Wrecky Dogs

The video by Robbie Slater




Mr Drift at work below and at play above




This is a small video made by my good mate Robbie Slater aka Mr Drift.




Bad Tour 2010 and surfing 5 Mile



Such is Life



Rob is a very talented man who is a professional sign writer / artist / sculptor / model maker / photographer / board maker / rock ‘n’ roll dancer…the list goes on , but he was once called the ‘Enigma’ by a local surfing magazine and that name springs to my head whenever his name is mentioned….this was a video he made around 2007/2008 was when I just returned from WA and moved down here to the south coast , so I have a few guest appearances in this vid as well as a host of the local wrecky crew…..no professional surfers, just the boys riding their home break on different forms of surf craft ranging from stand-up, body board and kneeboards , even a quick view of Richard out on his wave ski.




Robbie with some of the Wrecky Dogs....Ian, Chayne and Troy



To say this is a backyard production is a understatement, with all the filming from the water was with a home made water housing and a old video camera held together with sticky tape or from his old 10ft tinnie that he would launch from the boat ramp and motor out to the break to film all day , and always with a fishing rod on board to have a throw and catch his dinner for the night! I can only imagine hour many hours he put into the editing and sourcing of music for this project, with no payment expected , just his love of the break and surfing as his reward !

I was lucky enough to find a copy of it on DVD which I thought was lost till a clean up I had a few days ago and thought this should be shared again for all to see, some great surfing from everybody when they were all a ‘little younger’….bummer I had to compress it down to a bit over 1GB and a mpeg file for Youtube….enjoy what we have on own doorstep!!



‘Oh, the love of photography’….with Brenden

Below  the view from the Village …going off!



Merry Xmas Robbie!

To view more of Robbie’s current work

www.drift2540.com

http://drift2540.blogspot.com.au/

Splice of Life

New Designs from HARDDARTZ




The Splice Adapter

  This Dart is a great stepping stone for anyone wanting to indulge in surfing’s alternatives. The Splice Adapter gives you the freedom and time to transition from fin’s to c-channels. So when you’ve masted your lines with the fin’s in simply remove them and keep surfing. Plus when the swell’s on the larger size, just chuck them back in and out you go. As all Dartz this one paddles extremely well and get’s on to waves with ease. Best conditions for full enjoyment are around 2-5ft with a bit of push. Our starting sizes are 5’7″, 6’0″ & 6’3″.  Custom sizes made to order.   All orders and info emailed to harddartz@hotmail.com  












Below is a short video of Russ Newman giving the ‘Splice’ its first trial run at out at the local reef

Artwork on the Harddartz ‘Message Stick’

‘Whiteman Dreaming’

Shaped, Designed and Artwork by Stuart Wissing











I have riding and testing my ‘cuttlefish’ kneeboard  (pictured above with the splice) for well over 12months and have found this a great ‘alternative’ to riding a standard board with multiple fins , rocker and concave, and if you have been following this blog you would have seen multiple videos and pictures that I have posted as a testament to how good these designs work.

Russ Newman has came up with a new bottom design as a alternative to their standard C-Channel / Keel  bottoms that myself and the rest of the lucky crew have been trialing, and as I haven't had a chance to ride the new splice bottom shape as yet, I can vouch for Russ’s enthusiasm for his new design….pure STOKE !





After watching many a video and first hand local riders surfing the finless ‘alaia’ in a very squat,crouch position , it great to see this design ridden more like a standard board , with less rail slide, which will be a lot more user friendly for the standard Joe surfer who wants to try a finless board and have something that floats,paddles and rides like their standard fibreglass board that they are use to.




Above is a few examples of my other finless craft

Paipo,  Alaia  ,Handplane and my favourite… MT5 Surf Mat

Floatation or lack of makes riding the standard alaia design a lot harder than it looks, that why I find the Harddartz designs so easy to switch over to.




Paul and Russ

Steamers Beach

Walk out to Steamers Beach

This was my first chance to trial the new design, so after meeting up with Russ, Paul and myself  we decided to walk out to Steamers Beach, on a hope of there being banks on the beach with some nice swell…..well plenty of swell punching in on the sand, but alas no banks and as we stood there for over a hour watching ( Russ was still keen to paddle out) I had to point out to him he would do more damage to his board and my knees would go thru the deck if I rode it, as the waves were just rolling in and pitching directly on the shore…was not even good for my faithful MT5 to ride! So as anybody who has trekked out to Steamers knows what a long walk out, which is downhill including the 200 odd steps that you have to contend with, so what goes down must be walked back up…Arrggh….I’m getting too old for this shit……..who’s a silly waka now?

for more info and orders please visit

www.harddartz.com

Below is a video from the walk out to Steamers Beach

As this year is coming to a end, no pun intended to our ‘Mayan’ friends, I would like to thank anybody who have taken the time to have a browse thru my blog …..Hope everybody has a great Xmas break with plenty of good times and experiences  ahead in the New Year 2013

DETOUR

The endless search for a good wave.

With Xmas belting on the door and plenty of happy campers already descended down here on the South Coast , I was a little dubious about leaving our normal hunting grounds and heading south, but with me working straight after the ‘big day’ and this probably being our last road trip for the year , so with no hesitation i jumped in with fellow amigos da Bolt and Oily and off we headed down the coast


 

As we drove past the Dulla , we could see waves…so we did the right thing eh?
Well with what little NE windswell that actually made its way down this part of the coast, it was either tiny and clean or slightly bigger but blown out and crap….welcome to summer  during Xmas Holiday’s unless we get a nice cyclone swell  to spin down from Queensland to satisfy the eager hoards of holidaying family's and surfers




Oily and da Bolt….search boys





So after many ‘detour’s’ driving up and down the princes highway in search of that ‘magic’ wave that was in our own minds only and in reality  we not going to find, we proceeded to to go ‘detour’ after ‘detour’ till finally we came to the conclusion if we didn’t go out at the next spot, we wouldn’t  get a surf in …





So after checking one last dirt track off the Hwy




not the greatest and there was already about 6 guys over on the right, but the left was empty at least…and not to mention the eerie sea mist that was rolling in with the un forecasted onshore wind , so everything was going our way this morning?….not


Oily below enjoying some mat sliding




It was crap but at least I had my camera with me and the surrounding landscapes gave me plenty of photo opportunities, so I left them in the water and went for a look about

SHAPES AND TEXTURES

Self Portrait …yes, that's a towel I'm wearing

		Detour VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

and there was a group of young lid riders giving the other left a nudge



as well as the local cray fisherman out setting his pots




So by the time I had explored what was on offer the boys had came in with a big smile on their faces, so if was off for some breakfast and a few more detours ….


‘only a mat rider knows the feeling’





A short vid of our ‘detour’

and thru Oily's eye's

1080p from Bulkheads Stuff on Vimeo.