hydrodynamica

2012-02-12T06:45:00.000-08:00

Thursday- 6'1"x 20" Butterknife Tri. Photo by Michael Sangiolo.

2012-01-30T13:32:00.001-08:00

photos by Soren Heil.

Hydrodynamica: Remember the Future/Pacific Standard Time 1/28/12

2012-01-30T13:25:00.000-08:00

PST installations in progress. Opens tonight. 325 15th St. 92101

2012-01-28T10:12:00.000-08:00

Hydrodynamica: Remember the Future

2012-01-25T13:57:00.000-08:00

SHOW RUNS JANUARY 28 – MARCH 9, 2012

OPENING RECEPTION JANUARY 28
4 TO 10 PM

WITH MUSIC FROM STEVE POLTZ, IRWIN CONSPIRACY 8 PM
MIHO GASTROTRUCK 6 to 9 PM

Space 4 Art and Loft 9 Gallery present a Pacific Standard Time exhibition exploring early surfboard design and how the use of surfboard materials influenced mid-century sculptors and designers.

The show was conceived and curated by Richard Kenvin, of Loft 9 Gallery. Kenvin is the director of the Hydrodynamica Project and has surfed in San Diego for over forty years. The exhibition focuses primarily on the work of two Southern California surfboard pioneers: Bob Simmons and Carl Ekstrom.

Simmons’ board design and early use of composite construction processes in board building from 1949 to 1954 parallels California’s post-war modern design movement and profoundly influenced modern surfing and skateboarding. Andy Warhol considered Ekstrom’s surfboards works of art and purchased two in 1968 for props in the campy surfsploitation flick “San Diego Surf.” The boards helped inspire an explosion of revolutionary surfboard design in San Diego that culminated with the designs of Steve Lis in the late 1960’s.

The exhibition will feature original Simmons planing hulls and other objects he made, including the boomerangs he used for experimentation. Boards from Ekstrom, Lis, and Nicholas Mirandon will also be exhibited, along with photographs and short film clips. Viewers will be invited to ponder the relationship of these designs to California art and design from 1945 to 1980. Once overlooked, surfboard design is currently experiencing a worldwide renaissance that is changing surfers’ perspectives on the past and changing the way people ride waves today.

Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented series of concurrent exhibitions throughout Southern California museums and galleries that highlight the significance of art in Los Angeles region in the post World War II decades. Exhibitions and related programs began in the fall of 2011 and conclude in spring 2012.

40 years later...

2012-01-19T08:12:00.000-08:00

Marshall Myrman took the top photo in the early 70s at Big Rock. His subjects are Mark Skinner and Rex Huffman. Three kings in their court at a time when kneeboarders ruled the Rock and surfed it as deep and radical as the best shortboarders do today. Most rode fishes. The next three frame grabs are the same trio (Marshall, Rex, & Skinner) on a day last winter, still at it 40 years later, weaving through the flotsam & jetsam of 2011. Obviously, the sign in the old photo lost it's power long ago, but these guys never lost their passion for the Rock. The last photo is a group of backyard Big Rock fish kneeboards from the time...with a stray Greenough spoon on the far right. These boards and some of Marshall's classic images will be exhibited at our Pacific Standard Time exhibit here on January 28th. Recent frame grabs of Marshall, Rex, and Skinner from footage shot by Michelle Bossuot for the Hydrodynamica Project.

2012-01-17T07:42:00.000-08:00

"Hello. I'm a spaceman. I'm a weirdness from the future and the past. I am the spirits of Einstein, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and Simmons, taken possession, temporarily, of the innocent body known here on earth as Tom Morey. I (we, really) am looking at your surfboards of today and am thinking they are junk. Maybe you're impressed (as these boards are possibly the best you've ever known) (possibly, as even that is questionable), but really not too impressive. We Weirdos realize that ANYTHING IMAGINABLE IS POSSIBLE. Very little imagination is reflected in "today's board." It is basically the same as "yesterday's board," the board surfed last year, the year before that, the year before that and the year before that..."

-Tom Morey, Surfer Magazine, 1970.

PST: Hunting & Gathering

2012-01-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

fruits picked on Central Coast road trip from Mike Hischier family & Hanz Newman for PST exhibit January 28th.

2012-01-09T07:33:00.000-08:00

Twin Pins. Late 1960s, San Diego. Skateboard photographed by Ryan Field.

