the tao of glide

i surfed with tim and steve today. they were on their andreini gliders. i got a wave on steve's board. it blew my mind.... scrambled my head. i can't believe 12 foot of board surfs like that. it felt like there was no resistance from the water...it projected around sections phenomenally. toward the end of the wave it was going faster than it was supposed to be going. ..oh and i had an UNREAL session on ye ol BLACKSTOKE. NICE!!!

check the video!

Grant Newby's "the alley slider"!!! wood style!!!

check this out! kinda looks familiar. grant newby sent this to me via surfapig@live.com: Hi Mike, I shaped the foam one for Christmas and loved it so much , such a fun board. So now it has a woody brother exactly the same specs all out of Paulownia. 10ft x 24" x 3 1/2" wide point 18" back for 1/2 way. Long concave from the nose to the wide point. Then rolled V out through the tail. Fun all the way. 6mm Paulownia frame 8mm deck , 6mm bottom and solid laminated rails.Very strong unglassed at 10kg / 22lb 4oz top and bottom to protect it and no more. Strong enough to surf it unglassed and just oiled , but wanted to surf it and try it with the added weight.She is all ready for the Wooden Board Day next weekend.



NICE!!

...temporal collections...

yes. stoked.

jon from mitchs north sent me this...and it got me psyched. Hi Mike. Jon from Mitch's here. Congrats on your many new ventures. Just saw this photo on Kurdoroy tv blog.Greg Weaver and a missile pig. What is that, like 17"@wp, 12" nose? Just messin' but that is nuts! Looks likea spaceship or something.(could be my skewed vision though) Got my first piggy experience comin soon.9'9-16 3/8-22 1/2-15 3/4 wp 5" back.Rocker 3 1/2" at each end. Lookin perty flat. Can't wait though. Send some shots over next week when I get'er back. Hope all is well as I know that it is. Sayin High, Jon

cassanova and the Ben Mctavish pig circumcision!

twinkle sent this to me: Hey Buddy Boy, Well as you can see my pig (Ben Mctavish) went under the knife and got circumcized from old flex to new big D fin. It just looks right now and I will let you know how she goes when the swell drops a bit and becomes more pig user friendly. Great talking the other day we must do it on a more regular basis because Casanova needs Gnar in his life after all to Mine the Stoke!!!! PS. Your Andreini looks shit balls hot! Casanova

i miss you dude. pics of you OWNING those points on this beautiful board...PLEASE!

dave allee, cam oden, wayne lynch and the ...beautiful surfboard.

dave allee sent me this via surfapig@live.com: Hey Mike, Saw your post about that guy's piglet. Our photograher, Cam Oden, had a similar idea. Taking a pig template and applying it to more of a midlength. We bladed out the rails a bit more on this one, so it could handle waves with a bit of juice. For being plywood, the fin still has quite a bit of flex. It kind of looks like the strange offspring of a hull and a pig. I think a decent day at church would be super ideal for this board. As soon as we get some waves, we'll get it out for a true test run. Just thought I'd contribute to the mini-pig conversation. Thanks Mike, Dave

haha, also, Oden would like me to add that this is a very Wayne Lynch inspired board.

what the fuck?! is there a better cutback than the one below?

marc andreini and "blackstoke"

i got me a new hat!

the battery on my other camera was low...so i shot the below video with my phone. imovie wasn't letting me upload it. hence it is sideways. like i give a fuck. i am in awe. i will take proper pics of this new board soon. i will post them up accordingly.
the video below gives you another perspective of this beauty just before i waxed her.
i saved the battery in my other camera for the session. here is that video. it is marc and my buddy Tim surfing sliders with me.

NICE!!!!

marc dropped these two 12 footers off with my buddy tim and steve. i would have been in this photo if i hadn't had a "honey do" list. what a photo! thanks Tim!

piglet!

donald brink sent me this via surfapig@live.com: Never have i had the pleasure of meeting you sir. However I follow your blog, and find similar stoke on any given day that is clearly not shared by every one like you and I. Thanks for your thoughts, effort and shared information, on a beautiful platform. So here is the quick scoop. I love the PIG but being somewhat of a little fellow, and enjoying the feeling of extremely small boards too. I thought there must be room in the van for a little pig. nature calls this PIGLET, and so i follow suit.

Same classic pig concepts. Wide tail pulled in nose, flat rocker soft pinched 50/50 rails. D fin on the tail. Same thoughts, just a little shrunken all around. I built two of them, and although a humble test pilot myself, i think there might be a future in these thoughts. Thought i'd share the pics and give you a glimpse of what I've been doing, and if you have any interest or could find the time. I'd be happy to have you ride a Piglet too. Let me know what you think. Im in San Clemente. Call or mail at your leisure. Thanks for your work and stoke, hope to share some thoughts.

stuff like this humbles me. these boards look interesting. my eye is drawn to the fin. NICE!!!

stoke is contagious.

mathew branco sent me this via surfapig@live.com:

