2. It’s tall…
Mauna Kea on the Big Island has a snow capped (and snowboardable) summit that scrapes 14,000 feet above sea level. Below sea level it goes down another 18,000 to the sea floor; which equals a total height of 32,000 feet. Making it the biggest mountain on earth. Mount Everest, in comparison, is a paltry 29,035 feet, and to make matters worse Everest has got 4-foot shorter in recent times due to glacial melting.

3. It’s been surfed for a long time…
They may have a strong claim to being the oldest surfing race on earth, having invented the whole deal, but the Polynesians/Hawaiians aren’t a patch on the Peruvian goat boaters that have surfed on waveski’s made of reeds since year dot. But as goat boating doesn’t really count then the Hawaiians can take the honor.

4. The Union Jack is on the flag…
Odd as it seems the Hawaiian flag has the British flag in its top left corner, much the same as the Aussie Flag. The rest of the flag consists of eight red, white or blue stripes that represent the eight main islands (Nihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe and the Big Island of Hawaii). It goes back to the early 19th century when the Hawaiians agreed to be a protectorate of Great Britain. The UK didn’t run the show, they ran their own affairs, but we looked out for them against the Frenchies and the Americans.

5. We’ve just moved in…
The Hawaiian chain was one of the last places on earth to be colonised by mankind. Earliest evidence suggests some traces of man around 100AD, but the Polynesians didn’t properly colonise the joint until 400AD. First contact with the western world was made on January 19th, 1778 by Yorkshires finest- Captain James T Cook; he first hit land on Kauai. Now home to the Irons brothers.

6. There’s no shelf…
It’s the lack of continental shelf that gives the waves so much power on the North Shore. As the Hawaiian Islands are all volcanic islands that have grown steadily up from the sea floor there is no shelf to slow up the waves. The Big Island of Hawaii is less than 500,000 years old, cos its so new and fresh the lava reefs there are extremely sharp as they haven’t had time to erode.

7. It’s far…
The Hawaiian Island’s are the most isolated bits of land on Earth. It’s over 2400 miles to the continental USA and the other Polynesian islands in the South Pacific. 24 miles is a long way to go in a canoe. 2400 is off the scale, especially when you consider the Polynesian explorers had no idea where they were going or if there was even anywhere to go to. They must have been so glad when they finally hit Waikiki.

8. Spelling is easy…
There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. Cool huh? The vowels: A, E, I, O, U and the consonants: H, K, L, M, N, P, W. So that’s why so many place names, like Waimea, Haleiwa etc have such a distinctive ring to them. It also shows that few surf spots go by their local names, Banzai Pipeline is hard to make from only those letters.

9. Good java…
Hawaii is the only state in the US that produces coffee beans. Considering how much coffee the Americans drink it’s very odd. The Arabica beans grown on the Big Island that are sold as Kona coffee make for a damn fine brew. Coffee is also grown on the slopes overlooking the North Shore of Oahu between Wahiawa and Waialua …

10. Lava lava lava…
Mt. Kilauea is the most active volcano in the world and has been since 1983. Which makes the mapmakers in Hawaii angry, because every couple of weeks they have to redraw the map of the island; as it keeps getting bigger. This might not be a problem soon as a huge fissure, known officially as the Hilina Slump, and unofficially as the ‘Big Crack’ is opening up and a 4,760 cubic mile chunk of the Big Island is poised to fall off. Cue much tsunami action for Oz… At the moment it’s moving four inches a year, but has moved up to 26-feet in one day.

[posted via slidemag]

My favorite places to surf were Barber’s Point on the southern part of the west side of the island, and Puena Point on the North Shore. One day I realized that I had been out for a couple of hours and I had thought of nothing. Surfing (unlike cycling which I do here in Boulder, Colorado), requires that you be fully present. You are busy paddling, positioning, constantly checking the horizon. Cycling on the other hand gives you ample time to ponder, to muse. Your feet pedal and your mind can just tick away, thinking about this or that. That particular moment on that particular day I was so pleasantly surprised to find that I had not thought of my own problems for a solid 2 hours.

And then I realized something else. When you are surfing, as you paddle out towards an oncoming wave, if you meet it from any other angle than head on, you are pummeled, thrown off of your board. If you meet it dead center, you can go up and over the wave with relative ease. (I never did figure out how to duck dive on my longboard).

