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Folks we are working on building a more interactive experience with shapers and people interested in everything about surfboards and surfing. Please join us on Facebook at Surfboardbuilders. We have some pics up from Pascuales in September from one of our friends and a ringing endorsement of FCS's new fin system.

Jim Phillips wins the Billabong Art of Shaping Event at ASR San Diego

At the September ASR show here in San Diego Billabong sponsored The Art of Shaping event. The event was a custom surfboard auction with proceeds going to the SIMA Humanitarian Fund. The boards displayed were pretty insane and many of the shapers on Surfboardbuilders.com participated. Jim Phillips won the competition with the highest bid, some incredible stringer work, and using 2,500 year old redwood obtained from a winery in the Santa Cruz mountains. Here is the link to the Youtube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKSfsy74ZgM

From Swaylocks...here is more detail on how Jim made the board. http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/jim-phillips-billabong-art-shaping-asr-sept-2009 Other winners who are also shapers on Surfboardbuilders included runner up Bob Mitsven, 3rd place finisher Gary Linden, and Hank Warner... all exceptional shapers. Here is more on the contest from Surfshot. http://www.surfshot.com/Surf+Events/Billabongs+Art+of+Shaping+San+Diego+Edition+Raises+46,600+for+Charity-175300.html

Mitsvens New Surfboard Model Test - B Tail Quad

I took a B-Tail Quad to Costa Rica as one of a quiver of two. If you remember the B-Tail Quad is a new model from Bob Mitsven. It has a fishy type outline although is a bit different...just the outline and the rails which go from down at the tail to blady moving toward the mid section and nose. For those of you that haven't seen his boards many have rails that are just very different. This board also had a single to double concave bottom contour.

While it took a session or so to get a good fix on the sweet spot... this board rocks! It worked great for the smaller waves at the Jaco beach breaks (catching everything) and it really came alive in head high to overhead and a half Ollies and head high Witches Rock. The board allows you to get in early, has amazing speed down the line, and is great for round house cut backs. On hollower waves the rails allow for silky smooth mid-face adjustments and it sits in the pocket well although I confess that I didn't take it out on the bigger hollower days at Playa Hermosa. Its just not the board for this.

If you are looking for the latest in professional level, high performance, top to bottom equipment, again this isn't the board. If you are looking for a great all around board that's super fun to ride and has a good range its definitely a board to consider. Normally I just leave my boards in Costa Rica. This one, I brought back. Order it about the same size as you would a fish although I ordered one about 2" bigger than my fish.

http://www.surfboardbuilders.com/BrowseBoard.aspx?ShaperID=24

Surf video from the CR July 09 Swell

Here is some video from the late July swell in Costa Rica...just prior to the ISA World Surfing Games. Its got some beef! The video was taken from the Terrazza driveway in Playa Hermosa.

The Surf at Playa Avellana

Jaco is so busy with the ISA World Surfing Games that I´ve headed up to Tamarindo. The drive was easy and upon arrival was greeted with 3-4´ Avellanas with a slight offshore and a manageable crowd. It was a beautiful site. Man things have changed in Costa Rica sice my first trip in 1991. For one, the roads are way better. The drive from Tamarindo to Avellanes used to be a full 45 minutes through mud and sketchy riverbeds. Now its all good road with some dirt and there are bridges across all of the creek beds. Its 25 minutes and you don´t even need a four wheel drive SUV. Pardon the nostagia but that was some of the charm. Also Freddy´s shack is gone and there is a nice, bigger restaurant is on the beach with decent food.

Tamarindo itself is really different now and much bigger. After a couple days here I´ll comment on whether that´s been good or bad.

Later comment...its fine. A bit more crowded but a typical tourist town. They do have enough surf shops in town to meet most your surfing needs.

ISA World Surfing Games in Costa Rica

The World Surfing games started yesterday here in Playa Hermosa Costa Rica. The crowd was pretty big for this sleepy beach town and the waves decent. Here are a couple pics from Day 1. Pics coming as soon....

Surf from the Last Swell at Playa Hermosa

Here is a video from the site of the World Surfing Games in Playa Hermosa Costa Rica. Its from last week's big swell and was taken at the contest site at the Terrazza. The games started today with a parade of the teams in Jaco. My apologies, some of the video is a little shaky...but you can see the swell packed some punch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLSJvxi4lwQ

From Family in Colombia to Surf in Costa Rica

After three accidents and and some spanish lessons I've left Cali Colombia (and some of the world's most beautiful women) and am in Jaco Costa Rica near Playa Hermosa with a healthy swell pumping through the area.