I'm a big fan of your blog and i check it weekly to drool all over my keyboard viewing other peoples piggies. Now i have my own custom to brag a little bit about! Hot out of the oven to me about 2 weeks ago thanks to Steve Banks that got me hooked up with Terry Martin and Bashams (The Factory) for the sick glass job. It's bright ass orange with Odd Ball Orange metal flakes, dims are 9'-6"x16.5"Nx23"x17"T and glassing is double 8oz top and bottom. Glides and turns as smooth as butter and noserides the pocket real sweet. First place i paddled it out was at the Bu' which was bitter sweet, the bitter part the crowd trying to bump rails with you to get you off the wave and the sweet was the waves i got all to myself to turn, trim and hang my piggies over the nose of my piggy!! Thanks Mr. B for putting the truth out there about Pig surfboards. Thank you,Matt

yeah!
ohhh!
curve.
this is what this blog is all about.

gene cooper , surfing in the 70's

fog cutting fine line!

brian hilber's and the fineline fog cutter! at mollusk SF

junod pignar city!

mollusk is a pig pen! check out their herd of junods!

justin schwartz's paddle

justing schwartz sent me this. justin is in the cooperfish family:

Aloha everyone,

I am going to do the paddle around NYC again this year to raise money for several autism awareness charities including Surfers Healing. This year I am going to compete in the Elite Race, a nonstop 32 mile paddle around Manhattan Island, me vs. some of the the best paddlers from around the world. Can you please forward my donation page to anyone you know who might be interested in helping me to help others. Much thanks Justin Schwartz

Donation Page

Interview from last years paddle

Interview with Autism Speaks following the 1st paddle around NYC in 2007

freshly!

1982dub sharing with us some NICE sounds and images!

syt-p

you have to keep an eye on brian hilbers!

movements.

i am entering a new phase of life. i am aware of my fortunate position in life. i was happy this morning when my wife said she felt well and was able to rest last night. she gave me the blessing "i hope your sessions is good." naturally that put a smile on my face. i walk down the trail. i see some glassy peaks. today was one of those pig perfect days. light off shore... waist to chest. slightly on the inconsistent side of things. i am humbled by how often i get this wave, and how incredibly perfect it is for the boards i ride. i see some of my buddies are already getting some. i paddle out and proceed to score some perfect relaxing waves. the type of session that gave me an opportunity to express my DEEP understanding of this cooperfish blackboard i am on. it was pure surfing... cerebral. my chemically composed board was a link into the energy of the wave ... this kinetic event grew through me until it caused my emotion, my thoughts to leave the now. then the dolphins surfaced. i couldn't have been more stoked. it made me feel stoked. i was mining stoke.

VELZY mania!

aaron clark sent me this via surfapig@live.com:

Hey Mike, Thought you might enjoy some shots of my good friends 9'8 Velzy. He owned a great surf shop(ChekaLooka) here in Seattle and sold, as close as we can figure, about 12 Velzys out of the shop. This is one that he decided to keep for him self. It has been hanging in the garage waiting for the day it would be waxed and slid. Of course it surfed like a dream and was a real cool experience seeing it waxed and surfed for the first time.We mined quit a bit of stoke that day. Some say he is crazy to surf it. We say it would be crazy not to. Thanks for your smokin blog and keepin the stoke alive. Take care. Aaron P.S. I am going to send some photos of my 7'2 Velzy next.

you can not fuck with a velzy. every thing is right.
super clean!
this board had to be surfed. so stoked to own such a clean board.

almond's piggy thump.

david allee sent me this via surfapig@live.com:

We just made this 9'8 for this guy, Jonathon. He wanted the surf thump, but he wanted to tweak the numbers a bit and make it extra piggy. Final dims were 16.5 x 22.75 x 16.25 x 3 with the widepoint 12" back. He just picked it up, so we're still waiting on the performance review. Thought you might like to see that someone got us to temporarily abandon our slight pig and go for gold on the real deal. Plus he'll have one of the new almond d-fins to go with it...Cheers Mike,Dave

looking SWEET!
NICE!

how rad is this?

i found this on surf in oregon.

sliders point, swell. NICE!

sliders today was nice. it was great to have a few waves of consequence.

check the video. toward the end there is some footage of the train tracks flexing as a train goes over head. it is nuts to hear it and see it that close.

andrew's owl

my buddy andrew of 1982dub sent me this via surfapig@live.com:

Yeah Mike good catching up with you this weekend and riding a few at Sliders. This is the board I was telling you about. . . A pretty banged up beater. It's a ten footer, that's about all I know. . . I'm one dimensional like that. Easier to get my arm around than that Pupo from the other day. . . but fuller, rounder rails. Obviously, not the original fin. The logo looks kind of farked, but I have no reason to believe that it is not legit. Early/Mid-1960's? I like the house paint stains. Still got a few cracks to fix before I ride her. . . heavier than lead. . . dreader than dread. PEACE, ~Andrew

i'd say yes to early 60's...marc...paging marc andreini...what say you?



look at the shape in the bottom!

culture

its nuts to think about what life was like when the pig boards were first being surfed. below is some shit that was going on in the late 50's:

sci-fi


swim wear fashion
magazine ad
vehicle
music

where as in the late 60's you had this combo:

transitional boards
sci-fi
fashion
magazine ad
vehicle
music