I saw similarities in my own personal life. There was a situation that I was allowing to cause me great unhappiness, and I wasn’t doing anything about it. I had become a stranger to the happy vibrant person I had been for most of my life. I wasn’t meeting the situation head on. Eventually I found the strength to deal with the situation, to take it on front and center (that coincided with finding my meditation practice). It was the hardest thing I had ever dealt with until then. (Yes, there was a man involved) And I have dealt with far more difficult situations since.

It is quite a simple notion, but it is also profound if we actually practice it. If we don’t paddle straight into the wave (whether it’s a bad habit, a toxic relationship, an emotion that is destroying us), if we don’t paddle into it and continue to let it pummel us from an angle, we can’t really be well. Paddling into something that is large and looms out there can feel quite uncomfortable, but if we can be with that discomfort and keep paddling, the sky is the limit.

[by Molly Brown via destinationthejourney.com]

Scarfini FX2 fins are identical to some higher end / higher price tag fins out on the market, with some major exceptions. First and foremost, the FCS compatible Scarfini fins are about $10 to $20 dollars less than their established counterparts – a definite plus for budget conscious surfers. Secondly, Scarfini fins are constructed with much lighter and stronger materials.

Scarfinis are produced by a South African based company, boasting fin technology that constructs fins from a carbon base that sandwiches a super light honeycomb core … and the road test was yet again, Oahu;s North Shore winter waves coming in at head high to overhead with a steady off shore wind making things more fun and interesting for our testers!

The fin template is solid, and very similar (if not identical to the FCS equivalent priced a good $25 US dollars more!) The base of the fin set was just the right length for our tester’s 6’0″ fish shape surfboard, dubbed the akule by its shaper Mitsu. The base combined with the fin depth made the surfboard move with relative ease on rather gnarly drops, showing little if any slide out.

The fin’s rake is solid for our tester, providing an excellent balance of propulsion with the smaller rake and larger offset BUT not so small as to sacrifice any of the usual stability needed for dropping into the North Shore’s punishing waves.

The fin flex is where our tester noticed the biggest difference – the Scarfinis are definitely stiffer than the FCS counterparts, requiring a bit more torque to snap into turns during critical sharp maneuvers. The stiffer fins in this case tended to result in the usual stiff fin syndrome of snapping immediately back into its usual shape after the turn … removing the more feel that a more skilled surfer relies on when turning a performance board.

However, for new surfers, the stiffer fins do provide a more snappy turn, as the flex tends to help turn the board faster with its quick return to the original shape after a turn … as long as the rider knows that it will rebound faster and cause more of a jerk movement rather than a smooth and snappy turn.

Overall, for the savings in dollars, the Scarfinis are quite an excellent value, utilizing the already popular FCS plugs format … although it’s not licensed or sanctioned by FCS, they are becoming widely available at local surf shops for their performance and better value!

Despite the damages brought about by the hurricane, surfers were lucky enough to experience some “pipeline” sized waves that rolled through some of the eastern coast’s beaches, like in Montauk new York. Although swimmers were not allowed to enter the water, the excited surf crowd paddled out to consistent sets and pounding waves. The scene reminded me of the North Shore of Oahu during the consistent winter swells, as crowds gather in increasing droves to gawk and stare at the brave watermen who paddle out into monster-sized waves.

Call them crazy, call them adrenaline junkies … whatever they can be labelled as, they are out in the waves for the same reason as every other surfer: the stoke. The ever mysterious, and elusively indescribable “stoke”.

What is “stoke”? The best way to explain it is to let someone experience it for themselves, but that is about as easy as hitting an arrow with another arrow while you are on horseback in the middle of a hurricane.

So for the lack of a better way to explain stoke, one has to turn to using metaphors that hopefully correspond to some reference point that people can relate to. The difficulty is that stoke defies definition, for the simple fact that it varies greatly from one person to another. Although most refer to it by the same name, the experience that an individual goes through is definitely unique within each person.

Stoke is, by all intent and definition, an individually personal experience that has no prerequisites – small waves, big waves, surfboard, body board, solitary, or surrounded by friends, it happens at any given moment in time. It is about your state of mind, and state of being.

