half wet and half clear, sunny weather. But no matter what, every day was beautiful and dramatic, to me. I always come home from NZ with a hundred photos of clouds and attempts at capturing the shifting quality of light, of curtains of rain moving out to sea. NZ weather seems so dynamic compared to coastal California.

I got lucky with surf too. It was pretty magical to be so close to the point, to semi-bushwack down the slippery steps through the dense foliage to the boulders along the waters edge, and paddle out right there. And to return the same way, to my little awaiting cabin.

Unbeknownst to me, my host took a few photos of me out in front, on a windy morning.

Lots of fun surfs. I was reunited with my surfboard which I had left here in 2019, but had my best surfs on my Lotus and new Standard (which got baptized on a memorable, pumping day). Here’s a random entry from my surf journal:

7/5 Grey, rainy and offshore. Walked down G’s path and paddled Liddle out at WB. Antony out with Kai. Really good head high lined up walls. Still having trouble popping up- an embarrassment- but once up, got good enjoyable hull rides. Then paddled to TV. One remarkable ride: steep drop head high wave, only able to get to knees and instantly slotted in a long, fast tubing wave. Spread arms to touch both sides; a really WIDE round tube! The Liddle knee rides REALLY well. Straighed out at the end.

Then returned to WB (too high tide by then), went back up the path, got my mat, and paddled to MB. Stronger offshore, some good rides but also- TOO TIRED; couldn’t ride well. Realized how much physical strength is actually needed even prone.
Really raining now. In bed, heater on.

So, a really lovely trip. Bittersweet compared to previous trips because of Covid, but there was some positives in that regard too- I had visits with a few old friends who are on the other side of the vaccine issue, we both knew it- and we all consciously focused on our enduring connections. Coming from America that was incredibly positive. I’ll hold this experience dear for a long time.

Best wishes,

Jonathan

 

PS   Honest, I wasn't searching for "Tuesday Weld Boobs"

 

From Vogue, August 2022

 

From JB

 

Well gentlemen, I'm back.  Here's a sampler. South Central Atolls, Maldives. Quote from a local: "Bruddah, you make history here."

From SC

 

 Blowing minds in the Mentawai. Surf mat was breaking down peoples mental about speed, riding in the pocket, and what it means to enjoy perfect waves.

Stoddy

Mystery Party Wave

 

From Steiny

 

The woman in middle is Hilary Bryant, on right Christy Chin. Christy's husband Eric just ordered a mat. These are all very good people. Hilary ex mayor of Santa Cruz. Christy vote.org organizer.

Dispatch From Foreign Correspondent Jim B

 

 My sunrise swim spot out front. 

Photo: Main Street, Thulusdhoo Atoll, Cokes surf spot down at the end of the road.

 Whatalife!

Our choices involve: surf or snorkel in the morning?

Where to do either or both of the above? 

How long to nap? 

Do we hire a boat at 2pm or 3pm, to surf until near the quick tropical sunset? Don’t want to be in the water and sun for too long. 

And where to surf? So far I’ve slid some fun, like really fun waves at Chickens and Ninjas. 

 

Four Italians, two guys two women, yes, surfing Italians from Palermo, two Spaniards from Bilbao, and me. Where’s your board? They ask. As we cruise the five minute crossing from Thulusdhoo to whatever atoll that is where Chickens is, I show them the mat and inflate it. Italians don’t do it often, but they were kind of quiet. Okaaaay….

 

1.5 hours later they gave me standing ovation when I paddled back to the boat (the last one out). Yesterday, after a similar session at Ninja’s, one of the Italian women laughed and said, “You’re crazy.” I believe it was a compliment. 

 

So, that’s a summary of our first few days here, more or less. 

Oh: Lotus absolutely flying down the line and holding an edge really well on the bottom turn and cutback. Haven’t taken it out on any super steep reef ledge wave yet like Cokes. Not sure I will. 

 

Just finished another late afternoon/evening session at Ninja’s. Super fun and nothin’ serious. I got some pretty good zippers, and one way down the line, far past where others were making it to. Paddling back out, one guy asked me how the food was in India…took me a little while to figure it out. Pretty funny. 

