Pilot Pyle

Here's a mat built for Clarence Martin.

Clarence is a 12 year old who surfs boards well and is looking to expand his quiver. His mum said:

“Clarence surfs Rincon and Malibu First Point. He loves to boogieboard and wanted to try a mat that would allow more speed and mobility. Watching Buck ride a mat on days that Rincon was too big to log was the biggest contributor to his interest. Andrew [@aslbuck ] and Chet [@chet.taylor.chet.taylor] made it look too fun, he couldn’t resist wanting to try one.”

— Jen Martin

They certainly do make it look fun! I'm hoping to spend a bit of time surfing with then this summer!

So on to the mat. Clarence and Jen spoke to Andrew Buck who knows Clarence well and felt he is ready to jump in the deep end so the mat (which he has named Pilot Pyle) is a 70/70 RB-JMC super-free-breather with negative elastic rocker. Given Clarence's age, we have scaled a little large to give some growing room.

I'm really excited to see a young lad coming to the mat and am excited to see how Clarence develops as a mat surfer.

Have fun mate!

Cheers

G

A 70/70 RB-JMC named Bleu built for James Tanner has winged it’s way with a mat for Johanna Brebner named Florence. I have built a few mats for JT including a 70/70 RB-JMC free-breather named Crumbs.

We have gone with full on super-free-breather venting with Bleu and also "Hestered" the valve as we will be doing this as standard on our stock mats moving forward. We've also gone pretty sparse with the grip to maximise the malleability of the mat.

Fast and sensitive.

I'm excited to see James surfing Bleu. I'm pretty sure he's gonna dig this mat.

Have fun James!

Cheers

G

Florence

A mat headed to Oz for the super-mat-stoked and very skilled Johanna Brebner. Jo is a Kiwi who frequents the breaks around Byron and Noosa and surfs boards and mats to a very high standard. Jo took Derek Hynd's mat, Donald Campbell out for it's maiden voyage and texted full of joy, particularly because she was on the list to get a mat herself. Certainly made the design job easier... Just build that!

OK...

So this is Florence. Like Donald Campbell, Florence is a 70/70 RB-JMC. She has a negative elastic rocker and is a super-free-breather. In other words, an unrestricted, highly responsive mat designed to fly like a dementor guided by the subtle manipulation from an intuitive surfer... Perfect.

Jo was particularly taken by a mat named Selin built for Helen Derici and opted for the same colour scheme. A lovely choice for sure.

I stopped short of signing off with a daisy and in the name of individuality opted for a fat Yellow and white mats just seen to demand such things.

Anyway, Florence and Jo will be hooking up soon. I can't wait to see how they get on.

Have fun Jo.

Cheers

G

Ambrosia

OK then... A quick replacement for the super-talented Chris Cravey @cat.chinwaves after his RB-JMC named Nepenthe was disemboweled by a scaredy-cat logger who turtle rolled right in front of him at his home break, Steamer Lane, Santa Cruz. Thankfully Chris wasn't disemboweled too but a close call!

With the same theme in mind, Chris has named this mat Ambrosia. Other than replacing black grip with clear, the rest of the build is the same with Ambrosia being a 70/70 free-breather with negative elastic rocker and an extra bit of fairy dust. Having seen how much versatility Chris gets out of the niche Ubercat model I'm drooling to see what he does with Ambrosia.

Have fun Chris and watch out for the looks!

Cheers

G

9-2-Go

I was going to wait for my special day but sod it. This is a mat for my birthday named 9-2-Go. She's an RB-JMC Ultralight 70/40 Super-Free-Breather. I was planning to build myself one of these having given my old Ultralight away to Jamie McClellan but I hadn't meant to do it just yet.

I'm just getting through the last few mats before the next run and I did a little experimenting with dye techniques. I asked everyone in the remaining bunch if they wanted this deck skin and they all said no, politely letting me know they thought it was horrible so here we are!

Anyway during the horrendous weather we've had over here of late I took what would otherwise have been play days to weld up and grip 9-2-Go. Ultralights are a build you probably only get out of the mat bag two or three times a year but summer is on its way allegedly and I adore the featherweight feel of these mats. So fast too!

9-2-Go is wrapped up ready for me to open on my birthday.

Anyway... Cracking on.

Cheers

G

PS Birthday matmeet at The Wave, Bristol, UK: 20th April 8am Expert Turns on the left. All welcome so get booked

Black Pearl

So here's the third in the run of three monochrome mats; a G-Mat RB-JMC named "Black Pearl".

This badgeresque beauty is a 70/70 super-free-breather built for California based matsurfer Johno Ross who lives around San Clemente.

I asked Johno about his journey into mats and he said:

“I got into surf matting because I like to go fast! The quality of ride seems to be in the 8-10 point range all the time. An eighteen inch wave is essentially overhead. You can fly on the water and still do extreme maneuvers. It is cheating! I have never had a bad session on my airbag; I believe that is impossible to happen. You can still feel the speed and glide from simply going straight. Hydroplaning in big waves is incredibly fun. I love riding my mat, it’s the best!”

— Johnathan Ross

It is the best mate. No argument there.

Johno is a good mat surfer and was keen to get on a RB-JMC. We have gone for the neg rocker set up to maximise speed. A lightweight and technical ride.

He's up to it.

As I've said before I really do love the clean lines of monochrome mats. Reminds me of my days as a black wetsuit, white board kinda guy.

Black Pearl is in transit as I type. I'm looking forward to hearing how Johno goes.

Have fun mate. Arrrrrrr!

Cheers

G

Patronus

My good friend and mat surfing veteran Matt Pierce got in line for this run of mats. I'm stoked to finally be able to hook Matt up with an RB-JMC and when he said he wanted all white my monochrome vibes got all tingly (I did say I liked it). Matt didn't just want a white mat to paddle out in hardcore lineups, cross his arms, avoid eye contact and never smile.

No...

He wanted a white mat to attach LED's and light that fecker up like a bleddy UFO for night surfing!

Lovely stuff!!!

With that in mind Patronus has a gap in the grip on the central pontoon so a strip of lights will go down there. Matt is going to attach velcro for this. He has already done this a bit with an orange Ute I built him named El Gnaranja and it looks bonkers, particularly in some of the river waves Matt surfs.

Apart from that though, Matt is a really good matsurfer so I'm super excited to hear what he makes of the RB-JMC. He's one of those reactive, controlled-chaos looking watermen who just pull rad shiz out of nowhere and brings a lot of fun to his mat surfing. I have had the honour of sharing waves with Matt and James Sowell at Doho and it was a real laugh.

Onto Patronus, she is a 70/70 Super-Free-Breather with negative rocker. I think Matt will notice and love the completely free spot movement in this mat. It's not for everyone but I really think it will be for him. He has gone for a deck valve. The grip is clear to maximise the light up factor.

As for the name a Patronus is a mythical protective creature from the Harry Potter stories. Matt says his animal is a pelican so again, perfect colour scheme.

Light shows aside, Matt is due to take a trip to hang out with a lovely long right hand point break later this year and Patronus is just gonna love that! Can't wait to see it.

Have fun Matt! It's weird shipping a mat to Idaho!

Cheers

G