bobby d and john cherry

its entries like this that get me psyched. john mentioned this board when i dropped my velzy off. then he mentioned it again when i picked my board up. i am all the way pumped to know that this blog is worth its weight in salt. here is what bobby d had to say:

Hey Mike, John Cherry and I shaped this 9'7" PIG. The fin is by John Cherry made with Balsa, Agave and Foam. Glassing: 8 oz Volan sanded gloss finish by Micheal Miller. The Pigs Dims: 9'7"x17"x23"x17 3/8"x3". I saw your Velzy Jacobs at his place and brought my template back up there to compare. Without ever seeing that Velzy Jacobs of yours our template ended up being almost identical. The only difference was the wide point, which is 23" and I believe the Velzy was 22.75". Our line has just a lil more curve. Nose and tail measurements were very similar as well. On this board because of the blank I ordered I had to bring the tail in from the template I had been itching to shape a board for years, after seeing the Blackboard model up in Ventura I decided that a Pig would be a great classic board to take a crack at. This is board #1 for me. I'm stoked on how it came out. Hopefully I'll be able to take it out tomorrow! Your blog is gnarly keep it up. Keep the stoke man, Bobby D

Mike, I finally took my pig out on yesterday morning at 15th street in Del Mar. There were some nice waist high peelers coming through. The tide was coming in and the wave was reforming and walling up on the inside. If I had to sum up my first experience on a pig i could do it in two words: Fucken Sick! That board turned like butter and when in trim flew stayed in the critical spot of the wave. Extremely stable. I was surprised with how wide the tail is that I could still do a huge cutback burying the rail and not eat shit. Then I could turn back into the face of the wave and it would get right back in the sweet spot. On my second wave when I got inside it walled up and where normally i would walk up to the nose I just stood there staring for a moment in amazement that this board was keeping right in trim. I'm hooked! Now to talk the wife into letting me get a flexpig from Gene. Take care, Bobby

250!!!!!...and the obligatory hodge podge!!!!

i have an obsession with the piglet. fortunately for me and other piglet enthusiast there exist matt calvani. matt is a skilled craftsman and a devotee of tradition , yet understands tomorrow exist. below is my upcoming surfcraft. currently it is glassed. holy FEE-YUUUCCCCKKKK!!!

i sent matt the below image of my desired finish after he had sent me the shaped blank pic. you have to love that!!!!!
lately i have been working on some crazy mathematics projects. i am more stoked on surfing than ever. however as far as the internet is concerned..it has been more about mathematics than pigs. hence my delay as of late. be that as it may... here is a wee slice of my surf lab. there is yeah-er-auld ( my alpaca sheleighleigh), and spike (my first buck killed and ate on 12/ 22 / 91 off hand - one shot in kinney county, Texas).

jesse sent me this via surfapig@live.com: Was going to send some epic pig shots of town jetty today but camera went in the drink never to be seen again. Still dig reading the stuff you put up keep it up man. Instead of the pics you might enjoy this.

Take it easy man, Jess

cheers Jess! that video makes me think of this one: http://www.folkstreams.net/film%2c188

andy sent me this via surfapig@live.com: Hi Mike, Picked this Royal 9’4 pig today...shaped when he lived over here...sweet eh ? Cheers, Ed

yeah! rob royal is a resin wizard!!!!

gannet sent me this via surfapig@live.com:

Hey Mr Black,Took this pic while on a break from cold Vicco waters @ Lennox Head. Purist will gasp in horror but I'm having a ball on this 10 ft plastic CJ Nelson with a Captain Fins "D". Its all about the ride. Great site keep it up, Gannet

i've been to this point. the whole time i was wishing i had my pig. i love to see pix like this!!!

thank all you 250 for the support!!!!!!!!

George and the 9-6 SRH Pig!

george sent me this via surfapig@live.com:

Hi Mr Black, You may recall the 11-2 pig by Scott Raymond Henry that I sent you a couple months back. Well, here's the mini-me version of that board, at 9-6. Same handmade reverse D fin, same heavy volan lamination, same all-business sanded finish. The differences on this one is that the tail is a little wider (19"), the nose is a touch narrower (16.5") and there's a bit of concave in the nose. BTW, the 11-2 turned out to be a surprisingly versatile board. My son says it's a great cross between a traditional pig and a mini-glider. I even saw him do a bit of an airdrop and get a head dip on it with an overhead wave at Swamis. He's a big fan of your blog and he's trying to figure out a way to share a session with you at your spot. Kudos on your blog. Cheers, GDaddy

what a template!