Someone once said that the secret to life lies in one thing, and one thing alone. Once you find that one thing, you should spend all your energy and effort ensuring that everything you do and strive for is devoted to that one thing. When questioned as to what that one thing is, the answer was simply “I don’t know. It (the one thing) is different for everyone.” Go, and find your stoke … your one thing!

…

A little while later he paddled in. Being the courteous surfer that I try to be, I said hi as he paddled by.

He stopped and said, “Hi, hows it going? I saw you out earlier in the week.”

“Yup, doing good.” I replied.

Truth is, that was the first time I had ever surfer at that spot… but I didn’t correct him… after all he was Dennis Quaid.

Stand Up’s seriously outnumbered the surfers that morning. On a bright yellow stand up paddleboard was a local gentlemen. He paddled to us and we began talking.

He says, “You seen Dennis Quaid out here? ”

“Yeah” we replied.

He said, “I didn’t know it was him, so I told him he looked like Dennis Quaid and he replied, because I am.”

The local man continues, “Wow, right on. But it’s still first on gets the wave, even though you Dennis Quaid.”

Good to know everyone is equal in the water! And goes to show you, you never know who you’ll meet in the lineup.

Oh yeah… wanna know how he surfed…. Come on, I can’t tell you that!

“So you hang out on the nose when you surf?”

No, not really hang out, I replied.

“You surf North Shore when it’s got size?”

No, I replied again feeling very defeated by my apparent lack of skill and progression in the sport.

“I’m not that into surfing anymore,” he says.

“I only like to go when it’s overhead and only go out where people are scarce, the paddle is long or requires a boat to get to,” he continued.

Seeing as I had “given” him a few of my old boards in the past, I asked what he did with his collection of surfboards (See article on How Many Surfboards is Enough on surfers and boards!).

“Nothing. They hang out at my house like yours.”

Except I use mine…. apparently not well, but they make go in the  saltwater.

As I thought about what he said, I wondered what it is about surfing that makes it stick. Not ready to sell his boards or return some to me, he will keep them until his life changes and he begins surfing regularly again. Until that time, I will work to get better so during out next conversation I can answer the questions differently.

…

There is nothing like a hand-picked, hand-made, and personal gift for someone you love! And showing your special someone(s) that you do understand their love for all that is surf will definitely earn bonus points. A gift basket featuring four all-time movie greats and a selection of their favorite movie snacks like popcorn and assorted candies (don’t forget the arare if you’re in Hawaii!), plus a comfort blanket to hide under (or the oddly popular Snuggie) will do the trick!

Yes, surfers, gather up your favorite movie time snacks around the television, get comfortable under that snuggie you hide under the bed, and check out our movie recommendations that you can bundle together as a great gift item or massively awesome stocking stuffer :

Big Wednesday : starring William Katt, Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey / Directed by John Milius (1978)

Opening with this film is a no-brainer since it has been long considered to be Hollywood’s only “perfect wave” - the only film to date where the surf culture is portrayed accurately in a studio film. With Big Wednesday’s depiction of the “soul” of surfing, it earns a great big spot in the heart of surfers as being worthy of the big screen, avoiding cliches and bad surf lingo that has plagued movies such as Blue Crush and Point Break.

Doing double duty as writer and director, John Milius (a surfer himself, and perhaps best known for his most celebrated screenplay “Apocalypse Now”) ensured that the authenticity of the film was paramount. One of the keys to this film’s authenticity is the fact that the three stars did a majority of their own surfing. Watch this film and you will actually see their actors’ faces as they stand up for a ride – a definite casualty of today’s CGI plagued movies (yes, we’re talking about the one where Kate Bosworth’s face is so badly plastered on stunt double Rochelle Ballard’s body at Pipeline) . William Kaat, Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey (actually pretty big names from this era) were accomplished surfers that earned their stripes in the line-up long-before the film shot frame one (with the exception of Busey, who learned to surf for this role).

