Twist

The secret to a good bottom turn on a surf mat is too rotate and twist your hips, your body is just a extension of the craft that you are riding, so  its the outline of the inside of your body that basically becomes the rail of your surf craft …starting from your inside hand flat on the deck, right thru to your inside leg and flipper, which in the end becomes your rudder. Eric da Bolt pictured above and below about to set his rail line ….the Wrangler at his best!













Some mat vision from last Saturday afternoons fun slide out at Coco Pops.



coco from adam williams on Vimeo.

Flex and Fins

I recently pulled out these shed dwellers of mine , pictured from left to right below , the kneeboard is a Chris Crozier flex tail and the spoons are carbon fibre and polyester glass which were the handicraft of Master Glasser and Board maker , Neal Cameron. I was hoping to get my Red Baron in the water this week, but the swell didn’t cooperate , so stuck with my mats instead!

























Pray to the Mat Gods for good waves this weekend!!
















al










Eric below doing his best ‘seal ‘ impersonation

Eric heads West

da Bolt is heading over for a short surf trip to Western Australia  and hoping to catch up with Robin and Co for a slide or two down around the Margaret River / Denmark area.
pictured below with Robin from a previous trip, he is taking this time a quiver of mats to ride and share, so lets hope he scores good weather and waves





 He also has a 4GF RT with some extended length, that is on loan from Henry Hester  , all the way from La Jolla , USA!





Thanks again Henry for the loan and we will be sure to share it around amongst the crew.


















Henry below





and with his new Custom made G-Mat 41 ( aka Stinkles )






For a further read and information about G-Mat Custom Surf Mats, check out link below


http://customsurfmats.com/blog/2014/4/5/g-mats-41-42-glider-xr

Redcliff SCUMM

Terry Towelling and Johnny Tofu below enjoying some water time last weekend.





Faster than a speeding bullet…





Terry asked the other day about wearing booties to stop the chaffing of flippers on their bare feet! I have been wearing hard sole reef booties for the past 20 odd years. I wear a size larger in fins to accommodate the booties and  they are great to run around all the rocks and reefs .






Duck Trails

scumm adventures

A few waves with Eric and myself the other afternoon, the lid rider was getting some smoking pits!


















BOLT from adam williams on Vimeo.

Made in Taiwan

Tropical

Awesome Waves

Beautiful People

Unreal Food

Spiritual Buddhist Temples Everywhere

Hot Springs

No Surfers Unattended

I was blessed to travel and surf this country long before anyone or the surfing media took an interest in Taiwan.

And the fact they have best tech on the planet to make my mats the decision to manufacture there was easy.



SurfTaiwan.com - Personal Tours In the Tropics from Surf Taiwan-Tours in the Tropics on Vimeo.



pictured below is Mark’s Grandson Jake, with the KRYPT MT5 Series IV surf and mini kids mat below




Its no secret that Krypt surf mats are made in Taiwan, Mark Thomson designed and develop the MT5 to what it is  today…the fastest High Performance Surf Mat on the market and my mat of choice when surfing large fast pointbreaks, reefs and beach breaks.





Krypt surf mats are available in most surf shops world wide, and they fill the void that the custom makers cannot…a regular supply to the retail surf shops of high end mats, without the time and wait that the custom builders need to manufacture, thus enabling more of the general public and surfers  to buy and access the joy of riding surf mats !





This is what got me hooked on surf mats again and after riding kneeboards for the past 35 years….

SURF MAT TURBO TIME II : NEXT LEVEL

Blind in the surf without Glasses?

I have been wearing daily disposable contacts for the past 12 years , but alot of surfers cannot and wont ( hint hint Eric) use them, so these water specs are the go and highly recommended by our good mate Mike ‘Spaniard ‘ Fernandez









and pictured below with Tommy Pip, myself and Tommy Backer but in 2011

Picture by Rob Slater





below is a great interview with good friend , Artist and Surfer Tom Backer

ARTIST INTERVIEW – TOM BACKER

http://www.ocartblog.coI first discovered Tom Backer’s work in the early 80′s when he was documenting the burgeoning So Cal punk rock scene. Backer’s extensive photographic collection of early punk shows, although unheralded, rivaled the work of better known punk rock documentarian’s like Edward Colver. I was a fan. However, as the 80′s progressed Backer disappeared from my radar and I wasn’t sure what happened to this talented photographer. But as fate would have it, I was fortunate enough to run into Backer’s wife Jennifer recently who pointed me to Tom’s website and gave me an update of what he’s been doing these last few decades. Well it turns out that Backer has been busy in his studio producing wonderful new work consisting mostly of assemblages and reliquaries. After seeing his new work I was blown away, and knew I needed to get his work on the OC Art Blog. So I am pleased to introduce Tom Backer  and his work to the OC Art Blog community. Enjoy!


