ego

when this photo was took, i had no idea my man jon steele was living his life doing what he does with me being his subject. speaking of that....fuck...what an honor to have him choose me as his subject. (p.s. i am riding my 10' carson pig in this photo)

here my boy chad took a siesta one day when we slid some point waves up north together. i walked up to him like this. he came in before i did. this is before we shot jazz the glass.

not at sliders...

well, i should just get this off my chest. i really like to surf long clean well shaped waves.

mollusk surf shop is my friend. i love my friends chad and johnny. johnny was in class, chad was there. thanks for telling me to grab my board and pose for a photo chad! it felt corny at the time...but venturing out of your comfort zone now and again can be real exciting!!!
here you go!
there were fun waves. i had such a ball today.
hi.
the insiders were so clean.
it felt great to spend long periods of time on the nose, to just sit in the pocket...and to lay my board down on the rail.
well...there you have it...skewed horizons and all!!!

random recycle

stomach tattoo

if i win the lottery that i don't play, i'm going to commission the building of one of these.

im going to get a crew and (try to ) convince the wife that our 26 cannons will protect us from any wannabe pirates or what have yous.
then we're going down central america way and finding the the clean shit.
yeah.
the clean shit.

Tim Wilson and Aloha!!!

Tim sent me this via surfapig@live.com: Hi Mike. Tim from old jersey here. I've just got back with my friend Adrian from a drive to the south of France to meet up with the Bing crew on their European tour. Lots of good food , wine , cognac and a great bunch of guy's and gal's. The surf wasn't too good but I did get a few waves on my pig on Sunday morning at Montalivet when the wind dropped off for a few hours. After I got out I took it to Philippe Rodes' , Spyder Surf Shop ( http://www.surf-longboard.com/index.html ) and Bing and the guys kindly signed it for me. It was really nice to meet up with Matt , Margaret and Chris again and a real honour to meet and chat with Bing . I've gotta mention that Tom Moss was with them taking the photo's and sharing his vast knowledge on vintage Bings. A weekend I will never forget . Good luck with your new project. Aloha.Tim Wilson

old friends.

every now and again, i'll pull down a board i haven't ridden in quite some time ...give her a go again. its like that feeling you get when you "randomly" bump into a friend... and it's as if you pick back up right where you left off. in fact that is the metric of a good buddy. can you not keep up with each other, but when you see each other again... there is no "why haven't you called?" or "dude, you blew it, the point was firing last week" . rather there is just chuckles, and smiles. that is what my bing has been giving me, chuckles and smiles...

Blue Magazine Japan!!!!!!!

look ma! there is stuff written about me!

matt's write up.
check the video, it gives you an idea about the magnitude of the articles Junko and Takashi put together. I am so honored to be a part of this.

below is a translation of the article:

