hi everyone!
right now, im the most happiest bloke you can imagine.
last week, my lovely girlfriend anna and myself packed up the van with loads of stuff. some towels, some clothes, some other stuff, and 5 shaped blanks.
after a 2 week period of working 24/7 on the latest music video for a musician friend called BEN MARTIN (www.benmartin.at) (who does some really nice tunes i think a lot of you would like, give it a try!!!!!) and taking pictures of golfbags and retouching those for ages, we let the dust fly and hit the road. the direction? strictly west.
the wonderful bordeaux in the wonderful and oh so beautiful country of france was the end of a long and sometimes dangerous journey. yes it snows in march, and hell yeah, it snows a lot.hmm
why bordeaux you may ask?
because its home not only to the finest red wine on earth but also to some of the most interesting, wise, creative and stoked humans i ve ever met.
sebastien garnier, aka the chacal.
a glasser with the passion to make nothing short of magic out of a piece of foam and wood, some fibreglass and stinky resin. a man who doesnt have to hide in the kitchen as well, oh man, let me tell ya!
but most of all, hes a wonderful husband and father of 2 of the happiest and cutest superheroes on earth.
he invited us, complete strangers, to stay at his place during our 2 day visit. we had a blast.
sebastien is right now working on the finishing of the boards i worked so hard on for the last couple month. and in some couple weeks time, i will open some boxes out of cardboard with nothing but stoke in it. i cant wait really.
but apart from that, what we already got, and whats the best present or gift or whatever you may call it, is 5 amazing new friends (i didnt mention the sweetest of cats before ;-) ) . thats what its really all about. isnt it? everything else is a plus.
thank you so much!
then we have a bloke named alexandre, who used to be an architect once.
i found him on the internet 2 years ago while searching for a source of surfboards that actually make sense for us everyday or in my case every once in a very long while water heroes that dont write down anything like "slater" when they sign something. he made me my first fish and i was stoked. guess who glassed that fish? exactly, the man i wrote about above.
alexandre, who is a pretty busy shaper man now, did let us watch his magic in his very very nice new shaping bay.
thank you too alex. barrel surfboards his pieces of art are called, check them out if you havent already.
we wish you all the best, but to be honest, im not worried at all.
yeah, a lot of texting and no pictures???? boring i know. but be a little patient.
you will complain about too many pictures in a while. HA
alrighty then,
right now, im the most happiest bloke you can imagine.
surfing is a bond, a feeling, a way of life. even tough we sometimes think we are oh so different, in the end, we are all the same.
take care,
trim chris
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
BOARD #4, 6*3 x 21 x 2 3/4 SINGLEFIN for El Buberino
hey there!
heres number 4:
a 6`3 x 21 x 2 3/4 roundtail singlefin for my good`ol friend Bub, aka El Buberino aka El Surferbubo, who is a lucky bastard, cause he`s sitting on the island of fuerteventura right now, sliding down some beautiful, little pointbreak gems while im in the cold, dry and dusty austria, shaping his stick.
widepoint 4" forward of center
single concave into a slight vee with a little double concave in it for speed and fun.
pretty full, a little down rails.
this one`s for you, come home, now!
Enjoy!
well, theres 2 more boards to come before i pack everything up and start the "tour to france". i cant wait really. its a bit tough cause it takes a while till the boards are really finished, but when the time comes, and all those boards are lying on the floor, finished, and in full color, the joy and stoke will be much more pleasing.
.............
did i mention that 4 europeans are on this years ASP WORLD TOUR?
stoked, i hope they do good. its about time.
have a good one where ever you are!
GO SACA GO!!!!!! micky, aritz and jeremy too...
heres number 4:
a 6`3 x 21 x 2 3/4 roundtail singlefin for my good`ol friend Bub, aka El Buberino aka El Surferbubo, who is a lucky bastard, cause he`s sitting on the island of fuerteventura right now, sliding down some beautiful, little pointbreak gems while im in the cold, dry and dusty austria, shaping his stick.
widepoint 4" forward of center
single concave into a slight vee with a little double concave in it for speed and fun.
pretty full, a little down rails.
this one`s for you, come home, now!
Enjoy!
well, theres 2 more boards to come before i pack everything up and start the "tour to france". i cant wait really. its a bit tough cause it takes a while till the boards are really finished, but when the time comes, and all those boards are lying on the floor, finished, and in full color, the joy and stoke will be much more pleasing.
.............
did i mention that 4 europeans are on this years ASP WORLD TOUR?
stoked, i hope they do good. its about time.
have a good one where ever you are!
