Happy New Year to you all

Happy New Year to everyone and thank you for your continued support. I hope we all have a better year ahead of us than we have just had.Here in Queensland we have thousands of people with their houses underwater and the biggest floods ever.Some rivers are yet to peak so the worst of it is yet to hit.When we have tough times this year , lets just be tankful that we are not one of these poor buggers waiting for the water to drop and see whats left to start again.

Happy New Year to you all from Grant, Jackie and Natalie here on the Gold Coast.

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning here on the Gold Coast 5.30am. Wet ,Wet, Wet and rain all night, Santa will have a soggy slay for sure. All we want is sun and waves for Christmas as usual , but they have both been in short supply.I hope where ever you are that you have a safe and happy Christmas and some waves in the New Year.Looking forward to a great 5th Fish Fry in March with some interesting guys coming out from the States and new faces keen to be part of the day. Also have some young guns lined up as speakers at the Surf Museum the night before.

Merry Christmas from Grant , Jackie and Nat.

The Mini Simmons test

MIKEY D's MINI SIMMONS from ALEK PARKER on Vimeo.

The Mini Simmons is becoming more and more popular this year as guys seek out something new to get their heads around. Most look at them and find them a little puzzling and not sure how to figure them out. But come back beaming and surprised at what they have discovered. Short but wide means glide , like they have never felt before on a board of this length.We will see more of these sweet little wonders this summer.

Italian , mini simmons

Here is a sweet little Simmons from Michele of OLA SURFBOARDS, 5ft 2" winged mini quad-simmons , with titanium cloth step-deck and rose swirl resin tint bottom - full-throttle down the line

Some interesting Spanish boards

Fernando de la uz , looks like a pretty innovative and experimental shaper for sure and builds some sweet boards.

He foils his own fins ...

Now this is where it gets interesting or what ?

The Thumb with fins on the nose ?

The Meyerhoffer meets Thumb , meets whale tubercles , its all happening ?

An interesting couple of board that would be good to know more about. There is no more info on his web site , but here it is : www.delauzsurfboards.com

The Big Bob " Simmons"

Just picked up the 10ft Simmons today.Can't wait to get it wet.

S Deck and square tail

Long concave blending into the hull / rolled nose. I shaped a chine in the second half of the board which lessens the rail thickness.

Beast of a board ...

I wanted to keep the twin fin original Simmons fin template , but thought I would experiment with having the last 1/3 cut away to lessen the base lenght and maybe free things up a little. Also moved the fins up 6 1/2" inches from the tail and sat them on top of the chine.I have to thank John Cherry for his inspiration and feedback. As well as Roger Hall and Dick Van Straalen for bouncing ideas off. But a big thanks goes to Bob Simmons for just thinking outside the square all those years ago.Imagine if he were still here now , where would surfing have gone ?

Jensen Fish gets a test run at Bells

Andrew Roberts built this fish in one of Paul Jensens classes here in Australia and these are some shots he sent to Paul ...
" Well, happy to report a bloody fantastic day, with the pick-up of one fine surfboard and test run in fun 3 foot waves at Bells. Board came up stunning with high gloss finish, waxed up and headed out, just a few other guys in a peaky slightly choppy swell, good for a fish. "

" Got some nice clean waves, Bells is a great down the line the wave, especially in the Bowl section which is surfed at low tide 3 foot up. Easy to paddle and catch waves, had some nice drops, carving bottom turns then maintaining a nice fast line. Sweet! Here's a few pics for the album. Plenty of interest in Torquay in these boards and reckon you would not have too much trouble lining up a workshop down here if keen."
Catch ya soon.
Robbo

Paul Jensens site : hollowsurfboards.com

Grain wooden fish kits in Australia

Bob Mitsven and his quad Mini Simmons.

Joe Bauguess talks about inventing the Mini Simmons

Dan's bamboo Simmons

Dan is a great innovative shaper here on the Gold Coast and has been experimenting with his Simmons for a while now. After starting out last year building SUP with bamboo skins and then his short board range , he has now done the Simmons. They are stringerless styrene and look unreal.
Check him out at : www.dmshapes.com

Simmons by Nico and the crew at Wavegliders in Portugal

Rui , sent me these shots of some of the latest boards they have been building.

" After the first simmons Nico kept developing it and using the riders feedback to make small changes on rails, tail, dimensions and fins. All that to make them surf even better. Everybody is loving them."

Nice fins.

If you would like to check out what else they are up to : http://wavegliders.blogspot.com

Chusma Surfboards from North Western Spain

Chus , sent me a link to his blog to check out his boards and share them with you. He builds some nice fish and simmons in his range .




An interesting Simmons with a third fin setup like John Cherry has on his Simmons 21.

The angled tail and distinct concave scoop in the deck at the nose.




Now this is interesting an asymmetric Simmons with keel and quad fins.




Nice to see that the fish and the simmons are a live and well in all far flung parts of the planet and guys like Chus are mixing it up.
Check him out at : http://chusmasurfboards.blogspot.com

Dane goes finless

Always good to see Pro surfers who are willing to try new things rather than white thrusters. Oh sorry I don't mean to get political. But it is good to see.

Fish in the line up

Mike Cunningham took these shots of a couple of Orca or Killer Whales that decided to join them in the waves and bust a few moves for the boys.Big , powerful and just tearing it up at Sandy Bay on the East Coast of the North Island New Zealand.