An ancestor of modern surfboard designs Restoration of PIG 
 A guy called Mike Black is the source of the message 
 Right now arising from a blog generated in Southern California are indications of a revival of the standard Pig. Centering in Southern California, people with Pig Fever are steadily increasing in number. It looks like the source of the infection is this maniac blog. He is the ringleader of this Pig Movement, and (probably) the world’s number one lover of Pigs. 
 It somehow always existed in the surf scene, but until now a Pig Movement had difficulty surfacing. To those who know, pigs have a unique, recognizable outline, but it seems that most people only see a simple longboard. Even photographers who are shooting icons of this movement, such as Alex Knost and Robbie Kegel, riding pigs frequently don’t notice the difference. Editors are the same. Because they don’t have designs which are noticeably different at a glance as do the Fish and Alaia, it is difficult to see tangible signs in the media. 
 Moreover, there is a reason that pigs will not become caught up in a global type movement encompassing places such as Hawaii and Australia. That is that one can’t enjoy them unless it is a Southern California type of wave. With the exception of one spot in a place like Waikiki, one can’t expect that this movement will rise in Hawaii, which has wave qualities the exact opposite of what is most appropriate for pigs. On the other hand, basically since the short board revolution in Australia, which is the basis of evaluation, with the exception of some log freaks in one part of Noosa and Byron Bay, log culture is essentially out of sight, out of mind. Of course, even within California, the farther north you go, the lower the penetration rate of pigs becomes. Michel Junod of Santa Cruz says, “In this area there are various things that lead the mavericks. In Southern California wave quality, culture and quiver differ greatly.” 
 Having said that, it is unnecessary to be conscious of the limits of the movement. Rather, to the contrary, if one at least understands the Southern California type of wave quality and logging, then it is possible to love pigs anywhere. For example, there are many followers of the Southern California movement in Japan and Europe, and in places where wave quality is relatively present, pigs are probably accepted as the best trim board. 
 Well, there is a person who plays a central role in that kind of Southern California Pig Movement. “Surf a Pig” also provides links to board design forums, as well as support to pig freaks around the world. It has secretly, quietly expanded the range worldwide a little at a time. 
 The beginning of a long trip looking for pigs 
 Mike Black is not even a pro surfer or a shaper. He is, of course, not even a surfing journalist. On this point, he differs from industry people like Derek Hynd and Richard Kenvin for the fish or Tom Wegener for the alaia who have skillfully used the media to plant the spark for their movements. “I am not a surf world person. My occupation is a math teacher. I am just a regular surfer,” says Mike. In the end surfing is no more than a hobby for him. 
 He is originally from Texas. Because his grandfather’s brothers lived in San Clemente, he often came to California with his family and camped in San Onofre. However, he was completely ignorant of surf culture. In 1988 he drove to California by himself using money he had saved up. It is a three stringer pintail board with a narrow nose and a wide point aft of center , with the entire length being full belly. On this board Mike surfed at San Onofre, and then after returning home to Texas, continued to surf. This is what he used to learn how to surf on a single fin longboard. When he moved to California in 1996, he brought this board with him. It was in bad shape, so he had Tyler Hatzikian, who he knew through a friend, overhaul the board. 
 After that, for a while, his eye drifted to stylish nose riding surfing on a Nuuhiva type of nose rider, but in the end he returned to the pig. “Basically I use a parallel stance, and I don't really do cool tricks or anything on the nose. Since becoming an adult and becoming wiser, when I understood what it is that I really like, I noticed that I really want an old style D fin pig.” From this, Mike’s long journey to find a real pig began. 
 First he looked on the internet for a bing, but a vintage bing was too expensive. He then decided to order a present day bing. The shaper was Matt Calvani. Mike’s order was for an offset stringer with a resin panel in a particular shade of green, 10 ounce Volan Cloth, 10 foot pig. Matt made the pig to Mike’s specifications. “I was satisfied to finally have a real pig in my hands. On the day that I received that pig, I got the “surf a pig” domain name and started my blog. I put a photo that I had taken of Matt Calvani’s pig on it.”
 This is how in 2008 the extreme maniac blog “surf a pig” started. 
 The Shared Consciousness of the Mania to which the Blog Gave Birth
 Led by Matt Calvani’s pig, Mike obtained various shapers’ pigs, such as those of Lance Carson, Jim Phillips and Dano, and compared how they rode. He tasted each one of the different designs, and while slowly ruminating, came to understand how a D fin functions, the perfect feeling of fitting in a pocket, and the peculiar sensations of a pig. After that, in an exchange he had been having with Gene Cooper, he requested a shape. Gene was not keen at first, but readily revised his evaluation of pigs after seeing Mike’s riding. This is how Mike’s model, the Blackboard, was born. It is extremely unusual for a surfboard model to be made for an amateur anonymous surfer. However, Mike’s extensive knowledge of pigs, his clear vision of the ideal shape and his passion were on par of a pro surfer. 
 Each of the boards that he has obtained or for various reasons had to let go has a story. There is a board that didn’t feel right. There is a board that he doesn’t want to ever let go. There is a difficult board that he came to understand painfully and conquered after a long time. Regardless that they are all pigs, the same variety of surfboard, why do they each differ in their ride and character??? After surfing, there was a time when he was at wit’s end. However, this, for him, is the attraction of a pig. He is not a shaper, but he has an enormous amount of first hand experience with the relationship between design and function in the water, and also the feeling for the ride of the board under one’s feet. He has patiently gained a feeling for how the actual function changes depending upon the things like the template, full rail or not, the volume of the form, and balance. For that reason, he gets great joy when he finally gets that board made. This stoked feeling is directly uploaded to the blog, so a lot of people feel that real joy with him. Because there is little information or resources on pigs, even though “surf a pig” is an amateur production, because of Mike’s own learning and growth, it has given birth to many similarly minded people. “I frequently receive emails from people who are looking at the blog. They say, “I’m making this.” “I think this.” “Look at my pig.” “I restored it like this.” Each one has his or her own answer as to what a pig is. I like pigs, but just by having some experience riding them, I am not an expert in them. If I’m asked, I’ll tell my opinion and my preferences, but I also like hearing other people’s opinions. Even when sometimes I don’t have the same opinion, it becomes a resource for the people who are looking (at my blog). For me, it’s good if the post supplies comparative information on pig sense. This is what this blog is about, and I am thinking it is an honor to be able to do that.”
 Potential growth of Pig Mania If you look at Alex Knost or Robbie Kegel, Cody Simpkins, you can believe that the fuel for this movement was there before, but the type of pig that they like to ride and the type that Mike pursues are clearly different. In comparison to the relatively modern pig that young surfers favor, Mike is undoubtedly pursuing a pig that has historical value. He got into pigs just three years ago, but in that time, he has knocked on the doors of a lot of shapers and he has been able to have shaped what he has told them what he personally has been looking for in an ideal pig. This passion has come through in the blog and transmitted to a lot of people, and has caused a lot of people to become interested in pigs. When a surf icon briskly hops aboard making a board design explosively popular, the quality and structure of the movement is fundamentally different. The drama of the revival of the pig these days is, by one definition, part of the soil. However, for that reason, one can also say that it is stable. While looking at “surf a pig,” the outline of a pig looks at first unexciting and then mysteriously gradually becomes beautiful. As such, there may be the potential for pig mania to increase around the world. Formidable, Mike Black’s pig fever. That infectious fever is also starting to spread further now.
 Mike Black Born in 1972 in Texas. Started surfing in 1987, moved to California in 1996. Fell for old Pigs, and started a blog, “Surf a pig” in 2008. His main occupation is as a math teacher, but he has the face of an independent filmmaker and also produced works called “Invasion! From Planet C” and “Jazz the Glass.” 
 What Mike Black Considers to Be the Five Elements of a Pig 
 Having a narrow nose Having wide point in the rear  Having a full rail Having a flat rocker  Having a slight belly bottom along the full length (a belly that is rolling)  Having a D fin and wide tail block attached to the end of the tail