The story follows the lives of three surfers in the heyday of their youth, living the carefree life. Set in the United States’ 1960s era, they soon face the changing face of a world in conflict as Vietnam interrupts their youth and purports to make men out of the three friends. The film is funny, touching, and poignant,  with a narrative that builds towards a fantastic climax on Big Wednesday, 1977 when California is hit with what is known as the biggest ‘swell’. The movie is worth watching for these sequences alone, with its near-suicidal camera work – inside the barrel of a looping 20 foot wave, under the water and pounding the seabed as a huge wave breaks!

Surf’s Up : featuring the voice talents of Shia LaBeouf, Jeff Bridges, and Zooey Deschanel / Directed by Ash Brannon & Chris Buck (2007)

Before you cool surfer kids get your surf shorts in a bunch, know that surf legends Kelly Slater and Rob Machado are in this film … so taper the too cool for school attitude and read on! What makes this film incredible to watch in the stunning and incredibly realistic depiction of surfing and wave movements. Forgetting at times that this is a CGI film, you get lost in the sheer beauty and realism of the surfer’s experience in the waves, as well as under giant crashing ones!

This is your standard coming-to-age story except with talking penguins, following the trials of wanna-be surfer Cody Maverick (references to Maverick’s and Top Gun) and his unwilling mentor, the Geek. Yes, penguins invented surfing … and yes they have the penguin sports network … but the story is one that takes you through a documentary style approach to what is an inventive, fresh, and often endearing and hilarious take on the age-old convention of boy becomes a man.

For the younger surfers – ahem, groms – the film beautifuly hammers home the idea of working hard, taing things slow but steady, and having fun in what you do. The documentary style allows the film to switch from scenes without losing a beat, and offers a lot of surf icon references for both young and old!

North Shore : starring Matt Adler, Gregory Harrison, and John Philbin featuring Gerry Lopez / Directed by William Phelps (1987)

This is a must have for any surf movie collection, if not for the sheer campy nature of an eighties surf version of the Karate Kid. Although this film gained much of its following long after its release, taking the cult-following route, it remains a quotable favorite for many surfers – [I work] Only when da surf’s bad, Barney. Cause’ when da surf’s good, nobody works!

A wave tank surfer, Rick Kane, from Arizona decides to take on Hawaii’s waves and experience the North Shore on his own. While his adventure leads him to many mishaps, he befriends a local soul surfer who teaches him the difference between surfing for a living and surfing as a form of being alive. Following the successful Karate Kid formula, Rick manages to find himself under the tutelage of a surf mentor in the climactic surf competition scene shot at Banzai Pipeline. To its credit, the film star Matt Adler, Gregory Harrison, and John Philbin did their own surfing for the most parts, while the pro surfers were used as stunt doubles for the more difficult maneuvers.

Laird Hamilton (Burkhart), Gerry Lopez (Vince Mokaloka), Mark Occoluppo (Occie), and Alex Rogers (Robbie Page) are among the real-life pro-surfers who make appearances in the film.

Endless Summer :Michael Hynson and Robert August as the principal surfers / Directed by Bruce Brown  (1966)

We revisit this film every 3 or 4 weeks, just to get our stoke on. When we are sluggish, or when the waves are small this film helps us rev ourselves back into the excited surfers that we know we are! Talking about this film almost seems redundant, since every surfer has seen this film repeatedly … but it is a necessary part of every surfer’s film collection!

Fun and shot magnificently, this 1966 gem is arguably the definitive surf movie, Bruce Brown offers up a beautifully shot and thrilling documentary portraying youthful freedom on the world’s waves. In the film, Brown follows two surfers – Michael Hynson and Robert August – around the globe in their quest for the perfect wave, finding it eventually on a remote beach far from home.

The narration by “Big Kahuna Brown” is a classic addition to the film, taking on a fun, at times near dated and campy, tone that complements the actors on their journeys.

Endless Summer has no special effects (except jerky camera movements), no slick actors or Hollywood glitz, and no masterfully reworked soundtrack. What it does have is pure surfing fun, recalling a time when surfing was thought of as much simpler, inspirational, and unencumbered by multi-media sponsors.

…

Making Recycled Records is an ingeniously simple process that benefits the environment as well as surfers – take a large grinder, feed a heap of used wetsuits into it, and put the pieces back together using a lot of heat, pressure, and a little adhesive. The high heat and pressure not only forms the unmistakably recognizable look and feel of OVNY’s Recycled Records, but as an added bonus the baking process also acts as a disinfectant by burning off fabrics and nylon materials. The neoprene itself, a closed cell rubber, repels microbes, oils, and wax by design.

