King Waka's Korner

Saturday, 20 March 2021

Natural Flow

The Surfoplane

I just picked this beauty up from a wonderful couple up Newcastle way who informed me of its history and sentimental value. It has never been ridden or in fact in the ocean, so mint condition! It was originally bought for the owners brother who was a fairly good kneeboarder back in a day who developed Alzheimer's and this mat was to get him back into the water but unfortunately this never happen as he passed away so it was with a heavy heart that they let it go to me and as I promised , I took it for a surf the very next morning down at Eric's reef and shared plenty of smiles & laughs and Froth Filled Fun! Surfing mats is just a Natural Flow with the wave and its energy , be it a old skool Surfoplane , a el cheapo $40 or even a modern high performance surf mat, they are all essentially a air mattress made with variable material and ridden at variable inflation!So as the old saying goes ' whatever Floats your Boat ' these replicate surfoplanes will always put a huge smile on the riders faces!

check out the video below with Paul Newman & Michael Watkins on the kneeboard

Natural Flow from adam williams on Vimeo.

FLASH

I scored this mint surfoplane replicate just before Xmas and just in time for a small summer time slop that we experience every holiday season. These are made of full rubber and this one is the long version and the yellow & green is the signature Ozzie colours so was stoked to pick this one up to go with the other 5 surfoplanes in my collection. We found this little creek opening by chance and I came back with my wife for some lunch and a slide and she kindly shot some video with my phone!! Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year 2021

Flash Surfoplane from adam williams on Vimeo.

GONDWANALAND

Gondwanaland or “Gondwana” is the name for the southern half of the Pangaean supercontinent that existed some 300 million years ago. Gondwanaland is composed of the major continental blocks of South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, India, Antarctica, and Australia

I always call this little stretch of coast Gondwanaland but in reality its officially known as Mondayong and for a very short period the creek open up to the ocean and provided a nice bank just off the shelf! Its all gone now, the last big East Coast Low pushed all the sand back in like a bath plug so we were lucky to sample this and Paul brought his drone down one morning to record

All vision below by Paul Newman

The Creek

GONDWANALAND-THE CREEK from adam williams on Vimeo.

The next time we came back we had Phil in tow so breaking out the Fourth Gear Flyers and I dusted off the 5 Star General for a spin at the creek.

GONDWANALAND1 from adam williams on Vimeo.

Re Grip

I kept looking at the 5 star in my shed and kept remembering how slippery it was the last time I rode it so with the onset of Covid and not been able to get any new mats of Paul Gross , it was time to give it a make over with some new Polyurethane grip which did not take a huge amount of time to do and gave the slippery old mat a new lease of life .

Magic from adam williams on Vimeo.

MAGIC

I inserted some Xanadu ( magic ) inside for some extra fun

Xanadu Vimeo from adam williams on Vimeo.

Xanadu

an idealized place of great or idyllic magnificence and beauty.

Xanadu- full version from adam williams on Vimeo.

Friday, 4 December 2020

Walking On Country

Shellys

Well it's been awhile since we have trek out to one of out favorite reefs and for me ,the best testing ground for all my surf equipment which includes surf mats , paipos , hand planes , soft boards & and all sorts of fin set ups and conventional kneeboards ( still have not ridden my spoon there though)

It was a pleasant surprise to see only a handful of cars when we arrived and even better to see only a few in the water , between the bushfires, floods and covid this year the only way in has been via boat or ski , and I think it was great to give this place a break from the hordes of surfers who have made this their bucket list to visit but for us locals its been a nightmare when you knew it would be pumping and also knew there was close 50 guys in the water and sitting on the beach , so a little rest from the crowds has been great, off the radar for over 6 months and when we walked out you could see the difference with no rubbish any ware apart from one blue surgical mask laying on the reef! The waves were super clean 2-3 ft and perfect for riding our mats , its been over 10 years now since I took up mat riding again and we have tried over years to surf there with these and much to the amusement of the younger boogie board rider's & footboarder's but as our skills have increased and riding basically reefs most of the time it was like a light bulb moment for us as we were taking off from the peak and riding our mats riding like any other surfcraft with a edge to hold and no one dropping in, a really fun session which allowed me to film and ride my hand plane with just 2 others in the water....just like the old days and to finish it off a great feed from Damian up at the local takeaway , what more could a man ask for?