2012-01-09T07:22:00.000-08:00

Gary Keating about to grind some wet coping. Ultra-short twin. San Diego, 1970. Photo by Wayne Kirchner.

2012-01-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

Hydrodynamica: Remember the Future. A participating gallery in Pacific Standard Time.
Primordial surf/skate connections in San Diego. Late 1960s and early Seventies. The obsession with speed and traction, wet or dry. Gary Keating and Henry Hester, shown here skating at La Costa in 1975, knew all about aquatic speed and traction through fish and twins years before Frank Nasworthy moved from the East coast to San Diego with the first run of Cadillac Wheels in the early 1970s. When they got the wheels they eased their fish jones with downhill pumping and speed runs. Hester at this time was absolutely ripping waves on very short asymmetric fishes. See photos above of Keating in 1970 on a super short twin. As for Frank, he was, and still is, an avid fish rider. Wheel shown is from one of the first batches of Cadillacs produced when Frank came to San Diego. Also note sixties roller derby skateboard modified to look like Mirandon Twin Pin. Prior to the arrival of urethane the dream was a skateboard that rode like a fish. After urethane, the dream was a surfboard that rode like a skateboard. Still is. For a few years before Frank's revolutionary wheels, it was the fish riders who where experiencing, on waves, the speed, traction, and flow lines that would soon be taken to shocking levels of performance on concrete with the Z-Boys. Surfers like Steve Lis, Jeff Ching, Larry Gephart, Mike Tabeling were all experiencing the fish in a way that foreshadowed the skate revolution.

6'1" Butterknife tri 12/31/11

2012-01-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

Theodore Kenneth Smith. March 13th 1959-December 31st 2011

2012-01-01T11:53:00.000-08:00

Ted died while surfing Windansea yesterday. He was one of the kindest and most soulful people I've ever known. Images are from footage of Ted riding a Caster singlefin at Simmons reef in 1979, a place he surfed with style, grace, and power. Footage shot by Jim Weaver. We will miss you Ted. Beyond words.

2011-12-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

Gathering boards for PST exhibit. This is a symmetrical Ekstrom V-bottom from '68,
a "control" board to be shown with Mirandon Twin Pins. Note the swallowtail motif in
the pinlines. Collection of Mike Bonaguidi.

2011-12-29T08:47:00.000-08:00

Simmons theory in action: dynamic lift generated by high and low pressure along the leading edge of the foiled rail, guided by two small directional stabilizers placed along the rail where pressure is highest. Trans span flow diagonally across the bottom of the board like an aquatic airplane wing. Board is 35 lbs and made of solid wood, yet it is on a rail and accelerating rapidly. Explain what is going on here and you will explain a lot about the foundation of modern performance surfboard design.

HYDRODYNAMICA: A PARTICIPATING GALLERY IN PACIFIC STANDARD TIME: ART IN L.A. 1945-1980

2011-12-28T07:28:00.000-08:00

"Pacific Standard Time is a collaboration of more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California coming together to celebrate the birth of the L.A. art scene. Through the exhibitions of Pacific Standard Time , you can discover how the Southland became a great center for art and culture." - from PST exhibition guide.

A few months ago I went with Carl Ekstrom to inspect two pieces of his that were installed at the Mingei Museum for something called Pacific Standard Time, which is a massive collaboration of Southern California cultural institutions initiated by the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. I went home and did some research and found that the Getty had been working on this massive joint effort for 10 years. They were on a mission to define and contextualize art and culture in Southern California from 1945-1980. The scope of Pacific Standard Time was broad: ceramics, conceptual and perceptual art, cultural identity and politics, design and architecture, the history of art spaces in Southern California, painting and sculpture, performance art, and photography and print making.

I then learned from John Van Hammersveld that PST was accepting proposals from independent galleries. So with two days left before the submission deadline I rushed together a proposal that focused on the work of Bob Simmons, Carl Ekstrom, Steve Lis, and Nick and Bear Mirandon...all of whom did their thing within the time frame of 1945-1980. I sent the proposal to the Getty. A month went by and I almost wrote it off. Then I received an email congratulating Hydrodynamica on being accepted to participate in PST.

I see this as an opportunity to continue telling a story, through surfboards and surfing, that had a tremendous impact on cultural identity in society and on the lives of individuals. Not just in California, but everywhere. Context is everything. If the story of surfing is only told from the perspective of "sport" we miss out on an incredibly rich saga filled with individuals who pioneered not just new ways to ride waves, but new ways to live. PST is a chance to acknowledge the role surfers played in Southern California's creative realm during those years.

