surfing is a crime...

...Finn Dennis spent the night in jail last night for surfing near the pier. But it wasn't the lifeguards who ratted him out, rather an officer near the pier who saw him in the water along with another surfer. A lifeguard was sent out to get him and got handled by a set wave on his paddleboard, lost it and had to swim back to the beach to get it, finally making it back out to tell Finn to paddle in. Finn shared some nice words with the lifeguard as the lifeguard tried to block Finn from catching a wave in while insisting he paddle in, and not surf in because that would be to much fun. Finn stroked around the awkwardly paddling life-saver and caught another wave, finally going in to the beach. Upon feet touching Finn was not hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering mob of fans and peers. Finn instead began telling the officers what a fine job they were doing and asking them if it was a job requirement to be 30 lbs overweight, reminding them there isn't even a donut shop with 8 miles of Folly Beach. His board was then ripped out his hands by 1 of several portly officers while another handcuffed him and paraded him across the swimmer-less and storm-emptied beach during which time he continued to sing the officer's praises. Finn was then escorted to jail. No, not the Mayberry-like Folly Beach jail, but the Leeds Avenue County Jail, among the most overcrowded large jails in the country running at nearly 3x its capacity. Wonder why? The other surfer was lucky enough to have his father watching from the pier, who talked the police out of taking his son also.

Check out this slide show and see where the surfer would fit in.

Fish, I mean Finn, I hope you made friends with the Squirrel Master and stayed out of Nasty Nate's way and hopefully you'll be home safe soon. If you can carry a tune, it wouldn't hurt to know this one. It might get you out of a jam...

friday bonus...

...Chris Ward and Tom Curren ripping Lowers. Take special note of time code 3:54 of the video, and put that move into practice. You don't need to be one of the best ever to do it, but it should be the first move you learn.

lifeguards surfing in safe-swimming zone...

...this is the second missed opportunity for me to catch one in the process, this time due to the fact that someone left the shop camera ISO setting at 800. You can see him carrying the board back up the beach at least. Is there a big word that describes this situation?

probability and statistics...

...is the only math class I needed to take in college and I squeaked by. How bout you? Let's see how good at math you really are. This block of FCS cups were extracted from a "performance" longboard and replaced with a slide box.

1) How many inches long is this entire block?
2) How many different FCS fin configurations are possible?
3) What is the probability percentage that this board was made in South Carolina?
4) What is the probability percentage that you would order something as ridiculous as this?
5) How many beers are left in the cooler?

collaboration...

...Test pilot Glenn Tanner and shaper Will Allison discussing the GT Fish design, which the two have R & D'd for the last few years...

...Will delivered Glenn's new channel bottom GT Fish for the surf demo...

...and Will rode the pink 6'2" GT Fish we brought out for the demo...

...and both agree that GT quad fish works in the crappiest of surf conditions without sacrificing performance.

the shapers and the shralpers...

...here's Todd Sutz who shapes Island Inspired Surfboards out of Myrtle Beach as well as our McKevlin's funshapes. Super nice guy and has a knack for shaping vintage longboards...

...I am the walrus coo-coo-kachoo, shaper Will Allison washed up for the demo. He kind of just magically appeared...

...and proceeded to get groovy. Will likes to put modern twists into classic designs resulting in user-friendly surfboards. Ask Alan Weisbecker (if you can find him), he loves Will's boards...

...and what's a board demo without the man, the myth and the legend "Tubin'". "Tubin" used to have the sweetest mustache back in the day. He's already died twice and had a broken back, along with many other bones, but he's still going strong. And Mary took a break from her studies to test out the ...Lost Monkfish to much delight...

...Lost team rider Evan Tanner and Tood Sutz show off their weapons of choice...

...and then the weather decided to show up. Stay tuned to see who hid out in the port-a-loo while lighting danced across the evening sky.

um, I said anything but a poopout...

...and someone brought one anyway. After no less than 5 minutes he was back at the shack to demo one of our boards because he busted his poopout. Give me a molded epoxy board with FCS fins and I'll give you a flaming bag of dog crap and we'll call it even...


And here's a few shots of the cast...

McKevlin's 2nd Annual Anything But A Popout...

...from 2pm to 7pm we'll be having the surfboard demo at the contest stand at the Washout. There looks to be a little wave out there and the closer to low tide you get there the better (low @ 3:39pm) Special appearances by Todd Sutz of Island Inspired and Will Allison's mustache will be there as well, along with Will of course.

Just a glimpse of the 20+ boards that will be available for shralping: ...Lost Rocket and Monkfish, Channel Island Flyer Quad and Pod and Biscuit, Sharpeye SBT's and SB1, Allison HP Longboard and GT Fishes, Bing Gold Standard, Seasoned Funshape, and a bunch of Island Inspired boards as well.

Don't forget to watch for the parking meter nazis and put on lots of sunscreen!

POST #400... and the music is back...

...well at least these guys aren't whining and they're making the best of their situation. Come surf for them tomorrow at the board demo, they'll be their in spirit.

Try it before you buy it...

