Drink Up

Don't worry about missing waves because you were hung over on New Year's Day. It looks like it might be flat for awhile after today's wind swell gets blown down, so have a happy New Years and drink up. 

Oh yeah. Don't forgot about our traditional after Christmas sale. Everything in the shop is 25% off (except for surfboards and services) so come get some gloves and booties. Sale ends January 2nd.

Does age matter?

Kelly Slater showed us age is irrelevant winning his 11th world title at age 39. John John Florence backs up the argument on the opposite end of the spectrum as the youngest Triple Crown winner ever at 19 years old.

Give a grom a wave (just one) and you may be contributing to a future star.

New from ...lost

They call this the Bottom Feeder, I call it a wide Round Nose Fish with a squash tail and hips instead of wingers. Either way it looks like a good Folly groveler. The board has a flat concave (maybe a slight single, but that's up for debate) to a "V" out of the tail. It is set up as a quad and comes with fiber glass future controller style fins. The dimensions are 5'5" x 20 3/4" x 2 3/8" and it comes in at $640.00 (pricey, but don't blame us... call lost).  

Neck Beard Squash

New for the aught 12.... the Neck Beard Squash. A board for people who like the original Neck Beard but hate corners. Still a skatey board, but with a more responsive tail. It looks like something that might work well with our typical conditions. I didn't see it on their web site yet so I though you guys might like to see what's around the bend.

Black Friday Free Surfboard

Do you want a free surfboard? Of course you do. Then come to Mckevlin's on November 25th, the year of our lord 2011, to pick up a raffle ticket for free. Drop your ticket in our drop box and wait patiently next to your phone. We will do the drawing sometime between 5:00pm - 5:30pm. Don't worry, you don't have to be here to win, but you do have to come in and fill out a ticket which will only be available that Friday the 25th. The dims = 5'11" x 19 1/8" x 2 5/16".  

The Last Tropical Storm

There was some surf last week due to a late tropical storm. The water temp. has dropped to about 60 degrees so it didn't feel to tropical but still nice to have some surf. It looks like a bit of NE windswell on tap for the middle of next week, the usual for this time of year.

Cold Water Vest

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 You've noticed by now, the water is getting cold fast. One way to combat the icy chill of winter surfing is with this. It's kind of like one of those electric blankets that faded in popularity as a result of some house fires. Electric blanket technology has come a long way in the past 30 years and is now safe enough to wear under your wetsuit in the water. Rip Curl makes it and they call it the H-Bomb vest. There is a low heat setting which will allow for 2 and a half hours battery life and the high heat setting will give you about 2 hours of Febuary morning warmth. The battery takes about 3 hours to charge, so you could surf the morning then charge it up for the afternoon. Quiksilver makes a version as well, but doesn't have as much heated surface area as the vest from RC. They are not the cheapest wetsuit accessory out there, and at just under $300 could put a hurtin' on your wallet. For some however, you can't put a price on comfort. 

Thanks for the advertising

Folly-palooza or however you spell it was last Saturday and the Piggly Wiggly Pig was working so hard to promote Piggly Wiggly we thought he could give us a little help as well. Thanks pig.

Australia gets a free pass...

 Maybe you have seen how proudly U.S. made boards display their patriotism, and in a world where overseas commerce has been (rightfully so) villainized, a patriotic display such as "Made In USA" can act as a selling point. I'm sure you are familiar with the no-popouts only American made boards ideal that many shops including our own have been a part of.

There does seem to be an exception to the overseas board ban, and that is Australia. But why do Australian boards count as U.S. made boards in the minds of so many. I can only guess that it is a result of Australia's similarities to the U.S. both culturally and economically. With no overworked underpaid laborers like those found in Thailand, Austalia gets a free pass.

Simple Luxury

Many wetsuits strive to be the stretchiest suit around, but Patagonia will be the first to tell you that they don't have the stretchiest suit. What they do have is an extremely quick drying and light suit. We carry the R3. This is a suit that is 3mm all the way through. It is lined with chlorine free merino wool, that's what that white stuff is. What that means for you is that the suit dries faster because the water doesn't stick to the wool and is lighter for the same reason. They aren't our least expensive suits and at $550 you wouldn't be crazy calling these expensive, however they are worth it. I have a chest zip R3 and it fits like a glove, and if anything it is too warm. I've had mine for about a year and as far as condition goes, it looks like new. I suspect you could get at the very least three seasons out of this suit. That means instead of buying a new mediocre suit every year for $200 that wears out by spring, you could have one extremely warm and comfortable suit for much much longer. Don't think of this suit as a 3/2, but instead think of it as a 4/3. A really warm 4/3. Come try one on.

Go Surf

Guess what, there's waves, and if you're not surfing right now you're probably at work. If you're not at work and you're not surfing, then you probably didn't know there are waves. You do now, go surf. 

