Swell Idea

Surfer of the Week

The NSSA was in town hosting a couple of contests at the Hook and Pleasure Point,   Sam had 2 wins in the grom division, just bettering his big brother Ben's 1st and 2nd in juniors. They took turns surfing longboard, and both came home with a win. A good weekend for Team Coffey.

NSSA Surfer of the week

Octo Quad

Zack and his new quad.

Art Director

Peter had a pretty clear vision of what he wanted his board to look like. Armed with pigments, squeegees, sponges and what not, he went to town at the glass shop.


The marbled result of this Rothko inspired board is much richer than any photo can do justice to.

Room and Board

Kyle flies above the Dream Inn on a new board he just picked up.  This super stoked surfer is really moving up in the world and doing some great things thru the organization he started, Surfing For Change. 

credit: Surfline

Rough Sketch

Surf Bum

Ben was in the right place at the right time when Sun Bum came to Santa Cruz. He went for a morning surf and came home with $1000. Not a bad way to start the weekend. 

HOW A 14 YEAR OLD WON BUM RUSH SANTA CRUZ

by Alex French, May 2, 2012,

RedBull.com

Last Saturday, Ben Coffey, a 14 year-old straight-A high school freshman from Santa Cruz, California, rode his bike down to Steamer Lane (the renown surf break that will play host to an ASP World Tour contest in a few months) to try out a new brand new board that his dad, Ward Coffey, the well-known surfboard shaper, made for him.

The waves were only knee high, with a few bigger sets occasionally rolling through. The lineup was crowded; there were roughly 30 people out there. On Ben's way out, someone on the beach casually mentioned that some sort of contest was going on.

It was The Bum Rush Tour, to be exact, a contest series with a unique set of rules. In Bum Rush there are no qualifiers or entry fees or applications to be filled out. There's no real heat structure, either. The judges simply stand on the beach and watch the action in the water (everyone becomes a contestant). After 20 minutes, they pick a winner.

Eventually one of the judges picked up a bullhorn and called Coffey out of the water. He walked up the beach and stood on a rock. Some guys sprayed him down with sparkling apple cider and handed him a big cardboard check for $1,000, which Ben says he'll use to pay for a surf trip to some place with warm water.Ben connected on a a number of long rides, carving out graceful turns. "I was still feeling out the board, so I really wasn't pushing it," he says. But according to one account, a few of those rides were so long that instead of paddling back out to the lineup Ben elected to run along the beach and paddle straight out to the top of the point.

Ben Coffey's surf pedigree is well worth mentioning. His dad, Ward, surfed professionally for a short time before he started shaping surfboards for a living in 1980. Ward shapes a few hundred boards a year. A handful go to Ben and his brother, but otherwise, Ward seems to be a pretty hands-off dad, not one of those "Little League Dads," who stand on the beach recording their kids' surf sessions and shouting instructions.

"YOU TEACH THEM TO SURF BY TEACHING THEM HOW TO HAVE FUN IN THE WATER. BY TEACHING THEM TO READ THE OCEAN -- HOW TO GET TUMBLED AND COME BACK UP."

"You teach them to surf by teaching them how to have fun in the water," says Ward. "By teaching them to read the ocean -- how to get tumbled and come back up."

Ward's wife, Ben's mom, is a surfer, too, and so it seemed only natural that Ben would shred.

Ben started on a boogie board then moved to a soft-top surf board. Now Ben shreds the Lane on an entire quiver of custom boards. But Ward says the biggest factor behind Ben's development is a gang of friends: "The critical thing is you get all of these kids together and they just push themselves harder and farther than I ever could."

Part of that push has come from three years of surfing on his school team. This is Ben's first year of competition on the National Scholastic Surf Association (NSSA) circuit. The day after winning the Bum Rush event, Ben caught a ride to compete in an NSSA event. He had been to the finals a few times, and on Sunday he paddled out for his heats, feeling especially confident. He made the finals and collected his first win.

The next day at school, Ben was the center of attention. His buddies were all a little jealous, a little miffed over Ben's weekend success and that humongous $1,000 check.

"None of them were out surfing the Lane that day," says Ben. "When I told them what happened they were all like, 'Man, I wish I'd been there." 

Board Meeting

When the folks at Duke University's Nicholas Foundation asked me to come up with a board to present to Bill Reilly during a recent board meeting, it was only natural that I created a board that fit his values. Bill's had a lifelong commitment to oceans, having most recently led President Obama's commission to investigate the causes of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Bill helped create the EPA, ran the World Wildlife Fund for years and now chairs the boards of companies as well as green causes. 


The board I put together used Marko Foam's E blank, a blank made with 100% recycled styrofoam, Entropy's Super Sap BioResin, a 40% biobased epoxy, and fins from FCS's GreenFlex project. Put them together and you have a board that is mindful, green, and environmentally aware. 