i'm not bored of this, are you?

Jesse's involvement log!!!

jesse ( of black apache surfboards) sent me this via surfapig@live.com: hey mike, long time no speak, thought you might like to check out a recent log, this one is my "mod log" model, its an involvement era log.. as you probably know the involvement era logs came about in australia in the mid to late 60's before the shortboard boom, what was interesting is that they had a very pig inspired outline, with the wide point behind center, but were often ridden with a more contemporary fin setup - the greenough fins being the cutting edge at the time. these boards were a staple for guys like mctavish and hugely popular in australia... the succsessor to these boards was the wayne lynch evolution style boards which had that similar outline characteristic and then the shortboard evolution went crazy with the designs being obsolete before they were glassed sometimes!. the pig outline is such a timeless outline, i just love it - the wide point aft of center is a real knockout. and what i love about the involvement style boards is it shows how contemporary that pig outline could be and how much performance it could generate. the boys are frothing on these and the ride reports are amazing. rolled bottom bladey 50/50 rails through the nose and tail but keeps the beef in the middle. 11" flex fin booyah! the one in the picture is a double stringered version

my boy dan surfs a pig...PROPER!

Randy LaBrie of swelldays.com shot the photo.

yes.

i don't think this gets boring.

shoot the curl!!!!!

Buster Kahuna with a PIG!!!

i feel this guy. everything about this shot works.

Thanks Mr. E!!!!!!

you can't f_ck with a bing pig!!!!!

jake in New York is PUMPED.

wave

McTavish 1959 Balsa Pig

Anthony Best brought this to my attention: Bob McTavish finished some of his Balsa Pigs.

check that link out. They are looking amazing!

bing collaboration!!!

oh yes.

do you like rights?

i do.

July's Blue Magazine!!!

What an honor!!!

here is a link to the blue magazine japan webpage i butchered via yahoo translation and "apple shift 3". Junko and Takashi came out and spoke with some pig enthusiast recently. It was great. I only wish I could read June's magazine (pig history) and this one.. July's. here are a few pics i shot the day we took pics of my (then) current quiver.

what it's all about.

that right there is an empty peak. when i shot this photo, my arms were noodles. i had been shredding for hours. I was taking photos of the right I had been surfing. I looked south to see this little bit of perfection spinning.

NICE!!

neil's mini zeke!!!!

well, maybe you guessed it by now... this board is NOT a pig. that is true. its a great addition to anyone's quiver though (tyler mini zeke 8'6") . Neil (the seller) is a buddy and I thought someone here might be interested in this board. viola! contact Neil for more information. neilthejew@gmail.com