More fish and things

PT and Simon Anderson checking PT's Dick Van quad
Daniel Thomson from Lennox and Tadashi from Japanese surf magazine Blue .
Diverse , Simmons inspired boards and others
Murray Bourton from Base with modern quad fishes
The DHD Bat Tail Quad ?

More wood

Jason Oliver from Brisbane with some beautiful hollow wooden boards built from recycled timbers. Just unbelievable work and craftsmanship in some high performance board shapes.
David Franks from the Gold Coast and Jason Oliver catching up. David is a master wood worker as well and had some great boards with cedar vacuum bagged over styrene.
Roger Hall from NZ with his multi stringered sea creature and a beautiful chambered wooden speed dialer. Rich Pavel thought he did a pretty good job considering Roger had never seen one in the flesh before. Agave , Cedar , Paulownia , Balsa and Canadian Red Wood .The detail and finish was flawless.
Chris Garrett recycled wood fish.
Jason Oliver book matched recycled wood with Camphor Laurel feature. Nice work.

Wooden fishes everywhere

Local fish rider , Marlie liked the look of Chris Garrett's fishy Alaia
Riley balsa over styrene fish.
Steve and Karen the Grain agents in Australia were there to show how from this kit you can build your own hollow wooden board.

The Happy Hemp man was there with hemp foam and hemp clothed boards. Shakablanks
Daniel Thomson with his his slick looking speed machines
Frenchman Paul Lefevre with the art he did on one of Dan Mac Donald's boards.The boys burnt the midnight oil on this one to have it ready for the day. Thanks guys well worth it.
Shane Waterfall came all the way up from Victoria to be part of the day and showcase some nice work. 
Sam from Riley Balsa boards in Sydney with some beautifully crafted balsa over styrene boards.

Tyler , John and Morgan drop in for the fry

It was great to see Tyler Warren , John Smart and Morgan Maassen turn up for the Fish Fry . They are over here filming Tyler surfing various boards and spent the whole day chasing waves. They had with them a couple of Mandala Quads and Josh Hall fishes as well. Tyler also spent a fair bit of time on a hollow Alaia Tom Wegener has been working on.

Another great Gold Coast day in the park

It was a hot old Queensland  day at the beach and after 3 or 4 surfs and talking all day it took its toll of some of us. Tom shaper of the year was in need of some recharge time.

Jim Banks , Ferral Dave and Glynn checking out the day.

Pre Fish Fry night at Sean Scotts

A big thanks to Sean Scott for have the Pre Fry evening with live music, finger food and cold beers down at his Coolangatta gallery. It's great how people have pitched in to make the Fish Fry what it is.

PT , Dick Van and Paul McNeil enjoying the evening
Rich Pavel flew in Saturday morning from San Diego and Roger Hall flew in from New Zealand for the weekend. Two great shapers and great craftsmen.
Always good to catch up with Rich and I very much appreciate the effort and support he has given me .

It's Fish Fry Day

Looks like we are going to have to break out the Fish Flops in the next few days...

Well it's early in the morning and all is still. Everyone is still fast asleep .We had a great night last night down at Coolangatta at Sean Scott's gallery. Nice live music and a few Coronas to wash down the sushi. Swell has picked up as we have Category 5 Tropical Cyclone Hamish slowly coming down the coast. This morning it is sitting over top of the Whitsunday Islands with some strong winds of 295 Kilometres per hour near the centre. That's a fair breeze. It's only moving slowly at the moment but in a straight line  down the coast.  So the next few days are going to be interesting. The Quiksilver Pro needs some swell as its been small. But I don't think they plan on finishing the comp with tow in waves at Kirra. Be interesting though. But that will only happen if things speed up and head our way . Probably looks best for the Noosa Festival of Surfing which starts next Sunday 15th.

Well I had better get these Kiwi boyz up to help me load the truck. Check back and I will post some pics of todays goings on.

David Franks built this one for the Fry

David Franks is a local Gold Coaster who works in the movie industry , but uses his ample skills to build some pretty nice wooden boards. This is one of two he built for the fish fry.

Nice to see guys putting in the extra effort. Thanks David.

Ian Zamora also send his best .

Ian came to the Fish Fry for the first time last year and brought with him what I believe to be the first Mini Simmons to Australia. He then left it with Evan down at Byron. He is a great shaper and very talented glasser as well. He is sorry not to be able to make it down again but things are tight in the States and we all understand what that is like. Thanks to Jim from Lok Box for bringing Ian down last year and thanks to you both for your support.

Best of luck from our mates in the States.

Sean and his mate Mike Hynson checking the finer points of one of Mikes quads.
Just got an email from Sean Mattison from San Diego to say hi and wish us all the best with this weekends Fish Fry. Sean and Scott Bass are the two guys that got me started with the whole Fish Fry thing after checking out their 4th one at Oceanside Beach 3 years ago. As you can see Sean is a hell of a surfer and a fish nut to boot.These are some shots by Michael Delanzo of Sean cutting loose on one of Mike Hynson's Black Knight Quads. A big thanks must go to Sean and Scott for their support with holding the Fish Fry concept down here on the Gold Coast. They have both been down here in the past which was great and have helped spread the word back home. Scott has taken things more than one step further with organising the Sacred Craft event . A great concept and another way of showcasing the craft of board shaping and building. www.surfboardshow.com   May 16 & 17 2009 Ventura County Fairgrounds.

Something different ?

Here are a few different boards from Orange County California. Album Surfboards.

Ronnie Goddard from Coffs Harbour

Ronnie Goddard from Coffs Harbour sent me this pic of one of the boards he is bringing to the Fish Fry. He has been shaping since 1971 and now mostly shapes fishes and longboards. But fishes are his passion. He is a one man band who hand shapes and glasses every board .

One week to go...

Well we are one week away from Fish Fry 3 and there seems to be a fair bit of interest in this years event , which is great given that the surf industry is having a tough time of it. And it shows that the guys that are in for the long haul and still have the passion are prepared to tough it out and still inspired to turn up with examples of their skills and craft. Such guys as Paolo Bianchinotti from Sydney who sent me these shots of an interesting little 5ft 7" reverse rocker hyperbolic fish he is bringing. Looking forward to seeing it in the flesh. I know of a number of guys that are making something special for the Fish Fry. I would like to thank them for their support as this what the Fish Fry is all about. The guys that shape these great little and and some not so little craft. There will also be a number of wooden fishes coming on the day , and this is no surprise as there seems to be alot of interest in wooden boards.