Here are some shots of a neverbeen ridden Mike Diiffenderfer Balsa and redwood stringer 10' 4" that Rusty Miller had commissioned for the new top pub in Byron Bay they drilled holes through it and hung it from the roof ,thats just like doing that to a Ferrari . Mike passed away last year and in his lifetime shaped many a beautiful wooden board look him up on the net if you want more info

visiting friends along the way

Paul Joske is an old friend since 72 he had just got back from Hawaii and then West Oz and this is the board he made for hawaii, a beautiful 9' pintail with 2 plus one setup for the fins. The stringers are Australian red cedar (hard to get) which get wider as they go to the tail. When I arrived at the factory ,Paul was putting all his templates of the last 40 years,nearly 200 of them, into categerised order( name and detail were written on every one of them ) on a special stand he had made, Pauls' middle name is Passion and when you have passion you make wonderful boards with wonderful fins.

My annual trip north to my old stompin ground had to be, surfwise, one of the very best..... Swell every day and west to south winds the whole time.

Guess where????

North

Tiki is currently getting awesome waves up north around the byron shire....

glue up

pocket rocket complete.

this is the final product of the pocket rocket, it had its first surf this week, review to come

Just about there

All the fins are glassed on Bamboo , one side foil on the front , and double foil on the back.

pocket rocket progress

pocket rocket

Alexs' Board is 23 1/2 " X 5' 1 "x 16" tail 3" thick, its the first from the shed at the farm and the first quad of the Pocket Rockets

more pics of the progress coming over the next couple of days

alex's party

What can I say ... Alexs' party was a hoot 70 to 80% of the guests were girls and for Alex,.... heaven can wait... on ya Al !

Alex is 21st cake

here are a couple from alex's party last weekend,

birthday board for alex

here is the outline of alex's 21st bday present,
a 5ft simmons/quad/bum tail sort of sled

stay tuned more to come

G&S

another from waynes collection

broken head

this is me at broken head in may or june 1977-78

look whos turning 21

I finally made it to Wayne Priestlys' house to have alook at his 30 years of collecting boards , and i wish I had made it there sooner, as his collection is so vast and to put it bluntly FANTASTIC. I'll be getting more photos as time rolls on and there will be a story of what is known about each of them as what impressed me about what he had was WHOse boards some of these were. This is Wayne holding up a SAN JUAN .. TONI CERF shape 8 foot pintail GUN that more than likely, had a few at Lennox in its day, its a beautiful board, and to this day is one of Waynes fav. on down the line days .I'm guessing it was made around 82 or 84 and even by todays standard with guns she's still a real gem

wood is good

the reasons tiki hasn't had much to put up late is because he is currently setting up a new shaping bay and but he has started his new board, he told me

"She'll be 9'6" x23 1/2 " and shouldbe 3" thick all of Powlonia .The profiles are ready to spot glue together and then rough shape ,after that, it will be split apart and the "chambering" of most of the sticks will be done ,then , glued back together for the finish shape. I'll take photos as she goes along the different stages..... my first wooden craft"

big wave board little wave day

Grant Fuller's Barry Kaniapuni 7'8 full hawaiin gun, shaped for Grant when we both worked for M'coy

new fin

bamboo hand foiled