Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Yep you can ride a piece of wood.
Im not one to follow trends some say the Alaia is now tainted with the try hard label. One thing is for sure you try fu#@ing hard when you ride them
My friend who is a talented wood maker and i embarked on the challenge of hand shaping these ancient Hawaiian boards.
The workshop in all its glory.I am hooked. The feeling of effortless speed the endless challenge of holding your rail the simplicity of flow the awakening of soul.
Ruby at tea time.
Feature story written for www.dylamagazine.com
I have been curious about alaias for some time. Project alaia started after a good friend of mine who steers away from any form of attention shaped a 5 11 red wood alaia the beauty of the soulful board was instantly captivating. On my first attempt at riding the alaia i was amazed at the speed you could generate it was an incredibly challenging and a whole new approach to the way i surfed needless to say i was hooked.
WOOD
Although red wood alaias look the part they dont allow for the same amount of buoyancy paulownia wood does, believe me even the smallest amount of extra floatation when your riding one of these is worth its weight in gold. These blanks arrived on my doorstep from surfing green a company that focuses on the importance of keeping the ocean and surfing lifestyle as environmentally sustained and aware as possible which is always a good thing.
TOOLS
Its not to often you get hands on when it comes to surfing. Most surfers pick up a phone or an order form and ponder there dimensions and sprays. It is quite amazing to get hands on and really break down an ancient art-form.
3 The first step is cutting the Paulownia wood to your desired height and width you can play around with the tail we decided to stick with the basic concave square tail.
4 After you have cut out you desired board dimensions comes the sanding, sanding and more sanding.
5 You can use an electric sander during the early stages of refining the thickness but as it gets closer to the thinning edges its back to being hands on.
Adding concave. Besides giving the overall visual appearance of the board a bit of a modern approach from my experience riding them it only enhances the speed you can generate on a wave.
SEAL THE DEAL
6 Oiling the boards,Bio varnish is suitable for sealing alaias and other wooden surfboards. It is an eco friendly and non toxic product. This is due to the oil being Based on modified plant oil, wood oil, rosin, titanium dioxide, mica, silica, bentone, soja lecithin, UV-protector, paraffin oil, lemon peel oil, pine oil, Lead free drying agents. Wouldt it be good if resin could be so eco friendly.
7 Enjoy. Riding an Alaia is challenging yet so rewarding its all about refining your surfing, using your rail, embracing your new found speed, all with more soul then a 1970s single fin!
I was amazed at the speed you could generate on my first attempt at riding the alaia
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Prognosis tear of the Popliteus tendon.
Time of injury 13th /10/09
Place of injury Brazil
How Rotating through a backhand re entry.
Pain factor 8/10
Time since last surf 4 months and 4 days.
Location of Tear
Place of Injury
RICE- REST, ICE, COMPRESSION, ELEVATION
Time out of the water enjoying a coconut
Its funny that even when your in extreme pain and your body is telling you, you shouldn't be surfing as a professional surfer you feel that you need and have to be in the water preparing. This day wasn't one of them the body won over the mind.
Rehabilitation.
Physiotherapist minimum 3 times a week. Gradual build up of tendon strength. This is done but extremely tedious movements. I would almost compare this to the tortoise VS the brer rabbit. But as the shirt says something you have to learn to love.
Personal trainer.
Its important to keep my muscle during this time. So beside
s the daily rehabilitation exercise's i do solo i visit the gym around 3 times a week to take myself out of my comfort zone with the aid of my trainer luke. We usually spend around 40-minutes focusing on muscle strength.
30X Pushups on an unstable surface.
30x chin ups using my own body weight
30x biceps
30x Abdominal workout using swiss ball.
3 minutes using cyclone ball seated.
I usually find after the seated cyclone ball my body has ach
ieved an optimum workout.
Swimming
Ah the joys of pool swimming....Following the marked b
lue line up and down the pool not quite sure how anyone could find this stimulating but swimming does have its advantages of no weight bearing whilst giving your body and overall cardio workout. So with these added benefits i find myself in the pool swimming following the blue line 3 times a week for 30 minutes.
Paddling.
Almost feels like im going for a surf with my board-shorts on board under arm walking across the hot sand checking out the lineup so close yet so far away the only thing im able to eye off is the distance in which im about to paddle. Its important for me to keep up my paddle strength wouldn't be much good if i arrive on the Gold-coast with a cyclone swell pushing down the points and i cant string together more then a few strokes! So this brings me back to my surf board paddles i usually spend around 30 minutes a few times a week going for a paddle. I do snag a few waves in LYING DOWN.
Scenar treatment.
Im currently under going Scenar treatment 3 times a week in north Narrabeen. Scenrar ( self controlled energy neuro adaptive regulator) it is a russian medical technology that delivers non invasive non toxic, computer modulated , therapeutic electro-stimulation, onto and through the skin for the relief or acute and chronic pain and physical dysfunction.
Scenar prompts the bodies own adaptive processes and facilitates restoration of homeostatic function, thereby reducing stress and inflammation and effectively changing symptoms of pain and dysfunction. If its good enough for such elite athletes such as Layne Beachly,Barton Lynch and Torah Bright then its good enough for me.
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