GO SACA GO!!!!!! micky, aritz and jeremy too...
Sunday, February 3, 2008
BOARD #3, THE GLIDER v2.0
hey again!
its been a while, but i was busy.
i ve been working on adding some t shirts to the trim movement cause it was just way too freezing to be shaping.
it got a bit warmer now so heres Glider #2:
exactly the same dimensions as the first one but i tried different rails and bottom.
a lotta thanks to vasco from nereus kinesis (http://nereuskinesis.blogspot.com) for his feedback and help with the rails!!!
muito obrigado! e a linha (cascais) é muito bonita, mas aventurosa!!
enjoy!
my girl anna took a couple pics, yes thats me, sorry! :-)
ok, as mentioned earlier im working on some T shirt designs, i know i should better practice shaping. but its fun.
next board will be a 6`0 round tail singlefin disc for my girl. then a 6`3 roundtail singlefin for my friend el Buberino and a 6`5 singlefin for matthias.
so alltogether its 6 boards for the first batch.
thanks everyone for trusting me to turn your money into somethink surfable :-)
when everything is shaped and packed up, i ll jump in the car and drive down to bordeaux to get the blanks to the glasser, chacal (http://shaggyshack.blogspot.com), hes doing some massive resin art so check his blog out. im really looking forward to meeting him and get to see alexandre from barrel surfboards ( he does some massive foam art all the time basically. :-) ) again.
maybe there are some water hills too for me to slide on a bit. its been a while since i got wet, let me think....8 month? thats a long time.
thanks for reading.
take care,
trim chris
its been a while, but i was busy.
i ve been working on adding some t shirts to the trim movement cause it was just way too freezing to be shaping.
it got a bit warmer now so heres Glider #2:
exactly the same dimensions as the first one but i tried different rails and bottom.
a lotta thanks to vasco from nereus kinesis (http://nereuskinesis.blogspot.com) for his feedback and help with the rails!!!
muito obrigado! e a linha (cascais) é muito bonita, mas aventurosa!!
enjoy!
my girl anna took a couple pics, yes thats me, sorry! :-)
ok, as mentioned earlier im working on some T shirt designs, i know i should better practice shaping. but its fun.
next board will be a 6`0 round tail singlefin disc for my girl. then a 6`3 roundtail singlefin for my friend el Buberino and a 6`5 singlefin for matthias.
so alltogether its 6 boards for the first batch.
thanks everyone for trusting me to turn your money into somethink surfable :-)
when everything is shaped and packed up, i ll jump in the car and drive down to bordeaux to get the blanks to the glasser, chacal (http://shaggyshack.blogspot.com), hes doing some massive resin art so check his blog out. im really looking forward to meeting him and get to see alexandre from barrel surfboards ( he does some massive foam art all the time basically. :-) ) again.
maybe there are some water hills too for me to slide on a bit. its been a while since i got wet, let me think....8 month? thats a long time.
thanks for reading.
take care,
trim chris
Sunday, December 30, 2007
the frozen fish and the snow glider part2
after the fishie was shaped, i took the next blank and tried the Glider again:
7`3 1/4 x 22 x 2 3/4 SINGLEFIN GLIDER
single concave to vee out the tail. widepoint 4"up from center, pretty down rails.
im really happy about the glider. came out quite ok i guess.
some boo boos here and there but a bit better than the last one, thats what its all about isnt it? getting better with every board.
cheers,
take care,
trimchris
7`3 1/4 x 22 x 2 3/4 SINGLEFIN GLIDER
single concave to vee out the tail. widepoint 4"up from center, pretty down rails.
im really happy about the glider. came out quite ok i guess.
some boo boos here and there but a bit better than the last one, thats what its all about isnt it? getting better with every board.
cheers,
take care,
trimchris
the frozen fish and the snow glider
hey all!
i hope you had nice holidays and santa claus was a good guy to all of you.
i was very busy in the garden shed, sanding and mowing some fresh foam.
it was a bit cold in there at -5 degrees celsius, maybe i should have bought a heater or something but theres no place left in the shed. so a lot of clothes and a lot of sanding kept me quite warm.
on the way to the shed it looked like this:
i attacked my first "real" PU blank some time ago and totally f**ked it up with the planer while skinning the bottom, it looked like a battlefield and i was quite frustrated. got back the next day and smoothed it all out a bit with the surform and sanding block and really kinda got it even again. it was a 7`9H US blank that was meant to become my personal 7`3 Glider but it was way too thin when everything was more or less even again. so i decided to declare it as a practice blank and try everything with it that will cross my way in the near future. i tried to shape a swallowtail, got used to planing the stringer down with the different handplanes and so on.
then i took the 6`2A fish blank to get started with my first keel fish.