ENO SURFBOARDS baaaaat pig finish !

oh my goodness.... ohhh my!

Thank you ENO!!

humility and honor...part 2

this post pretty much validates this blog. this is what this blog is all about. so stoked to see this project of dave's come together!!!

dt: Mike, I've been following your blog for a while now and been greatly inspired. Your art is awesome and detailed information is priceless. I recently purchased a balsa wood blank and plan on carving out a pig. In no way am I a professional shaper, just someone who lives in Central Oregon and vintage surfboards are hard to come across. I was hoping to bother you for a couple minutes to trace an outline of your Balsa Velzy and fin. With this tracing I'll be able to make a template and be off and running. When I can get out to the ocean I ride a custom Cooperfish Hornet and prior to me breaking the board a vintage D fin Yater. I have both boards to provide a working "idea" of other aspects of shape/form.

mb: dave i'll do it. send me your address and be patient. i have some butcher paper. i'll trace the outline and send it to you. take pictures of the process, i'll post it up! thanks for the support!! cheers!!

dt: Awesome!!!

Dave Town

xxx xx xxxxxxxx Ave

Bend, Oregon 97701

Thanks a bunch

mb: Dave , I got your template drawn. I should probably get it in the mail this week!

dt: Awesome!!!! Thank you so much is an understatement.

mb: i'll shoot you an email when i mail it!!!

dt: Forgot to say that I can send you some money for any expenses. Let me know how much and I will get it in the mail.

mb: david, don't worry about it! if anything send me something i can't buy.

dt: Got home from a walk with the family to find a big white tube. Thanks again. Couple pics of my practice fin. Koa wood makes any hack look talented. I have to finish putting a hot coat on a different D fin and then it will end up in the mail heading your direction. No pics of that fin. Dave

mb: Stoked you received it. You are off to a great start. I'll keep a file with all the pics you send me. I'll post it up once you finish it. Thanks for the updates! I'm stoked to see things develop. Keep me posted!!

dt: One in the rafters and a second one all cut up so I can chamber farther down the road.

dt: Hey Mike, Progress has been slow, but I have the blank tack glued back together for rough shaping. I am still getting the rocker to a good point before I cut the outline. I still haven't forgotten to send you that skeg I made. I need to polish it first then it will hit the mail. I sure am bumbed I am going to miss your pig roast. That is going to be one awesome event. Hopefully next year. Later, Dave

mb: david made the fin below for me as a gift for hooking up the tracing!
dt: Glad you like it. Looks like you are getting some good waves this summer. Pretty jelous. Take care Dave

dt: More pics. Outline cut, rocker almost finished and rail bands are coming together.

dt: Mike, Headed down to Santa Barbara to visit the folks this Saturday and thinking that I might be in your neck of the woods Tuesday morning/afternoon for a little surf session. Tentative plans are to surf San-o Tues morning with another buddy. If you are gonna be in the water here or somewhere nearby this day it would be cool to meet up and catch some waves. I'll be more than happy to bring some iced brews from the great northwest to share the post session stoke. Hope all is well. Dave

mb: i kooked it here. i wasn't able to meet up with dave!!!

dt: Well, I finally got tired of sanding and sanding. Not as perfect as I wanted, but it was time to move on. These pics are the board with two cheater coats to seal the wood. It could be a week or so before I get to glassing cause my mancation is over and its time to get back to work.

dt: Finally Finished. Glassing went pretty well especially since it has been over 10 years since I last glassed a board. Finished dims are 9' 16.5"n 22.5"w -9'' behind center 17.5''t 2 7/8'' thick 3.5"rocker nose 2" rocker tail weighing in at 21lbs non-chambered.

Thanks again for your help in getting me the outline and all the awesome info on surfapig.