And an Austrian woman surfer, when I got back into the boat, asked me how old I am. Classic.

We’ll be joining our four Australian boat mates next week and surf the southern atolls. 

Jimbo

Newest 4GF Team Riders

 

From Lloyd's Blog

 

I met George Greenough in Santa Barbara in 1971. He was the next door neighbor of my friend Bob Easton and one night he came over to Bob’s house and showed us some of his surf films. At the time, George was riding a knee board and had a homemade waterproof wide angle movie camera powered by a motorcycle battery. He was the first guy to film inside the curl and it was breathtaking. Bob said that George was like a martial artist, crouching low, being part of the wave, as compared to standup surfers trying to conquer the wave. He ended up revolutionizing surf photography.

These days George lives in Australia, and is a legendary waterman. For some years now he’s been riding an air mat, which he considers superior to a knee board. It appealed to me. For one thing, it’s way easier to travel with a foldable air mat and fins in your backpack than to lug around a surfboard. For another, as us surfers get older, here’s a way to stay in the water. Plus they are fast as hell.

 I did some research and found that George gets his mats from https://www.surfmats.com/ (“Handmade in America by Paul Gross since 1984.”) Over the years, Greenough has worked with Gross on mat design. I bought one, have not used it yet, but it’s in my car with a pair of DaFiNs https://www.dafin.com/, small flexible fins from Hawaii, highly rated by lifeguards and bodysurfers. I’m going to take them on a trip in the Spring to Micronesia and Hawaii. Check out also https://surfmatters.blogspot.com/.

From Lou

 

G, day Paul...

Some photos of Surf Mat beach hire Kirra Gold Coast.

Bit of history in these photos..

Cheers.

Lou.😎

From Matt

 

Hi Paul, 

 

Today I went out to my favorite secret spot up the coast a bit.  2nd day of south swell that has graced the area.  Yesterday was just a handful or less of us for 4 hours.  Super!  Today was the day the word got out, there were 10 cars there at 5:30 when I arrived.  And the surfers just kept acomin'.   

I'm not a big fan of crowds, so after a few minutes in the gang I paddled up toward the river mouth, hoping to get a few along the stretch between there and the point.  Long wait.  Maybe an hour.  Anything rideable was breaking right on the rocks.  Then, what I hoped would happen did.  A bigger set wave came, and I was able to snag it well before the crowd.  As I hoped, I made the section between where I took off and the point, and the rest was history.  Wave of the day type of ride.  

On my paddle back out, multiple people commented.  Sic dude, nice ride!, that was pretty, etc.  I felt good, just figured that the wave was big and well shaped.  But I wondered if it was maybe me on the wave?  

 

An hour or so later I got out of the water right after another nice ride from up there.  John stopped me and said he got some pictures of my last ride.  He also commented on the wave I had gotten earlier in the session, that it was very cool to watch.  So I asked, "was it me or was it the wave?"  He responded that it was both.  He said I was going so fast, he didn't think there were many surfers who could have made the section at the beginning of the ride, and he enjoyed the sweeping cutback turns I made when I had gotten out in front of the wave.  That was gratifying to hear, as I have watched many surfers scream across tough sections and wished that I could do that.  I guess I can (and do!)  All thanks to my Standard.  

 

Included is a picture from the last ride, nothing fancy but maybe folks will look at this post if there's a pic.  And if Kenny is reading, just want to say hi, hope to see you out in the water again soon.  John told me he's a friend of yours.  

PS Hope you don't mind me clogging up the blog with pics of me, but after riding the mat for 15 years, my first two pictures in a "matter" of months is sort of exciting.  Today was actually a 6 shot sequence I received.  

PSS, interesting that the two pictures were taken from nearly the same spot, the recent one either closer to the water or with a zoom.  The big rock at center of the recent one is the same as the rock toward the left of the frame in the pic from April.  

 

 Matt S

From Frankie D and Lou G

 

 

G.day Paul..

Frank just sent to me , not sure if you seen this ..

Pretty special..

Hope your pulling in.

Cheers.

Lou.😎