So we sat down with Briody in the heart of Waikiki in Hawaii for a quick chat about all things neoprene and surf:

Thanks for sitting with us. Tell us about your company’s name, OVNY.
It was a nickname I got in college, and it’s one of those words that has no meaning. When I needed a name for the business, [I searched for] what was familiar and the logo, the design, and the name came back … it has a personal meaning and evolved from something familiar. The name Recycled Records is because they’re circular and black,  they look like a record. Music was a big inspiration for me throughout my whole life … I feel like everybody can relate to music, and everybody can relate to [the Recycled Records]. I say peace for your piece (your surfboard)!

So you’re from New Jersey …
I’m originally from Long Island, and then I moved to Jersey full time in 2001 … right after 9/11 went down to take care of [family] . I grew up surfing all my life. My uncle was in the navy and as soon as I was big enough to walk, he had a life vest on me and threw me in the ocean and told me to learn! Get on that board! The best childhood is in the ocean … couldn’t wait until the weather broke to get back into the water, you know?

Tell us about the surf in New Jersey …
Surf in New Jersey? It’s epic to be totally honest with you. We’ve got some really great swells that people are totally shocked about. I was on the North Shore yesterday, and one of our home breaks, Belmar, was the cam of the day on Surfline. That tells you a little something … but we have to wait for the winter. It’s fun, sunny, and warm in the summertime but the waves are small.

What do you see as the mission or vision of OVNY?
My main concern is to keep the neoprene out of the land fills, to help mother nature out so she doesn’t have to break that stuff down, and then invent a product that serves a purpose.  [The recycled records] saves you from a dirty, waxy towel to wash … it saves our boards from stress cracks, it keeps the performance aspect in check. That’s my mission, to keep the land fills free of neoprene and keep surfboards safe during travel.

On the initial website, we couldn’t quite see the details on the Recycled Records as far as construction. Can you tell us about the process of making the “coasters”?
It’s a two step process – there’s a grinder and a mold. We actually use a big grinder, similar to a large paper shredder. You feed in the rubber and it grinds them up into loose flakes and then it’s put back together with heat and pressure and alittle adhesive, like Elmer’s glue based adhesive. After the material is chopped, when it’s rebound and baked in high heat and pressure, it performs like a disinfectant.

[The Process] burns the nylon, that’s why [the records] look so dark. Yeah, basically heat and pressure. The raw nature of the process kills any bacteria holding materials like fabric and nylon. I tried other methods too, initially I thought to cut and glue wetsuits together, but the reasearch process led me to heat, chopping, binding … chopping and heat was the best way to make the neoprene process work. From the get go, I knew cutting and chopping was involved somehow … At the show, we have a full wetsuit going into a meat grinder to give a visual to people as to how it sort of works.

You just takes heaps of wetsuits and throw ‘em in as is?
Yeah, no zippers though … but the disinfecting part, it’s all in the process.

Tell us about the printing process to get the designs on the neoprene.
It’s a regular plastisol ink … to get it to stick to the rubber. Plastic loves plastic, rubber loves rubber, they’re all in the same family… so water-based ink didn’t work on the neoprene. But we outsource all of our printing to a company called “Earth Safe Printing” in New Jersey, and they use all earth friendly processes.

Are you developing other recycled products from the neoprene?

Yeah! I have ideas for some recycled flip flops and personal changing mats for your car.

You’re starting a recycling program to collect used or discarded neoprene involving local surf shops and surf schools as well?

The neoprene recycling program allows surf shops to be proactive in the community and prevent garbage dumps from filling with the rubber. Involving the shops and schools in the recycling program also tells the community that future neoprene items will be recycled rather than disposed of. The shops are keen to it because it’s helping our Earth, it’s helping our environment, it’s keeping our water clean. It’s all relative – the water, the mountains, the Earth … they all coincide.

We’re just trying to do our part to help that cycle. We also joined 1% for the Planet, the program that takes 1% of our sales and directs it towards total environmental protection plan. Besides our immediate hands-on effort with our recycled products, we’re also giving back to other people who are doing good things.