5`8 x 20 3/4 x 2 3/4
it went quite well, besides that i must have messed up measuring a bit when drawing the outline on the blank. when i pulled out my swallow tail template and lined it up to draw it on, it just didnt really fit. so i measured the tail again and noticed that it was like 3/4" narrower on the left side. hmm, great! i had the rails rough shaped already at that time so i wasnt quite sure what to do next.
i took measurements every foot or so and made dots to get symmetry again. well sort of..
then i took the planer and cut into my almost finished kinda good looking rail. that was tough.
i shaped the rail again and it came out ok i guess. ALWAYS MEASURE TWICE!
when i was almost finished sanding, the blank fell off the racks which left a gaping crack in the right tail rail. i was like "ok, can somebody hit me now that i wake up? this must be a dream." i was really bummed.
i got a heat gun and tried to get it fixed. with a heat gun, when you have dents in the foam, you can get those out most of the time because the foam reacts to heat like a cake in the oven, it extends.
it did in my case but still left me with a little crack.
i tried to sand the area flat again and blend it into the existing railshape, but i sanded too much and ended up with some kind of a swallow bump tail on the right side. hmm its not really symmetric but who cares really.
its my first board and im really happy with how it turned out. it could have turned out better tough without all of these mistakes and unlucky happenings, but this is just learning and and i will take extra care the next time.
the fishie will get 101fin co. bamboo keels from mr. marlin bacon for the lokbox system. hmm yummie!
have a look at my links section for infos
ok thats it for now.
hope you enjoyed!
take care, trimchris
i hope you had nice holidays and santa claus was a good guy to all of you.
i was very busy in the garden shed, sanding and mowing some fresh foam.
it was a bit cold in there at -5 degrees celsius, maybe i should have bought a heater or something but theres no place left in the shed. so a lot of clothes and a lot of sanding kept me quite warm.
on the way to the shed it looked like this:
i attacked my first "real" PU blank some time ago and totally f**ked it up with the planer while skinning the bottom, it looked like a battlefield and i was quite frustrated. got back the next day and smoothed it all out a bit with the surform and sanding block and really kinda got it even again. it was a 7`9H US blank that was meant to become my personal 7`3 Glider but it was way too thin when everything was more or less even again. so i decided to declare it as a practice blank and try everything with it that will cross my way in the near future. i tried to shape a swallowtail, got used to planing the stringer down with the different handplanes and so on.
then i took the 6`2A fish blank to get started with my first keel fish.
5`8 x 20 3/4 x 2 3/4
it went quite well, besides that i must have messed up measuring a bit when drawing the outline on the blank. when i pulled out my swallow tail template and lined it up to draw it on, it just didnt really fit. so i measured the tail again and noticed that it was like 3/4" narrower on the left side. hmm, great! i had the rails rough shaped already at that time so i wasnt quite sure what to do next.
i took measurements every foot or so and made dots to get symmetry again. well sort of..
then i took the planer and cut into my almost finished kinda good looking rail. that was tough.
i shaped the rail again and it came out ok i guess. ALWAYS MEASURE TWICE!
when i was almost finished sanding, the blank fell off the racks which left a gaping crack in the right tail rail. i was like "ok, can somebody hit me now that i wake up? this must be a dream." i was really bummed.
i got a heat gun and tried to get it fixed. with a heat gun, when you have dents in the foam, you can get those out most of the time because the foam reacts to heat like a cake in the oven, it extends.
it did in my case but still left me with a little crack.
i tried to sand the area flat again and blend it into the existing railshape, but i sanded too much and ended up with some kind of a swallow bump tail on the right side. hmm its not really symmetric but who cares really.
its my first board and im really happy with how it turned out. it could have turned out better tough without all of these mistakes and unlucky happenings, but this is just learning and and i will take extra care the next time.
the fishie will get 101fin co. bamboo keels from mr. marlin bacon for the lokbox system. hmm yummie!
have a look at my links section for infos
ok thats it for now.
hope you enjoyed!
take care, trimchris
Sunday, December 2, 2007
visual news from the garden shed!
hey all!
was in the shed today, taking some pictures again cause theres been are lot of new stuff and helpers.
so lay back, have a cup of tea or a nice cold beer and enjoy.....
something i was really afraid of because i had never touched something like that before.
the clark foam modified hitachi planer.