The more PST exhibits I visit the more I see a narrative and a story coming into focus. The forms and materials of post-war modernism in California from 1945 through the 1970s were used by surfers and reflected back to and absorbed by artists, designers, architects...and vice-versa. There is a relationship between a 1948 Simmons planing hull and a 1948 Thomas Church swimming pool. Look and see. Aerodynamic form. Curves and lines. There is a relationship between the monolithic polyester resin sculptures of Dewayne Valentine and the monolithic resin laminated boards of Simmons and Quigg. Surfers were not bit players in this drama of mid century California culture. They were in leading roles alongside the Shulmans, the Eames', the Churchs, and the rest of the cast...

Los Angeles has always felt shadowed by New York in the realm of art. PST is an attempt to come out of this shadow. San Diego is in an even deeper shadow cast by Los Angeles. But look into the story of surfing in Southern California from 1945-1980 and you will see intense interaction, especially in the 1940s and 50s, between San Diego and Los Angeles, particularly between Malibu, Windansea, San Onofre, and the Tijuana Sloughs...and where did these guys turn their attention? To Hawaii...and that's real root of all this stuff. Surfing in California came from Hawaii, and eventually went back to Hawaii transformed by post war materials like resin, foam, and fiberglass. George Downing and Bob Simmons patching a board together in L.A. in 1948? It happened...one of many milestones from that time. Could write a book about that one alone.

Hydrodynamica : Remember the Future opens on Saturday, January 28th 2012 4pm-10pm.
325 15th Street, San Diego, 92101 in the Space4art galleries and Hydrodynamica/Loft 9 gallery.
Through March 10th 2012. Public viewing hours Tuesday through Saturday 10 am - 4 pm.
hydrodynamica.com
sdspace4art.org

Support from friends at Volcom is helping to make this possible :)

the Golden Mean Machine...

2011-12-16T08:41:00.000-08:00

The Golden Mean Machine. Shaped by Daniel Thomson for the Hydrodynamica Project 12/14/ 2011 middle photograph of 1950 Simmons Motherboard by John Elwell.

DT & the birth of the golden mean machine...

2011-12-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

DT & M.M. Professor Tubing 1.61803398874989

2011-12-08T09:03:00.001-08:00

'cause connecting is good...

...the Future

2011-12-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

Daniel Thomson (top) and Ryan Burch. Frame grabs by Sean Shafer 12/4/2011

Remember...

2011-12-05T08:25:00.000-08:00

1950 Simmons planing hull photographed by Ryan Field.

2011-12-04T08:43:00.001-08:00

HOLY ASPECT RATIO BATMAN!

2011-12-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

DT: 3 steps ahead of the Jokers. photos by Dave Frankel

low country

2011-12-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

Surfer's Journal 20.6

2011-11-23T07:03:00.000-08:00

Surfer's Journal 20.6:
Excellent piece by Kimball Taylor on Simmons on Oahu in 1953, Quigg on Simmons, Kivlin and who did what first in the late forties at Malibu from a 1997 interview, RK piece on planing hull master stylist Tyler. Warren.

2011-11-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

Daniel Thomson: Modern Planing Hull continued...

2011-11-22T09:12:00.000-08:00

I've been hanging with Daniel recently, getting a full update on his latest applications of Simmons concepts to ultra-progressive design. Daniel recently won "Best in Show" at the Sacred Craft surfboard exposition/gathering with this particular design, which is the closest to his ideal of performance yet. (It was his second win at Sacred Craft) Yesterday morning we met up at a little reef/sandbar known locally for its junky unpredictabilty. There was one kid in the line-up, he was riding a bellyboard of his own design. He came out of the water and gave a full break down on his concepts. His inspiration? Simmons. I didn't catch his name...so for now he's known as the Prestwick Kid. This beach is where Simmons rode his last wave...its were Butch Van Artsdaalen rode Al Nelson's little 5'6" twin fin in 1957...it's where Nick Mirandon and Chris Prowse blew minds in 1967 on twin-pinned spaceships, and a stone's throw from Big Rock,
where Steve Lis did the same on his Fish. Its where Ekstrom rode his asymmetric in 1965.
Its funny, even in those times the status quo resisted. But the guys with the new stuff? Too stoked to care. Its the same today. Daniel went out yesterday and took what the ocean offered up, and had a blast. His board has carefully applied concepts, heavily inspired by Simmons,
and the more Dan feels it working the more frothing and stoked he gets. As for the Prestwick Kid? Keeping an eye on him for sure.