Talk to you soon,

Dave

thank you david! this is awesome!!!!!!

grant newby's pig for luke

grant newby is up to again! check out this sled and and the ride report! Hi Mike,just picked up this latest board I built , thought you may like it. Old school PIG with a modern twist for a young guy. Long nose concave to quite rolled out through the tail. Old school D fin. 9ft 6" x 23 3/4" x 3 with a wet rub matt finish. Just heard from Luke that he was hanging 10 on his first wave at the Pass Byron Bay today and was stoked with the whole package.

good friends, epic waves... and great plastic!

my boy ricky muniz took the photos. not only is ricky a mean shredder, amazing (start to finish) board builder, and fantastic human...he is also a lens-smith. bravo! below are a few of the highlights. just doing what we do, when we do it.

channeling my inner "casanova pelvic tip jib!!"

can't quite tell if i'm trying to stall, or cut back or just flaunt my supremely cultivated IPA gut.

when the photos were taken, i had been gunnin this board / wetsuit combo for 45 months. that's 3 years 9 months for the unit conversion challenged. in other words, my BING FERAL PIG and my ZAP! wetsuit have been giving me love for a LONG time. i trip on it. i am so grateful for the quality products I have received from my good friends at ZAP! and BING over the years. they have DIRECTLY contributed to my pleasure in life. and that brings balance to the rest of my life. i am in debt. i don't know any person that sports the same wetsuit and board for that long, and have their products in the condition mine are in. i never put my board in a bag. i rarely rinse my suite.

little trim.

Jim Phillips and the way of the glue up!

Andrew Diengott of Jim Phillips surfboards sent me this and posted it on lb.net:
"The inception of the design is pure Billy Hamilton, a Surfboards Hawaii Stylist I, the original surfer that Skip Fry wanted to be. I've had this concept in mind for a long time, but had never brought it to fruition. A 9'9" US Blanks foam core was my starting place. When I received notice that I was being considered for the Billabong event, the idea came to the surface once again - I sketched it out roughly and then started seriously plotting it out. The decision to actually put saw to foam was the first obstacle, but as my Dearly departed father said to me many times, "The devil hates a coward.” The first few cuts were easy, but as I started to go "around the corner" this was where difficulty started to step into the picture. There was no easy way to use clamps on this layout. I have 6,8 and 10 foot pipe clamps and by butting them against the tips of the already glued sticks, I could get a bite on the nearly straight outline. When all 17 stringers were in place, I next needed to install the "sun" which needed to be mechanically accurate so free handing it was out of the question. I have several professional big routers so I made a template to route the curve accurately into the blank. The replacement piece of foam needed to be a true arc, but 3/32 nds smaller in diameter to accommodate the redwood stick that would separate it, kind of like an annulus, from the rest of the design. This was accomplished but taking a piece of old Walker Foam and shaping it to the same curve and gluing it, along with the wood into the blank. It was now time to lay the Stylist I template on the blank and put saw to foam and cutout the plan shape. With pencil on foam the circular saw was put into play and the planshape came to life. With the outline cut I would normally clean the outline with the planer, but wood grain 90 degrees to the planer was a guaranteed blow out of the stringer ends. Fortunately I have a carbide grit planer and used this to keep the outline clean and free of splintering. Once it was time to get to work with the planer, the very nature of the design had its own problems; the stringer layout made the blank very flexy in the center and the amount of stringers as well as the varied angles was another concern for the blades. The blank had to be balanced over my shaping stands in a particular way to help control the flex. To control the stringer blow outs or splintering I used the regular planer with newly sharpened blades to rough out the board and then I pulled out the carbide grit planer again to do all the finish work. After all the planer work was done, the block sanding went fairly fast for what it was - I had prepped it well and knew what was in store for myself heading into the final stretch. The fin followed the same design as the blank which I laid up with volan cloth, the same as the boards glassing, redwood, foam and pigment. It was completed in 2 days...just in time. This is not the Michael Angelo's Sistine Chapel, but nevertheless, a masterpiece by anyone’s expectations."
Concept. Glue up. Shape. Red Gloss Color. Fin. By Jim Phillips

Foam 9’9” by US Blanks.
Airbrush sun color on foam by Sam Cody.
Fin lamination and gloss by Keith Swanson.
Volan lamination by Alex Villalobos
Gloss by Brian Johnson
Polished by Tracy Evans.

The wood is old growth redwood salvaged from a 20' tall wine cask that used to be in Napa. The wood was so soaked with red wine from over the years that milling the wood gave off a strong red wine aroma. This board would go great with a 2 lbs Kobe rib eye and head high waves.

All photos by Jim Phillips








"This board would go great with a 2 lbs Kobe ribeye and head high waves. "
WHAT THE PH U C K??? Its no my intent to claim this board is a pig. Here is the deal. I respect Jim and his work. PERIOD. This board needs to be seen. Hence my post. Enjoy.

The show is over...Jims board went for ~$8400. It cleared about $5K more over the next closest. Whoa. The buyer....Rusty.