after at least 20 times watching "the master shaper series I & II with the unbelievable jim phillips, it immediately became my best friend after a few passes which doesnt mean that i have it under control at all :-)
this planer is very expensive, even more if it is shipped from england to austria and is 110V, so i needed a transformer from the european 220V down to 110V. but i think its worth every penny. every shaper kook like myself should immediately get it, turn it on and mow some foam. if you just start out you need every help you can get.
i still had another of the EPS blanks lying around so i used it for planer practice. thats what came out of turning the rails without any marks or stuff. the right rail came out pretty nice and consistent, the left has a little less volume, i took a little bit too much foam of with the planer but it was very good practice. if you look closely on the pic above, you can see both rails not being very much symmetrical.
this is where my new friend sleeps
and this is how my walls looked like after using it
this is what it will eat all the time
US Blanks, 7 alltogether
1x 6`2A fish blank
1x 6`5A fish blank
2x 6`10A fish blank
3x 7`9H funboard blank
Jepehhhhhhhh!
SOME NEW TOOLS
homemade shapers square.
it would have cost me like 100€ to get one from france, so i bought a piece of plastic at the hardware store and some sheets of transparent, self adhesive printer paper, voila, like 20€ alltogether.
beware! its the calipers from HELLLLLL!!!!
form follows function?
:-)
the trusty stanley 5.5" surform
and his big brother will get new teeth soon..
the wood armada
take them stringers down!
the small one is a german KUNZ hand plane, very tiny. but very nice.
standard stanley low angle block plane
standard spokes shave for the curvier areas of stringers.
a japanese pull saw
it goes trough foam and wood with no effort at all. i guess it will work quite well to cut the outlines out of the blanks. we`ll see.
thats it for the tools.
TEMPLATES
hmm, i was very afraid of making templates and i still am. lets not say afraid lets say i have a lot of respect for the template, because it is where everything starts, shitty template, shitty outline, shitty rails, shitty everything.
i made 2 of them up to this point and will make a lot more the next days.
i make my outlines in the computer, when im satisfied, i print them out on a couple of sheets for spin templates or bring it to a printshop for 1/2 templates. i got a piece of 3mm MDF doorskin or what you will call it, got it cut to 40cm wide strips.
i use some spray adhesive to glue the paper to the wood and cut it out with the jigsaw. then i use the planer and a sanding block to clean up the curve and take all the bumps out, or for example a piece of the nose HAHA which made my 7`4 template a nice 7`3 1/4". :-) but what are numbers anyway. it has to look right and feel right.
i draw the 2 outlines on a blank to see if its tight and nice.
well, thats it for today.
i`ll start making more templates and finally shaping some boards tomorrow.
wish me luck.
take care,
trim chris
was in the shed today, taking some pictures again cause theres been are lot of new stuff and helpers.
so lay back, have a cup of tea or a nice cold beer and enjoy.....
something i was really afraid of because i had never touched something like that before.
the clark foam modified hitachi planer.
after at least 20 times watching "the master shaper series I & II with the unbelievable jim phillips, it immediately became my best friend after a few passes which doesnt mean that i have it under control at all :-)
this planer is very expensive, even more if it is shipped from england to austria and is 110V, so i needed a transformer from the european 220V down to 110V. but i think its worth every penny. every shaper kook like myself should immediately get it, turn it on and mow some foam. if you just start out you need every help you can get.
i still had another of the EPS blanks lying around so i used it for planer practice. thats what came out of turning the rails without any marks or stuff. the right rail came out pretty nice and consistent, the left has a little less volume, i took a little bit too much foam of with the planer but it was very good practice. if you look closely on the pic above, you can see both rails not being very much symmetrical.
this is where my new friend sleeps
and this is how my walls looked like after using it
this is what it will eat all the time
US Blanks, 7 alltogether
1x 6`2A fish blank
1x 6`5A fish blank
2x 6`10A fish blank
3x 7`9H funboard blank
Jepehhhhhhhh!
SOME NEW TOOLS
homemade shapers square.
it would have cost me like 100€ to get one from france, so i bought a piece of plastic at the hardware store and some sheets of transparent, self adhesive printer paper, voila, like 20€ alltogether.
beware! its the calipers from HELLLLLL!!!!
form follows function?
:-)
the trusty stanley 5.5" surform
and his big brother will get new teeth soon..
the wood armada
take them stringers down!
the small one is a german KUNZ hand plane, very tiny. but very nice.
standard stanley low angle block plane
standard spokes shave for the curvier areas of stringers.
a japanese pull saw
it goes trough foam and wood with no effort at all. i guess it will work quite well to cut the outlines out of the blanks. we`ll see.
thats it for the tools.