With its notoriously tough immigration policies getting in to Costa Rica was tough! Costa Rica has implemented a new entry requirement that bears some discussion. If you are coming into Costa Rica from Central or South America you are required to have a yellow fever vaccination card. Its a yellow card that documents this shot. Whats worse is that after the shot you are suppose to wait 11 days for the results before entry will be allowed. In my case they wouldn't let me board in Cali.

There are a couple of ways around the system if you find yourself in this situation. In my case I cancelled my flight and booked a flight to Miami. I then booked a flight on another airline to Costa Rica. The next day I flew to Costa Rica and made it through immigration without any issues.

Someone also told me that you can fly to Panama and get the shot. For about $100.00 they willl back date the shot records.

New Surfboard Model on Surfboardbuilders.com - Larmo Squash

The new Larmo Squash is up and available. We don't have the pic up on the site yet but had a chance to stop Larmo's shaping room to snap a couple pictures for you here (thanks Mica!).

Here is the description of the board from Larmo himself:

At 5'3" this board has the volume of a 6' board. The added width and thickness along with the single to double concave bottom contour, low entry rocker, quad fins, and full shortboard rails makes for a super fast, super maneuverable board. This board does it all and unlike most fish performs great in the pocket, fits on the wave face, and performs much better top to bottom and backside.

Its Larmo's answer to the shorter, higher volume board trend popularized by world champ, Kelly Slater. The board comes stock with quad fins but you can set it up with tri or convertible 5's. You can tell from the pic that the lines look sweet!

Balls of Steel!

Here is some pretty insane tow-in footage from what must be Jaws. Don't have the info on the original source but Wow!

New Surfboard on Surfboardbuilders.com and Travel Update

Hello from Cali Colombia! I'm here for a few weeks of spanish lessons, visiting family (my wife is from Cali), seeing the country, and getting ready for a few weeks of surf in Costa Rica. So far its been great. The people here are exceptional and Cali...its full of life! Over the next few weeks I'll have more posts with videos and photos from different areas of Colombia.

BTW, we have some new boards coming on line and later more shapers. We don't have all the photos up yet but the boards are available to review and order. Most new ones we are seeing are along the lines of shorter boards similar in looks to those made in the early 80's and made popular again by Kelly Slater...of course the newer boards are much more refined. Regardless we love the direction and experimention going on. Doc Lausch has both an NDR and Lil Buddy. Up soon are the Larmo Squash and White Pony and shown below and available now is the Mitsven B-Tail Quad.


I'll get to demo a B-Tail Quad in Costa Rica and look forward to providing some feedback on it to you. Until the next post Hasta Luego!

Thanks from Surfboardbuilders.com

Maybe its the season or that everybody is just over it (worrying about the recession)...but things have been picking up for us at Surfboardbuilders.com lately. We just want to say thanks to all of our customers. It is a pleasure to work with you each day and the great group of shapers on the site. If you happen to live or visit in and around North County San Diego you might have seen our "fleet" of trucks...both of them. If you do please don't hesitate to stop us and say hello. Until then we wish you great summer surf!

Greg Webster's Surfboard Glasswork

Last weekend surfboardbuilders.com hosted a show of the incredible colored glasswork being produced by Greg Webster. Greg is pictured here standing below a Jim Phillips longboard with his handiwork.

The showing, complimented by great BBQ and the sounds of Joe Wood and the Lonely Ones (aka Joe Woods from TSOL http://www.myspace.com/joewoodandthelonelyones), was a way of getting the word out about his talent and setting the bar still higher for artwork on surfboards.

On display were boards shaped by mastercraftmen like Jim Phillips and Hank Warner. Between cooking and organizing Greg took some time to explain the process to the folks in attendance.

Instead of the normal tint work, Greg uses individual pieces of colored cloth to build his designs. As you can see his work is on a whole different level.





The work in the pipeline that didn't make the show is even more beautiful. If you're interested you can have Greg do the glasswork art on any board on our site. Give us a call for details... or you can just order your board without a design and then we will work out the design and cost over the phone.