2011-11-22T09:10:00.000-08:00

Gloss & Polish

2011-11-18T06:23:00.000-08:00

"The derogatory term "finish fetish" was devised to patronize those artists, who were deemed superficial for their excessive concern with surface. But that in itself was a superficial observation: it was only if the surface was perfect, the counter-argument went, that deeper resonances in a work could be observed.

..."Finish fetish" might have been a movement of it's time but also expressed a more timeless artistic concern: the desire to create a kind of perfection.

But we know, in our relativised age, that there is no such thing. The yearning for flawlessness will always be compromised. 'Gray Column" movingly tells this story. Its otherworldliness is, after all, of the world. Its hypnotic translucence might captivate us but we are not in the presence of 2001's monolith. Its ulterior concerns are human, all too human."

- a Perfect Realization, Peter Aspden, Arts, Financial Times 9/4/11

Photo: Pair of new hand made boards by Carl Ekstrom, who freely admits his obsession with surface and finish.

2011-11-17T07:43:00.000-08:00

"Gray Column" is a hefty sculpture made by the Colorado-born artist De Wain Valentine in the mid-1970s. It is shortly to go on display at the Getty Center in Los Angeles and will doubtless evoke some memories, not because anyone has seen it before - it has never been shown in public - but for its striking resemblance to the black monolith in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. If the Getty produces a soundtrack of waltzes to accompany the display, the association will be complete and we will be whisked back to a time that dreamt vividly of a future that has yet to happen.

But there is a more prosaic point to the show than to promote temporal dislocation. The display of"Gray Column" is presented by the Getty's conservation institute and the work will be surrounded by exhibits that narrate the story of its making and maintenance. Valentine's achievement was as much an act of technical bravura as imagination. The 3500lb sculpture, 12 feet high and 8 feet wide, is made entirely out of a single pour of polyester resin, using a new technique devised by the artist and a local manufacturing firm.

The result is a smooth, highly polished work that tapers at the top to become translucent, a hypnotic visual effect. In common with other artists of the time working on the west coast, Valentine was fascinated by the finish that was being achieved in the aerospace and car industries. Even surfboards - what could be more Californian? - attracted artists for the sheen of their surface as much as for their symbolic power, speeding metaphors for the free-flowing lifestyle of LA beach culture.

"Gray Column" is part of Pacific Standard Time, a series of exhibitions opening next month on the birth of the LA art scene. Valentine in many ways was a typical player on the scene: innovative, unafraid of pushing boundaries, exalting in scientific advances of the time..."

- from "A perfect realization" by Peter Aspden published in the Arts section of the Financial Times September 4th 2011.
bottom photo 'Gray Column"
top photo 'Diamond Column"
both polyester resin sculptures by De Wain Valentine

111111

2011-11-11T10:13:00.000-08:00

Burch with his 11' plus asym.

Ekstrom at the Mingei

2011-10-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

Double Door 1968 & Two-Part Chair 1970 as seen at the opening of San Diego's Craft Revolution at the Mingei Museum in Balboa Park last night...

Ekstrom at the Mingei

2011-10-13T20:22:00.000-07:00

KPBS.org article
SignOn San Diego article

2011-10-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

Daniel Thomson, best in show, again, at Sacred Craft Del Mar 2011.
Board shaped & glassed in Lennox 2009...stealth style.

2011-10-06T11:31:00.000-07:00

Ekstrom tees...

Asymmetry in Hydrodynamica 2007-2011

2011-10-05T11:33:00.000-07:00

2011-09-29T07:21:00.000-07:00

Jord, ripping the North Sea on a Hydro project quad keel.

Alva: misadventures in the middle.

2011-09-27T15:13:00.000-07:00

2011-09-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

John Elwell celebrated his 79th birthday yesterday. Tales of Simmons
appearing in San Diego in 1949...

6'2" Burch asym cont...

2011-09-17T13:33:00.000-07:00

Star Dust - Sea Movies from www.KORDUROY.tv on Vimeo.

2011-09-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

Dylan, slight pause along a half-mile speed run, connecting on a Pavel fish. 9/1/11.