TEMPLATES
hmm, i was very afraid of making templates and i still am. lets not say afraid lets say i have a lot of respect for the template, because it is where everything starts, shitty template, shitty outline, shitty rails, shitty everything.
i made 2 of them up to this point and will make a lot more the next days.
i make my outlines in the computer, when im satisfied, i print them out on a couple of sheets for spin templates or bring it to a printshop for 1/2 templates. i got a piece of 3mm MDF doorskin or what you will call it, got it cut to 40cm wide strips.
i use some spray adhesive to glue the paper to the wood and cut it out with the jigsaw. then i use the planer and a sanding block to clean up the curve and take all the bumps out, or for example a piece of the nose HAHA which made my 7`4 template a nice 7`3 1/4". :-) but what are numbers anyway. it has to look right and feel right.
i draw the 2 outlines on a blank to see if its tight and nice.
well, thats it for today.
i`ll start making more templates and finally shaping some boards tomorrow.
wish me luck.
take care,
trim chris
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Update
well, its been a while since my last post but i wasnt a lazy boy.
i would have never thought that building surfboards, or better put, starting to try to build surfboards in AUSTRIA, has so much to do with logistigs, organisation, more or less important choices, waiting for email replies for ages... the list goes on and on. i havent been in the shed for ages now. just sitting in front of the comp researching all the time.
it took me like 2 month sorting out where to get blanks from, looking for a way to get my shaped blanks glassed etc...
and how to get my shaped blanks to somebody on this continent to get glassed. i guess all of this sounds a bit complicated, well it actually is. but its just worth it. i wanna be able to build the best boards im capable of building and since im just at the beginning of maybe a life long journey, hey, whats 2 month compared to the rest of my life.
almost everything is on GO now.
I ordered 7 blanks ( 6`2A, 6`5A , 6`10A, 7`9H) from the very nice, helpful, caring and honest people at seabase UK. they are the european distributors of US blanks. after weeks of thoughts, research, "classes" at the swaylocks university, i decided to go for it and ordered the clark modified hitachi planer from seabase too. it just makes sense to me to buy the best tools avaliable to help me get the job done properly. i cant wait to get this huge box delivered. thanx again to the girls and guys from seabase. they helped me out heaps. (they have a new website running, the link is on the right under the "the goods" section)
some good friends are crazy enough to let me shape them boards. they buy the blanks and everything so i have blanks to shape and they will (hopefully) end up with relatively cheap custom surfboards. thanks for believing. means a lot to me.
well, its about 0 degrees celcius outside the window im sitting in front of right now. so if everything comes in time and the weather forecast is right, it will be a very "cool" :-) experience shaping the next couple boards in the heaterless shed.
watch out for new pics coming soon...
all the best
cheers,
chris
i would have never thought that building surfboards, or better put, starting to try to build surfboards in AUSTRIA, has so much to do with logistigs, organisation, more or less important choices, waiting for email replies for ages... the list goes on and on. i havent been in the shed for ages now. just sitting in front of the comp researching all the time.
it took me like 2 month sorting out where to get blanks from, looking for a way to get my shaped blanks glassed etc...
and how to get my shaped blanks to somebody on this continent to get glassed. i guess all of this sounds a bit complicated, well it actually is. but its just worth it. i wanna be able to build the best boards im capable of building and since im just at the beginning of maybe a life long journey, hey, whats 2 month compared to the rest of my life.
almost everything is on GO now.
I ordered 7 blanks ( 6`2A, 6`5A , 6`10A, 7`9H) from the very nice, helpful, caring and honest people at seabase UK. they are the european distributors of US blanks. after weeks of thoughts, research, "classes" at the swaylocks university, i decided to go for it and ordered the clark modified hitachi planer from seabase too. it just makes sense to me to buy the best tools avaliable to help me get the job done properly. i cant wait to get this huge box delivered. thanx again to the girls and guys from seabase. they helped me out heaps. (they have a new website running, the link is on the right under the "the goods" section)
some good friends are crazy enough to let me shape them boards. they buy the blanks and everything so i have blanks to shape and they will (hopefully) end up with relatively cheap custom surfboards. thanks for believing. means a lot to me.
well, its about 0 degrees celcius outside the window im sitting in front of right now. so if everything comes in time and the weather forecast is right, it will be a very "cool" :-) experience shaping the next couple boards in the heaterless shed.
watch out for new pics coming soon...
all the best
cheers,
chris
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