Monday 16 February 2009


Me, speed run Thurso, Scotland.

They don't stop coming - never ending sets. you just freeze up, waiting between sets. I can't believe my 5mm gloves arrived After the trip was over! The Royal mail sucks!
(notice the snow on Orkney [R corner] )

...can't take my eyes off it!

Wednesday 11 February 2009


Shaping some (+glassing) new fish, and a mal....

Sunday 8 February 2009

Winter surf

above: Heaving
It hurt my head, 6'c water 0'c air temp!!! Welcome to Scotland in winter. Snow on the hills, getting out of the way of incoming waves after catching one, was about survival. The puddles were frozen on the dirt trail to the spot. I rode my "Point egg" out there, as it seems to go really well here, up to 6 feet.

Monday 2 February 2009

My point egg unraveled. my 1st scanned board. [original shape copied by lazer and recreated via a sweet shaping machine]. KKL. The new shapes are better than the original one. It's a "Liddle" egg - tuned with fish properties. A speed demon, works in all conditions. Puts the fun back in surfing.
painted Bordeaux, shape.

Monday 28 July 2008

my fish

"Jap fish" a blend of old school & new

a early test board [quad fish]
this is my "Jap-Fish" .... we had an idea and painted a red one, green, purple + we couldn't keep them around. sold.sold. I been working on Fish designs since 2000. And i wanted to create a fish that could bridge the gap between tiny waves and overhead. So i knew the quad fin set up would really help the transition to bigger surf. i heard a famous shaper say: "you more often then not are riding small surf. and when the surf gets bigger your actually more comfortable on your small wave board." So that thought took me to designing a fish than can handle small + big surf. I just get such a rush out of spoting a guys face as i pull into a solid overhead barrel on a fish.
A few years ago in Hossegor, France.... i had shaped a quad fish. And i was waiting on the rest of my quiver to be glassed. So, 1 fish was plenty of board for me to have while i waited. Then we got a big swell, almost double overhead, in July! So i am making this quad fish work, as i've no choise. Later, the wave of the day; was this UK pro longboarder taking too many set waves on the peak... so i snuck in beside him and made the drop on this bomb. I gave him a real scare when i yelled at him from iniside the barrel. I paddled up after, "you're not the only guy who can surf out here." And he said sorry so many times, i lost count!


This is the 1968 Pipeliner i shaped . I was really intralled by the Brewer 67-69 boards he shaped for Gerry Lopez. And how perfect they were for Pipe & hollow surf. I ran into a mate of jeff Hakman's and he sold me a 6'10" Paramenter - Aleutian Juice, widow maker. He said it was an amazing magical board, but that it was cursed. The first good day i rode it Hanalei point was 6 ft hawaiian and draining off the super low tide reef. Yeah some 8ft sets, a bit scary. the board was putting me so deep - in the barrel i nearly got dropped in on countless times, cause no one looked that deep. it was unbelievable, i got so many barrels, made them ALL!!!
then the curse.... i dropped in on a real nasty one, it sucked me up the face, and the fin hit my face and went through my cheek! A nice hole all the way through! It was sunday, no local doctors around, blood everywhere, and so it got crazy glued and butterflied. i still have the huge scar today; as it severed the muscles in my cheek too, and i can't pull a real full smile.

surf testing - one.surfboards -- mad science labs

a Hollow secret right-hand reef break in Scotland.

the 'Point egg' quad fin set-up. For speed and control.


Here's me having a go at right hand reef in Scotland. i thought the surf was smaller, but the quad "point egg" handled it really well.
The idea of this board came from the greg Liddel displacement hull, eggs. I shaped one like that, and found it really hard to surf. I kept tinkering with the idea. And eventually came up with this shape; called : "Point egg". For surfing smoothly on long point waves. The board still has the insane reactions when you lay it over on rail. But now it's got vee, a heavy double concave + into a single from the nose, for easier paddling. It does wonders in Storm surf + junk surf also.
I have shaped from 5'5" - 6'6" for people. it's my favorite board, a must have in my quiver.
It's kind of a fish, with round edges; so you get much smoother turns off. It has a 16" tail - which is part of the definition of a true fish. But instead of that big swallow tail, i brought those in and you have a round tail. the Liddel copies were single, or 2+1. But the point egg i keep as a quad, or Twin fin + trailer. I have shaped 2+1 for guys and they came back to have extra plugs added. as the tail was too wide for a single fin set-up. But the quad fin controls that and more. It has really added to the boards versitility.
When i want to have fun, as number one, this is my go to board.
aloha Andrew

clear fin ideas

Avalanche - Basque country, France
my bonzer. without a "fin box" for wieght. lighter = faster.

at home in Haena, Hawaii [testing]
Blk B. bottom, 5 fin option

these are the idea's that i am riding and prescribing to angels and enemies both.

the Bonzer i found worked insane at point breaks. long hollow waves....

the yellow resin tint fish, is a more contemporary shape [Lost fish].

my "Blk B." was I just set out to copy that great design. but i found i wanted more speed than

the original design offered, so mine is actually better. i ride it from 6'3" to 7'6" as it covers the rising swell-surf really well, in that shape. I haven't ridden it much as a tri-fin. mostly as a Quad.

my first surf on it was a undersized version, i had for someone else. And we rode at Avalanche in the Basque country in France. it was double over head and really hollow, end of November surf . "My" board was a 6'3" x 18.58 x 2 3/8, well riding and undersized board in serious surf at a break i'd never been at before, NOT ideal way to go . But i was deep as heck on every single barrel! What a Rush!!!

opener - egg

normal egg shape [above]
This is the tail of my pro egg shape. It's a very high performance egg. As i thought the shape itself covers so many wave conditions. And so my ability levels. I wanted to design a egg that an expert could rip on; and a intermediate surfer could make vast improvements on. The main bonus for them being they can catch more waves.
I am huge fan of speed. The more the better. So i threw that in there so that you could pull off barrels and turns that no-one would think you could on a board like this.
I had some car troubles in Hossegor, France last year october. So i had to grab one board to do all condtions. This is the board i grabbed. We had a few days of perfect overhead hollow surf. One day like Nias. and the best day of the year on October 28th; the swell was about 6ft+ and it jumped while we were out to 6-10'! I had the egg, and it allowed me to paddle in a little bit early. I just was standing straight up in massive barrels. Pulling big bottom turns into hard snaps off the top, to finish them off. what a blast, all on this 6'1 egg quad. www.onesurfboards.com

Aloha andrew
this is a yellow resin tint RNF fish. modeled after the [Lost] more contempary fish boards. Easy to jump from your everyday shortboard to this design and back. Fast, loose, and really responsive. enjoy. One of my mentors, in shaping and lead the real Quad revolution. the real father of it all, Bruce McKee, from Australia. I have been making quads since 2000, but Bruce gave me a better idea of fin postions a few years ago. http://mckeesurf.com/brucemckee/quattro.htm Quad's since 1982. i swear Stretch gets all his fin positions from McKee too!