6'2" asym channel by Ryan Burch 9/2/2011

2011-09-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Hans & the Big Rock boards

2011-08-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

Hans Newman, shown standing next to his two late Sixties Mirandon twin pins.
Quiver shot is a sample of Hans' Big Rock boards suite from the early Seventies, he made most of these. Board in foreground is a turn of the century relic dubbed "the missing link". Obvious Ekstrom, Lis, Mirandon influence in Hans backyard boards. Quiver photo by Scott Sullivan from 2005 Hydrodynamica interview with Hans. Detail of 1957 high performance short balsa single fin by Al Nelson...note the rocketship... also from Hans collection. Some of these boards will be on shown in our Pacific Standard Time exhibit this fall.

Then....and now.

2011-08-20T08:30:00.000-07:00

After 9 years of experiencing the Simmons planing hull, the Lis fish, and simple wood finless boards we are now inspired to unite the goodness. This quest is greatly aided by Ekstrom asymmetry. Recent regularfoot 6'2" X 20" by Ryan Burch, age 22.
Photos by Torrey Jay.

2011-08-19T09:16:00.000-07:00

Ekstrom and Michael Dormer visit Loft 9 & tour sdspace4art downstairs...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dormer

Double Door: Toza Radakovich in collaboration with Carl Ekstrom 1968

2011-08-13T08:52:00.000-07:00

Carl Ekstrom last week at the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park, reunited, after 43 years, with the doors he finished for Toza Radakovich in 1968. Materials: polyurethane foam, fiberglass, wood. The doors will be exhibited at the Mingei for their exhibit "SAN DIEGO'S CRAFT REVOLUTION-From Post War Modern to California Design" which opens on October 16th, 2011. www.mingei.org. The exhibition is part of the Getty's Pacific Standard Time initiative. Stay tuned for info on the Hydrodynamica/Loft 9 Pacific Standard Time exhibit which will delve into relevant California board design 1945-1980.

2011-08-13T08:46:00.000-07:00

Interpreting the Simmons Board part I

2011-08-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

"The Simmons surfboard is as strange an apparition today as when it first appeared. In its time it broke all rules of the day. It represents a shift from heavy displacement to light displacement along with the application of scientific theory. It was a radical departure, far ahead of its time, like the designer, and misunderstandings hindered its full acceptance. Bob Simmons disregarded criticism and just went surfing, which was his great love; his surfing proved the validity of his boards along with their use by a small cadre of followers.

From what he said and the body of research in his possession, along with a visual appraisal, one can get an idea of what he was pursuing. He was an aerodynamicist and a mathematician. That viewpoint must be kept in mind.

The boards had maximum width. Width was favored for the least resistance. Width plays a key role in delivering kinetic energy to the airfoil rail, the leading edge, that gives deflection. All planing hulls are deflectors. The airfoil is a special shape that is calculated. Width divided into length is aspect ratio, giving a magic number related to lift. Width also allows the hull to leave a clean wake. An impressive example of the value of width is the bodyboard.

The wide, unusually cambered, uplifted noses created a lot of criticism. The unknowing critics said they were pushing water, but they were in fact working, spreading the water momentarily, to the high pressure rails before take off. In a tough spot, where the nose comes into contact with the water, in a steep take off or large chop, they lifted. Changing the noses was not a big deal to him, saying they stick out when we surf. He rejected points as too fragile and dangerous. Some of his early boards had points...

The outlines were fair parallelism, contiguous rails, fared-in near the tail for clean stable running. Non-uniform outline shapes were rejected because of eddy flow resistance that increases with planing speed. This occurs at 10" in width. He is on record that trying to modify paddleboard shapes into surfboards was wrong; destroying the wide tail reduced early lift and clean resistance wakes. Those forms pulled the rail away from the wave and required a single fin, partly corrected with a tri fin today, which undoubtedly would have been rejected, because of increased appendage drag*. Rocker was rejected for reasons made obvious by his theory. 'Ya just don't need it!"

He rejected the notion that wide tails were the cause of 'spin-out" and considered it a fin problem. He moved a small fin to each outboard rail at the end and towed them in to 10 degrees. This is because the water is moving fastest at these points as it leaves the hull. A single centered fin is in the low pressure area of the board and away from the wave. He simply expressed, you need more fin at low speeds and less at high speeds. Simmons and his "test pilots" never spun out with dual fins, surfing the biggest and hardest breaking surf...He noted with criticism that narrow tails give a tubing, sucking wake. Anything that had eddy flow resistance was a "disaster" and "not the way to go!"

