Waldo!

Week with Waldo video up now!!!!!!!!





youtube version is better quality, but not sure if they will remove the sound from it, so the blogger vid is up too!

Hodgepodge

wow, long time no post. been busy with friends in town, busy at work, busy at home, etc. here's some pics to catch up...

Got out to surf on 11-11-11 with Mike and our mom who was in town! overcast day, but pretty fun

my mom surfed too! here she is smiling probably after taking a beating underwater

about to stand! unfortunately I didn't get any photos of her standing, but she did stand up a couple of times! she was pumped obviously, as were we

again, my photo skills took the photo just before standing

mike catching a small one on the handplane. we all three ended up bodysurfing in the end and all caught the same wave right at 11:11 AM on 11-11-11. yea, it was awesome!

Here's some recent progress (slow progress) on my wooden board I'm making. Maybe you'll have to enlarge the picture to see it but here's the full drawn out spine and rib cross sections. I tried learning one new computer program to do this, but couldn't quite get it down to be able to do a 3-d model of this. It'll take some more time to learn that one, or another one, and the next board will be modeled that way first, which will make it much easier to draw out and redraw any modifications of it in pencil and paper. Oh and a computer program is much more accurate than me measuring out certain points, connecting dots, using French curves, and just standing back and saying "yea that looks good!" in my head. Oh and having an actual 3D model would show that it's smooth from cross section to cross section too, which would again be nice. But whatever!

Here's the spine and cross sections of the ribs (half) cut out and about to be traced onto the wood that I'll cut them out of. More to come on this obviously.



It was my birthday on Sunday. Very Sweet. This is no ordinary cake....


It's a brownie cheesecake! Holy s*** it was good!


Mike and I went out to surf in the morning, and despite the windy conditions, overcast-about-to-rain skies, and minimal waves, it was so much fun! We only stayed out about an hour due to the wind really picking up, but it was pretty awesome to be out and catch a few on my birthday with my brother. Very awesome.


SkiesThe old man (Mike) and the sea

Since it started raining right after surfing, we hung out most of the day and cooked and Mel made us black bean and sweet potato enchiladas for lunch! so flippin good!

Right before sunset we decided to go over to a park nearby to hike around some in the rain. It was pretty enjoyable and an awesome way to end the day.

Us.

Halloween Weekend

Halloween, the best holiday ever, couldn't have come at a better time. Matt is finally done with the PE exam and gets to experience free time once again. I am unbelievably proud of him and all of his hard work. Be on the look out for blog post from Matt on building a wooden surfboard, it will be great.

New board comin

So here's a quick preview of the next board I'm gonna make. It's called a mini-Simmons, and I'm gonna make it a hollow wooden surfboard, no foam this time. Super pumped!!!!!! Hopefully get started soon after this exam is over in a couple weeks!

First few drafts/traces of other similar boards to get some general dimensions, wide points, and other details of what works, and go from there.

Here's a sketch of what it will be like. Gotta dial in the cross sections and get everything pretty well planned before starting, as the board is basically reverse designed when doing hollow wooden as opposed to foam.

Bottling Day!

So the other night I bottled our beer! Mel was at class and tied up the next couple nights, so I went ahead and did it myself. It took a bit longer than expected, which was slightly expected... First I had to clean and santize all the bottles. There were 53 in total that we used. This took a while and was not all that exciting.

Then I boiled up some water and corn sugar, added it into the bottling bucket, and then transferred the beer into the bottling bucket by siphoning it out. This was the first time in my life that I've siphoned something, but I've always heard about it, and the fact that it works is actually pretty cool. I've been studying stuff like this actually, not exactly siphoning, but pumping things, and can actually see why it works, mathematically/theoretically. But who cares about that, it's just cool.





Then I attached the tube and wand to put the beer into the bottles. I had a close up shot of doing this, but I was slightly in the photo and my boxers slightly showed out my pants, I had no shirt on, and my tattoo was showing, so it kinda just looked really redneck. So sorry, no close up shot of this happening






I got the beer all way down to this level in the bottling bucket before I ran out of bottles. Probably could have done a few more, but oh well. Psyched!