Hydroflex

This is a new shape from Lost called the Subdriver. I bet you can guess the two boards this one is derived from. It, and several others, are composed of Hydroflex technology.



Hydroflex is a type of epoxy construction which utilizes a unique air valve and pump to change the boards stiffness. The blank used is composed of an EPS foam with interconnected micro airchambers. Resin soaks deeper into the foam because of these micro chambers gripping the foam with "fingers" of resin which makes de-lam almost impossible. The valve on the deck of the board allows you to change air pressure in the foam and as a result the boards flex. I rode one last night, and despite crap surf, was able to get a feel for the board's potential. While I didn't change the flex pressure, what I did experience was a ridiculously light board which was extremely responsive. I let you know when I know more. Come by and check these boards out. The air pump is cool, but seriuously, these boards are ridiculously light. Put your hands on one.

It's Finaly Happening...

Short notice? Yes. Will the waves be good Saturday? Yes, good enough, so come to the contest shack at the washout between 10am-5pm with a driver's licence to try a neckbeard, or a disco, or a plank, or one of many others all for free!!!

Doesn't anyone work?

I know I've asked that before, but I still wonder.

Here are a few pictures from this morning before I came into work. It looks like some groundswell filling in, as I'm sure you've already heard. Here is a hint as to who of the four made that wave above -- none. Hey, has anyone else noticed that ever since Irene the waves either just close out or mush out? Hopefully the sandbars will shift back to spots a bit more conducive for rippable sections before this "swell" dries up.

Teahupoo tow session live now...

Massive waves, and people eating sh**. What more can you ask for?

Click me!

You asked for them...

 If you made it out yesterday (Wednesday) and you surfed at the Washout then you know it was big and closing out. Some of the smaller ones offered make able lines like above...

 ... but mostly they closed out.

ahhhh yes, America

 and a set coming outside.

Lost Atlas review...

Kai Neville's surf cinema flick Lost Atlas

Extremely watchable, great soundtrack (one 'loud' song in the beginning), not just flippies and spinnies, and the turns are worth 25 bucks alone. Here Dane makes most of his Neckbeard disappear with this razor sharp turn. Buy this, you'll probably like it.

Dawson's Bleak... tropical storm forecast

Well with Tropical Storm Gert heading north east and invest 92-L expected to follow a similar route, it looks like another week of minimal surf for our humble coast. Hopefully we'll see some swell on the horizon soon so we can do this surfboard demo. Keep watching.

Keep watching the Atlantic...

If given the choice...

... I'd take 56 degree Eugene over 90 degree Emily. Here is what it looks like on our side of the country. Wetsuits aren't that bad.

Careful with that fetch, Eugene...

This is the time of the year I miss the East Coast the most. Love those tropical swells and warm water. With "E" storms in the Atlantic and Pacific (Emily and Eugene) the US is in a swell sandwich. Here's what the Pacific side of the bread looks like up at the US Open as Eugene's fetch whipped some hurricane swell at Socal. Too bad the water temp dropped 14 degrees over the last week, which now sits at a balmy 56.

FIberflex Super Zen

 This is the Zen from Super brand surfboards. This particular board is 5'8" x 19 1/2" x 2 5/16"...

... and is made with fiberflex technology. Fiberflex boards start off as a high density EPS blank glassed with fiberflex's quad axial cloth and UV resistant epoxy resin. The carbon fiber around the rails acts as a stringer, yet reduces torsional (twisting) flex resulting in less speed loss. This is the first round of fiberflex boards we have gotten and they feel awesome. I can only assume (correctly) that they surf just as good as they feel.

*Oh yeah, tropical storm Emily is going to die out so stay away from the beach Sat., Sun., and Mon.. The jellyfish are horrible as well. We've had reports of bus size jellyfish with 80ft tentacles near the washout so stay away. 

Flooded Folly

I pulled up to work this morning and managed to park on an elevated sand bar in the parking lot. I had to take off my shoes to wade up to the front steps which lied in about 18 inches of water. There was no power and we couldn't open the shop so I walked through the water to the pier and checked the surf. It was flat.

The unquotable...

A lot of "hard-hitting" news comes out of the Charleston's Post & Courier, especially around "Hurricane season." With Tropical Storm Bret (only one T in Bret, like it's namesake Bret Michaels) churning up the waters of the Atlantic, the Post & Courier reached out to the experts for the analysis. But it turns out, unless you have some fancy title like "meteorologist" (who get paid to make accurate weather analysis 50% of the time) rest assured they won't be reaching into their bags of quotation marks for you.

McKevlin's own "title-less" Drew Getsinger gets the paraphrase treatment, here. The first sentence is perhaps the most shocking...