...the International Surfing Day board demo is going down this Friday from 2 to 7 at the Washout Contest site. We'll have over 20 surfboards for you to try. Local shapers Todd Sutz of Island Inspired and Will Allison of Allison Surfboards will be on hand to showcase their shapes and talk about the presidential race, how Globalization is bad for environment, why tight jeans are the new leg warmers, what happened to the Lakers, boxers or briefs and some surfboard related discussions may ensue as well. So ditch your indestructible foreign piece of crap popout you bought down the street that says "Designed in Australia" "Made in Thailand" and come surf one of our "throwaway" boards. If you ding it, no problem. My dad's a television repair man and he's got the ultimate set of tools. See ya there!

IR's Rhinoplasty...

...thanks to low tide and crappy sandbars, I get to fix a lot of broken noses. So unless you want your board to look like Owen Wilson...

...bring it into McKevlin's and have it fixed by a professional.

experiments in style...

...saw this over at 70%.org You can log your surfing sessions and keep track of the waves and days you've surfed. I get an email from them ever week and it says, "You have zero sessions logged." Thanks for reminding me how crappy the surf has been.

Tyler Warren has a real unique style, whether using a surfboard or pen and ink as his medium. Check out his artwork over here. Check out the intro.

you go girls...

...Wahine results are finally in @ follybeachwahine.com

Congratulations to all who had a good time.

*Photos courtesy of Michael C. Fischbach. Check out his work here.

friday the 13th...

...I got my black cat back from the vet just in time for Friday the 13th. She crosses my path every day, which pretty much explains my luck.

oh, you nasty girl, you nasty...

...please try on our bikinis with underwears. They're built for surfing, not wiping.

it's electric, boogie woogie woogie woo...

...brand new custom CI Fishcuit 4-fin for Frankie D. Frankie's Fishcuit has set a new South Carolina Fishcuit record at a whopping 6'5", and we're still waiting on the official weight...

no post wednesday...

1990...

...I use this line all the time, except I substitute eight with one. Back when it was cool for surfers to wear combat boots, earrings and long hair. Can you say John "Schmoo" Shimooka?

weekend at Bernie's 3...

...hey Bern, killer party man.

increase your shin count...

...while surfing some really good waves yesterday, the rider off this board bailed off the back of a wave while his leash and my shin stopped the board from going to the beach. (no real damage done because the board was made in Thailand, and my shin was built tough in the good ol' U.S. of A.) The board below almost hit me and my student a few times last night for the same reason. Thanks to their unique color ways and airbrushes I was able to find pictures of the exact same boards on the interweb...

...but the popouts are not the real problems here, it is the people riding them. And its not just people riding popouts either, its a lot of people that are surfing on whatever. (Kind of strange I was being targeted by popouts though.) The problem is the leash, or the training wheels of surfing.

The surf leash allows these people to "charge" when they're not in the right take-off spot and not properly kick out of a wave letting their leash keep them from swimming after their error. Their extreme surfing style puts more people in danger than people who are not wearing leashes. The leash is to be used as a secondary board controlling device, the primary being you. By committing yourself to completing a wave under control, instead of diving over the back while your board shoots toward the inside, you'll actually improve your skill level. Just like skateboarding, it doesn't count unless you roll out. Same goes for longboarders who noseride until the nose sinks and then fall off: it doesn't count and it looks stupid. Roll out.

Now I'm not going to suggest you break the "surfboards and dogs must be leashed at all times" law of Folly Beach, because as you can see below its taken very seriously around here...

...but realize that in the long run, not relying on your leash will make you a better surfer.

A certain old-time surfer once stated, "No, I refuse to use a leash. So I swim all the time. The thing that the leash has done is its brought up this quantity mindset. But to me it’s not how many waves you got; it’s how many good waves you got. To me the leash has ruined surfing."

monkey...

...no surf so why not spend the afternoon in an air-conditioned theater with a bunch 'o' monkeys. Definitely worth $55...

space invaders...

...polyethylene sponges made in California by Custom X. One of these things could come in handy if the pier is firing sometime between 10 and 6 this summer. I'll lay down for 100 yard lefts with no one else out...

all Florida final...

...these guys grew up a couple towns over from each other, and they had to go all the way to Fiji to challenge each other: Kelly 2, CJ 0. Slater has won the first 3 contests (1 contest won by a wildcard so it has no bearing on the ratings) and looks like he may stick around all year...

Check it.

Byrna down the house...

...it only seems natural that a guy like Reese Lewis would be a fireman since all he does is throw buckets of water. I ran into the New Smyrna Beach, Florida fireman/former East Coast Pro during a session near the other popular inlet in Florida, aka Sebastian. He recognized my Gullwing from the blog and as we started talking, it turned out we knew some of the same people, like DJ Kane for instance over at Moonlight Glassing aka SurfySurfy.

Reese has a his own section over on the ...Lost website here and don't forget to click on his PHOTOS section. If he didn't show me the DK performance quad he was riding up close, I would've sworn he was riding a shortboard the way he was smashing everything in sight.

And with all the fire's that Gorkin is starting over in New Byrna, they'll need as many firefighter's as possible...



...somewhere in Florida, Aaron "Gorkin" Cormican continues to get all Johnny Blaze...