be safe on New Year's Eve...

...be careful on the roads tonight with all the drunk idiots. Anything could happen, but at least take solace knowing that you live in a Storm and Tsunami Ready County (Until 2010 at least. By then Tsunami-readiness will be completely privatized.)

kamikaze!!!

...this board gives me flashbacks from when I flew in the 82nd Airborne during the second World War. Kamikaze will soon be used to dive bomb unsuspecting Washout locals. Kamikaze is a Japanese word which translates to "divine wind". So if you broke kamikaze, is that the same as passing gas in church?

gift certificate winners!!!

...the Christmas raffle drawing has been completed. (cue Ed McMahon star search voice)


...receiving the $50 gift card is Joey Jordan. You will not advance to the next round.


In second place, winning the $75 gift certificate is Alan, making this year's grand prize winner...

...Nanci Craig!!! with a cool $150 gift certificate to McKevlin's.

Congratulations to all our wieners and thanks to all who came to do some holiday shopping with us here at the shop. For some of you, its the only time of the year we get to see you. We'd like to see you more often, so come join us for our...

25 % OFF EVERYTHING EXCEPT SURFBOARDS AND SERVICES STARTING DECEMBER 26TH THROUGH JANUARY 6TH SALE!!!

Yes that includes wetsuits and jackets and stickers and wax and booties and jeans and fins and noseguards and 10 foot leashes and wax combs and boogie boards and sandals and baggies and bikinis and why not an additional 25% off anything already on sale. What a deal!

dear santa...

...honesty is the best policy and my nephew Ian decided to come clean. (Hopefully, Santa doesn't take off for spelling) Have you been good this year?

This is way better than arguing about parking meters, at least for a few days...

if you don't do your Christmas shopping at McKevlin's...

...I'll shoot this dog.

letting go...

...I told this guy it was over. It's just not worth it to fix a board at such a high stress point. He broke it running the thruster fin into the sand (hot new Folly Beach trick) and I told him if I did fix it he couldn't try that trick any more. Although dejected, he understood. He's currently out there in search of a twin fin, determined to keep progressive surfing alive on Folly Beach.

It was a looong weekend...

...it started out with my birthday oyster roast on Friday, and I think my dog got into the moonshine. Should've rested Saturday, but kept going, switching moonshine for Newcastle...

...waking up to this on Sunday, only to have to go to work. And after work, straight to Taco Boy and then to a baby shower for some friends. Not exactly your typical baby shower as beer pong was the main focus. Well, me and my lady took on the "unbeatable champs". If you look below, you'll see only one cup of beer. That's our beer, without a ball in it, which means we 're the new champs.

*Side note: Even though I carried the team with my double-bounce sneaker shot double cup drinks, my lady insists that she is the the beer pong champ because of a later game, as my opponent, in which her team won. If it makes you feel better, by all means declare yourself the champ.

Happy Birthday Cas (or Casimire, or Joey or whatever they call you)...

...today's waves running 3-4 foot with some occasional "Folly Bombs" (5ft)...
...its Cas' birthday, he's on the right with the arrow, and no that's not is board...
...his board has the "Hot Girls" sticker on it, and with a name like "Casimire"...
...you know he's got some fancy boy fins in his board. "The wave is my canvas" type garbage. Oh, you silly art teachers...

Happy Birthday Homo!

it's Human Lefts Day...

...waves here, and after seeing holmes tear this one up after his machiatto...
...Team Davo decided to go out for "A little shake and... and bake. Shake and bake!"

It's Human Rights Day...

...so don't forget to buy something "Made in China" today, and I'll see you at Tiananmen Square around noon for our protest...

Here's cheers to more people, like Sunny above, who could make money saving the environment or whatever with their engineering degrees, and are instead outsourcing surfboard manufacturing to China. Looky here...

...and here.

Costa Rica Chronicles: 11/23 to 12/1/07 Yeedoggy we're going 5 star...

...so Dominical was obviously a bust. It was time to move north to Hermosa to be closer to the airport for our upcoming departure back to the states. So we figured why not splurge and go 5 star style on this debris free beaches of Playa Hermosa...
...the black sand was a great way to warm your feet up for a mid-day surf...