http://www.ocartblog.com/2014/04/artist-interview-tom-backer/?fb_action_ids=10203695667140858&fb_action_types=og.likes

Back in Time

SCUMM member Phil Harper back in his younger days riding mats

The Good Old Day’s

I recently received a email from my mates Scamander beach surf shop down in Tasmania, and had these pictures attached of some nice foiled fins for a kneeboard plus a couple of Chris Crozier kneeboards up on display in his shop. He put me in contact with the owner Steve Jeffes who gave me a rundown on the history of the pink Crozier






The short history of the Pink Crozier.
I brought this board in 1977 custom from Chris. It was designed specifically for reef breaks, at the time I was exclusively riding it around Cronulla – Shelly and sandshoes as Cronulla was extremely crowded so you had to basically became a ‘local’ at a break to get a wave – considerable agro in that scene then. It was about my tenth slab from Chris. The ding on the nose came about the first day I rode it at Sandshoes – memorable day – the Point was around 10+ with PT out and two person barrels. A friend of mine Greg Ferris went out at the point, he was a good surfer (ex schoolboy champ) and he was cleaned up dropping into a big one and his board ended up in the pool at south Cronulla. Shoes was a solid six off the right hander and the left hander in the bay was working as well. The slab has quite a lot of rocker designed into it and went great on all reef breaks or any wave with power.
 
 

 

The various fins were accumulated over a number of boards and used depending on the wave. The flex ones were fantastic as tended to rocket you into the next section. I brought that board and the next one (also pink) to Tassie when we moved here at the start of 1981. However, the failed to work effectively here due to the lack of power in most waves – so I got Chris to shape me a twin fin with no rocker at all and just tail release (yes pink again) that year which went a treat (even at Park). I then moved onto Friar Tucks shaped by Parkesy and have had far too many to count since then – though he will not do a pink one for me!
 




I originally started knee boarding at Gerringong around 1969 as I broke my then longboard on holidays (staying at the old caravan park) and got a local guy at Gerroa to cut it down to a kneeboard (could not afford anything else) and we surfed Werri Point with it. Too much fun and never looked back. Watched Peter C surf Dee Why Point when he was at the top of his game and set me on a path – have seen the current crop from down Wollongong and they are inspiring as well. Always thought the mainstream surfing in Australia should recognise Peter Crawford as he was easily one of the best surfers of his time and with Chris changed the face of knee boarding in the world. Your mat’s  remind me when my father took me to the beach as a youngster (Maroubra and Manly) where we used to hire them and be swept out to sea occasionally – much fun! It’s interesting you have channels as well – I have maintained them for over twenty years on my boards and for waves such as Tassie they are excellent. Like the spoon – too old to surf Green Island anymore (never did like the paddle over the ‘hole’) at that size but still enjoying every day I get out in the water. Am heading up to Tuross Lakes in November for a wedding so hopefully there may be a few little scratchers to catch in board shorts for a change!

Steve Jeffes

 
Dale also has a old Trigger Bros Kneeboard on display
 
 

 

 

 


 


 




Visit Dales surf shops at Scamander and St Helens , Tasmania.
http://scamandersurf.com/


They are amongst us…..SURF MAT RIDERS THAT IS







Justin Spittle sent me these pictures of him and his brother riding the mats back in his youth, check out the Zippy Board











and with his Fathers old Barry Bennet Logger





with his father Don Spittle,  riding this board below









I recently caught up with Justin for a slide, it was small but made the most of it.









Some pics I recorded with my GoPro camera



  easter eggs from adam williams on Vimeo.


and from Justin below




















Thanks for the pics Justin!

Lest We Forget

Anzac Day 2014

Justin’s Grandfather Jim Spittle served in France during WWI.











  La Scumm from adam williams on Vimeo.


Had a few fun ones out here during the Easter madness with Paul.