- John Elwell

from "Interpreting the Simmons Board"
published in the Surfers Journal
1994

photo of Elwell in the 50S with his beloved 9'0" Simmons.

* Simmons suggested to Bev Morgan that he try a 6'0" tri-fin.

July 31st, 1949.

2011-07-31T09:17:00.000-07:00

Simmons. Dual keel planing hull...blazing.

DNA part II

2011-07-22T08:41:00.000-07:00

Jerry and Ryan Burch. early 70s photos of Jerry Burch by Jeff Divine.

DNA part I

2011-07-22T07:53:00.000-07:00

Mark & Daniel Thomson.
recent shot of Mark on mat by Hilton Dawe.

FROTH VS. CRUMBLE DT 7/13/11

2011-07-14T10:40:00.000-07:00

Daniel Thomson & Pat Millin beat down the crumble in Northwest SD yesterday.
5'6" dual blade & 5'5" tri both shaped and designed by Daniel Thomson
for his MPH Modern Planing Hull series.

2011-06-27T05:02:00.000-07:00

Daniel Thomson, mid day surf, June 25th, San Diego.
Raptor 5'5" x 18".somethin'

2011-06-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

Burch. Manifesting dreams for an Indian Ocean wave field.

Soap Opera

2011-06-19T10:51:00.001-07:00

spot the dandy in the family...

2011-06-15T06:52:00.000-07:00

"Yeah, well, Carl Ekstrom, see I'd worked with Carl Ekstrom, and he and Al Nelson were the two main people who taught me how to shape. Carl had an asymmetrical design concept he had worked with. I noticed that the swallowtail would be, in essence, overlapping two asymmetric templates, even though the outline of the board would be symmetrical. The continuous line of the swallowtail, if you took an imaginary line up each side of the board would be an asymmetrical, and each side would overlap and lay on top of each other. That concept appealed to me, because the asymmetrical has a very positive function, especially in one direction. In this case we were going to have, we should have, the benefit of that in both directions." -
Bear Mirandon, late sixties dual fin, twin pin, swallowtail pioneer, excerpt from Hydrodynamica interview, 2003. photos by Bear Mirandon & Ryan Field (2006)

2011-06-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

Ekstrom display in Japan last month. pic by Cho.

2011-05-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

the Bars of Soap...dressed for the party...mingling. short, but no complexes.
photos of Tyler Warren 'Time & Space" at Loft 9 by Torrey Jay.

Tyler Warren show at Loft 9 Gallery on Saturday, May 28th

2011-05-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

new work & boards from Tyler.

gyre and gimble

2011-05-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

'twas brillig...

2011-05-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

...and the slithy toves

2011-05-18T12:47:00.000-07:00

lenape smiling...

2011-05-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

7 am Ekstrom comes by with two of the most beautiful things i've ever seen...
quarter scale and full scale, glowing from Scott Bass' stoke from yesterday on the new Carl twinzer/quad/asym...packing these up and heading East to the Western Woods,
slide show pres with Ryan Field Friday eve SMASH NY, NY fISH Fry saturday.

5/9/2004

2011-05-10T11:15:00.000-07:00

daniel thomson early stages of connecting with the fish, May 9th, 2004. from footage by Mark Thomson for Hydrodynamica.

fish fry I 2003

2011-05-10T11:10:00.000-07:00

skip, reno, cher at fish fry I 2003. moment on red 5'6" frye 2003.

Tyler Warren, Loft 9 Gallery, May 28th 2011

2011-05-06T07:24:00.000-07:00

2011-05-04T08:53:00.000-07:00

Lucas' asymmetric airshow on the inside lefts...in progress. photo by Michael S.

2011-05-02T08:43:00.000-07:00

"Toza Radakovich in collaboration with Carl Ekstrom, Double Door, fiberglass, polyurethane foam, wood, 1968. Photograph by Lynn Fayman."

2011-04-20T21:38:00.001-07:00

recent Ekstrom forms.

2011-04-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Carl Ekstrom, Simmons' reef, early Seventies. photo Brock Rosenthal.

2011-04-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

5'10" asymmetric hydroflex by Carl Ekstrom at Windansea the other day. Photos by John Slavin.

last wednesday.