The Recycled Records come in some unique packaging too don’t they?
All the packaging we have is reusable, so that people can keep them and reuse them. The surfboard coasters come in a reusable mesh bag custom made for [OVNY], with a backpack cinch so you can put your sunblock in there, or your booties and gloves … whatever you’re going to use it for. In the end, you just shake the bag and get all the sand out. Waste not want not! Everything needs to be on point with an Earth friendly purpose.

How can people get a hold of your Recycled Records or more information about them?
We sell them on-line and ask your local retailer for them, they’ll be there soon. I have been campaigning local shops, so once our store locator is up on the website, it will be easier for the public to find. We have a couple of stores in the East coast that carry them now, but the website will be the best source for information.

Anything else you want to share?
As a surfer and someone who loves the water so much … someone who appreciates the aesthetic values of life, I took it upon myself to find a way to relieve the burden of recycling wetsuits. Doing something for a fellow surfer, you know?  I feel that if I help one surfer out, that’s cool. But if I help out the whole [surf] community, it’s even better!

…

We have a rather extensive review of Soma’s Airbag queued up for the site where we take it for some serious beatings in an attempt to find just where the limits are to the ‘safety factor’, but we just could not leave it off this surf list for the holidays so we did an excerpt type review in the meantime.

Soma Airbags is the answer to your surfboard worries when it comes to shipping or transporting your blank or stick, whether it be from the shapers or right out of the showroom floor! Constructed from “denier ballistic polyester material with a triple coating of polyester vinyl chloride”, this King of Surfbags provides the lightest and most portable form of secure protection.

The bag is inflatable via your standard ‘blow hole’, much like a raft or an air mattress. However, unlike those products, Soma Airbags sports some serious individual air columns from top to bottom, as well as in the areas where your board’s rails will sit. The confined individual air columns disperse energy and pressure, and therefore does not allow contact with your surfboard. A patented technology that the Soma people call AIR-P (Asymmetrical Interior Rocker Protection) additionally ensures that your stick does not ding, snap, or flex when heavy weight is applied on the top and bottom of the bag.

We stuffed an old 6’6″ board in the bag, and just like the video on Soma’s website, we jumped up and down on the bag … slowly at first, and then progressively harder as we felt that it could take more and more punishment — after all, this was one of our staffer’s surfboards! (By the way, see the employee manual for calling in sick!)

The Soma Airbags website does a great job of showing people beating this bag up and even running over it with a motorcycle. We wanted a more “real world use” test scenario for our extensive review (coming soon!) so we tested the bag during transport from the airport check-in and through the baggage handler’s domain (we know people who know people in the airline industry), against sharp objects that protrude from other luggage bags, strollers in transit, and suitcases, as well as (gulp!) using the darn thing as a kite and dropping it down the side of Diamond Head lookout just for kicks. Please stay tuned for that article in our upcoming reviews …

One word of note as we claim this bag to be totally worth the money … the Soma website claims that the bag takes 5 minutes to inflate “under average lung power”, so we wanted to test that out. We don’t have smokers in the office to use as a tester, so a 10 year old child was recruited for the task of imitating average lung power. In all, it took longer than 5 minutes total (about 10 minutes) to inflate the Soma Airbag. Following the directions of inflating the rail first, then bottom and top, we found that the most challenging part was inflating the rail.

You all are familiar with the inflation aid most inflatable accessories such as rafts and mattresses, right? It is the plastic lever much like an uvula that hangs from inside the blowhole, which stops the air from escaping when you stop blowing. Turns out, the inflation hole for the rails does not have that feature (the air chambers for the top and bottom sport this feature thoug!) so pauses in inflation resulted in lost air.

One bonus use for Soma Airbags that a shaper friend of iJS discovered serendipitously is to use it for transporting shaped blanks from the North Shore shop to the airbrush company’s shop in Honolulu. The bags, as it turns out, protects the unglassed blanks from the usual bumps and dings that an average foam board suffers from in transport. He ships the board in a Soma Airbag to the airbrusher’s shop, he paints his magic on it, and once it is dry … back in the bag it goes to the North Shore for glassing. No dings, no damaged paint job, no worries!