...if you call this surf. But the Tico locals were super cool here. If you got a nice wave and they had to watch you "properly" surf it they would yell compliments in Spanish and tell you to go the beach so you could critique their surfing. Once they were done you could go back out and have some some American fat ass Shawn Briley wannabe make a mime comment about your zinca covered face, then watch him proceed to go straight on his 7'6" Merrick "shortboard" and fall at every turn attempt. Fat ass. I had other plans though...

...like lounging poolside with a couple Pilsens. This pool was way better than the saltwater pool we had in Dominical. The hotel clerk said the green colored water of the 2 foot deep pool was caused by a self cleaning (and most likely flesh-eating) algae. Sounded good to me because I'm all about "green living" and reducing my carbon footprint (which I burned off on the scolding black sand)... ...so I took my scolded feet and did some PWC assisted tow-ats because my arms were too tired from doing 12 0z. curls to get into these little bowls. More about our 5 star accommodations tomorrow.

Costa Rica Chronicles: 11/23 to 12/1/07 Should've gone through a surf charter...

...its so hard to find surf spots in Costa Rica. A surf travel guide would have helped make our trip a lot easier. For instance, we find this rippable right hander and you think we could just paddle out and surf...

...until the left hander down the beach started reeling...

...and then the right starts going again and so on and so on.

We didn't know which spot to surf and this is where a guide would come in and tell us which wave is better, what the break was called, how they caught it twice as big with super deep pits with no one else out and where to get your hair dreaded all bumbaclot stylee. But since we had no guide...

...I decided to take a leak on the biggest tree around instead of risking surfing the wrong break. It was a no brainer.

Costa Rica Chronicles: 11/23 to 12/1/07 Barrels aren't supposed to be square...

...these barrels were square, instead of round or almond shaped, so we didn't even bother trying to get inside some. The Canuck in the foreground was my personal shadow for the week and made sure I didn't have to ride any waves by myself because Central America can be dangerous alone...
...and back to the dump hole cabinas to rejuvenate apres surf, the view was like overlooking a landfill. They call this the "Whale's Tail" but it was more like the Whale's arsehole...
...and these annoying toucans were all like "caw caw!" while I was trying to enjoy my beer. At this point I would have done anything to be surrounded by some Folly Beach pier pigeons and the familiar "prrrr prrrr" or even a seagull for that matter...
...I mean even the birds are flamboyant down there. Whatever happened to black and white? This one was wearing a yellow shirt with one black button and a red belt. Black and white dude, show a little class.

Costa Rica Chronicles: 11/23 to 12/1/07 Staying in a dump...

...I hate when the detonating whitewater goes higher than the head-high wave. With such a weak wave on this morning, it was telltale sign that I'd be taking out my longboard...

...so after surfing some weak waves we went back to our cabinas. A friend offered us a free place to stay and we felt bad to turn it down, even though it was a dump. So we sucked it up and stayed a few nights...
...I mean the bathrooms were small and filthy...
...and who needs a stupid saltwater pool to drink Cuba Libres in after you surf a 6 hour session?
Needless to say I couldn't wait to get out of this craphole...

Costa Rica Chronicles: 11/23 to 12/1/07 Asesinos de Cara Fantasmas...

...introducing the "Asesinos de Cara Fantasmas" (Ghost Face Killahs)


...with our bellies still full from delicious Thanksgiving feasts, you can imagine how disappointed we were to arrive in Dominical to head-high plus surf. I reluctantly put on my heavy baggies and sunscreen and paddled out. Having only brought my 5'9" Bill Johnson CJ Fishy, I relied on the 5 extra lbs. of turkey weight to help me hold a line on the steeper drops.

*all Costa Rica Chronicles pictures taken by Luke Hamilton aka Shithead

it wasn't us...

...someone likes us so much they put an advertisement on Charleston Craigslist regarding our board selection and "Christmas Specials". While we appreciate your patronage, Craigslist was not intended for commercial interests and we personally would never compromise the integrity of this excellent consumer-to-consumer classified site. If you are responsible for this act of patronage, we ask you to please remove the ad at once. We love your support, but we prefer to do things the correct way. Thank you in advance...