Bill was stoked to get the board, said he had a pretty big pond at his place to try the board out before he hits the ocean. I'm thinking consulting on a wave pool and private surf lessons might have to be put on the agenda at the next "board" meeting. 

New Team Rider

The groms couldn't resist tagging a local surf shop with a well placed WCS sticker.

I thought the result was rad. It lasted about a week or so which is about right for pro surfers these days. Ha! Anyway, we had a good laugh - the kids are alright.

Surf Buddies

Everyone needs a surf buddy, someone who gets you amped and fired up to go surfing. Good surf buddies are always planning the next go out. They tell you when you're ripping and bring you back down to earth when you're kooking. And mostly a good surf buddy is someone you can hoot for when they're scoring good waves.

Richie Schmidt, photo by Jerry Miller

Ben Coffey, photo by Neal Swanson www.nealswansonphotography.com

Richie and Ben kick the new year off using the buddy system to it's fullest.

Hollow Day Cheer

That big dude in the bright red suit gets to stoke everyone out one day a year.

I guess it's fair that I get the other 364 to try and make sure we all enjoy the other hollow days.

Thanks for the support.

Think Different

Lee sent this postcard thanking the crew for these boards I did. They were a gift from Apple for being such a cool guy and for showing us all how to "think different."

For more insight on Lee and what his gig is all about, check out the current issue of The Surfer's Journal.

Royce's Ride

Royce is digging this summertime twinzer fish with lots of curve and volume.

The glass on 101 bamboo fins make for a solid yet light feel. The glassers hate it but I keep telling them, "the more you do, the easier it is to do a good job."

Single Shoe Yellow

Nick holds up his first place trophy "The Yellow Shoe" for his victory in a wacky and fun event that only the minds of frothing kids could come up with.

This one comes from the archives, a classic study of when teen spirit meets the exuberance of youth. The story goes like this: Cole and his buddies were holed up for a couple of stormy weeks watching Thicker Than Water over and over, just dying to get some good surf. The part with cool pro guys trading off riding a funky little green single fin struck a cord and the lightbulb went off. "We could do that." "Let's make a contest out of it." "Yeah." And off they went to enlist their gullible shaper (me).

What we came up with was this little 5'10": diamond tail, single fin, yellow pigment, gloss and polish and most importantly no leash attachment. Purely a soul thing.

The object was to surf the board for 20 minutes and get judged by your bros. At the end of the the day everyone got to vote, looked at scores if they had to, and generally agreed who should take home the prestigious Yellow Shoe. Pretty simple, tons of fun, heavy gaffs, and a bit of swimming.

Nick cranks it off the bottom.

Cole opens up with a big flair off the top making this "old school" single fin look as lively and loose as his trusty thruster.

In the end it was Nick's backhand attack with blazing cutbacks and snapping rebounds that won the day.

This scramble happened years ago and these kids are now adults. They're fireman, lifeguards, scientists; and are starting families of their own. It is my hope that they are passing the stoke along and continue to find good reasons to spend the day at the beach.

Flow and Glide

Ben throws a fan and looks down the line during the CSSL middle school contest. We are mid season now and the level of surfing is simply amazing.

New Year's Resolution

Have Fun!

Northwest Passage

Most of you are familiar with the Malloy brothers getting all bearded out, poking around in plaid, and chasing exotic waves around the globe. Well here's a group of guys living the dream right here in the continental US. In true Lewis and Clark spirit, these adventurers show us that the quest is as much fun as getting to the end of the trail. I am reminded that if we take the time to make the time, anyone can enjoy the riches of the outdoors, good friends, good spirits, and good times.
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Guest post by Jeff Smith:



With a couple of Ward Boards and boat in tow; myself, good bud Rob Sweet and new to the crew Mike Boo ventured out to the Northwest coast to explore a remote break. The plan was to motor my wooden drift boat over to a lake island to camp.





From there we boated over to a trailhead to begin the 2 mile hike to the Pacific.



We had surfed the spot before but always on very small swells. This weekend we were more hopeful with a 7ft/13sec West rolling in. Due to the remoteness of the 2 mile trail, going was tough on wet, slippery, broken boardwalks with fallen trees to navigate around. Soon, however, we heard the sweet sound of swell and took a break before the last mile on the beach around a couple of headlands.



Rounding the last corner, smiles sprouted at the sight of head high peelers coming through offering slow lefts and fast paced rights.





For three straight days we were greeted to this sunshine and briny dream followed by satisfied hikes back, evening trout fishing, campfires and booze. 4 days of Autumn paradise.

Spudnik

Look up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. No, it's Spudnik! Sean takes an earthly view of his new "mini Simmons" inspired craft. At 4'10" x 22" this board is closer to a bar of soap than a surfboard. But Sean says, "this thing is out of this world and puts me in a whole new orbit!"



Interesting feedback. Could this be the new space race in board design?