VISION BELOW

GO PRO

Riding our Fourth Gear Flyer surf mats , we both have Standard models and with general wear and tear they are both slow leakers which isn't a bad thing as your inflation needs adjustment numerous times during a surf session , and that's what makes these older mat's special and fun to wrangle!

4GF Shellys Point from adam williams on Vimeo.

DMC

I always have a hand plane packed in my bag and with just a mat as well its easy to travel light and not be weighted down for the walk in and out , the old days I would have a full backpack loaded , camera gear strapped to my chest and two boards under my arms to last me the day but nowdayz I prefer to travel light and only surf for half a day, getting older sucks!!

DMC from adam williams on Vimeo.

GDOME

2ND time using this and still a learning curve as far as keeping the port clean and water droplet free!

Spinners from adam williams on Vimeo.

The Real Deal

This would be one of the best mat riding clips that I have seen since watching all the older films of GG back in a day , professionally made , edit and tunes, it shows all key functions of riding mats in quality waves and the beat part is these younger riders who are embracing and riding mats, the next generation , and not just us older guys who have re discovered mat riding with inspiration from our younger years , this younger crew are normally foot boarders and highly competent riders at that and with Ellis working with GG to re introduce the edge board to a whole new generation of surfers and to see him embrace mat riding as well , I am STOKED!

Josh Simpson Mat Movie

This is from a trip to South Africa in 2019. It's a section of a movie that Josh Simpson is working on. It features mat riders Ellis Ericson, Beau Foster, and Matthew Crowe. Thank you gentlemen!

Music in this video

Learn more

Listen ad-free with YouTube Premium

Song

Four Years and One Day

Artist

Mount Kimbie

Album

Love What Survives

Licensed to YouTube by

PIAS (on behalf of Warp); LatinAutorPerf, Warp Music (Publishing), CMRRA, ASCAP, LatinAutor, and 6 Music Rights Societies

Stay Tuned

Mick Mackie Side Cut - Flex Tail - Edge Bottom - Full Custom

Stay Tuned !!

Surfoplanes

Many Thanks to my old mate Brian Manahan for picking up this surfoplane for me , we called in on the way home last weekend and enjoy a few hours on his verandah talking , drinking spring water and discussing the benefits of rhubarb !

OLD GOLD

SURF-O-PLANES AT KIRRA - following up on our recent post, here are some more very interesting facts, courtesy of Toni Cameron, Jack Evans’ daughter. I never realised that Jack actually invented it!
Jack and his wife, Merle were hiring surf-o-planes out at Kirra possibly from the time that they arrived here, around 1942, until around 1953 when Jack built the Burleigh Heads pool. He possibly handed the surf-o-planes into his friend, Johnny Charlton at around this time. Thanks also to Toni Cameron for this most interesting newsletter clipping.

Thursday, 19 November 2020

Point of No Return

Mayhem on Mats

The call was made Friday night for a quick scoot down the coast with hopes of fun waves & laughs!

There was only a couple of guys out with a nice left hander running down the point , so it didn't take long to grab our gear and head on down. I had a new water housing that I wanted to try so after catching a few and with the increasing amount of guys starting to join us in the line up I went in and geared up to film from the water

Vision Mat Mayhem by Paul Newman

GDOME

A nice light housing that I can fit my I Phone 10 into as well as my GoPro !

Easy to set up and use with your mobile phone , silicon back to touch screen on phone!

Plenty of learning curves but happy with the results

Vision below

Spinning Wheel

Spinning Wheel from adam williams on Vimeo.

After filming till my body temp went down so a quick rest on the rocks and back out on my mat.

The crew of young footboarders were fairly cool , riding single fins and twins and happy to share with us and not drop in or hassle , fun session as always!