Have You Seen Me???

MISSING

...last seen in Fort Lauderdale International Airport on 12/1/07 at 7:56 PM EST next to the Spirit Airlines ticket counter. All 4 surfboards were en route to Myrtle Beach, SC via San Jose, Costa Rica. The man below is believed to be in connection with the disappearance of the boards after being overheard repeating simplistic instructions over and over again like, "After dee plane ees emptied, not before but after, we shall begun boardeeng our paseengers for our Fort Laudeerdale flight."

If you have any information relating to the disappearance of theses surfboards or the whereabouts of this man, please call:

1-888-DontRentFromAVANTIrentalcarbecausetheywillf-youintheend

the DaVinci Code revisited...

...while its not exactly "The Last Supper", there is some sort of hidden meaning in this paint pen art. At first glance it looks like some undecipherable monster on this new Speed Demon III, but when you flip it upside down...ah skeet skeet skeet. Lets see Tom Hanks act his way out of this one.

the new Allison HP longboard...

... I got to be honest. I cringe when I here the phrase "high performance longboard". Second to only "jumbo shrimp" when it comes to oxymorons, if you ask me. But after seeing these new HP longboards courtesy of Will Allison, I may be mistaken.Here's what shaper Will Allison has to say about his new HP longboard:

These boards were meant to break the straight line without sacrificing the benefits of riding a longboard. Increased maneuverability has got to be more fun! A little less weight is accomplished by using one single 4 oz. on the bottom and a full 6 oz., in conjunction with another full length 4 oz. on the deck. Double stringers still give the live feeling and adds a lot of strength. A single concave under the nose gives lift for maximum noseriding which feeds into a double concave through the tail section, which means less drag and means snappier bottom turns and less loss of speed during cutbacks. A substantial "V" is also incorporated through the tail to break the frictional drag of a flat bottom, and allows the board to roll up on that plane and turn. Hope you enjoy them.

Thanks and Aloha,

Will

*TRY THIS AT HOME...

...surfing is a pretty mindless activity. It's more about feel and instinct than it is about planning out maneuvers on your wave, unless you're a contest robot. With that being the case, your time out of the water is where you can delve deep into the mechanics of surfing and your equipment. I've found that being proactive with your equipment opens many doors to your surfing capabilities. There lies the beauty in handmade fiberglass surfboards. You can take any old board, and besides changing fins to liven it up, you can get deep into design with the easy stuff already done for you (it already has rocker, a solid template, it's glassed...) Adding a little hard edge to your rail with some resin will add a little more bite to your turns. Retro-fitting an old thruster into a quad will allow you to experiment with four-fins before taking the plunge on a brand new quad. You can even add some carbon flaps along the tail rail to stiffen a board up and get more spring out of your bottom turns. So many possibilities, it's all in your hands.

Above, we have the flex-tail experiment. The "Popout Bandit" has the natural gift for shaping. Out of 10 or so boards he's shaped, only one was a dud and it done on purpose (long story). This particular quad he shaped was being neglected (largely in part to his 25+ board quiver) and he had some ideas brewing. What better way to give a board new life and get it back in the rotation than a little experiment with a flex tail. Cut the glass, scoop out some foam, shave the stringer, re-glass the tail and add some foam rubber padding on the tail for cushion. It may work, it may not. But you'll never know until you try...

respect, aiight...

...respect is big part of surfing, in and out of the water. I wasn't here for the swell of the year last week, but from what I hear it was pure mayhem in the water. Too many people, and not enough waves or etiquette. In Mexico, those that don't abide by the natural laws of surfing are dealt with.

The 1,000 word plus sarcasm-rich response is pretty funny (11th down?) Enjoy and learn something here:

The Hand of Second Point Justice

the nutcracker...sweet...

...just in time for the holiday season. Not such a "Joyous Noel" swell for this guy. Is that you Cuff? Photo courtesy Nancy Hussey of www.follywaves.com