Then I used a bottle capper and capped all the bottles. Sorry, no photo of that tool, but it's basically a two-handled device and you put it on top of the bottle with the cap in place, and then push the handles down and crimp the edges on the bottle. It's nifty. Then we put them in the closet as they're supposed to stay dark and room temperature for another two weeks. Unfortunately, though, a few days after bottling, we got a heat wave and when I came home at the closet was at about 83 degrees. It's not supposed to get about 80, or the flavor will be affected. But I'm sure it won't be bad, just slightly different. That's why it's called a homebrew.


I saw this the other day, out in the desert kinda. Coolest dentist sign I've ever seen. Not sure if buffalo have good teeth? Idk, wish this dentist was closer...

Surfy update

Got to Malibu last week for some morning slides. Got a few good ones, but I'm beginning to think I'm cursed to never be here when there's consistent good ones.

Went to Del Mar Fairgrounds this weekend to check out Sacred Craft - basically an annual surf/shaping convention. It was awesome!!!!!!


They were honoring Carl Ekstrom, who's infamous for his asymmetrical shapes. Here was one guys booth-I know nothing on the design of these. They look insane though

In the sustainable craft area, they were doing glassing demos throughout the day. Here's a Grain longboard being glassed. Pretty psyched to watch the demos and learn some stuff! Although not sure why they didn't invite Mel and I to show people how it's done... http://afedbearisadeadbear.blogspot.com/2010/11/teammates.html


Boards about to be glassed

There were a handful of wooden surfboard companies there, which were sick to see. On Sunday they had a board demo at a nearby beach where companies brought boards to let people try out! I tried three different wooden boards, and they were pretty sick! Pumped to get started on mine soon.

Some sick longboards on hand
Meyerhoffer boards - i don't know anything on the crazy shape of this guys boards, but I've read they actually are pretty sick, they just look funny.

Once again, not sure why Matt and Mel weren't invited to do some demos of how it's done.


They had some tarp surfing going on outside too




And shaping demos/contest going on all weekend. Yes, this event is freaking awesome. To top it off, I won a surfboard in a raffle! So flipping pumped. It was being shaped and used in the demo area of the sustainable surf area, so it basically was showcasing all the newer more sustainable materials to be used in this one board. So pumped to get it in a few weeks when it's done! Here's a link to the board and raffle - http://sustainablesurf.org/raffle/


C francis and I went to check out this bodysurfing video that played at this surf shop in SD also. Pretty awesome video and awesome shop!
ok later! more tomorrow!

Ode to Tomatoes

Ode To Tomatoes by Pablo Neruda

The street
filled with tomatoes,
midday,
summer,
light is
halved
like
a
tomato,
its juice
runs
through the streets.
In December,
unabated,
the tomato
invades
the kitchen,
it enters at lunchtime,
takes
its ease
on countertops,
among glasses,
butter dishes,
blue saltcellars.
It sheds
its own light,
benign majesty.
Unfortunately, we must
murder it:
the knife
sinks
into living flesh,
red
viscera
a cool
sun,
profound,
inexhaustible,
populates the salads
of Chile,
happily, it is wed
to the clear onion,
and to celebrate the union
we
pour
oil,
essential
child of the olive,
onto its halved hemispheres,
pepper
adds
its fragrance,
salt, its magnetism;
it is the wedding
of the day,
parsley
hoists
its flag,
potatoes
bubble vigorously,
the aroma
of the roast
knocks
at the door,
it's time!
come on!
and, on
the table, at the midpoint
of summer,
the tomato,
star of earth, recurrent

and fertile
star,
displays
its convolutions,
its canals,
its remarkable amplitude
and abundance,
no pit,
no husk,
no leaves or thorns,
the tomato offers
its gift
of fiery color
and cool completeness.

Beer brewing!

So.... I bought a beer making kit last week from Stein Fillers, and we brewed it up this weekend! Mira las fotos!


First we boiled the grains up with about a gallon of water. Then drained and rinsed them and kept the water

Then we added some more water, and got it boiling, and then added the malt extract! BAM!
Careful!
Pro status
Next the boiling hops, Tettnanger, was added and boiled for about 45 minutes.


Cameron continued to sand his hand plane out back. Smooth as butter.
so yea, a few steps were skipped here, but you get the pictures. now it's in the fermenting bucket in the closet for two weeks! then to bottling!