Cheers to Surfrider and New Belgium

Saturday, July 25th we hosted a party downtown at the Bare Back Grill. It was a celebration of activists, activism, and beer! Hooray beer!

The folks at New Belgium Brewing Company wanted to focus their national ad campaign for Skinny Dip Ale on the recent success of the Surfrider Foundation to stop the toll road. They carted a van full of activists around Laguna for a day were we shot the ad. I think that its easier to do this in a river, but we got it down after 3 locations.

PJ, the owner of Bare Back and a huge Surfrider Supporter, offered to let us host a party. We got a few kegs of Skinny Dip Ale and a few bottles of Barefoot wine, invited some Surfrider peeps, got Luke Kinney and Lewis to sing and play guitar for us, and proceeded to raise some money for the local Surfrider chapter. By the end of the night, we raised $450 in proceeds and $60 from the raffle.

So, cheers! To Surfrider, to New Belgium Brewery, to Bare Foot wines, and to activists! Keep up the good work!

Jenny Useldinger

Check out the August 6 Rolling Stone, Jenny is interviewed in there about a TV project she has been working on called "Isolated". I've seen the trailer, it gave me goose-bumps. Its like Survivor meets big-wave surfing, where 5 feral surfers hunt down the biggest, nastiest wave they can find. Can't wait to see the whole show!

HSD hooked up with Jenny about a year ago in Santa Cruz. We sat down across from this beautiful, smiling woman who showed us pictures of her surfing Mavericks and Waimea. Funny, she didn't look like she had balls, but the photos proved she did. JP and her hit it off and he shaped a few boards for her and can't wait to see her in September when she'll be swinging by the Shaping Shack.

We are so stoked to work with her, and hope that we can keep making bigger and bigger boards for her. Oh, and we just got the good news, she's pregnant. These photos from Indo, pregnant. You go, girl!

American Surf Designs

What is American Surf Designs? Its a TV reality show, think LA Ink but for surfboards. In each episode, JP and Andrea Holeman make boards for different customers- from pro surfers to celebrities to charities- and you get to see all the drama that ensues with their glasser, Wyatt Henderson, at their shaping shack/house, and with all the characters around them.

You'll see some good surfing, hilarious moments at the house, and all the love that goes into each and every board. This is the true Southern California surf life, not some glossy image of one.

Performance Surfboards

Surfboard performance is the driving force of JP's designs. He strives to design and build boards that compliment and improve your surfing. Lately he has been working with his team riders to create boards that perform well in less-than-ideal conditions. It is not as often as we would like that the waves are firing, so we spend a lot of time surfing small waves, just like you.

The Groveler is a board specifically designed with kinda weak, kinda small waves in mind. We recommend you ride it 2" shorter, 1/8" thinner and a 1/4" wider than your normal thruster. It comes standard with a swallow tail, and all of our team riders have been liking them- Nathan Carvalho, Cody Leutgens, Jesse Guglielmana, and Jenny Useldinger have all been riding them this summer.

The Cherry Bomb is another good small wave board. This board has a thick round tail that makes it easy for you to get out of the white wash on mushy waves. Its a loose board that will still surf fast on good waves. Taylor Dodge and Pat Zabrocki have been loving these for a while. The Cherry Bomb is also a good board for practicing airs and is one of those boards perfect for a one-board quiver.

We also offer shapes and designs not shown on the website. Some that we like to ride are the Hyper-single, the Plank, the Four-Fin Fish, and our super-custom 5-fin bonzers. Nathan has developed a new model, based on his suggestions for the Groveler, that is about to be released. Our team rider Luke Kinney has been surfing a one-of-a-kind performance longboard and placing well in contests, and he's not even a longboarder! He swears its as easy to surf as his Cherry Bomb and won't give it back. And, as always, if you have something in mind you'd like to try, ask. If JP likes the basic idea and design principles, he'll make you one.

Sustainable Living

Sustainable living refers to a lifestyle that minimizes your use of the Earth’s natural Resources. In the modern world, this includes reducing your carbon footprint by altering methods of transportation, energy consumption and diet. You try to live in balance with the Earth’s natural ecology and cycles.

In order to live in a sustainable way, the first thing we must change is our rate of consumption. Over-consumption exhausts natural resources too quickly, generates waste, and is prized in our society. Being aware of and limiting your consumption of unnecessary goods, packaging, and food is the first step in sustainable living.

Next, growth must be limited in terms of population, economics, and the environment. This is a big concept, considering things like the amount of food that can be grown in the climate, the amount of people a certain size land can support, distribution systems, and long-term global trends. In your daily life, these are the topics you consider when making important choices like where to live, where to get your food from, how many children to have, and how move around.

Finally, technology must become sustainable. It is unreasonable to think that human civilization will not continue to progress, so the focus of advancements need to be sustainable and beneficial. Technology that destroys natural systems is directly out of balance with nature and not sustainable.

A Beautiful Day in The Neighborhood

Just thought I would share my morning walk with you.

More Reason I Love Summer

Surf, sunshine, warm water, jumping dolphins, southern hemis, tomatoes, salads, bar-b-q's, tans, bikinis, camping, vacations, Disneyland, cool movie theaters, water balloon fights, swimming pools, body surfing, family, friends, chill evenings, cold beers, walks on the beach, swimming dogs, swimming kids, corn on the cob, dirty feet, leash tans, tanlines, fresh board shorts, blonde hair, new boards, fresh wax, salty hair, sunscreen, afternoon naps, hammocks, watermelon...