2011-04-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

2011-04-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

2011-04-11T09:28:00.000-07:00

Three Jedis. Kelly images by Steen & Jacqui Barnes.

2011-04-10T08:06:00.000-07:00

Derek & Sterling on Burch asym designs at the 'twang. images from Gentile & Sangiolo

4'11" etc.

2011-04-08T14:26:00.000-07:00

Burch parallel 'o' gram...

2011-03-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

Ryan made this board a month ago and we showed it in the Remember the Future
exhibit here on Saturday March 26th. He rode it for the first time yesterday, March 29th,
which happens to be Simmons' birthday, on the same lefts at Windansea where Simmons rode his planing hulls. Ryan put a little Simmons and a little Ekstrom in this one.
A deconstructed shortboard? Yeah...in some ways. But more a continuation of an older design school that is still evolving at the old venue.
Happy birthday Bob.

ryans.

2011-03-27T10:21:00.000-07:00

field is missing from this equation but it still adds up to a very large sum...

2011-03-26T11:53:00.000-07:00

2011-03-26T11:51:00.000-07:00

hanging show...

2011-03-25T15:02:00.000-07:00

2011-03-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

above every keel...

Hydrodynamica: Remember the Future

2011-03-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

heading to Sacred Craft show in Santa Cruz.

2011-03-17T22:21:00.000-07:00

Ekstrom, Burch, Mabile...next level.

marco and ian

2011-03-08T06:29:00.000-08:00

ian rotgans and mark wolfinger trying a 5'6" planing hull tri
april 2010 at the 'twang.

fisherfolk

2011-03-04T16:43:00.000-08:00

"And so it now appears to me that the tale I have to tell, spanning a million years, doesn't change all that much from beginning to end. In the beginning, as in the end, I find myself speaking of human beings, regardless of their brain size, as fisherfolk."

- Kurt Vonnegut, "Galapagos"

images: top frame grab of Daniel Thomson by Mark Thomson, March 2004
gephart keel by Ryan Field, RK baja sur by Scott Sullivan.

2011-03-01T19:24:00.000-08:00

Taylor Dunfee's show on 2/25/11 in the loft. The Unusual Suspects. photos by Matt Wesson

bottlenosing the goths.

2011-02-24T22:23:00.000-08:00

2011-02-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

The Dunfee brothers, Taylor & Derek, settin' up the show.
Derek fresh back from Ireland, where he "didn't have time to drink"
but had plenty of time to ride.

2011-02-23T13:44:00.000-08:00

Taylor Dunfee show at Hydrodynamica/Loft 9 2/25/11

2011-02-18T11:45:00.000-08:00

the unusual suspects...maybe a surprise from Derek too...
and PK...?

more goofy asymmetry from Ekstrom & Burch

2011-02-13T19:42:00.000-08:00

Surfing by Max Diaz, Taylor Dodge, and Ryan Burch.
Boards: 5'8" Ekstrom & 4'11" "sledgehammer" by Ryan Burch.
Filmed at Windansea 2/11/11.

Skoby Joe.

2011-02-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

5'2" dual keel Simmons inspired planing hull. 2 parts Ortner, 1 part Hynd...
Joe blends it with a style all his own. Pleasing lines at Windansea.

regular asymmetry....

2011-02-08T11:14:00.001-08:00

frame grabs from the forthcoming film by Ryan Thomas... Temporal Collections...
from Rincon last week, on the regular foot 5'8" Ekstrom/Hydroflex asym.
wwaarrbblleess.blogspot.com

goofy asymmetry.

2011-02-05T18:25:00.000-08:00

Burch rides a couple yesterday morn on Carl Ekstrom's 5'8" asym Hydroflex.
filmed by RK.

2011-02-02T10:31:00.000-08:00

6'6" Lis fish last week, super functional on one of the waves it was born to ride. photo by Aaron Goulding.

strictly custom...

2011-02-01T21:29:00.000-08:00

michael early...a softer shade of red.

2011-01-25T22:14:00.000-08:00

the eagle flies on Friday...Simster flies on Saturday.
6'0". frame grabs by Michelle Bossuot. board pic by Ryan Filed.

a fishy nada

2011-01-25T21:44:00.000-08:00

last Sunday at the Rock
6'6" Lis fish. frame grabs by Michelle Bossuot.

2011-01-11T08:40:00.000-08:00

from top: northern california, southern california, england. captain, slavin, crockett & associates.